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Augusta government divided along racial lines
AUGUSTA, Georgia (AP) -- The signs labeled "white" and "colored" came down long ago from the water fountains outside the chambers of the Augusta-Richmond County Commission. But the merger six years ago of the city and county governments has created a new sort of division along racial lines, with the five white commissioners and the five black commissioners deadlocking over everything from renaming streets to hiring a new fire chief. The divide drew national attention this year as the council battled over rules dealing with demonstrations at Augusta National Golf Club. Throngs of protesters are expected to protest the club's all-male membership. Many locals think the government is broken in Georgia's second-largest metropolitan area. "Consolidation has been a giant backward step for Augusta," said Johnny Finley, owner of a jewelry store. "Somebody's got to break the gridlock. The commissioners, they're at odds in every meeting." Consolidation was designed to deliver services more efficiently. The trick was devising a merger that wouldn't be seen as a white power-grab. In the mid-1990s, blacks were a majority in Augusta (population 45,000) but a minority in Richmond County (population 195,000). The compromise created a 10-seat commission from an equal number of majority-black and majority-white districts, with a mayor elected at-large. The plan was supposed to put to rest Augusta's painful past of racial mistrust. The Cracker Party had ruled local politics in the early 20th century with white-only primaries. In the 1960s, local college students staged sit-ins to demand an end to segregation. As whites moved out of the city, blacks made tremendous political gains. Augusta elected its first black mayor in 1981. "We didn't look at [consolidation] as a racial issue because we were making a new form of government and doing things we felt would be amicable for the whole county," said Don Grantham, a white business owner who pushed for consolidation. "We were proven to be wrong. And I don't mean that lightly." Under the setup, passing laws requires a six-vote majority. The mayor can break ties only when there is a 5-5 split. That allows a single commissioner to block a bill by abstaining on a close vote and creating a 5-4 split. "Don't we have a right to abstain if we don't want to [vote]? It's not racial," said Commissioner Lee Beard, who is black. But usually the deadlocked votes break along racial lines, with black commissioners withholding votes to prevent Mayor Bob Young, who is white, from breaking ties. That's what happened with the protest rules. White council members and the white sheriff favored restrictions on demonstrators. Blacks opposed the rules, saying they violate civil rights. Twice black commissioners abstained, creating an impasse. Finally, after white commissioners agreed to an inner-city location for the fire department, blacks agreed to break the impasse. They all voted against the rules. But the 5-5 tie allowed the mayor to vote to pass the rules. When Augusta's black fire chief left, commissioners bickered for nearly two years before hiring a white replacement. A special grand jury studied Augusta's government for three years and concluded that racial tensions and tactics used to thwart votes created a "pressing need for governmental reform." "To any outside observer, it looks like a fifth-grade operation," Superior Court Judge Albert M. Pickett said. The Chamber of Commerce also called for reforms after compiling a report that found commissioners blocked a mayoral tiebreaker by ducking votes 71 times between 1996 and 2002. Some blacks say proposals to give the mayor more power would be unfair. In the decade since the merger was proposed, Richmond County's racial balance has tipped to 49 percent black and 46 percent white. "There is a mentality that still suggests there is a white majority in Augusta when there is not," said Mallory Millender, a Paine College professor and former NAACP official. "When blacks disagree with the prevailing white point of view, blacks are referred to as obstructionists, when black commissioners are in fact reflecting a position that is more close to the majority." Young was narrowly re-elected last year by defeating former Mayor Ed McIntyre, who is black. Young said high white turnout kept him in office, but he doesn't expect the trend to last. "You've got people who traditionally have had power here who are reluctant to let it go," he said, "and an emerging class of people who never had power before who are eager to use it." Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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