That decision, made early in life, had less to do with his religious convictions than with his distaste for church politics and its accompanying conflicts.

"That's the ironic thing," Mr. Kolb said recently from his eighth-floor office in the municipal building. "Sometimes I wonder if being a city administrator isn't like being the minister of a large congregation."

That's just one of many quirks that characterize Augusta's administrator.

This week, the Michigan native marks his first anniversary with the city. During that time, he has admittedly alienated some elected officials - proposing a 1.735-mill tax increase, asking the Augusta Commission to give him hiring and firing power over department directors, and trying to increase purchasing power for his office. An annual review of his work performance is scheduled for the coming weeks, and a majority vote by commissioners could oust him at any time.

But Mr. Kolb, who has a six-month severance package built into his three-year work agreement, views his job with a kind of blind faith.

"A manager's tenure is from one commission meeting to the next," he said. "You have to recognize that at any time you could be gone. But if you worry about it, you'll never get anything done. You're worried about your survival, instead of doing what's best for the city."

OUTSIDE THE commission's chambers, Mr. Kolb has been amazed by the widespread support for him.

"It's a strange town - it can be," he said recently from what he calls his "Telfair Office," a picnic table in back of the municipal building, where he takes smoke breaks.

He's trying to kick the pack-a-day habit, which he started at age 18, and has cut back to about five cigarettes a day. Lighting up a Kool Mild recently while standing outside the city building, he mused about his first year in Augusta.

"In the scheme of things, I feel like I've been here a long time," he said. "Quite frankly, it's been fun. Running the city is very rewarding. When you see things happening, it increases the quality of life."

It's the "quality of life" that Mr. Kolb says drove him to pursue a job in public management. But instead of accomplishing the government overhaul he envisioned for Augusta, he has spent much of his first year addressing the individual personnel problems that plagued the city before he was hired.

George Mr. Kolb practices his golf swing at the driving range at Mount Vintage Plantation. MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

So, as he has worked to fill vacant department director positions - including those in information technology, the fire department and finance - he also has been trying to change the way those key city employees are hired.

During the four-year tenure of Randy Oliver - Mr. Kolb's predecessor and the only other city administrator since consolidation - commissioners took part in the appointment of a department director by interviewing the top three candidates, then voting on a final choice.

Mr. Kolb has changed that process. Elected officials are no longer invited to the candidates' interviews. Mr. Kolb presents a single candidate for commission confirmation and provides the names and resumes of two semifinalists.

Mr. Kolb said that his intent was to depoliticize the hiring process.

He explains that his style of management has more to do with being pragmatic than political. By nature, he says, he's a practical guy.

His garden is full of squash, collard greens and spinach because his theory on gardening is: If you can't eat it, why grow it? His theory on hiring is: If city employees answer to him, why can't he hire them?

But his approach almost backfired when two failed votes nearly prevented a fire chief from being hired. Several commissioners complained that the timing wasn't right to make a decision. Commissioner Marion Williams said he would not vote for a candidate he hadn't met.

Mr. Kolb's opponents - Mr. Williams the most vocal among them - say he's just trying to get increased control.

"My expectations have not been met yet when it comes to the administrator," Mr. Williams said. "My opposition of him, in a nutshell, is he wants power."

Mr. Williams has said publicly several times that he and Mr. Kolb "come from different sides of the tracks."

Mr. Kolb, who has repeatedly refused to respond to the commissioner's criticism, says only: "There wasn't a railroad where I lived."

SINCE MR. KOLB and his wife, Sandy, arrived last year, their west Augusta house has been a work in progress.

After months of painting walls and replacing appliances, the couple say it's finally beginning to feel like home. Editorial cartoons she has clipped from the newspaper hang on the refrigerator; a pencil sketch of their former home in Richmond, Va., hangs on a living room wall.

Life in the Deep South has been an adjustment for the Kolbs - from the spotlight of small-town politics to the disapproving glances their interracial marriage sometimes draws.

It's a second marriage for both.

Mrs. Kolb says part of the reason they're compatible is because as a former government employee she understands the pressures placed on her husband.

He says they're soulmates.

"I don't recall love having a color attached to it," he said. "If it bothers somebody, that's their problem, not ours."

Lately, however, Mr. Kolb's workload, cigarette habit and affinity for Church's fried chicken have his friends and family concerned. Earlier this month, Mrs. Kolb signed them up at a local gym. She's pushing him to quit smoking.

Robert Bobb, the former city manager in Richmond and now the manager in Oakland, Calif., says he consistently gives his old colleague two pieces of advice:

"The first is to have a sense of humor; don't get stressed out," Mr. Bobb said by telephone from Oakland. "And then - the one he never listens to me on - to get his tail up in the morning and work out."

The two talk at least once a month and e-mail regularly.

"These are very stressful positions," Mr. Bobb said. "You have to feed both your physical and mental health."

One might assume by the box of Nutri-grain bars Mr. Kolb keeps in his desk that he is trying to keep a healthy diet. They're really there for when his blood sugar starts to drop. Diagnosed with diabetes about 10 years ago, he takes insulin to control the condition.

Even so, when the topic of exercise comes up, he tends to roll his eyes and change the subject.

GEORGE KOLB AGE: 53 FAMILY: Wife, Sandy; three grown children EDUCATION: Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, bachelor's in business administration, marketing; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, master's in public administration; Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Mass., graduate of the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program EXPERIENCE: Deputy city manager and director of public utilities in Richmond, Va., 1992-January 2001; assistant to city manager, Saginaw, Mich., 1989-1992; city manager Albion, Mich., 1981-1988; assistant to city manager, Jackson, Mich., 1971-1981 MEMBERSHIPS: International City/County Management Association; National Forum of Black Public Administrators FAVORITE TV SHOW: Star Trek HOBBIES: Building model airplanes, gardening and golf

MR. KOLB WASN'T always so athletically disinclined. He played basketball and ran track in high school. He continued his track career his freshman year in college, where he ran high hurdles at Eastern Michigan University.

But for the past eight years, his sport of choice has been golf, or what he affectionately calls "smacking the heck out of a little white ball."

He plays whenever he gets the chance, which isn't nearly as often as he'd like.

"When you quit playing basketball because you can't keep up with the younger folks, golf provides the same challenge without the physical exertion," Mr. Kolb said. "It gives you a break from having to focus on other issues."

When not on the golf course, he's most likely to be found behind a computer screen. Although golf may serve as a needed distraction, he is frequently described by city employees as scattered.

His e-mail has as many as 200 unopened messages at any given time. His in-box is likely to have unopened letters a week or two old.

He's not a detail man, which, in part, is why late last year, he hired an additional deputy administrator to oversee departments related to public safety.

Earlier this month, he posted an opening for an assistant administrator who will direct public relations for the city. It's his way of trying to upgrade the city's image - which he believes is much worse than its reality - and educate the community about what their taxes fund.

"Government touches people's lives in some way every day," he said. "When you brush your teeth, the government gives you water, and we take it away and do something with it."

At the same time, the preacher's kid is faced with trying to get commissioners to see the light, which he concedes is not always like preaching to the choir.

His ideas - such as creating a city office of economic development or increasing the pay scales of city employees - are expensive, and his results don't provide the instant gratification that politicians often demand.

His explanation as to how he plans to convert an Augusta Commission majority to his way of thinking is also his favorite Bible passage, Proverbs 4:7: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding."

"Before you can see a vision more clearly, you have to see what the issues are and what the problems are, and that leads to better decision-making," Mr. Kolb says of the Bible verse and his management style.

He says that by educating commissioners about the impact of policy decisions, he hopes to open their eyes to his way of thinking; if he can persuade them to focus on "the big picture," he says, he believes they'll be less inclined to involve themselves with - or micromanage - the nit-picky details of government.

"The last year has emphasized to me the need for patience and looking at the long-term approach," he said of working for the commission. "It's not going to happen overnight, and there are a lot of steps that have to be taken along the way. But after all is said and done, I think our visions are aligned. And the vision, that understanding ... will get them where they need to go."

"Before you can see a vision more clearly, you have to see what the issues are and what the problems are, and that leads to better decision-making." - George Kolb, Augusta city administrator, on his management style

Reach Heidi Coryell Williams at (706) 823-3215 or heidi.williams@augustachronicle.com.