New Augusta administrator is just fine with salary smaller than Kolb's

Politics pale in the tidal wave of bad news in the world, much of it right on our own doorstep, but life goes on, and so do we.

The contract of Augusta's new administrator, Fred Russell, is still being worked out, and word is, he's asking for and will be paid less than his predecessor, George Kolb, who made $135,000 a year, or thereabouts.

Mr. Russell said he can live better in Augusta on less than he did in Richmond, Va., the city he came here from. And he loves going back there and bragging about his condo and low taxes, not to mention the climate.

"My neighbors are from New Jersey," he said. "They think they moved to heaven. They might have, coming from New Jersey. I love to go back to Richmond and tell people about my house. I've got a little place on the river. 'Course I don't tell them that. I tell them I've got a little two-bedroom condo with a fireplace and a two-car garage, jacuzzi and stuff in each bathroom.

"They say, 'Oh yeah? How much did you pay for that?' I say, '$150,000.' And they go, 'Ain't no way. How'd you do that?' I say, 'Oh, by the way, I've got three decks that overlook the Savannah River and a 60-foot dock, too.' They say, 'That's impossible.' I say, 'That's the way it is.'"

NOT EVERYBODY IS AS FIRED UP BY THEIR DEAL, Though: Namely Fire Chief Al Gillespie, who wants and thinks he deserves a written contract commissioners won't give him when his contract expires in April. And the latest offer they've made is not comparable to what he's making now, so the chief said he's not feeling very good about the negotiations.

"I think Fred's expecting a counter, but I'm not very happy with what they're showing me," he said.

NOT SO FAST THERE, MR. CHAIRMAN: The list of appointments to boards and authorities from the legislative delegation that city commissioners approved in December is being called invalid because Augusta's two senators were excluded from the appointment-making process. The appointments must be made by the joint delegation, not just by House members.

Former Republican Sens. Don Cheeks and Randy Hall were in office when House members compiled the list, but they were not consulted. Mr. Cheeks, as official delegation chairman, was the one who should have called the meeting to make the list.

Furthermore, the legislative delegation did not call a public meeting to vote on the list.

Democrat Sens.-elect Charles Walker and J.B. Powell plan to meet with the House members to come up with a new list to be approved by the full delegation.

And delegation Chairman Henry Howard is being criticized because his son Karlton Howard was appointed to the Augusta Aviation Commission, while Rep. Quincy Murphy is receiving similar criticism because his business partner, Robert H. O'Neal, was appointed to the Tax Assessors' Board.

Mr. O'Neal is scheduled to be sworn in at Monday's assessors' board meeting.

Should be interesting.

IS SEN.-ELECT CHARLES WALKER TRYING TO RE-INVENT HIMSELF? We don't know whether to be bemused, amused or confused by Mr. Walker's guest column in The Augusta Chronicle last Sunday, headlined "Media have a civic duty to be fair, balanced."

Mr. Walker asserts that in Augusta Commission votes that split 5-5 along racial lines, the media accuses the black commissioners of being racists while the five white commissioners who vote together are not.

We disagree.

Furthermore, in answer to Mr. Walker's question "... What standards do reporters decide that there is a noteworthy racial issue?" one may only suppose it's the standard of having eyes to see and ears to hear what's going on.

We will not belabor this issue further, except to say that Mr. Walker's call for "the Augusta media, Chronicle included, to have a summit on their role in perpetuating the racial divide" is ... well, I don't think I can find the word to describe it.

Good Lord, man, have you read your own newspaper lately?

In the interest of fairness, City Ink called Mr. Walker to tell him what we thought and give him an opportunity to have the last word. He didn't take offense to what City Ink had to say. He just said we need more dialogue on race in Augusta.

"If we're going to move forward in Augusta, Ga., we're all going to have to tone down the rhetoric," he said.

OK, BUT JUST LET ME TELL THIS: Many commissioners (white) were surprised that Commissioner Andy Cheek nominated Commissioner Marion Williams as mayor pro tem last week after Mr. Williams - to Mr. Cheek's chagrin - didn't support him on his motions to give the mayor veto power and to change the commission's six-vote rule two weeks before.

Mr. Williams abstained on the votes, which prevented a tie to keep the mayor from voting and the motions passing.

In the hall, one commissioner told Mr. Cheek, 'Man, you took a butt-whipping in there."

They thought the alliance between Mr. Cheek and his "twin brother" was broken after Mr. Williams left him high and dry like that, but you know what they always say: Blood is thicker than water.

TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS: If you ever for one minute doubted the truth of the adage "you can't fight city hall," look no further than what happened to the Senior Citizens Center of 15th Street after Mayor Bob Young and members of the CSRA Regional Development Center Board and its executive director, Andy Crosson, set their sights on shutting it down.

The first step was to abruptly take away the center's main income source, its food-service contract, under questionable pretext and award it to a Florida-based company. The kitchen closed, throwing longtime employees out of jobs. The seniors who loved the place and went there every day for food and companionship were transferred to a city recreation site at taxpayers' expense.

The Senior Citizens Council sued the Regional Development Center but dropped the suit last month after the council's governing board voted to sell the building to MCG Foundation. The logic was expressed in a letter to City Ink from the council's financial officer Lawrence Hammond.

"The board agreed that without a kitchen to cook the meals in, it makes little sense to continue to fight," he wrote. "So we dismissed the lawsuit against the RDC. (Attorney) Jim Wall acted as the middleman, and he gave me the $66,000 the RDC has been refusing to pay us for the meals we served in June, in return for the dismissal. So we lose, and Bob wins. I will never forgive him for forcing the council to lay off 34 folks and the hardship it put on them, their families and the seniors. I hold him responsible."

Does the mayor care? Hardly. Last week, he was crowing that the seniors are much happier going to the recreation site and that the city is being reimbursed for more meals because now all the recipients are certified. He even mentioned the takeover as a highlight of 2004 in his state of the city address last week.

Meanwhile, Senior Center Director Ron Schoeffler is barely hanging on with the remaining programs, but his future here looks dim.

"In May, I become the chairman of the National Council on Aging out of Washington, D.C., a volunteer position," he said. "Meanwhile, I'll be looking for another job in Georgia."

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylvia.cooper@augustachronicle.com.