Woody Merry is looking to stage a comeback.

The civic activist wants to reinvigorate his government reform group CSRA Help, and he's booked the auditorium at Fort Discovery at 6:30 p.m. Thursday for a town hall meeting to discuss a wide range of issues.

"We're out of control right now," Mr. Merry said Monday. "We're as bad off as we were 10 years ago. The corruption is everywhere."

What he wants to eventually do, Mr. Merry said, is form a "shadow government" -- a panel of 10 people from each of the 10 commission districts who would meet with elected officials and ask them to explain their actions. He said he wants to muster a large group of people, preferably about 100, to attend every commission meeting and scrutinize decision-making -- an idea based on the efforts of the League of Women Voters many decades ago.

He said he also wants the city to change meeting times from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. so working people can attend.

Asked if he thinks commissioners will go along with this plan, or cooperate with his 10-member panel, Mr. Merry said they will.

"They're public servants," he said. "They're here to serve, and if a group of citizens from their district asks to meet with them, those requests will be honored, because we're citizens and taxpayers."

Among the issues he wants to discuss at Thursday's town hall meeting:

- Property taxes and the looming $8.6 million deficit

- Who is "minding the store" as far as running the government, and how the government should really work

- Pending lawsuits involving the city, such as the X-Mart case, and what they mean

- Bribery allegations and "the need for public outcry"

- Why Augusta's police and firefighters are among the lowest-paid in the state

Also on Monday, Mr. Merry announced the launching of the CSRA Help phone tip hot line -- a number that disgruntled city employees and other insiders can call to anonymously report instances of graft and corruption. The number is (706) 364-9667, or csrahelpline@gmail.com.

A financial planner for AXA Advisors by profession, Mr. Merry challenged Augusta's government on multiple fronts earlier in the decade, using news conferences and court petitions.

Many of his efforts involved former Commissioner Marion Williams. He sued in 2007 to have Mr. Williams reprimanded for not paying back taxes and censured for trying to build a drag strip on property across the street from where his son-in-law planned to build a snack shop called Drag Snacks.

He also filed action against Mr. Williams and the city in 2006 challenging commissioners' use of abstentions to block majority wins and the mayor's ability to break a tie, part of an effort to get Mr. Williams to step down as mayor pro tem. The suit was dismissed by Superior Court Judge Carlisle Overstreet, who ruled that the mayor could decide how to count abstentions. That, however, was overturned when Mr. Merry appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Lately, Mr. Merry has been keeping a low profile since his chest-bumping, kick-fighting brawl with former Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority member William Fennoy in 2008, which got both men charged with simple battery. The charge against Mr. Merry was dead docketed after he agreed to write a letter of apology.

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com