Please read and share. This is just some political food for thought. We are now coming to the end of eight years of having a warm and fuzzy nice guy in the seat of mayor or CEO of Augusta/Richmond County. Many of us including me has long scratched our collective heads as to the promise of consolidation vs. the actul performance of our consolidated government. Everything from water rates to trash collection and the never ending reevaluation of our property values and higher taxes arent indicators of better more cost effective government. The problem is and always has been that there has never been the necessary partnership between the mayors office and the commission. Its been both adversarial or disconnected since consolidation. We continue to be peppered with meaningless recognitions like being voted by XYZ magazine as one of Americas 100 best cities to grow a tree. While and exaggeration you get my point.many of the attraction that Augusta had have gone like Ft, Discovery without even a peep out of the mayors office let alone a fight to keep them. We call out arrangement between the citizens and their government a system of government. It is in fact a system for delivering goods and services to the collective citizenry. the mayor is the only full time elected official in the city and as defined by the charter the CEO of Augusta. We have never had a mayor that faithfully executed the will of the governing body having jurisdiction over legislation, the commission in the history of consolidation. This one failure is the reason why the governing body preforms so badly. The daily paper and some local media want to make the problems center around color or personalities, very seldom is there any focus on performance. understand the Augusta system of government as dictated by the consolidation bill is crucial. Again no previous Mayor has done this with the exception of Larry Sconyers. Many citizens that look like me are about to fall for the same old tricks that have given us eight years of decline. yes there are bright spots here and there. but consider the awful contracts that have left us the tax payer accountable for the bill like the TEE center. this round of SPLOST is another example of the change that has occurred in recent years. This sales tax has the lowest percentage of public input in history. this administration has the record for Special Called Meetings to rush trough bad deals and legislation in history. If there is any hope of turning Augusta into the city it could and should be Talking and holding hands wont get the job done. It hasnt for eight years. It wont in the future. The public is about to be ripped off again as the new storm water tax is implemented instead of using SPLOST for the infrastructure. the one key element i cant over emphasize enough is importance of understanding how the government is structured and what it takes to operate it for success. In the race for Mayor of the city of Augusta There is only one candidate that brings this skill to the table, Alvin Mason. He can make Augusta work. He is not a cronie of the power machine. If we continue down the road we are on Augusta will be broke poor and grey. We will all be equal in one respect we will be left paying the bill. Your vote can make a difference. Vote for Mason!!
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 21:33:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015