All of those changes seem like improvements to me.
ATLANTA --- It didn't take long for Sens. Ed Tarver and J.B. Powell to draft their own version of legislation to revamp the Augusta Coliseum Authority.
The House passed its version Friday.
The two senators made their changes Monday in a Senate committee in preparation for the bill to be voted on today by the full Senate. Generally, local bills such as this pass without opposition as long as the local delegation supports them.
The local legislators have been looking for ideas for a bill to restructure the authority since the General Assembly session began. The Augusta Commission requested the legislation as a solution to frequent reports of problems with the authority, including personality clashes, financial mismanagement and lackluster attendance at events held at the James Brown Arena and the Bell Auditorium that the authority oversee.
The Senate version would remove the oversight panel's power as an "authority" that can own property and borrow money through the issuance of bonds. Instead, it would be financially dependent on the Augusta Commission.
The panel's membership would shrink from 12 to 9, as in the House bill, but the senators would give eight of the appointments to the Augusta Commission and one to the mayor. The House bill would let the legislative delegation appoint one third of the panel's members.
"The feedback that we received from the community and the elected officials was whether or not it was appropriate for the legislative delegation to make appointments ... and there were a lot of questions about accountability," said Mr. Tarver, D-Augusta.
He said the current appointment process and the delegation's proposal would cloud accountability.
"There was really no entity or person you could hold responsible for the performance or non-performance of the authority," he said.
Mr. Tarver expressed hope that the delegation members would support the senators' changes.
Delegation Chairman Rep. Quincy Murphy, D-Augusta, said Monday evening that he hadn't read the Senate versions.
"Let me take a look at it, and we'll see," he said.
Comments
All of those changes seem like improvements to me.
Why not let the Augusta CVB manage the facility and report directly to the Mayor. Charleston runs theirs that way and it works well. Wait a minute, what am I thinking, if it works somewhere else, it couldn't possibly work in Augusta, we need to re-invent the wheel on every issue, because we know better.
And if you try to get all the commissioners to agree on candidates, we will never get a board built. They still can agree completely on anything.
Here we go again, letting the Augusta clowns give friends, relatives, girl/boy friends and anyone they owe a favor to, the seats on the coliseum authority.
When someone says "Let me look and we'll see" in the same sentence nothing much is going to happen at least not right away. If it does it will be some watered down ineffective version.
You are right that the changes noted in the article are improvements. Missing, however, is the most important issue of disqualifying the current sitting board members from serving on the new board. Let's watch diligently see how that pans out.
Little Lamb, I should have noted that the senators' version would disqualify the current board members from serving on the new board, just as the House version does. I didn't mention it because it didn't constitute a change from the House version.
Also, the senators' version includes the House requirement that the board appointees have professional experience in the fields of finance, management, food service or entertainment.
LOL..well done Mr. Jones, I know these provisions were already reported but that did need clarifing for some who were not following the story.
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