Commissioner Joe Bowles, saying a city facing a deficit of more than $8 million has more important things to worry about than the name of a building, provided the sixth vote Tuesday to name the new judicial center the Augusta Judicial Center and John H. Ruffin Jr. Courthouse, or some variation thereof.

"If anybody could pretty that name up for us, we'll amend it later," Mr. Bowles said just before the 6-1 vote. Jimmy Smith voted no; Joe Jackson was in the restroom; Jerry Brigham left early; and Don Grantham was absent. Mr. Jackson said he would have voted in favor had he been present.

The name will honor a retired state Court of Appeals judge who grew up in Waynesboro, Ga., and went on to be an Augusta civil rights attorney and the city's first black Superior Court judge.

The naming issue had threatened to once again divide the commission along racial lines. Mr. Bowles said previously that his constituents wanted the building simply called the Augusta Judicial Center.

Other white commissioners said it shouldn't be named for anyone because county courthouses seldom are.

But Commissioner Corey Johnson, who proposed the Ruffin honor, came armed with a list of 10 courthouses across the country named after people, including the Frank Moore Judicial Center in Cartersville, Ga., and the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in New York City.

The first vote on the issue Tuesday failed 5-4, but after Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bowles had a conversation the matter was revisited. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bowles said no deals were made in exchange for the vote.