Tag: Al Gray

White on Black Climb, an Execution Stayed

  By , ,

Photo by Quinn Buffing on Unsplash

I Called The Bug Babe, But She Laughed

Saturday, June 30th, 2012
Lincolnton, GA
By Al Gray
 
 
Most homebuyers know to require a home inspection, including a termite report. Well, you need to know there are lots of pests that many folks just don’t think about when they sign a real estate contract and close on a house. Another thing is that there are critters that the pest control firms shy away from. Ask the Bug Babe of Augusta’s Advanced Services. Some things make her laugh.

 

 
Your tale teller’s house is in Lincoln County, Georgia, situated on 38 acres on the southern end of the county near Clarks Hill Lake. It was purchased at a very reasonable price from a guy who had been transferred to his employer’s Atlanta office. (How’s that for a change in lifestyle!) This previous owner, Tim Rambleton, owned horses and had constructed a 20×20 pole barn to hold his “stuff.” That shed had little value. The poles were not plumb and were misaligned. That might have been surmountable, but the roof was skewed. The lumber was infested with carpenter bees, that look like this:

Photo by Kai Wenzel on Unsplash

 
 
 
The worst thing was the floor. Tim had laid out a series of wooden pallets and nailed sheets of particleboard over them. This left a space about four inches high under the floor. The immediate thought was, “What a great snake den!” As it turned out, that could not have been more wrong!
 
 
Although the house was only three years old, it was considered a “fixer-upper.” The mud room was just that – covered with Georgia red clay. There were no exhaust fans in the bathrooms. The ceiling fans made all sorts of racket. The deck was 12 feet square. Their dog had gnawed on the outside office door. It took a lot of work. Oh, one last thing is that there was no garage door.

 

 
Shortly after moving day, during the winter of 1998, conical holes in clusters came to be noticed in the yard. The clusters grew in number and size. Some sort of critter was tearing up the yard! “What” was a mystery. Then one night, your story teller awakened around 2 AM and decided to cut on the lights to see what was out there. The floodlights glaring, the mystery was solved. There were several skunks out there digging.

 

 
A call went out to the Department of Natural Resources to inquire as to what could be done with nuisance skunks. The game warden said, “Trap them in a WIRE trap!” Seriously. Mama raised no fool, and there was absolutely no way this guy was gonna move a wire trap with a skunk in it.  The man just as well should have said, “Catch them in a fish net.”

 

 
Lethal measures were the only resort. Five of them were shot. Some sprayed. When they did that, the smell lingered for the better part of a week. With others, lucky shots resulted in no noxious mist rising from the corpses. None of them made it back to their warren – it turned out to be the space under the pole barn’s rickety flooring.

 

 
The clusters of burrowing holes grew smaller. The skunk infestation looked to be over. Then came the night the skunks turned the tables … almost.

 

 
A very long day of bowhunting for deer sent this house dweller into a very deep sleep, before a need to visit the bathroom created a stumbling, closed-eyed ramble to the window and backyard light switch. Sure enough, there was a very large, classically marked up skunk. He looked like this:

Photo courtesy of Photoartinc.com

 
 
Aching bones and tired muscles shouted, “Let him go, give him a reprieve, he will leave!” Before returning to the warm comfortable bed, a second thought occurred. The late return from the hunt had meant that a needed high powered rechargeable spotlight was face down at the garage entrance. It needed recharging for the next day’s hunt. To the right of the door into the house, the Cub Cadet lawn tractor was parked between the step and the corner of the garage. Having once spotted skunk droppings inside the garage produced a sense of caution, but that light had to be retrieved for charging.
 
Your white maned, sort-of-fat author was dressed only in his boxer shorts.

 

 
Emerging onto the top step, the tractor was carefully examined – except for under the mower deck. Seeing no black and white threat, I decided to go for the spotlight on the floor. No sooner than hand grasped the handle, a rustling sound was heard – from the stairsteps!  There stood the black and white skunk seen earlier at the threshold, sniffing to see if he wanted to go in! Picture what came next, this – a mostly naked, fat, white haired man making a seemingly impossible leap OVER the skunk, through the door, and slamming the door in that skunk’s face.

 

 
The skunk held his fire, sparing the mud room and homeowner from a really, really bad top coating.
 
All thoughts of skunk reprieves vanquished, a shotgun was quickly accessed to accompany the spotlight. The door was opened. No skunk. Warily, the garage was being explored when that skunk bolted for the woods. The first shot missed. The skunk was 15 feet from safety when the second blast took it out.

 

 
Big problem.

 

 
The skunk shot was a black skunk with white bangs … Mrs. Skunk. WHERE WAS MR. PERFECT SKUNK?

 

 
He had to be in the garage. Sure enough, he was there – under the hood of my new pickup truck! One could hear him rustling around on top of the engine! Worst of all, skunks are nocturnal. It would be light in about 45 minutes. What if that skunk was still in there at daylight?

 

 
There was nothing to do but go back to bed. The morning hunt requiring travel would have had to be scratched in favor of a hunt on the grounds. A nice fat doe fell to the bow and arrow, giving even more time for the black and white scent emitter to escape.

 

 
The examination of the truck and ginger lifting of the hood arrived with a trepidation like that of inspecting for a car bomb. With crossed fingers, the engine was started, all the while the truck owner, mindful of his cousin starting up an engine with a cat entangled in it, was expecting a fog of ruin to overwhelm the new-truck smell.

 

 
The skunk was gone.

 

 
Monday, instead of the bow shop getting a sale of the latest Matthews bow, the garage door company got a contract to install a remote controlled garage door, as soon as possible.

 

 
The skunks never came back. One of them had been living under the steps inside the garage. Everyone coming and going had walked over his den.

 

 
Getting “skunked” nearly took on new meaning.

 

 
The lawn recovered and was fine. Then the conical holes started multiplying again. It was the:

Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash

 
 
 
That is another story.***

 

A.G.

Behind Closed Doors, An Attitude Adjustment

  By , ,

A Frank Audit

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Augusta, GA

By Al Gray

Auditors have hang ups. Everything has to go through several drafts so one does not ruffle feathers or bruise egos. After an audit report is finally issued, the horse has escaped the barn. By the time a response is expected, the horse has gotten hungry and come back or he has wandered into a glue factory.

When the universe of the audit is a major capital spending project involving major construction, decision making hasn’t the luxury of 30 or 60 day response times. Delaying a week can have six figure consequences.

In 1983 we were constructing a soap plant addition in Augusta. Our writer was the project auditor. In conjunction with project management a very simple, audit reporting form was developed and implemented for specific transactions. Everyone on the construction team was expected to answer within 5 days, pledging action in most instances. Bigger reviews went through a more formal process, but foot dragging was not allowed there, either.

The process worked so well, that it was taken down the road to the mega $1 billion tissue mill that Fort Howard Corporation decided to plop down in a swampy tract in Effingham County. Trouble reared its head, because the nucleus of the management team had just finished a paper machine addition at Muskogee, Oklahoma. They had gotten into some habits that didn’t include pushy auditors, much less one with a whole staff.

Begrudgingly they all came around.

There was one holdout – Frank Buck, the construction manager. Frank was a big boned former carpenter who had worked his way up to a lofty position from getting results. Frank balked at responding to the few reports that came his way. He even balled one up and threw it at this auditor, snarling “I don’t DO paperwork!” Eventually Frank came around a little.

It was just a little, though. Frank’s favorite description of an auditor was, “One who comes in after the battle is over and bayonets the wounded.”

One day in the later years of the project, some dust got under my contact lens inside the office building. I ran into the men’s room to a mirror over a lavatory to pop the burning contact out and wash it. Having accomplished that, I turned to leave.

I had not noticed, but the far stall door was closed. When I turned to leave, this sort of small, embarrassed voice said “Al Gray, is that you?”

It was Frank.

Turning to face the stall door, I responded, “Yes, Frank it’s me.”

He said “Can you believe I walked in here and sat down and there ain’t one scrap of toilet paper? Can you hand me some?”

“But Frank you don’t DO paperwork!”

That sure was a flimsy door.

Frank’s missing paperwork was my best ever audit report.

Frankly, that was my best audit retort.***

A.G.

Stoking a Unity Candle Isn’t for Sheep

  By , ,
The Pinnacle of Babble
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Al Gray

At the conclusion of many wedding ceremonies, the wed couple rise to light the Unity candle, a solemn symbol of the merging of their two lives into one bound with love and Christian devotion. The Unity candle is at the pinnacle of flanking candles representing the two families now joined in matrimony.

All too often the sentiments behind the unity candle  get snuffed out shortly after the flame. The unity candle that winds up truly representing unity is a rarity. When a husband and wife make it to the ends of their lives together, there has to be an explanation.

All joking aside, it takes perseverance and a lot of faith to make a marriage into a true beacon of unity. Forces are too great in society and life for most to make it work.

In the Bible, nothing parallels the symbolism of the unity candle more than the story of the Tower of Babel found in Genesis, Chapter 11.

11 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5  The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have  the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Let’s look at the parallels. The people took pride in their unity, and like the married couple, saw a pinnacle as a statement of their determination to remain one people in one place. They sought to make a name for themselves that was greater than simply being one people. In other words, they had status aspirations as deities, for what other levels of “name” were there?

In this day and time in America, aren’t we doing pretty much the same? Technology has become god for much, if not most, of the world. We are putting technology at the pinnacle. We aspire to the loftiest of heights with aggressive, sometimes immoral, and mostly unethical gene splicing. The clamor for every new edition of the iPad causes those without them to feel inferior and deprived. By the same token, in the last 30 years we have grown into a disunified, fractious, and pampered 330 million souls. Like the builders of the Tower of Babel, enormous forces might just blow our nation apart. It doesn’t take something nearly so great as language difference.

Social networking, globalism, and institutions like “conservative” talk radio attempt to monolithically pigeonhole us into some faceless, amorphous mass with a single mind like that of a herd of sheep. A lot of us are rebelling, for that unity which is intended for us by our masters, is built like the Tower of Babel – weakly bonded with readily fractured cement. The question that would have destroyed the unity of the people of Babel long before the tower topped out was the same as that of today. Who deserves to be at the top?

God decided to end that nonsense before it got to that point. Why? Well, in His wisdom He probably saw that more powerful forces than language would eventually wreak permanent damage to the people’s family unity and even the roots of civilization. We see this all the time with politics.

Genesis 11 portrays a pretty stunning truth in these words – “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” We need to read, and re-read that verse carefully. Nothing is impossible for a people united!

Going back to the unity candle, we see that the two-lives become united only through, love, devotion and faith. Can we use the same permanent cement to restore a society that is built on those things instead of overrunning each other to the pinnacle? Sure we can. Nothing is impossible with the help of the Lord, but nothing is possible that arises out of human passions and weakness. We just need to come to our senses in time.

Some months ago, one of the wiser of the leaders in our area, asked your author this question – “What are the chances of that happening?” The answer was, “Slim, but it is the only chance we’ve got.” One chance exists in unity. What will we go through to find that truth?

We have each other and faith can be the cement for unity. We don’t need candles, pinnacles of fake “success,” or to make a “name for ourselves.”

Jerry Clower had the number right.

ONE.**

A.G.

Old Bo – The Tail Wagged of a Thief

  By , ,
T-Boned at the Augusta National

Friday June 22, 2012
Augusta, GA
by Al Gray

This hunter has a confession to make.

I hated old Bo as much as Uncle John loved him.
Bo was the fastest beagle in Uncle’s pack of 32 and the houndish fellow had real charisma, hence John Rhodes would never leave the scoundrel home, as much as I wished he would. You might ask why a beagle could be despised by a fellow, especially one with “Happiness is a Beagle” emblazoned on a 40 year old sweatshirt. For me it was simple. I usually avoid people like old Bo.

The reason Bo always led the pack was straightforward.

He cheated.

While the rest of the pack sought the rabbit with nose to dusty ground, diligently working to stay on track, Bo would run ahead or cut in front. When the more deserving of his fellows would correct the course of the pack, after the rabbit threw them a loop or an out, Bo would always be opportunistically waiting to charge into the lead, his chop mouth a-barking.

I was aghast and disgusted. Bo was a cutter who stole the glory from those who worked very hard for it.

Taking all 32 of the pack was a troublesome affair. The hunters always had to keep count when loading the dogs up, lest one be left behind. A poor rabbit was doomed, because the pack would split, so that when he doubled back, he likely would run smack into the other half. One simply cannot convey the ground shaking racket 32 beagles make!

Uncle John’s best friend was Judson Bentley brother to his brother-in-law Irving Bentley. Judson was a most humorous, often cigar-chomping fellow, who frequently accompanied Uncles John, Land and Andrew on their rabbit hunts. Jud was the grandfather of WGAC radio talk show host Austin Rhodes (no relation to John Rhodes or this writer’s maternal grandfather).

John Rhodes was a notoriously frugal man. He drove a 1964 green Ford Ranger pickup. Instead of footing the bill for a serious box box to go in the back of it, Uncle fashioned a cover over the bed that was anchored in the corner post boxes. Instead of having a real dog box door, the box only had the tailgate to hold the pack in place. It was an accident waiting to happen.

One extremely cold morning in 1966, John, Land and Jud headed south toward Burke County with a half-compliment of 16 charged-up, excited beagles. In those days there was no Bobby Jones Expressway, so that the hunters leaving from Stevens Creek Road in Martinez had to pick a tortuous path down Washington Road, to Berckmans Road, over to Highland, then to Wheeless, over to Lumpkin Road and then south on Highway 56.

A terrible thing happened.

Just as they rounded the corner onto Berckmans Road at the big green water tower on the Augusta National side of the road, the truck either grazed the curb or encountered a bump. The tailgate fell down. All 16 beagles poured out into the intersection of Washington Road and Berckman’s road! Cars swerved. Horns blew. After a few minutes traffic stopped.

It was simply a miracle. John and Land caught and reloaded dogs while Jud, who at this point was pretty serious about events, counted. People got out of cars to help. Babe, Tiny, and Beulah were already rooting around in the vines along the National’s fence trying to jump a rabbit. Sadly what could have turned into a epochal story of a beagle pack running wild down Magnolia Lane was thwarted by the excellent fencing. Beulah was not amused when Land picked her up. She growled.

Travelers kept feeding wayward hounds into the back of the truck.

Jud had counted 15.
Where was Bo? The uncles went looking while Jud lit a stogie.

They heard a commotion from across the street, in the A&P parking lot. A woman had dropped her bag of groceries, which gave that larcenous hound, Bo, his chance. Bo trotted back to his master, meeting him halfway across the lot, with a T-bone steak in his mouth. John Rhodes didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, because he had to pay the woman for her spoiled groceries.Bo had done what he did best, cut loose from the others to steal a treat.

With Bo in hand and order restored, the party headed on down to McBean, where the threat was no longer automotive, but was more in the order of avoiding moonshiners, rattlers, and old Miz Robinson.

Jud talked about that morning for years and it became a Rhodes family legend.

History doesn’t record what happened on the hunt that day, but hunters and 16 beagles were blessed with tragedy averted at the water tower. All have passed and all that remains is their memory.

Arrrr—-roooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

I thought I was beyond Bo’s reach when he died, but then cousin Hugh turned loose his pup Flash one morning the next season. The dog raced out ahead looking to cut in front and steal the lead. “Cheater!” I muttered….then a the thought hit.

Bo left a son.***
A.G.
Al and Queenie 1973

Al Gray Warns Rural County Leaders About ‘Shameful’ TSPLOST

  By , , , ,

Originally posted on CityStink
Friday, June 22, 2012
Lincolnton, GA
By Al Gray

The author, Al M. Gray, was President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., a provider of Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery for America’s leading companies, businesses and governments desiring Superior Returns. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.


Below is a presentation by tax activist Al Gray before the Lincoln County Commission on June 14, 2012, warning county leaders about the “shameful” TSPLOST and its disastrous effects on the region, especially small rural counties like Lincoln, which can be easily outvoted and forced into this abominable regional government with little to no representation.

*Click Video to play (Fast forward to the 1:20 min mark for Mr Gray’s remarks)*

*Below is the text of Al Gray’s remarks to the Lincoln County Commission concerning TSPLOST* (Graphs and charts referenced in the video are included below)

Chairman Johnson and Gentlemen of the Commission, thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I have come to sound a warning about the proposed new 1% Transportation sales tax that comes before voters July 31st. Frankly, in all the years following public policy I have never seen anything this shameful.

The greater shame is on this county’s legislators – Bill Jackson, Lee Anderson, and Tom McCall for springing forth such an assault upon the people of this county. The bill that gave rise to this abomination was called the Transportation Investment Act. This bill set up a regional transportation roundtable for 13 counties, including Lincoln County. While it is true all had input, the law set up an executive committee of 5 to have the final vote for the 13 counties. They set it up so that Lincoln County is forced to be in this whole new level of regional government, whether we vote to pass or fail, so that our votes are diminished.

This is taxation without representation. Worst of all they committed EXTORTION against us all, by denying state funds if we say, “No!” Beyond this, this is a 14.2% tax increase that they swore to never vote for. Nor were any options even offered, like dedicating the 1% to our county.

Yes, the shame is upon them and tonight I come to ask you to stop embracing this nonsense lest you bring greater shame on yourselves and the Chamber of Commerce, a group that risks its reputation by hawking this tax.

Politicians and Chamber Representatives have been going around the CSRA saying this tax will raise $841 million under a base case. This is a LIE and the Promoters’ own data shows that. Here is a chart showing the base case. It is built on wild income growth numbers – 8% next year – that are a fantasy. The real numbers knock holes in these projections!

Will we get only $650 million? Sales tax revenues are WAYYYYYYY down as the blue charts show over the last 5 years. Can we pretend our way back to prosperity?

Gentlemen YOU HAVE BEEN HOODWINKED!!!!!!! What these real revenue numbers show is that area wide, revenues will probably only cover $500 million to $540 million of the investment list projects! This will mean that the ones in the last years of this deal won’t be funded. Incredibly $6.6 million of the $7.7 million of Lincoln’s projects are to be built in these final years.

 Source: Constrained List Spreadsheet from CSRA Regional Commission

The numbers say these projects will lack funding. You have been deceived and now are being asked to foist this deception upon the people of Lincoln County.

Beyond that, this is a terrible 14.2% increase in the sales tax. Frugal folks just cannot stand such an increase in any cost, for a 14.2% increase doubles living costs in 5 years. For this? This comes on top of a 23% sewer rate increase and several double-digit school tax increases. Look around! Who can afford that?

These deceivers have managed you get some of you excited over Lincoln County getting $722,000 a year in new discretionary funds. Well, based upon the data above this looks to be far less. This money is only coming to us because this scam makes Richmond and Columbia counties give up $7 million to bribe us into this wicked partnership with them. How is that right? A 1% new tax dedicated to Lincoln County would raise more revenue. Why are you excited about the same money or less with strings attached? Why are you willing to destroy your credibility for this?

Gov. Sonny Perdue said that DOT committed ENRON ACCOUNTING when it lost control of highway funds 4 years ago. Now they are all excited about getting their hands on this money. They want us to bail them out.

Mark Twain once said there were three kinds of lies….Lies….Damned lies and statistics……..now we can add a fourth lie – TSPLOST.

My warning is this: Don’t go forth using these phony numbers after tonight. You know better and the people now know better.

Just vote no on TSPLOST. It is the only honorable thing to do.

A.G.

Join the Anti-TSPLOST movement on Facebook here–>  Vote NO to TSPLOST

Special Report: A TEE Total Mess!

  By , , , ,

Making a Hash over $1.3 Million Kitchen Equipment

Originally posted on CityStink
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Al Gray

The author, Al M. Gray, was President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., a provider of Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery for America’s leading companies, businesses and governments desiring Superior Returns. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

In the waning weeks of Winter 2012, Augusta Today contributor Lori Davis submitted an exploratory, wide ranging Georgia Open Records Act Request.

for the City of Augusta’s payments under major contracts. The documents response was massive. Deep in the supporting subcontractor billings to the R.W. Allen, LLC contract for the TEE Center was a most intriguing invoice from Norvell Fixture and Equipment Company showing that $199,656.00 of kitchen equipment as work completed and an additional $76,289.25 worth was stored, for a total billed and paid of $275,845.32! (less 10% retainage). The contract total for kitchen equipment is a surprising $1,329,418.00.

Why was this invoice noteworthy? There was no detailed partnership agreement executed between the City and its TEE Center Partner and Manager, Augusta Riverfront, LLC going into the contracts for construction, leaving the last word on the partnership being the unsigned, undated August 2007 Term Sheet. Repeated references to kitchen equipment are pretty clear that such equipment are the responsibility of the LLC, including this: “Augusta’s Capital Funds shall specifically not be used for items related to Kitchen Equipment, Laundry Equipment, and any Convention Center or Hotel Capital Cost.” Similar language making the LLC responsible for Kitchen Equipment remain within the executed 1999 Core Agreement of record in the Offices of the Clerk of Augusta Richmond County Superior Court.

No Augusta Funds are to be used to procure kitchen equipment, when $1.3 million of it is under contract?

During negotiations that have not yet produced a signed partnership agreement there was certainly a commitment for Augusta to construct new kitchen space within the TEE Center and relocate the combined kitchen from the existing Convention Center. That had no impact upon equipment ownership. Real property improvements and tangible personal property, such as equipment, are different.

In order to advance the investigation, Augusta Today member Dean Klopotic submitted a follow-up GORA request seeking the most recent R.W. Allen LLC billings under the Tee Center Contract. The City responded with Progress Billing Number 24, covering costs through March 24, 2012, including Kitchen Equipment Invoice Number 6, through March 20, 2012.

The details show $792,984.52 equipment work completed, materials stored of $162,544.34 and a total billed of $955,528.86, less 10% retainage. The R.W. Allen monthly invoice shows no additional kitchen equipment stored. Both Construction Manager and Subcontractor show most of the kitchen equipment as work completed.

At 11:00 AM on Thursday, June 7, Barry White of the Convention and Visitors Bureau conducted a TEE Center tour, which was attended by Ms. Davis and this writer. Project Manager Jacques Ware of Program Management firm Heery International would not permit the use of a video camera, suggesting that we come back for the Media Tour to be held Thursday June 14.

When the entourage reached the second floor of the TEE Center, the empty space was pointed out where the kitchen is to be located. At that juncture, an inquiry was made about the kitchen equipment invoiced back in December. Mr. Ware said that he didn’t authorize payment for a kitchen equipment invoice, asking what kind of equipment was on it. This writer responded, “A number of tilting kettles and ranges,” then pondering out loud if they might be stored. Mr. Ware said the only kitchen equipment there would have to have been, “for the Marriott.” (The Marriott is owned and operated by Augusta Riverfront, LLC.)

An email request to Mr. Barry White to be included in the Media Tour on the 14th received no response. Other attempts were made to get a separate tour along with one or a group of commissioners to investigate the matter. Commissioner Joe Jackson had just returned from vacation and could not schedule a tour in the next week. Commissioner Bill Lockett managed to get the Heery project liaison to get permission to join another June 14 tour, only to see it canceled after several hours.

Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle was provided with a copy of Kitchen Equipment Invoice on the morning of June 20, whereupon he sought explanation of where the kitchen equipment is from Program Manager Heery International, receiving assurance that the materials were, “either stored or installed.”

It is fairly common practice to bill stored materials. There is clear language on billing documents that they are, “Materials Stored on Job Site (Invoices if Required).”

Where does the situation stand? What are the issues?

Issues and Questions

  • Where is the equipment that Augusta paid for?

  • Has Augusta Riverfront, LLC been relieved of its responsibility for the purchase of kitchen equipment? If so, where? If not, is Augusta being reimbursed for the $1.3 million cost?

  • If the Kitchen Equipment was delivered and used in Conference Center operations and events ($955,528.86 having been delivered, installed or stored prior to the Masters upswing in events) where is the accounting for the revenues?

  • Without an Effective Date having been established for the successor catering agreement, where does accountability lie, especially since Augusta Riverfront, LLC’s Paul Simon having declared the TEE and Conference Center merged months ago?

  • Why do both the R.W. Allen and Norvell Fixture and Equipment Company invoicing show the equipment as “Work Completed” if the equipment is “Stored?”

  • Should Augusta have paid for nearly a $million of equipment months before it is installed in the new kitchen?

  • Why does the invoicing include future charges for repairing Augusta Riverfront, LLC equipment? Whose equipment will it be after Augusta repairs it?

———–

Commissioners Joe Bowles, Joe Jackson, Wayne Guilfoyle, and Bill Lockett have provided Augusta Today and CityStink.net with substantial cooperation in this investigation and report. The public can feel confident that these gentlemen will pursue this matter to a conclusion.

Several of them need to participate in a tour and inspection of the paid-for kitchen equipment. Perhaps the city’s internal auditor can vouch for the accountability of the equipment, including verification of delivery documents to a storage facility before the dates that the invoicing was submitted.

It is hoped that all will aggressively protect the interests of the citizens of Augusta and seek wise counsel as they deal with the aftermath of the total mess that the TEE Center currently represents.*** Stay tuned, more to come.

A.G.

Where you gonna say you caught these fish?

  By , ,
Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and TSPLOST
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Al Gray

When Mark Twain described the 3 kinds of lies it was about the art of deception. We find about those too late.

Back in 1990 or so, I was returning to Evans one Friday afternoon after a week on my job down in Effingham County. The evening before I had gone fishing on the lower Savannah River and caught a tremendous number of Bluegills, which were on ice in the back of my truck.

Driving up Millhaven Road approaching Girard, there was a beaver pond on the right close to a high tension power line. As I got closer, I saw the head and shoulders of a man fishing in the pond. Having a busy weekend ahead made for a sudden plan to give away my fish.

I pulled off the road, shut off the engine, and rolled down the window. I said “ Hey…you having any luck?” He said, “Not much, I only catched this lil ole brim,” as he held up a stringer with a fish about the size of 3 fingers. “I don’t believe there are many fish in this hole.” And I asked him, “Would you like a mess of about 35 fish?” He said, “ Sho’ would, I wuz about to give it up, its so hot out heah!” He told me his name was Alonzo and asked if I could give him a ride back to “J-rod.”

After we got to his house and transferred the fish from my cooler to his, he insisted on giving me a few $dollars for the fish and the ride. Just before I pulled away I asked Alonzo, “Where are you gonna tell your buddies you caught these fish?” He laughed and said, “Ah’m gonna tell ’em I catched them in dat beavah pond!”

I forgot about the whole exchange over the weekend, until late Sunday afternoon on the trip back, just south of J-Rod there were a bunch of cars parked on the shoulder. They were alongside that beaver pond, and there was a whole row of folks fishing.

Never believe a politician or a fisherman. They will have you fishing in an empty pond catching only snags and mosquito bites.***

A.G.

Join the Anti-TSPLOST movement on Facebook here–>  Vote NO to TSPLOST

A Patriot and a Heroine Departs Augusta

  By ,

The Law Came in with Gail Force

 

 

Sunday June 17, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Al Gray

The author, Al M. Gray, was President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., a provider of Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery for America’s leading companies, businesses and governments desiring Superior Returns. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

 

Romans Chapter 5 perhaps sums up Christian faith more succinctly than any chapter in the Bible. It begins with tribulations, perseverance, proven character and hope. It finishes with transgressions, condemnation, justification, reconciliation and concludes in grace. In the middle one finds the Law in a curious light.

20 [o] The Law came in so that the transgression would increase….

 

Whoa! Many Bible scholars predictably avoid this improbable and seemingly out-of-place role of the Law, in such a negative light. Only those with passion for the Law, a keen intellect, curiosity, and fearless determination to seek truth in the Lord, like the legendary Rev. C.H. Spurgeon, address this passage. It is too daunting for most.

It wasn’t for Gail Duffie Stebbins. She found nothing daunting. Gail, a longtime friend, mentor, collaborator, and confidant, lived Romans 5 and exemplified why the notion that, “the Law came in so that the transgression would increase,” isn’t negative at all. It is the lifeblood of our society, key to our Constitutional rights, and, as Romans 5 shows, it demonstrates to all how we fall short.

Let’s return to the beginning of Romans 5.

Therefore, having been justified by faith,  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and [we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Nothing better sums up the life of Gail Duffie Stebbins for this old friend. She suffered tribulations throughout life, as all of us must, but the one that strikingly stands out from this perspective is that Gail was a capable, forceful woman who thrust herself into the melee of the ‘boys club’ of the Augusta bar and Augusta Judicial circuit. As the Augusta Chronicle reported (her father, Hubert) “Duffie raised his daughters to ignore gender boundaries and pursue any career path they wanted, saying ‘the sky is the limit.’” She didn’t back down, taking a particularly aggressive stance against governmental predations of her beloved parent’s property rights. Her sword was Equal Protection under the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution and her shield was the Due Process Clauses of the 5th and 14th amendments. Harmful overlay zoning ordinances with the Evans Town Center and Fury’s Ferry Corridor districts attempted to make short shrift of Hubert and Eleanor, her parents. She would have none of that. The dominant men would yield. Indeed, when a Superior Court judge threw out the Evans Town Center ordinance in a suit that Gail brought, the judge exclaimed to the county’s attorneys, “She’s got you boys!” Of course, in good-old-boy fashion the judge delayed entering his decision in the case long enough for the “boys” on the county’s staff to remedy the deficiencies she prevailed upon, and then reenact the law.

After tribulations comes persistence. She was so accustomed to being abused by the boys that Gail knew the judge was going to give the government every break in the Town Center case. She persisted in a backup plan to prove nobody else had ever lived up to the rules. We went around taking digital photos, doing Georgia Open Records Act Requests, and Gail even went to the extent of measuring distances and counting parking places to prove we were right! Our persistence meant that after her court case and our presentations, the county was never again able to use that ordinance against a determined property owner. In demanding equal protection for Hubert, Eleanor and herself, she benefited the rest of us.

The next stage is proven character. Gail insisted in following the second commandment of Christ – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – which is at the root of law and just common decency in how we treat others. She got a lot of that from her father, whom she adored. After Hubert’s death three weeks ago, she was cited and quoted in the Augusta Chronicle, “His daughter, Gail Stebbins, hopes people will remember her father as a man with ‘extreme integrity’ who cared deeply about those in need and wanted to leave the world a better place… He never asked for recognition,” she said. “Daddy was one of those who liked to quietly work behind the scenes.” Gail was nothing like that. The Law came in with Gail force and she was scarcely shy in defense of her family and community. She had proven character and toughness.

The last time we spoke was on the eve of our Augusta Today activist group’s intervention to defeat the Laney Walker Bethlehem Overlay District before the Augusta Richmond County Commission, in which Gail’s guerilla style defense of property rights would reign supreme. She counseled for us to avoid providing so much information about the city’s mistakes that their lawyers would correct the crucial ones and in fact advised against doing anything. It went something like, “let them find out too late.“ I laughingly took half of her advice and we left enough untouched, unreported, and undiscovered issues to prove fatal should the need arise, even though we went forward in our (successful) opposition. Gail was like that. She was a fantastic sounding board.

One might think this friend would have trouble with the idea that she gathered hope. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Gail knew the score about a whole host of matters – law, politics, government, public policy, finance, world economy, and human nature. While we had not seen each other in several years, she was a steady counsel, fount of ideas, and source of practical thought. I treasured her wisdom, advice and perspective. She recognized the seriousness and precariousness of our world situation, but she had tremendous HOPE for her children’s futures.

Gail’s husband, Clay, represented our family when we had similar need to combat wrong with considerable ability and aplomb. He was a life partner in Gail’s battles and we offer him and their daughters our heartfelt condolences over Gail’s passing late last week.

Gail Stebbin’s life lent meaning to the words of Romans 5, Verse 20,  that says, “The Law came in so that transgression might increase.” The great Reverend Spurgeon explains that for us this way: Sin always existed, but until the Law was introduced, there was no way to measure or prove the universality of sin. Law, as Gail practiced it, was a great equalizer. It showed that all men (and) women have fallen short, even the wealthy, the powerful, and the privileged. The end of the verse explains this way: “grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Exposing inequality was Gail’s way of exposing sin and overcoming it with God’s help.

Gail knew one thing supremely. She had hope, “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us…

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved [f] by His life. 11  And not only this, [g]but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

Gail adored her father. In her last interview she said this – “He is my hero.”

Now through hope and conquered transgression, she is reunited with him in reconciliation with God.

She was one of my heroines and she was a fellow patriot.

Godspeed Gail, you will be missed for a while, but we will see you one morning soon.

 

Your old friend,

Al

 

15 Reasons to Detest TSPLOST and Punish its Promoters

  By , ,

TSPLOST creates 12 new “regional” governments

Originally posted by CityStink
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Al Gray

The author, Al M. Gray, was President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., a provider of Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery for America’s leading companies, businesses and governments desiring Superior Returns. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

*Please see a video presentation by Al Gray warning county leaders about the perils of TSPLOST—>Here

The Transportation Investment Act of 2010 (also referred to even in the legislation as the ‘Transportation Investment Act’) is being called TSPLOST all over Georgia. The legislation establishes a new 1% sales tax supposedly dedicated to regional transportation.

Our region is the Central Savannah River Region, consisting of populous Richmond and Columbia counties, along with 11 rural counties. The tax covers a 10 year period. The funds are totaled for the region, then allocated based upon 75% a “constrained investment list” of projects and 25% discretionary funds based upon an 80% non-state road miles per county, and 20% based upon population. Funds are collected by the Georgia Department of Revenue, then transferred to the Georgia Finance and Investment Commission for distribution.

Confusing? You bet. That is intentional.

Here is the evaluation, from a cost recovery and fiscal conservative policy point of view, of why TSPLOST is an abomination:

  1. The bill says only the 5 member executive board has a vote on the final project list. Rural voters have no representation in that vote. See the Executive Committee paragraph halfway down the page. This is Taxation without Representation #1.

  1. Rural voters in 11 counties can vote it down, but still are subjected (See Special Districts, paragragh 2) to this regional government, if it massively passed in urban counties. This is Taxation without Representation #2.

  1. It is an Act of Extortion. The bill says regions that do not pass it see their state funds matching TRIPLED from 10 percent to 30 percent. (See Line 687-692, page 20, House Bill 277) Good news is that it will fail in a region or two prompting a HUGE lawsuit. Bill Jackson, Ben Harbin, and Lee Anderson voted to allow Nathan Deal to extort money out of us in this manner.

  1. Richmond County and Columbia Counties are Donor Counties, giving up an estimated $5 million and $2 million respectively, to fund the 25% discretionary funds for the other 11 counties. McDuffie County is said to be also a minor donor county, although the author’s analysis suggests it has a very slight benefit of less than $100,000 over 10 years.

  1. It is a 14.2% tax increase. Frugal folks get WIPED OUT by anything that increases living costs by double digits as your living costs double in less than 5 years (see Rule of 72). Worse, it compounds the 14% Georgia Power rate increases that Jackson, Anderson and Harbin gave us.

  1. The $840 million figure the Chamber is presenting is A LIE AND THEY KNOW IT. It is built on a wild income growth figure of 8% next year. WHO is getting 8% pay increases???? Their own figure is $689 million, apples to apples. Even that is too high by $50 million because the “low case” numbers are known to be off for this year by more than 50%. (More on this later.)

  1. It introduces a whole NEW LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT!!!! Ron Cross contests that with your author, but it has its own governing body, revenue stream, financial apparatus, and it calls for NEW STATE/REGIONAL positions (House Bill 277 New Code section, lines 236-329) written into the bill.

  1. It turns over nearly all funding in the rural counties (HB 277, line 786-789) to DOT, an agency this whole deal is bailing out after it lost track of its contract obligations, a failure so bad that Governor Perdue accused DOT of “ENRON ACCOUNTING.“

  1. Politicians already see this as a NEW way to divert or tie highway funds to such things as deepening the port at Savannah. This shouts WARNING!!!!!,for the state cannot be trusted with its TRUST FUNDS. Look up the Tire Fund, 911 fund, and Tobacco funds. What really is absurd is that this whole imbroglio was set up to CLAIM that it protected us from these SCAMS.

  1. This legislation creates a NIGHTMARE FOR RETAILERS as it requires separate sales and use tax reporting for each location! (See HB 277 lines 762-768).

  1. 17% of the revenues collected on motor fuels in Georgia go into the General Fund, not transportation. If transportation is the priority claimed, WHY is this true? What about the $750,000 to take a black bear census and to build bear underpasses on a state highway? Is that a transportation ‘priority?’

  1. Columbia County has huge funds from SPLOST which it uses for road improvements even on state highways. DOT keeps the motor fuel taxes. THIS IS A THIRD HUGE POT OF MONEY. Neither of the other two go away!

  1. Looking at the bill, it allows COUNTIES to charge Administrative costs (HB 277 Line 474). This is HIDDEN from cursory examination of this bill. No wonder the county administrators are drooling.

  1. Looking at the bill, it forces counties (HB 277 lines 800-850) to use DOT and envisions DOT as ‘consultant’ on the discretionary projects. The DOT’s Todd Long alluded to this during the Chamber of Commerce forum in Evans on Wednesday, June 6.

  2. House Bill 277 also states that the collection of TSPLOST funds is subordinated to collection of the state sales and use taxes (see HB 277, lines 750-752).

As a past member of the Greater Augusta Chamber of Commerce, this writer is concerned that championing this outrageous deception will ruin recruitment for Chambers of Commerce. It might be an easier sell for the Communist Party to sign up new members after this misguided foray into public policy!

Let’s defeat TSPLOST on July 31.

Along the way we need to make ALL of the county commissioners tell us their positions on this new tax so that we can be informed voters. They are calling it a “fair” tax, so isn’t requiring disclosure of their stance on TSPLOST likewise FAIR?

Then make the politicians PAY.***
A.G.
Join the Anti-TSPLOST movement on Facebook here–>  Vote NO to TSPLOST

A Transportation to Heaven Investment

  By ,

A Caesar Rendering Due

Originally posted on CityStink
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Al Gray

The author, Al M. Gray, was President of Cost Recovery Works Inc., a provider of Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery for America’s leading companies, businesses and governments desiring Superior Returns. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

All Americans should acquaint themselves with Andrew Jackson’s Farewell Address. The unabridged version, distributed as a pamphlet, stands as a clear warning and prophesy. In it “Old Hickory” wrote:

You will yet find there is a constant effort to induce the General Government to go beyond the limits of its taxing power and to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people. Many powerful interests are continually at work to procure heavy duties on commerce and to swell the revenue beyond the real necessities of the public service… They succeeded in obtaining a tariff… extravagant schemes of internal improvement were got up in various quarters to squander the money…  But, rely upon it, the design to collect an extravagant revenue and to burden you with taxes beyond the economical wants of the Government is not yet abandoned… efforts will be made to seduce and mislead the citizens of the several States by holding out to them the deceitful prospect of benefits to be derived from a surplus revenue collected by the General Government and annually divided among the States… Do not allow yourselves, my fellow-citizens, to be misled on this subject… It is, moreover, a system of injustice, and if persisted in will inevitably lead to corruption, and must end in ruin.

Don’t these words paint a hauntingly familiar picture in this election season when we are asked to vote ourselves a new tax for transportation improvement? There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to predatory government, is there?

Christians live with a dilemma in evaluating such things, for in Matthew 22:15-22 we find the duties of paying taxes in the context of perplexing instructions:

Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. 16 And they *sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. 17 Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?19 Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. 20 And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They *said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He *said to them, “ Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.

What was ‘money’ then and now was whatever was branded as legal tender granted the privilege of being accepted in payment of the government’s taxes. The denarius coin was stamped with Caesar’s image, so Jesus responded simply, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s (legal tender money); and to God the things that are God’s (ourselves and wealth that stands beyond legal tender money).”

When government strains the limits of the consent of the governed and the sheer mathematics of debt, the things it demands as “money” become debased. Indeed, the fall of Rome came when the denarius became so debased by the government’s own abuse, that other “things” assumed one of the two essential attributes of money – that of a Store of Value.  When some other “things” become stores of value – be they gold, silver, produce, grain, oil, or fertilizer – then they command more and more of the government’s legal tender required as units of exchange.  At some point the valuables assume both store-of-value and unit-of-exchange functions because the government’s money has gone worthless. Then governments get very hostile to the people.

Indeed, at the time of the Fall of Rome, it was said that the Roman farmers were so infuriated by the government’s raids of the stored value represented by their granaries, that they invited and implored that the barbarians’ invade to relieve them of tyranny from Rome.

We are at the same point here in our “modernity.” Our money is debased, so government is increasing its demands upon us – now wanting to tax our previously taxed savings when we spend them – and will continue to do this until the people rise up and put a stop to it.

Giving the government its due has to be limited to what the government needs to serve us, as Andrew Jackson intoned. As it moves beyond that, it gets into the realm of what is ours and interferes with our ability to give the Lord that which is His – support of church, charities, and our fellow men, women and children in need. Worst of all, it grows its demands so as to enslave man and to deny him the time to devote to the Lord and to others.

Let’s spend no more time on that conundrum. Men halt the advancement of government power at some point, if there be patriots still drawing breath (there are). Let us turn to rendering to God that which is His.

What is His?

We are His along with everything that we have and are able to store value into. We are charged to tithe, so as to support the church in its service to the broader community and that must be a central aspect of Christian life and practice.

Matthew 10, Verse 28 makes it clear for us:

28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in [a] hell.

Pretty simple, isn’t it? We should be fearless toward government and fearful of God. We must love the Lord, not government. Government is just another Pharisee, trying to trip you up. Be not deceived. Look beyond their power to harm. Look to heaven. All else is false pretense.

Come thou Fount of Every Blessing and that isn’t the latest Caesar or his government.

AG