AUGUSTA, Ga. () – No one since consolidation served more time as mayor than Deke Copenhaver, and he told the Charter Review Committee it makes sense that the mayor should have more power than 10 commissioners.
“Basically, we need for streamlined decision making because decision by committee holds us back,” said the former mayor Copenhaver.
Last week, the charter committee held its first discussion of possible changes to the government like giving the mayor a veto.
That had some suggesting it looks like recommending a charter change is already a done deal.
“That’s a perception that gives the public that you have made a decision on what direction you want to take,” said James Williams.
But that was not the only criticism.
Members of the committee accused other members of ignoring actions that have been approved and going it alone.
“I wonder why we’re even wasting everybody’s time with a charter review at all when we can just ask those few members what they want to see as an end result and just put it to paper instead of pretending we all have an equal voice on this committee when we don’t,” said  Angela Bakos, of the Charter Review Committee.
We wanted to know if this division will prevent the committee from doing its job making recommendations on the charter?
“Nope, I believe when it comes down to the final product, everybody will be. It may not be 100 percent but it will be not far from it,” said Charter Committee Chair Marcie Wilhelmi.
It’s expected the charter review will take at least a year, so there could be some difficult months ahead.