Another week, another circus at arena

It was another fun week in the Garden City, especially at the Augusta Entertainment Center Complex, or civic center for short, where the show never stops.

After a brief truce brought about by a couple of crises that proved to be the last straws for General Manager Robert "Flash" Gordon's employment, World War III has erupted on the Coliseum Authority.

There also was a report that the center's computers had been hacked. And there was a $5,000 money order that was supposed to have been deposited in the bank, but the finance director can't find the deposit slip.

The truce began unraveling last week after someone noticed a discrepancy in the resume of the authority's newly hired facilities manager, Julie Huggins . She had listed her job title as nonfraternal director of operations at the Morocco Shrine Auditorium in Jacksonville, Fla., from 2002-07.

The business manager of that facility stated on an employment verification form that she was a rental manager. The guns of war started rumbling when authority Chairman Harry Moore insisted it wasn't a big deal and solicited a letter from the chairman of the Morocco Shrine Auditorium, who stated that Ms. Huggins was hired as the rental manager but that the position had evolved into the operations director.

SELLING WOLF TICKETS: The shooting started in a four-way conference call when authority member Freddie Sanders told Personnel Committee Chairwoman Janice Jenkins and others on the line that he didn't care whether they didn't put Ms. Huggins to work, but from now on he was going to make motions at every meeting to fire anybody not doing their jobs. He said authority members are protecting certain employees even though they know they are incompetent and dishonest.

Mr. Sanders said he's not going to meet with any members outside the regular meetings anymore because they agree to do certain things and then get in the meeting and do the opposite.

When member Mildred McDaniel heard about it, she said, "Freddie is selling a lot of wolf tickets and causing dissension on that board."

Mrs. McDaniel, who voted against firing Mr. Gordon, said Mr. Moore, Mr. Sanders and others who voted to fire him promised that if they hired Ms. Huggins "they would leave Flash alone." But they didn't.

"Everybody wants to be a chief down there," she said.

Then all hell broke loose Friday when Mr. Moore called Ms. Huggins and told her to report for duty Monday. Ms. Jenkins called her and told her that Mr. Moore didn't have that authority and not to report.

GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT: During Tuesday's authority meeting, Finance Director Margaret Ellis returned to her office and told interim General Manager Linda Roberts that some numbers had changed in her computer after she left it to go to the meeting.

Member Booker T. Roberson went to see Sheriff Ronnie Strength . The sheriff told him to call the city's Information Technology Department, but the civic center's computers aren't on the city's system, which sort of threw a monkey wrench into any real serious investigation. But it doesn't matter, anyway, or so Mr. Sanders says.

"If you set our computers on the sidewalk, plugged in and put a sign on them saying, 'Hack Into Me,' nobody would stop," he said. "Who would want to hack into the civic center's computers? If they did, they'd have a perfect defense. They're mentally ill."

TOO BAD THEY FIRED HARRY DOLYNUIK: It was a bad week for Ms. Ellis.

On Monday, there was a finance committee meeting to go over the financial reports she gave the board earlier that didn't make sense. The year-to-date total income was listed as $748,075.48, and so was the January total income. The problem is that the center operates on a fiscal year budget, and January is the seventh month of the 2007-08 fiscal year.

Then the hacking happened Tuesday. Next, she couldn't find the bank deposit slip showing where a $5,000 money order had been deposited, and she doesn't know which account it was deposited in. She called in with a toothache Wednesday, but Ms. Roberts told her to get in and look for the deposit slip. She still hadn't found it at 5 p.m. Friday.

THERE MUST BE SOMETHING IN THE WATER: Controversy at the civic center is nothing new. A look back in The Chronicle's files shows things were controversial even in the 1970s.

First of all, it took five years and a lot of funny business to get to the ground-breaking stage. At the time, then-authority Chairman B.J. DeRoller said World War II was fought in a shorter period of time.

Richmond County Commissioners Ed Mclntyre and Don Neal are credited with having the idea for the civic center in 1972. New York architects I.M. Pei and Partners were retained to design it. The site was selected in 1974, but the Richmond County Property Owners Association objected to the choice and filed suit. Judge Edwin D. Fulcher ruled against the association.

In May 1975, Mr. Neal flew to Las Vegas and billed the authority $96.83 for air fare. The MGM Hotel in Las Vegas reportedly financed the trip.

In January 1976, Mr. Neal; Bob Daniel , the authority attorney; and John Mobley flew to New York and stayed at the luxurious Hotel Pierre, where they ran up a $12,941 bill that was later charged to the authority.

In May, the manager resigned, citing political climate as the reason.

In August, state Sen. Eugene Holley , an authority chairman, resigned citing lack of time for authority duties.

In September, Mr. Neal was fined and given probation after pleading no contest in State Court to a charge of theft by deception for the Las Vegas trip.

Then Mike Padgett was appointed to the board in a special three-man Richmond County Commission meeting, but the full authority rescinded the appointment at the next meeting. Authority member J.W. Weltch resigned in protest over the appointment.

In October, Mr. Padgett took his case to court, where Judge William Fleming Jr. ruled that his appointment could not be rescinded.

In April 1977, a contract was signed with Mercury Construction Co. and everybody showed up all smiles for the ground-breaking.

HOW LONG, OH, LORD? HOW LONG? Of all of the other news that happened last week, the most significant to me is the lock breaking at the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. Administrator Fred Russell says staff is working on getting it repaired.

Meanwhile, hundreds of amorous sturgeons (those are fish) are waiting to get to their breeding grounds at the rapids. If it takes as long to fix the lock as it has to repair the elevators in the Marble Palace, they might as well give up and swim back downstream.

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