Local political stage has no shortage of characters

Whoever said politics is boring didn't live in Augusta.

Week before last, the two warring Augusta Commission factions deadlocked, disagreed, declared victory and went home.

Last week, local government reformer Woody Merry called a news conference to announce he was going to court to try to dethrone Mayor Pro Tem Marion Williams from the seat he's claimed "squatter's rights" to while "hijacking the government" with abstentions.

And what did Mr. Williams say to that?

"Short people always have a problem with other people."

The MPT says they're after him because he's outspoken.

"They don't want Marion Williams to have it because he's got too much mouth for them," he said.

Although some folks are outraged by his rhetoric (see below), he says he's getting tons of positive response.

"I've got people coming together," he said. "People have been calling me morning, noon and night, saying, 'This is one-sided. There's an attack on you.' I've got a lot of support. If I wasn't getting no support, I don't think I would have got re-elected 2-to-1 like I did this last time."

And as for whether he's getting tired of the controversy as some others might, he said, "No. It don't bother me at all. I operate under pressure."

WILL HIS HEART BE IN IT?: Mr. Williams spent a good part of the last commission meeting bashing City Attorney Stephen Shepard. Now Mr. Shepard has to defend him in court.

CITY INK'S E-MAIL BOX:

"I applaud Mr. Merry for filing the lawsuit! I had thought of doing it myself. Someone needs to make the commission accountable for their actions! When the commission is made accountable by the citizens of Augusta maybe we can move forward and get something done!"

- Renee Williamson

"Amen. Someone finally trying to put this FOOL in his place."

- Derek McClure

"I agree with Mr. Merry. I don't know much about politics, but I know when someone is acting more important than they are. He needs to be voted out of the commissioners and replaced. He and Betty Beard are the problems with the commissioners. He wanted to be mayor so bad, and thinks he is. Deke is doing a great job so far, only to be back stabbed by Williams and Beard. GET RID OF THEM!"

- Marilyn Kitchens

SONNY AND THE BORN-AGAIN REPUBLICANS: City Ink couldn't make the recent Richmond County Republican Party breakfast, so she asked that sly political observer Sonny Pittman to cover.

Here's his account:

"You missed a good one ... huge crowd filled with many born-again 'Republicans' (recruited by Dave) brought out, no doubt, to hear another rip-roaring 'City Hall's in great shape and the commissioners are getting along swell' speech from Duke - I mean Deke. Regrettably, his horse threw a shoe and he couldn't make it.

"Congressman Norwood was in attendance and did his usual good job of keeping us informed about what he's working on.

"I love to watch Charlie take questions from the floor. He always gives you a straight answer, like it or not, and then invariably asks, 'What do you think?' It's a shock to a lot of people that their congressman actually cares about what they think about various issues, and they sometimes struggle with their response. And, if he thinks you are on the wrong track about this or that, he'll take all the time necessary to spin you up on the details and try to convince you to see the light.

"Despite his health problems - which haven't slowed him down one bit, Charlie announced he will seek re-election. That pleases me and everyone who follows his conservative-minded efforts in the Congress.

"Dave's a good sport and a hard-working chairman. If he has a failing, it's that he has loaded-up the executive committee with every damn old yellow dog Democrat - turned born-again 'Republican' - in the county.

"I'm told Dave's grateful he doesn't have to slip Robin an extra grand or two a year now that he's under taxpayer support in federal prison.

"I could never figure out what Dave and the executive committee saw in the guy they liked to call 'Mr. Republican.' Robin, who was for all intents and purposes a well-paid lobbyist masquerading as a state representative, seldom supported our party leaders in the Legislature and voted with the Democrats about 85 percent of the time. Robin's old 'You've got to go along to get along' gag played out for 10 long years and is still in vogue with Augusta's white commissioners. And, our 'peace at any cost' mayor isn't helping matters."

Deke duped?: White Augusta commissioners are grousing that Mr. Copenhaver got snookered at the last meeting by agreeing to Mr. Williams' committee assignments they contend are stacked to give black commissioners the most power. But then, except for Mr. Cheek, who was absent, they voted unanimously to approve the committees, which seemed strange until Commissioner Jimmy Smith explained.

"We've been beat up so bad we need to get things moving, and without committees we couldn't do that," he said.

Mr. Cheek said Mr. Williams' appointments show the mayor pro tem "has become 'quite the hypocrite.'"

"I mean having engineering services with three blacks and one white," he said. "While I don't have a problem with that, I do have a problem with someone harping all this time about diversity and working together and then he didn't talk to any of the white commissioners when he came up with the first list."

HE SHOULD KNOW: Contrary to what has been said about the consolidation law calling for an in-house law department to handle all of the city's legal work, Augusta lawyer David Hudson says it was never the intention of the committee that drafted the law to do away with a city attorney.

"The intent was to always have an outside independent city-county attorney, and for the city-county to hire assistants as needed to work under the direction of the independent, outside attorney and also the city-county manager," said barrister Hudson of Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Salley.

"You know Bob Daniel was not going to advocate something that did away with his position, nor did the rest of us on the drafting committee think it wise to have the unified government just another employee of the government. To get the independent legal advice that the government deserves, the attorney must be independent.

"In Section 13 of the consolidation act, we were careful to just empower the new government to create a law department. It says nothing about replacing or eliminating the city-county attorney."

WISHING WELL: When lawmakers spend nearly six hours debating a single bill, there's no telling where the arguments will go.

But it was the invoking of Augusta's name in vain that prompted newbie Sen. Ed Tarver to make an unplanned trip to the podium.

Mr. Tarver said he took to the well because another senator referenced his district, how he had won last year's special election under the voter ID law without complaints at the polls.

"His comments could have been interpreted that Augusta-Richmond County supported voter ID," Mr. Tarver said. "I didn't believe that to be true."

As Democrat after Democrat beat a path to the front of the chamber, knowing they were short on votes to block the bill but long on words to perhaps try and shame some of the sponsors, Sen. J.B. Powell remained seated.

Mr. Powell said that, unlike party leaders, whose roles require them to lead the charge, he prefers to speak up when he has an amendment to propose or a new argument to add.

"I felt like everything that I could say had already been said," he said.

Don't we wish more politicians thought like that?

City Ink thanks Morris News Service Writer Vickie Eckenrode for her contribution to this week's column.

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