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ity / Region
Finally, city has a top firefighter
By Shun Norris '
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Well, Augustahasafirechief.
Finally.
Inabrieftelephonechat with
.the Focus, Yakima, Washing
ton, fire chief Al Gillespie con
firmed that he would take the
job here in Augusta, Ga. by
signinga contract on Wednes
day, Feb. 27 to make it official.
Gillespie “slippedinand out”
of the Garden City this past
weekend after looking for a
houseand wrappingup details
with city officials.
Vernon Forrest from page one
On the perception of boxing and hoxers:
Being an athlete, the media forces you to be shallow. The
media forces you to talk about the things that you do because
they say you only have the ability to speak on a particular
On the need to be outspoken:
There’s a whole lot more
that I want to do. I want to
be more of a spokesperson
for athletes in general. I'm
On his drive to be successful, those who helped him along the way:
I believe the mark of a
good man and the mark of a
successfulmanisaman that
is able to make everybody
around him successful. I
understand nothinghappens
There is no shortage
of city revamp proposals
By Shun Norris
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Senator Charles Walker’s
name can be added to thelist of
proposed bilis to reform Au
gusta-Richmond County’scon
solidated government, which
will be the third of its kind to
go before the General Assem
bly.
Stating that this bill would
‘fine tune’ the current system
of checks and balances, Sen.
Walker notes that “we must be
very careful ahout circumvent
ing the need for strong, bipar
tisan, inclusive, and innova
tive leadership in the office of
the chief executive.”
Unlike the other proposed
bills, Sen. Walker’s makes
fewer changestothe powers of
the city officials. Walker’s bill
gives the mayor veto power.
However, the commission can
override the veto with a vote
by seven members. The mayor
can also appoint the city ad
ministrator and the city ad
ministrator will have the power
tohireand fireall department
heads with few exceptions.
Those exceptions being: the
county attorney, clerk of the
commission, the equal oppor
tunity officer, and internal
auditor; positions that directly
report to the commission.
“This bill represents a mod
erate approach to a compli
cated problem,” said Sen.
Walker in a telephone inter
view. “I believe that the prob
lem with the government may
not be with the structure but
with the leadership.”
" Walker’s bill differs from
those of Rep. Jack Connell and
Rep. Sue Burmeister in that
thereisn’taproposaltochange
the number of commission
votes required to pass a mo
tion. Current law statesthat a
minimum of six votesis needed
to approve any motion or ordi
nance. Although Walker’s bill
does not penalize commission
ers from abstaining from a
vote, it does propose that com-
The contract, which was
approved by the majority of
the Augustacommissionat the
Feb. 20 regular meeting, in
cludes an annual salary of
$92,000, a $2,000 bonus and
SIO,OOO in moving expenses.
He says he plans to start
working in Augusta around
mid-April, which is exactly a
year after Bernard Mack,
Augusta’s last fire chief, re
signed after only three months
due to political issues.
Gillespie was close to not
being hired at all. Votes taken
in November and December
failed because several commis
not anarrogant person. ’'mas
humble as humble pie. But
there’s a lot of injustice that I
want to speak about. A lot of
overnight. There’s one word
to describe Vernon Forrest:
perseverance. [ believed all my
work would pay offand I never
stop working hard.
I had a reality check a long
missioners may not abstain at
all.
Sen. Walker’s proposal is
similar to one already intro
duced by Rep. Connell. It still
gives the commission power to
hire and fire the city adminis
trator and if approved by the
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sioners abstained or voted no
because they wanted to hire a
finance director first.
Theleadership of newcomer
commissioner Bobby
Hankerson proved to be ben
eficial when he took the initia
tive to contact Gillespie and
negotiate.
“My goal was to shed the
bad image that commissioners
have and have a working team
so that we can get something
accomplished,” he said.
Some taxpayers and city of
ficials alike feel as though the
$92,000 price tag is a bit too
much for the position of fire
issue because that’s all you do, but writers speak on all
kinds of things and they’re not experts.
times if I'm doing an inter
view, I'll just do the interview
and I don’t necessarily say
what’s on my mind.
time ago and reality said you
can be anything you want to
be. -
Coaches, teachersand people
from the Boy’s Club have im
pacted my life. They know this
General Assembly, it would
not go before local voters in
the form of areferendum. Rep.
-Burmeister’sbill also gives the
mayor veto power with aseven
vote override by the commis
sion but would be put before
voters as a referendum.
chief. Hankerson’s opinion
differed.
“Wehave to pay the price for
some things that we want.
Augusta needs to look on and
move away from being a mini-.
mum wage city ,” he replied.
Though Hankerson got the
commissioners to vote and
move on to other issues, all
were not in favor of hiring
Gillespie. The motion passed
ona6-2-2voteduringthemeet
ing. Commissioners Lee Beard
and Marion Williams voted no,
and commissioners Richard
Colclough and Willie Mays
abstained.
My intention is to let the
world know what’s going
on.
because I tell them.
I finished school at
Marques High School and I
went to Northern Michigan
University.
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AUGUSTA FOCUS
Senator adds to bills
From page one
ity tointegrate skill, talent and
opportunity to become CEO of
American Express, the S2O bil
lioninternational financial ser
vices enterprise.
- Tom Joyner, who began his
career as a DJ working out of
the trunk of his car, and now
has amassed a national com
municationsempire.
Iview your presenceasasign
that you are concerned about a
society where every individual
can pursue his or her personal
best in an environment willing
to recognize individual talents
and special gifts. lam certain
that each of youis onaquest for
success.
During your quest for suc
cess, I want you to recognize
the opportunity you have been
giventoimpact our democracy.
I want you to recognize your
responsibility to become dy
namicand toconquerlife’schal
ienges.
Be dynamic by recogniz
ing the power of focus and
specificity
You cannot become dynamic
until you become specific. The
challenges of opportunity and
responsibility require that you
prepare yourself with focus.
Beforeyou can becomedynamic,
you must become specific.
In other words, you will have
to zero in on a goal and devote
your energies to achieving that
goal.
The power of focus and speci
ficity. Think of this room ...
with all of the light in it. If we
could takeall of thelight in this
room and narrow it down to a
spotlight, then we will be able
to focus on any particular item
FEBRUARY 28, 2002
in this room. Imagine that we
become even more specificand
reducethelight even furtherin
this room until it becomes a
laser. A laser — an intense,
concentrated, amplified form of
light — is strong enough to cut
anything. The laser would be
strong enough to cut through
briék, concrete and steel.
Inlife, whenyoubecomemore
focused and become more spe
cific, you can achieve magnifi
cent things. You can cut
through steel, cut through ad
versity. You can be dynamic.
If you focus, you can:
-Re-invent medicine — such
asmedical pioneer, Dr. Charles
Drew, whodiscovered amethod
to save millions of lives by fo
cusingonthestorage of plasma
(blood without red or white
cells).
- Use that job you have at
Burger King along with your
college education to focus on
building a fast food empire —
like CEO Valerie Daniels-Carter
from Milwaukee who owns 140
Burger King and Pizza Hut
restaurants with 3,500 employ
ees.
Ifyou are specific, you can be
confident about your capabili
ties, like Muhammad Ali, who
“puthismoneywhere hismouth
was” by backingup his boastful
antics to become the first man
tosecure heavyweight champi
onship titles three times.
Become dynamic by win
ning and not whining
Youcannotbedynamicwith
out developing a winning atti
tude. “America likes winners,
not whiners.”
[Journalistic philosopher]
Ellis Cose insists, “You will fail
See SENATOR, page 5A
it te el srednß
3A