Athens mayor and commission squandering taxpayer money with out-of-state retreat

Hyatt Regency hotel in Greenville, S.C.

By Michael H. McLendon

Today when Athenians are pinching pennies to pay for groceries and their electric bills, our mayor and commissioners along with their staff are lounging at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Greenville (19-21 Sept.) for a retreat paid for by taxpayers! Hotels Downtown Greenville, SC | Hyatt Regency Greenville

What are they talking about in the Hyatt Regency that they cannot talk about in Athens?

The Georgia Open Meetings Act and opinions of the Georgia Attorney General makes clear that a retreat is considered a public meeting, and the public has the right to attend. It is a hardship  for citizens to attend out of town ACC public meetings, but the mayor does care and made no plans to live broadcast the meeting so the public could watch and listen.

Just think about this for a minute. The mayor and commission set a three-day ACC government public meeting in another city for perhaps 15-20 ACC officials and staff. To exercise their rights to attend this public meeting, ACC citizens have to essentially “pay a meeting tax” (travel, lodging, meals, etc.). Why should citizens have to pay to attend a public meeting of ACC officials when the same citizens who are paying the “tax” are paying the tab for those ACC officials to enjoy the conveniences of the Hyatt?

The mayor made no effort to arrange to broadcast this meeting for public awareness even after several inquiries to City Hall. A call to the Hyatt Regency revealed the hotel has the capability to support live stream broadcasts, so obviously the mayor decided the public did not have a right to know. Are we surprised given his history of secrecy and lack of transparency!

Why would the mayor want to make it so hard for citizens to participate? And why does the commission go along with the mayor?

Several possibilities merit consideration.

• The mayor created a local government culture that does not value transparency and is often antagonistic toward its own citizens who seek information. So, we should not be surprised at his actions.

• The mayor and commission often seem disconnected from the kitchen table issues impacting most Athenians and just do not appear to understand how what they say and do comes across. In other words, they are just blind to how this get away to the Hyatt Regency looks and what it says about their attitude toward the public.

• The retreat agenda M&C Retreat Agenda.pub (accgov.com) includes the ACC land use plan; the budget; and ACC American Rescue Plan Act funding. It also includes something titled “why, what, and how” which might be a feel-good group therapy session or something more substantive. The group also gets a four-hour tour of Greenville! Really! It is likely the M&C do not want the public to know the details of what is being discussed so off to the Hyatt!

• Maybe they view this retreat as an opportunity to approve some action that they do not want publicized. Or perhaps they may use the retreat as cover to go into executive session as they did during a previous retreat in order to vote on an issue.

My take is that the mayor did not want this retreat to be held in Athens because he did not want any accountability for answering questions. He is secretive in how he operates, resists transparency, and does not like having to answer back to the public. Heading out of town minimizes his risks but maximizes the risk to the public because we are not informed.

While a few individual commissioners may have thought “retreating” at the Hyatt was ill advised, they too rolled over and did not challenge the mayor. It is interesting that at election time, candidates talk passionately about the need for and promise greater transparency and accountability. Once elected, these officials quickly forget their promises and become spineless.

I can hear the mayor’s reaction to this critique... “Well, we could have gone to a location in Georgia that is even further away...and do not worry the minutes from the retreat will be available.” Yes, that is true, but not relevant.

If the retreat were in Georgia those $ would have enriched Georgia’s economy, but the mayor would still not have broadcast the meeting. Based on history, any minutes produced will be so skimpy and only available so far into the future as to not be timely to inform any public action.

What Going to Greenville Tells Us

There is no reason for ACC public officials to go out of Athens to discuss the public’s business. Obviously, it was more than likely a deliberate effort by the mayor to obfuscate the real intent of the meeting and to stick a finger in the eye of the public. He did it because he knew he could get away with it. If the meeting was all to do about nothing...then why leave Athens? Skipping out of Athens is another example of the lack of respect City Hall demonstrates towards its citizens and their rights that is all too frequent.

This junket continues the pattern of waste and abuse of hard-earned taxpayer $ we have observed for far too long while ACC’s core infrastructure needs go wanting. The bottom line is that they took a road trip at taxpayer expense to stay in a nice hotel to put in about 10 hours of “work” talking about the peoples’ businesswhich they could have easily done in Athens!

We deserve better and a refund! Ask the mayor, the commissioners, and the city manager why they continue to waste our tax $.

Michael H. McLendon resides in Athens-Clarke County Commission District 7.