Charter group meeting causes drama

In case you missed it in Saturday's newspaper, a little drama is being played out between Richmond County local legislative delegation Chairman Rep. Henry Howard, state Sen. J.B. Powell and some members of a committee appointed last year to study the law that created Augusta's consolidated government. (They call it a charter committee, but the truth is Augusta really doesn't have a charter in the true sense of the word.)

Anyway, the six-member committee, three of whom were appointed by Mr. Howard and three by former Mayor Bob Young, met a few times out of public view before Mr. Young resigned, after which meetings languished.

Then, out of the blue last week, Mr. Howard called a town hall meeting with the legislative delegation to receive a report from the committee, unbeknownst to some of its members. This did a little more than set members Tim Moses' and Braye Boardman's teeth on edge.

Oh, were they mad! Mr. Moses called it a "serious breach of trust," and the two ascribed political motivations to the politicians. Mr. Boardman said he thought Mr. Howard was trying to keep Mr. Powell from trumping him with last week's announcement of proposed legislation to reform the city commission.

Mr. Moses said he suspects a plot to make changes in the government to benefit interim Mayor Willie Mays, who stands a good chance of becoming the consolidated government's first black mayor in November. Such changes were denied Augusta's two previous white mayors, Larry Sconyers and Mr. Young.

Messers. Boardman and Moses, and member Marion Barnes, said the committee has agreed on nothing and for Mr. Howard to come out with a report is astonishing.

Mr. Howard said he called for the report because the delegation was going to discuss Mr. Powell's legislation, and he thought they should know what the committee had worked on.

As for Mr. Boardman's and Mr. Moses' demand that he retract the report, Mr. Howard said he couldn't retract information.

"It's not law," he said. "It's information. ... I'm not an attorney, but by God, I've got a layman's sense to know that. I don't have to retract something that's not ratified."

As for Mr. Powell, he said he didn't know beans about the committee. And truth is, when he was told what Mr. Moses said he said "Tim Moses?" as if he didn't know who Tim Moses was. But he quickly recovered and said Mr. Moses must have been watching too many James Bond movies.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How did Robin Williams and the other four men who conspired to defraud the Community Mental Health Center of East Central Georgia think they could get away with stealing that much money in plain view? Oh yes, it was a somewhat convoluted scheme, and Mr. Williams intimidated some who began to question what was going on after he stacked the staff and governing board with cronies and relatives and even got a $30,000 contract himself while staff and services were being cut to mentally ill patients.

But the scheme was so bold and blatant even the best criminal lawyers in the state couldn't keep him and the others out of prison. Mr. Williams got 10 years. Ten years! Think what you could you do in 10 years? Get married, start a family, join the PTA and become a Scout master. Learn French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Dutch. One could even earn a law degree.

It might have helped.

BAD MEDICINE: Convicted pharmacist Duncan Fordham had a groundswell of support before his sentencing Thursday.

His backers had signs and had passed around petitions saying "Free Duncan Fordham," as if he were a political prisoner and not someone accused of committing health-care fraud while awaiting sentencing for health-care fraud. Nor was U.S. District Court Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. impressed with the stack of petitions that were delivered to his office.

Judge Bowen allowed that the petitions might be an exercise of free speech. But, he added in his usual flourish of impeccable grammar and diction, it would not sway him.

"This is not, in so far as criminal sentencing is concerned, a democracy," he declared in court, before giving Mr. Fordham 52 months in prison.

AND THEY HAD POLITICAL CLOUT: Think drinking and driving is a minor offense? Not to a federal court. Three of the five defendants convicted in the scheme to defraud Community Mental Health Center of East Central Georgia found themselves or could have found themselves in a harsher category of federal sentencing guidelines because they had prior DUIs.

Former Georgia Rep. Robin Williams, former Atlanta Braves pitcher Rick Camp and lobbyist M. Chad Long, grandson of former Speaker of the House Tom Murphy, were all nailed for drunken driving.

"I've never seen so many DUI convictions in a single case," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Durham said.

THEY DIDN'T FIRE ME. I QUIT: District 22 state Senate candidate George Brown issued a statement this week about a story in The Augusta Chronicle detailing his problems with a variety of allegations, including one of choking a female employee in a fit of rage, that led to the loss of his $75,000-a-year state job in 2004.

"There were some allegations made. And there was an investigation of those allegations. And the investigation determined that those allegations were unfounded," he said.

When asked if he wasn't fired as a result of that investigation by the Board of Regents, he said that's not what the record says. Anyway, the funding for the agency he directed had already dried up, he said.

BUMPY ROAD AHEAD: At a recent committee meeting, Columbia County Commissioner Lee Anderson was told there is just one more dirt road to be paved in his district.

There is one problem, however. That road, the commissioner was told, is halfway inside Columbia County and halfway inside Richmond County, meaning only one lane of the road is in either county.

At that point, Commission Chairman Ron Cross suggested this: "Just pave over half of it. Put up a sign that says 'Uneven pavement.'"

Another sign was then suggested, one that would direct motorists to a special Richmond County destination, that of Interim Mayor Willie Mays' office.

City Ink thanks staff writer Tom Corwin and Columbia County Bureau Chief Preston Sparks for their contributions to this week's column.

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