Merely a day after the Columbus Redevelopment Authority’s decision to hire a federal lobbyist, Mayor Keith Gaskin directed city officials to collect the authority’s meeting minutes and financial records dating back to 2014.
City Chief Financial Officer James Brigham told The Dispatch that Gaskin asked him to request all the CRA’s financial records to review how it uses funds for services and operations. He plans to meet Dec. 28 with CRA President Marthalie Porter to receive those records.
“It’s really just to get caught up on what (CRA) has been doing and how they’ve been doing it,” Brigham said. “I don’t think there’s any issues here, but I know that there’s obviously a disagreement between the CRA and the mayor about (lobbying).”
Brigham said he also hopes to present his findings on CRA’s finances to the city council early next year.
Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett said she was told to ask for the authority’s minutes dating back to the same time.
Garrett said she has also requested other city-appointed boards and committees to submit meeting minutes from the last year, including Columbus Light and Water, the Columbus Housing Authority and the Columbus-Lowndes Conventions and Visitors Bureau, but the CRA is the only entity asked to submit minutes from its very beginning. She plans to post those meeting minutes on the city’s website.
The CRA board voted Wednesday to hire Cornerstone Government Affairs, agreeing to pay the firm $120,000 annually for federal lobbying efforts. The organization also pays Beth Clay, based in Jackson, $36,000 per year to lobby for state funds.
The city pays Worth Thomas Consulting $60,000 annually for both federal and state lobbying.
Earlier this year, the CRA board voted to hire Cornerstone, but Gaskin asked it to hold off until an Attorney General’s opinion confirmed whether it could use lobbyists separate from the city to pursue state and federal funds. AG Lynn Fitch declined to answer the question outright, leading to Wednesday’ CRA vote.
Gaskin had pushed to consolidate lobbying efforts for all city agencies and appointed commissions after the legislature appropriated $3 million for the Burns Bottom redevelopment project near downtown but passed over the city’s request for more money to finish the Sen. Terry Brown Amphitheater at The Island.
Gaskin declined to comment Tuesday when contacted by The Dispatch.
CRA’s response
Porter said the board will turn over all requested documents, but she would not comment as to why Gaskin only requested CRA’s finance records.
“I don’t really have anything to say about that. The timing is interesting,” Porter said. “We’re happy to comply, and we’re working to get the information over as soon as we can.”
CRA board member Chris Chain was more blunt.
He said he has no issue turning over the records, but he believes the spirit of Gaskin’s request is punitive.
“Just because they have a lobbyist that didn’t get them money and we do doesn’t mean that we’re not working for the city,” Chain said. “The mayor is just on a tear with us.”
Jeff Turnage, who serves as the attorney for both the CRA and the city, declined to comment when contacted by The Dispatch.
The CRA was established in 2014 to target redevelopment in the city’s urban renewal zone, which includes Burns Bottom. The city council in 2017 approved issuing $3.2 million in bonds to CRA for land acquisition of more than 70 lots, site prep and marketing in Burns Bottom — located in a five-block area east of Lowndes County Soccer Complex between Third and Fourth Street North and Second and Seventh Avenue North.
Council members response
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones said the mayor did not consult the board on this request. If the council wanted to review those records, he said, it would have requested them in a public meeting.
“The council hasn’t asked for it,” Jones said. “If I was supporting it then the council would have asked for it.”
Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens, who serves as vice mayor, said the CRA’s meetings and records are subject to public disclosure under state law, but he isn’t sure why Gaskin wants them.
“I don’t know what his thinking is. We didn’t discuss that,” Mickens said. “I don’t know if he sees something out there, if he’s acting out of frustration and anger. I don’t know. … He has the power to check on these boards and see what’s going on. He has the right to check, and we can’t take that away from him.”
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard said he believes CRA hiring its own lobbyist is no cause to review its finances.
As for the CRA hiring Cornerstone, Beard referred back to Gaskin sending a middle-finger emoji in a text to CRA founding board member Robert Rhett prior to Rhett’s abrupt resignation from the board in July. Gaskin admitted to The Dispatch in October he sent Rhett the text in response to the board seeking its own federal lobbyist.
“We appointed those members to do a job and we shouldn’t micromanage them,” Beard said Tuesday. “We put those people in places with their expertise. You know that middle finger you sent Mr. Rhett? They’re sending it right back to you. You don’t bother people.
When you bother people, they’re going to bother you back in the best professional way they can. I don’t see anything wrong with them paying that lobbyist.”
Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart, Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco did not respond to calls or messages Tuesday from The Dispatch.
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