don buie Archive

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Editorial: Together, we can fix city leadership

– August 19, 2009Posted in: Outlook

Written by Joe Salter.

Then-Downtown Manager Don Buie spoke to my Kiwanis club soon after his arrival in Albany. His intelligence, knowledge, experiences and communication skills convinced me that he was the man to lead downtown out of its desecrating bondage. I had no idea he was planning to conduct its funeral, without sending eulogy or flowers. However, let’s not give him total credit for the fiasco.

I could never understand why a town the size of Albany needed two highly paid managers, and never got an explanation. Albany seems to have acquired the reputation of hiring irresponsible employees and compensating them for their deficiencies.

I have tried to believe that race did not take prescience over qualifications, but all indications have led me to believe otherwise. Our currently hired officials have had ample opportunity to prove their ability, but failed. I recommend they move on to other endeavors and allow a new group the opportunity to repair the damages.

I consider myself a friend of many with diversified abilities, talents and interests who are capable of handling the tasks presented to them, and I feel confident we have many who can get the job done efficiently and economically if allowed the opportunity.

I do offer a ray of hope to those who might interested. Some of you are aware of y longtime campaign to encourage people to smile and speak to everyone they meet in hopes that it might be the beginning of the healing of America. I have noticed an increased interest in your male, female, black and white citizens speaking, smiling and extending courtesies to those whom they encounter. What a great feeling.

Last week, I was reminiscing with Whit Gunnels about the deterioration of our once-great society. His rebuttal was that responsible people care, but not enough to do anything about it. Think about it: What can you do to restore honesty, integrity and responsibility to America so our children and grandchildren will inherit a better place to live.

The ball is in your court. Will you hit it?

Written by Joe Salter.

Tags: ADICA, don buie
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Wanted: Bold leadership

– August 19, 2009Posted in: Outlook

Richard Thomas’ “Call to arms” article was interesting and exceedingly informative. His statements regarding Don Buie and the responses of the mayor and the city manager really seem oxymoronic.

The mayor claims there is a seven-year limit concerning background checks; consequently, they were unaware of Buie’s felony conviction and incarceration. Mr. Thomas notes that since 1999 there are no such restrictions.

Mr. Lott says the ADICA board is accountable for Mr. Buie’s indiscretions, “not him.” Yet, Lott hired and fired Buie. The ADICA board merely rubber-stamped his decisions.

Except for Roger Marietta, there is a deafening silence by his fellow commissioners. This is a critical moment in Albany’s history. Bold, decisive leadership is needed; unfortunately, it seems to be woefully lacking. Mr. Thomas call to arms to the citizens of Albany is most timely. I strongly agree. If not now, when?

Tags: ADICA, don buie
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Alfred Lott accountable for 50K given to ADICA’s Brown

– August 11, 2009Posted in: Outlook

In spite of his claims to the contrary, City Manager Alfred Lott was directly responsible for a $50,000 grant awarded to an Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority board member and at least $61,000 in additional unauthorized expenditures that are now part of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe, public records show.

Lott spent at least $102,000 of the $500,000 bond-issue advance on “normal operating expenses” including a carelessly administered grant program for ADICA, says city Finance Director Kris Newton, rather than the funds’ purpose: “Capital expenditures (including purchasing options on downtown real estate), all so as to begin its efforts at redevelopment”, records show.

Public records contradict Lott’s public claim that he is not accountable for mismanagement that occurred on his watch by downtown manager Don Buie, Lott’s employee. Rather, Lott says, ADICA board members Jane Willson, Lajuana Woods, Andrew Reid, Phil Cannon, Elvis Muldrow, James Griffin and LaNicia Hart are to blame for Buie’s misuse of taxpayer funds.

Lott fired Buie on July 29, weeks after the GBI began a probe into whether Buie received a kickback from a girlfriend who was on his payroll. The ADICA board last week rejected Cannon’s request to require restaurateur Woods to repay the $50,000 grant she received from Buie despite her being on the board and her business being outside ADICA’s boundaries,

Newton says another $9,000 of funds for which Lott is responsible was spent without proper documentation. Meanwhile, additional funds mismanaged by Buie were approved by Lott through his downtown manager’s account, records show.

Lott, who refused to answer questions on the matter Tuesday, was granted specific oversight of the $500,000 advanced to ADICA from $6 million the city expects to receive in an upcoming bond issue. The “Intergovernmental Agreement Concerning Redevelopment of Downtown Albany Between City of Albany and Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority,” signed by Mayor Willie Adams on Sept. 2, 2008, established the framework for the City to advance ADICA $500,000.

Paragraph 3 of the contract states: “Following the City’s advance of any part or all of the Funds, ADICA will provide on a monthly basis a written description of the use of any funds; as well as an accounting of the Funds, all as the City Manager in his reasonable judgment may determine is necessary or appropriate. The accounting shall provide such reasonable detail as necessary to show how amounts received by ADICA have been spent”.

Newton says Buie spent $102,846.81 of the $500,000 advance. Of that, Buie paid ADICA board member Lajuana Woods $50,000 on April 23; Dollar Square $11,114 on April 24; and Subway $22,246 on June 8, records show.

Albany businessman Tim Coley asked city officials on Tuesday to provide further explanation of records detailing Buie’s business dealings with ADICA and City Manager’s Office funds.

“I am prepared to present this in the form of an open records requests if required,” Coley wrote to Newton, who hadn’t responded Tuesday night. “However, I prefer that the City simply help us understand. We have a meeting planned for Thursday night and hopefully your response will help me provide the citizens with a better understanding of how ADICA is funded.”

In response to an earlier inquiry about the $500,000 advance, Newton said: ADICA used these funds to pay a combination of normal operating expenses (that would be reimbursed by the City of Albany or some other entity) and façade grant activity. Façade grant activity makes up the larger expenses.”

Written by Kevin Hogencamp.

Tags: ADICA, alfred lott, don buie, lajuana woods
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ADICA Scandal: A call to arms for citizens of Albany Georgia

– August 11, 2009Posted in: Outlook

If the recent confirmation of fraud, malfeasance and corruption in downtown government does not provoke every taxpaying citizen to some level of action or even revolt, our community has lost its hope and opportunity for a better future.

For the past six months the Dougherty County Taxpayers Association has contended that ADICA (the Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority), empowered by the Albany City Commission, has been guilty of misappropriation and mismanagement of taxpayer funds and made every legal attempt to repulse an effort to hand over a $6 million blank check to Al Lott, Don Buie and ADICA to continue this act of fraud, collusion and waste of taxpayer funds.

A known and convicted felon, Don Buie did not act alone. He has been enabled to perpetuate his crime by a city manager, a mayor and every city commissioner who stood idly by, and if not obstructed our investigation under the Open Records Act, “looked the other way” while protecting Buie and their fraternity of career bureaucrats.

When confronted with a preponderance of criminal evidence (even implicating others), they continue their game of “dupe the public” by contending that there was no way they could have known about Buie because of the “seven-year limit on convictions under the Consumer Reporting Clarification Act.” Wrong again, Boss Hogg. CRCA was amended in 1998, removing any time restrictions (Section 605) regarding criminal convictions. Buie’s criminal record was “out there” for anyone to see.

How much longer will the citizens of Albany stand by while our city turns into a “little Chicago,” allowing these “bosses” to operate unchallenged by our own elected officials? They remain conspicuously silent.

Every city commissioner, the mayor, city manager and their accomplices all have dirty hands in this matter, and if they have any dignity, should resign. As a career military officer, Al Lott should know about the “code of conduct” and “chain of command,” which he clearly ignored by his handling of former Police Chief Younger’s unauthorized $40,000 severance, the re-instatement of Assistant Fire Chief Jollievette (after being fired for theft of services) and leaving Buie on the job for four weeks (after a GBI investigation was announced) to destroy evidence (of his misdeeds) and do damage control. If still in the military and his lieutenant had committed such a crime (particularly after his appointment by Lott), his lieutenant would have been court-martialed and his commanding officer (Lott) busted.

Our city commission is his boss, take note.

And now we learn of even more graft involving ADICA board member L’Juana Woods (sponsored by our own Willie Adams), who not only received an illegal $50,000 grant but defaulted on a $100,000 Capital City Bank loan and two months later received a $100,000 loan by Community and Economic Development. This is only what we know today, as the downtown sewage continues to “spill.”

Whether our city commissioners are left “on the hook” for a $1.4 million MacGregor Golf default (unsecured and now a loss to taxpayers), or overpaying for a piece of riverfront property without doing a $1,500 Phase 1 environmental assessment prior to closing, and later faced with an EPA $1.2 million cleanup assessment, they are at the center of a “broken,” unresponsive and irresponsible government.

As responsible citizens, our only choices are to leave Albany (which many are doing) and let these “characters” drown in their own “financial abyss” when the tax base disappears, or to unite into one body of concerned citizens, vote them out of office and take our city back. The DCTPA is the only tool we as citizens have to fight this failed government, and I invite every citizen to join us, become involved and take our city back. This is a “call to arms.” If not now, when?

Thomas chairs the Dougherty County Taxpayers Association (nomoretax.net). Contact him at richard@ceafirm.com.

Tags: ADICA, don buie
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Headhunter Cost: $59K and Rising

– November 1, 2007Posted in: Politics

Police Chief James Younger is the only director recruited from out of town to still be on the job

An executive headhunter has reaped a massive reward – more than $59,000 – since helping Alfred Lott land a job with the City of Albany, public records show.

Since he seems to be permanently on the payroll, let’s hope that Bob Slavin of Norcross does a better job of hunting out-of-towners than he has so far; his first two prizes were short-timer finance chief Robert Jones and besieged police chief James Younger.

Indeed, following Jones’ mysterious departure, the only thing we taxpayers have to show for Slavin’s abilities to recruit nationwide – and our $59,000 — is Younger.

Public records show that since he was hired in September 2005 as city manager, Lott – who was recruited by Slavin — has since paid Slavin:

$12,145 to recruit and help hire Jones, of Atlanta, to serve as the city’s finance director. Jones lasted four months on the $75,000-a-year job in Albany, and was paid a severance when he left without notice. Lott refuses to answer questions about the hiring and Jones’ abrupt dismissal, but he concedes that Jones was a poor hire. Jones has been replaced by an internal candidate, Kris Newtown.
$7,745 to recruit and help hire Younger, of Virginia, to serve as the city’s police chief. Among other deficiencies, Younger has refused to cooperate with his law enforcement peers; many police department initiatives have deteriorated under his direction; and Younger was caught in an embarrassing fib when he told reporters that he summoned the SWAT team to a hostage emergency, but actually didn’t make the call, according to public records.
$13,433 to recruit and help hire a human resources manager. Local candidate James Coston was selected over a nationwide field.
$11,018 to recruit and help hire an assistant city manager. Internal candidate Wes Smith was selected over a nationwide field.
$15,332 to recruit and help hire Don Buie of Baltimore, Md., as downtown manager. Although Lott hired Slavin, Buie will work for the Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority; he begins Nov. 17.

Slavin also identified John Mazzola, who was hired from Florida to manage the Albany Civic Center. Except for recommending Mazzola to Lott, Slavin did not recruit or help hire the Civic Center director, and was not paid for his consultation.

Slavin was hired by the city commission to recruit and hire a city manager. Under Lott’s predecessor, Janice Allen Jackson, a headhunter was never hired by the city, except to help find a replacement for Ms. Jackson.

The money taxpayers spend on Slavin’s services is a waste; the city has professional staff who are trained and otherwise more than able to find job candidates.

Lott responded to The Albany Journal’s request for information about payments to Slavin by seeking to find a way around providing the information.

The Journal requested of Lott: “Please list the tasks performed by Bob Slavin and the amount of money paid for each task – or (provide access to the records) that provides this information.” Lott responded to the request by e-mailing the assistant city attorney, Kathy Strang, with this query: “I don’t think the law requires us to manufacture lists that are not in existence? Correct?”

However, Lott ultimately decided to comply with the law and provide the requested information.

Tags: don buie, james younger
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