West Augusta group demands hearing on commissioner appointment

Sept. 23--City leaders appeared to warm to a request Monday by the West Augusta Alliance to hold one or more public hearings before appointing an interim District 7 commissioner to serve until Donnie Smith's replacement is elected in March.

Speaking on the neighborhood group's behalf, Phil Williams said the alliance "received numerous communications that have caused us considerable concern" about "back-room deals to secure this appointment" in exchange for future favors or votes.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Machiavellian dealings of those involved in choosing the interim representative of the people of District 7," he said.

While incumbent commissioners have said little to confirm any actual behind-the-scenes dealmaking, some have indicated that the future appointment of insurance agent Hap Harris or development director Sean Frantom might be a trade related to last week's vote to hire administrator candidate Janice Allen Jackson, or a vote to impose an excise tax on manufacturers.

Alliance President Sonny Pittman, who at one point sought the appointment himself, said Monday whoever gets the temporary appointment should be committed to not running for the seat in March.

"A lot of people are upset about the way this is going about," he said.

"Apparently, we don't really have an input," alliance member Sameera Thurmond said. "That's the making for back-room deals."

Super District 10 Commissioner Grady Smith, whose district includes District 7 said he'd been receptive to all who've contacted him about the post, from former Richmond County Board of Education member Kenny Echols, Harris and Frantom to retired Department of Transportation employee Ronnie Masters and former Clerk of Commission Lester Newsome.

"It's not rocket science, and you might can help," he suggested to Thurmond.

"Are you opposed to a public hearing?" asked attorney Brandon Dial, who opposed Smith in the last election.

"We've got time ... You want to run it?" Smith said.

Pittman said the alliance wants a public hearing on all the contenders before the full commission, and will request one formally in a letter to the commission Tuesday.

Mayor-elect Hardie Davis, the guest speaker at the Monday forum, said the law requires the commission make the appointment until it is filled at the next opportunity for an election.

The appointment is "the only action that they are required by law to take," Davis said.

Another alliance member said Echols, who opposed Donnie Smith in the 2012 election, should get the appointment and not others who chose not to run for the post.

"Why not put Kenny in, because he got the second number of votes?" she said.

"If y'all want to have a forum and it fits, we'll do it," Smith said, adding he'll check Tuesday into holding a hearing.

Donnie Smith resigned the seat earlier this month with more than two years left on his term

after a critical Department of Public Safety report revealed he was double-dipping by receiving his Georgia State Patrol

salary while working at a

hospitality house during Masters Week.

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