What we know about Deke Copenhaver and Marion Williams

Conventional wisdom in Augusta says that Marion Williams is bad news. There are three standard complaints against him, which I present to you in the form of Facebook comments.

1. "What about when he wanted the taxpayers to build a racetrack and it turned out one of his relatives had bought property right where it was proposed to be built? Why he was never more thoroughly investigated for such blatant criminal behavior, we may never know."

The GBI investigated the private purchase of the half-acre of land across the street from the proposed site and found no criminal wrongdoing. We also know that District Attorney Danny Craig was satisfied with the GBI's investigation. (Did we shelve a good money-maker because of a scandal that was cleared by the GBI and DA, yet go ahead with an expensive TEE center tainted by suspected bribery with evidence and commissioners and an actual arrest that many think will enrich a certain powerful Augustan at great taxpayer expense?)

2. "He was the man of NO. He single handedly held up progress. Many many times, I cant recall the times."

The writer of this complaint has still not been able to think of the times.

3. "IN a nutshell, he is ignorant and has a big mouth- a VERY bad combination!"

Mayor Bob Young, who should have been the hardest hit by this very bad combination, says that Marion Williams is not disagreeable. (And really, what do we care how annoying a commissioner is for the other commissioners and mayor? Don't we want them in there having to really work things out twice a month? Nobody has to stay in there other than the commission and workers. Maybe the local media also gets bored- hey, do they influence public opinion?)



And then we have Deke Copenhaver who is seen as good for Augusta. I think his goodness can also be lumped into three points.

1. He's a breath of fresh air,unity and cooperation.

Is Mayor Copenhaver really so good at getting the commission to cooperate, or does he just pick teams who go along with him? If he's actually good at it, why not throw in some challenges for the young Ironman peacemaker? And do we really want the commission to go along with him on everything (like moving the stadium with taxpayer money)? And as for unity, are race relations better today than when Deke took office? Does the unity talk work? That might depend on what it's meant to do. If it's supposed to help with racial equality, maybe not. If it's a way to stifle discussion by implying that talking about problems is what causes the problems ("Deke Copenhaver is thinking that the best way for Augusta to continue to move forward is for people to stop playing one area of the city off of the other. We're all in this together and when we focus on working together and when we focus on working together as one community, there is no issue that we can't overcome"), then maybe it works.

2. He's good for attracting business to Augusta.

Well, his pet project is to get taxpayers to partially fund a new stadium for a team that already plays here. How much can that really make us, and how much is it going to cost, and who profits? And the deals he has cut aren't that impressive. Let's look at Costco. We're spending one million dollars in the middle of (another) budget crisis to make them an entrance and road. Then we let them have the majority of the tax sales revenues for 23-25 years. If that's a good deal for the city, what's a bad deal look like?

3. He doesn't embarrass us. Hmmm...

Congratulations Riverhawks!

Augusta's new hockey team, the Riverhawks, won their first game tonight in a thrilling, yes, thrilling overtime game! Final score was 4-3. Go out and watch a game or 25. Often times people think there's not much to do around here, and sometimes it feels like they're right, but the Riverhawks could use some support and fights on ice are always fun.