Commission debate exposes how Charter Review resolution was drafted and who handled it

Augusta Richmond County commissioners spent the bulk of their Oct. 7 meeting probing who drafted and circulated the resolution that established the Charter Review Committee and how it moved to the commission for a vote.

The debate centered on whether the Carl Vinson Institute supplied example language and whether the mayor’s office — specifically Chief of Staff Jasmine Sims — compiled the draft before it reached the commission. Several commissioners said they had expected the clerk’s office and the administrator to be the committee’s point of contact; others said they were concerned that an elected official’s office had been more involved than previously indicated.

“I believe that we're referring to the September 28 email. Those were a collective of actual snippets from the resolutions we have received from Carl Vinson … they were all brought to me as ideas,” Jasmine Sims told the commission when asked who compiled the draft. Sims identified herself as “chief of staff to mayor Garnett Johnson.”

Attorney Jim Plunkett said the Carl Vinson Institute provided a draft resolution and examples from other municipalities and that he did not author the final document. “My understanding is that the Carl Vinson Institute drafted a proposed resolution,” Plunkett said. He added that he later made two edits — adding a referendum paragraph and changing a deadline — after the draft was circulated.

Several commissioners sought clarity on whether the mayor’s office had asked the attorney to review the draft and whether Plunkett had received or responded to the original email. Plunkett said he received the email on Sept. 26, 2024, the night the city was dealing with Hurricane Helene, and that he did not recall reviewing or responding to it at the time. “I did not know who drafted it, who prepared that document,” Plunkett told commissioners during the discussion.

Commissioners voiced different views about the scope of the problem. Some said the issue was procedural: a draft resolution is a necessary first step and the Carl Vinson Institute was acting as a consultant. Others said the sequence of events had reduced public confidence in a process intended to be apolitical. "We need to read and understand what we're voting on," Commissioner Tanya Barnhill Turnley said. “This is a cautionary tale for all of us.”

Commissioner Moses Todd, who spoke as a member of the public earlier in the meeting, asked the commission to reconsider or amend the governing resolution so that the Charter Review Committee's findings come back through the commission before being forwarded to the local legislative delegation. Todd said the current flowchart he had seen showed findings going to the governing authority and then to the delegation instead of through the commission.

Mayor Garnett L. Johnson said he had relied on the Carl Vinson Institute's draft language and that the draft “was not authored by the mayor's office, very basic information” used to start the committee's work. Several commissioners said they wanted improved transparency going forward and more routine circulation of draft documents so elected members could review them before votes.

The commission did not reverse or rescind the resolution on Oct. 7; after roughly an hour of debate the body moved on to other agenda items. Commissioners emphasized that the Charter Review Committee’s work will ultimately be subject to voter approval via referendum if the committee’s recommendations reach that stage.

A final vote on the charter changes has not been held; commissioners and staff said the committee continues to meet and collect materials.