On crime plan, ‘Mayor will not be providing a follow-up at this time’
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - It’s been 12 days since Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis said he would unveil his plan to combat crime.
We expected an announcement last week, but his office said he had a family emergency.
He was at Tuesday’s Augusta Commission meeting, so we asked if he was ready to provide the update – about a week after it was promised.
His legislative aide, Keona Shaw, wrote in an email to News 12: “The Mayor will not be providing a follow-up at this time. I appreciate your interest in this critical work and your willingness to report the facts when presented to the public on the next steps.”
With no update from the mayor, we followed up Tuesday with commissioners on their thoughts on seeing a plan come together before Davis’ term is over.
“Say it one more time. Downtown is. .. what’s that word? S - A - F - E. Safe,” he said.
This was said during the Downtown Development Authority’s presentation in 2022, the mayor’s only mention of public safety at Tuesday’s meeting of the Augusta Commission.
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While we weren’t able to receive any new updates on his plan, we followed up with commissioners.
Catherine Smith McKnight, Augusta Commission member for District 3, said: “When I see a 17-year-old or 18-year-old shooting people, something is wrong, and we need to figure out what’s going on.”
With safety in mind, it’s also a question of a plan that could last past the mayor’s term.
District 5 Commissioner Bobby Williams said: “We don’t have a fast process if you understand what I mean, so it’ll probably be slow. I don’t think there’s anything we could start today that he would be able to finish before he goes out in December.”
With time in mind, District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett questioned his presence in Augusta altogether.
“How many days has he missed this year? How many meetings has he missed? So in regards to how many days he has left, if he has something that we should all look at, that’s great. But in regards to some big plan that he has about public safety, where’s it been for the last seven years,” he asked.
We followed up with the mayor after the meeting, and he says that he didn’t get our two requests we put in Monday and to follow up with his office again.
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