It seemed fitting to have bull-riding in James Brown Arena during the Futurity because so much bull has been thrown around the place the past 15 years. It seems as though managers last for only the eight seconds it takes to ride the real bull, and the rodeo clowns, also known as the Coliseum Authority, who are supposed to protect the manager from the bull, don't even give him a gold belt buckle when he manages to stay on top that long.

Well, I guess I've carried that about as far as it can go.

BUCKING THE CHAIRMAN: Now I'll give you an update on the latest bull going on among authority members after a faction led by members Janice Jenkins, Keith Brown, Willie Law and Mildred McDaniel staged a surprise coup and fired their attorney, Ed Enoch , and CPA, Harry Dolynuik, a few weeks ago.

After recovering from the shock, Chairman Harry Moore and his hombres thought they'd lassoed six votes to rescind the firings last week. But once again they got out-drawn.

Mr. Moore, Richard Isdell, Jack Usry, Freddie Sanders, John Manuel and Adrian Arnold were the only members to show up, which left the meeting without a quorum. They carried on anyway about ice leaks, new arena seats and the absent finance director, who hasn't given them a financial report in three months and has already outsourced the payroll and wants to do the same with accounts receivable and payable. That caused Mr. Sanders to wonder what she plans on doing.

It was obvious, however, that their real concern was manager Robert "Flash" Gordon and his inability to bring in more shows. Mr. Usry said country music star John Michael Montgomery is going to be performing at The Country Club out on Washington Road and not the arena.

"Something's not right here," he said. "I don't understand."

Who does?

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH: Before this year's legislative session started, delegation Chairman Quincy Murphy said the lawmakers would look at restructuring the Coliseum Authority, but you can just about forget that.

Mr. Murphy scheduled a meeting between the delegation and authority members at Augusta Technical College last week but rescheduled it for Thursday in Atlanta at 8 a.m. Sen. Ed Tarver asked him to move it to later in the day because it will be hard for authority members to get there that early. Mr. Murphy said he'd poll them to see whether they could make the 8 a.m. meeting.

Mr. Tarver e-mailed Mr. Murphy back and noted that he does not recall a time the delegation has invited or expected an entire board or authority to meet with them in Atlanta.

"The Coliseum Authority has 12 members," Mr. Tarver wrote. "Are they entitled to mileage and per diem? If not, this is going to be a personal expense to each member of the Coliseum Authority. Certainly you agree that we can avoid the unnecessary expense to the taxpayers, or to the individual members of the Coliseum Authority, by simply scheduling the meeting on Saturday in Augusta while the delegation members are in town."

You can look for Mr. Murphy and Mr. Tarver to lock horns one day over who's in charge of the corral.

FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE: Speaking of Mr. Tarver, he seems to be the only Richmond County elected official left still challenging consultant Tripp Umbach's report that says the Medical College of Georgia needs to get out of town pronto to prevent a doctor shortage crisis in the state. Everybody else seems to have given in to the inevitability of MCG expanding to Athens.

Mr. Tarver contends the initial account Tripp Umbach gave about the number of MCG medical school graduates who stay in the state to do their residency programs has since changed.

Furthermore, he says, because 70 percent of MCG's 2007 class left the state for their residency programs and only 35 percent of those in residency in Georgia are graduates of Georgia schools, training more doctors in Georgia won't solve the shortage.

The premise Tripp Umbach is basing the expansion on is flawed unless more residencies are made available and Georgia graduates fill them, if I read Mr. Tarver right.

THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW: The Augusta Commission's law subcommittee met Friday, and there was a showdown between the commission's new interim general counsel, Chiquita Johnson, and city attorney Todd Boudreaux, of Shepard Plunkett Hamilton & Boudreaux, over the transition plan for handing over control to the in-house law department. Ms. Johnson's plan called for Boudreaux, et al. to dismount by the end of the month and let her and her staff take the reins and farm out the litigation and other matters to attorneys of her choosing.

Mr. Boudreaux's transition plan called for his firm to be the county attorney and get work the in-house staff can't handle. Based on Ms. Johnson's opinion that the meeting should be closed, although the reason didn't qualify, and her citing of a State Bar of Georgia concerning Stephen Shepard 's firm representing the city that does not apply, that could be a lot of work.

Mr. Boudreaux correctly argued the subject was a policy, not a personnel issue. The argument took place behind closed doors, and Mr. Boudreaux prevailed, so it was opened up. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this, which is probably the reason for trying to close it.

Commissioners J.R. Hatney, Calvin Holland and Mayor Pro Tem Betty Beard said they're tired of trying to get an in-house law department to be in charge of all legal issues, and Mr. Hatney said in no uncertain terms they don't want or need a county attorney.

When Mr. Boudreaux made the point that the lawyers in his firm wouldn't have to be paid benefits, thereby saving the city money, Mr. Hatney erupted.

"Please don't tell us you're going to save us money," he said, adding that the in-house department could have six to eight lawyers and still come out cheaper. "The month of December your invoice was $73,000."

But according to Commissioner Joe Bowles , an accountant, a staff of eight attorneys would cost $710,000 a year, and that's not counting secretaries and other staff support.

A SECOND OPINION: Attorney David Hudson , who helped negotiate the consolidation law that calls for an in-house law department, said it has become an "urban myth" that the city was to have an in-house law department only.

"The law does not say that the law department will be 'the' city-county attorney," Mr. Hudson said. "It was never intended to be so. ... It is going to be a disaster for the city-county to get all of its legal services from an in-house law department or from patronage firms it hires."

BITING THE LEG THAT KNEES YOU: Last week, I told you about sister June and her husband Roger's impending visit and my concern about being cooped up with them and a houseful of dogs if it snowed and Roger's attempts to pet Joe, who doesn't exactly take to strangers.

Well, the weather turned out OK and the visit was going swimmingly until Sunday night, when Roger got off the couch and fell on Andy, another dog who was lying there in plain view. Andy has had operations on both back legs and has arthritis. You might think Roger had been drinking, but he is a teetotaler, which I can't say for everybody there.

Ernie grabbed Andy, but it was too late. He'd bitten Roger on the leg, and it wasn't just a nip. We did first aid and put Roger to bed with an ice pack.

I'll never get over it. I just hope Roger does.

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