AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Mayor Garnett Johnson is making his case for reelection, pointing to economic growth and new investments as evidence he deserves four more years leading Augusta-Richmond County.

Johnson sat down with WRDW as part of a series featuring all four candidates in the mayoral race.

The incumbent launched his reelection bid with three promises: more economic growth, smarter spending and a government that delivers results.

“Growing our economic opportunities through jobs and investments, growing our population, growing our housing inventory,” Johnson said.

New employers and bipartisan funding

Johnson pointed to new investments including incoming employers like Aurubis and NetJets. He also credited a bipartisan approach to securing funding from both the Biden and Kemp administrations.

“My only fight is Augusta’s fight, so you let the Democrats and Republicans and Independents fight the battles in Atlanta and in Washington,” Johnson said. “My only fight is making sure that we secure the funding to make sure that Augusta continues to grow and to thrive.”

SPLOST 9 and Riverwalk improvements

Johnson discussed SPLOST 9, which he said combines lifestyle options and basic infrastructure. The package includes critical needs for the sheriff’s office, addressing concerns around the safety and condition of the jail.

“Those that are housed in our jail are considered innocent until found guilty,” Johnson said.

The plan also includes reimagining the Riverwalk.

“The Riverwalk is actually our front door and our living room. As people come to visit, the first place they want to see is the Riverwalk,” Johnson said.

The project would also address the boathouse, which is currently abandoned and not open to the public. Johnson said the goal is to open it for wedding anniversaries, wedding receptions, graduation parties and family reunions.

COVID rental assistance issues

Johnson’s tenure has faced challenges, including more than six million dollars in federal COVID rental assistance funds that were not distributed as intended. The money was meant to help Augusta families pay rent and utilities.

Johnson said the accounting issues occurred prior to his administration, but his office uncovered the problems.

“We’re changing that. We’re exposing things that should have been exposed years ago,” Johnson said. “We have the administrator’s office as well as the commission and the mayor’s office that’s working through all of these issues that have been underlying issues that have not been made apparent to the public that we’re now addressing.”

Johnson said he called for federal agencies to investigate to ensure proper transparency and accountability.

“This was a time and an opportunity for us to help a lot of families that were struggling as a result of COVID and a result of losing jobs and wages,” Johnson said. “For more than six million dollars not to be used in that manner is certainly a travesty, and it should never have happened.”

The city anticipates submitting an audit in early May before the June deadline, which will also include the 2025 audit to get the city back in compliance with state grants.

Fiscal responsibility and governance

Johnson said he stands on the side of the taxpayer and has delivered fiscal responsibility in his own department, returning thousands of dollars to the general fund each year.

“What we have to do is we just have to tighten our belts and find out where there’s opportunities to create more efficiencies in our departments and deliver those savings to the taxpayer.”

Johnson said he will not be a mayor that raises taxes or fails to control spending.

On governance structure, Johnson said voters in 2024 gave the mayor an equal vote. He said the current structure requires six votes to get anything done among 10 commissioners, a mayor and a city administrator.

“Someone ultimately has to be in charge to make the day-to-day decisions as it relates to this governance, and I believe that person should be a professional manager,” Johnson said.

Johnson said any charter review process should engage the voters of Augusta-Richmond County to decide their future and how to move the city forward.

• Washington’s visit in May 1791 was part of his Southern Tour and included parades and celebrations.
• He was greeted by local dignitaries and noted the town was well-laid-out in his personal diary.
• A long-standing rumor about Washington burying his greyhound in Augusta was later traced to an April Fool’s Day article.

George Washington slept here.

At least 17 current or former U.S. presidents have visited Augusta over its long history, beginning with the nation’s first chief executive.

Washington’s Southern Tour from March to June 1791 was punctuated by parades, speeches, and other celebrations in which residents at each stop displayed the utmost hospitality.

And Washington recorded it all – some of it, anyway – in his personal diary.

On May 18, 1791, Washington’s entourage, continuing from Savannah to Augusta, ate breakfast at an inn on the banks of McBean Creek, “15 miles from Waynesborough,” owned by Revolutionary War veteran James Fulcher.

Four miles from Augusta, Georgia’s capital at the time, Washington was greeted by a delegation of dignitaries led by Gov. Edward Telfair and George Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Monumental: Declaration of Independence signers’ graves sit below Augusta obelisk

Washington “was escorted into the Town, and received under a discharge of Artillery,” he wrote. A meal and a tea followed at Telfair’s Grove plantation, “with many well dressed Ladies.”

He also wrote about “between 60 and 70 well dressed ladies” at an assembly at the Academy of Richmond County on May 19. On May 20, he was given a tour of ruined British battlements from the Patriots’ recapture of Augusta in 1781.

“The town of Augusta is well laid out with wide and spacious Streets,” Washington wrote in his May 20 diary entry. “It stands on a large area of a perfect plain but it is not yet thickly built tho’ surprisingly so for the time.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The race for Augusta-Richmond County’s next mayor is underway, and four candidates are vying for the position.

Eric Gaines, a business owner and real estate investor, said Augusta has been stuck in a cycle of broken promises for decades.

Gaines is a first-time candidate, but he said the problems he’s running on are anything but new.

“Throughout every election cycle that we have here, we’ve had the same group of individuals, I call them, I call it recycled leadership, get on the ballot running for public office, making promises in front of the community, and then when they get into office, they don’t stand behind those actual promises that they’re making,” Gaines said.

Gaines said he noticed a pattern dating back to consolidation.

“Going all the way back to consolidation, I noticed that a lot of the folks in our community are not being heard. The community at large wasn’t being heard, and so that’s the missing link in anything that we do in any type of government. We’ve got to make sure that we bring the community to the table in all decisions that we make here, because that’s the only way that we’re gonna truly thrive and make sure that every voice is heard in this county,” he said.

Infrastructure concerns

He pointed to the downtown Augusta neighborhood where he built his home as evidence of what years of neglect look like on the ground.

“One of the biggest things is infrastructure. We’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna upgrade your infrastructure. We’re gonna fix your neighborhoods. We’re gonna reduce some of the blighted structures that we have around, the overgrown vacant lots. These are some of the same typical issues that we keep hearing every election season,” Gaines said.

“Augusta’s a very old city, and when you go back and look all the way back into consolidation to now, we have not done a very great job at all when it comes to upgrading our infrastructure,” he said.

Gaines said the area where he built his house had not been touched since prior to consolidation.

“I built my house in downtown Augusta. In the actual area where I built that, that area hadn’t been touched since really, since prior to consolidation. Road is broken up, overgrown lots, just really not being able to have the actual infrastructure there to be able to even do development. And so that was one of the biggest things that pushed me, as a business owner here, a real estate investor, to really just try to take charge and figure out how we can actually make this city best and make it work for the actual community here. We’re not making practical decisions here in Augusta-Richmond County that works for our actual residents,” he said.

Augusta 2045 plan

Gaines said he has a plan to address infrastructure issues.

“I’ve come up with an actual plan, Augusta 2045 Capital Acceleration Framework. This is a 20-year vision where we actually get out there doing strategic upgrades in all of our corridors here in the, in Augusta-Richmond County,” Gaines said.

“So I want to actually do this strategically. And so the thing about it is, is that it has to match, not only infrastructure upgrades and utility improvements, but it needs to match the actual economic development that’s coming here, and so that’s the biggest thing of my actual Augusta 2045 Capital Acceleration Framework,” he said.

Budget oversight proposal

He also wants a citizen-led budget advisory committee to track how the city spends money.

“There’s also some other details in here as far as like how do we get out there running our actual finances here in Augusta, Richmond County. We’ve had a huge string of misappropriation of funds recently. And so one of the things that I want to work with the commissioners to implement is a citizen budget advisory committee, and this is the actual committee that I want the actual community to actually nominate folks onto, to work with the finance director to review projects, see where we’re at as far as completed projects and not, projects that haven’t been completed, and then also figure out where our actual money is going,” Gaines said.

“Some of those folks that I want to serve on the actual panel is some folks with some CPA background, some business owners here in the community, and just folks that have some really true experience surrounding money. And so the thing also I’ve also understood here is that we just– we’re electing folks that have no prior understanding about business or just how to do anything when it comes to growing outside of the government. And so we’ve got to really make sure we’re putting folks into office that have some technical experience, and have an actual working background to really be able to go in and further strengthen our government instead of hiring consultants every time that they get elected into office,” he said.

Government culture

Gaines said the culture in local government needs to change.

“This is what I have noticed here in our government, where we have… the culture needs to be changed here. We have a fragmented government where we have different people that are communicating with various different leaders throughout the organization, and this causes a lot of confusion throughout the organization. And so this is something that I wanna level out with the actual commissioners. But also taking a step further is implementing that Augusta 2045 Capital Acceleration Framework,” he said.

Gaines said he wants to implement a mayor roundtable.

“And then another thing too is I wanna implement as well is a mayor roundtable. So that way– And this mayor roundtable will be basically folks in our community that our folks here believe needs to– that are basically boots on the ground to provide information about what’s going on in our community,” he said.

“So I just think that a lot of the things that we’re doing here, we’re not listening to our residents. And then taking it a step further, making sure that we are implementing just overall practical things that does make sense here,” Gaines said.

Transparency pledge

“We’ve got to be transparent about how we’re running this government, whether it may be good or bad, and have it publicly displayed. This is one of the reasons why I wanna have some type of public dashboard where folks can actually go through and actually see where we’re at in our government and what we’re doing. But it also takes an actual strong leader providing clear direction about where we’re going as a city, and actually work with our actual commissioners, and not have any of the fussing and the public infighting that we have seen happen time and time again,” Gaines said.

“We’ve got to really put our actual community forward, and we’ve got to really lead by example, and that’s something that I wanna do on day one as mayor of Augusta-Richmond County,” he said.