City leaders postpone discussion over Augusta mayor’s spending

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – City leaders are looking to set boundaries when it comes to the mayor’s credit card. 

Questions from commissioners started last month after Mayor Garnett Johnson asked for more than $40,000 to cover his credit card expenses for city business over the last six months. 

The goal of Tuesday was to reach a solution when it comes to reimbursing the mayor. Unfortunately, that did not happen. 

Instead, the conversation was moved again to the next finance committee meeting. 

The mayor is not breaking any policy by asking for reimbursements to his personal credit card. That’s because there is no policy for this specific request. 

There were questions from commissioners regarding whether they should change the existing policy to fit the needs of the mayor. 

But both the city’s finance director and procurement director say this could open a floodgate when it comes to other elected officials, meaning that if you make an exception for one you would potentially have to make an exception for all. 

Right now, the policy when it comes to a city-issued credit card includes a $500 limit per transaction or a $5,000 limit per month. 

The finance director says it’s best to have a policy that is more uniform rather than have several expectations. 

“We’re open to any resolution to it. All of our expenditures were based solely on us fulfilling our duties as mayor, and we proactively put this item on the Finance Committee’s agenda. This isn’t something that no one else did. We proactively put this in this agenda item so that we can address it, and that’s what we’re doing,” said Johnson. 

The city’s finance director did say they are not questioning the legitimacy of the mayor’s spending but says its more so the method of the expenditures being turned in. 

Again, the mayor turned in receipts which span over six months and when this conversation first started he took accountability for not turning the receipts in each month. 

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