V23|NO41
ERICJOHNSON
He’s Just Kenny
Echols says he’s who he’s always been
If you haven’t noticed, Kenny Echols’ signs have an addition to them — No New Taxes. “I’m just trying to follow the same kind of conservative approach I had out of the school board, where if the budget was increased, I couldn’t support it,” he says. “That’s where I’m coming from with that, and I thought it would be good to put it on the sign.” He says some people have mistaken it for an across the board pledge, which it’s not. The commission as a whole could vote for a tax increase; he’s simply saying he won’t be voting with them. “Once you’ve made that promise, if you go back on it, then you’re lying to the public, and I just can’t do that,” he says. The overarching message? Raising taxes just isn’t the answer. “What I see in our local government is a lot of waste,” he says. “The easiest thing to do is raise taxes, but I think the first thing you need to look at is operations and look at where you can cut back. I know there are places that can be cut back.” He points to several studies financed by the city, which he says are simply shelved, and grants, which he says could be handled internally. “When I was on the school board, we had people to write grants and apply for grants,” he says. “To me, that makes sense.” Echols was elected to the school board for 12 years and served 10 years on the Richmond County Board of Health. Professionally, he was a medical 8
METROSPIRITAUGUSTA’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1989
administrator, retiring from GHSU last December. “I think the commission’s job is to have fiduciary responsibility to look out for the taxpayers’ money,” he says. “That’s why I have a strong commitment and feel really good about coming out and saying I’m not going to support any new taxes, because people are paying enough right now.” Though no stranger to campaigns, Echols says this one feels different. “I haven’t raised as much as my opponent, but my gosh — what I’ve raised is unreal.” The final financial disclosures before the election show Echols trailing Georgia State Patrol Lieutenant Donnie Smith by more than $10,000, about what he’s raised. This year, it seems, most of everyone’s money has gone to signs. “I think there ought to be some kind of ordinance on these campaign signs,” he says. “I’m reluctant to say I’d like to do that on the commission, but I really think we need to look at that. They’re awful looking. I’m as guilty as everybody else, but it just looks bad for the community.” Being out fundraised, though, doesn’t bother him. “I don’t worry about that,” he says. “I’m going personally door to door and I get these shocked looks. They say ‘You’re Kenny Echols and you’re walking?’” Smith may have more signs, but Echols says he’s knocked on more doors. When it comes to the issues, people are telling him they’re concerned with the usual stuff — adequate fire safety, security, zoning issues, the widening of
Berckmans Road and whether or not he’ll be a fulltime commissioner. “I tell them I’m retired, and they think that’s great, because they want a full-time commissioner,” he says. “That’s important to a lot of people. You don’t elect somebody to go to a meeting when they have time.” Besides that, he says, people know him. “They don’t want some old crony politician that’s been there before and hasn’t done much,” he says. “The people of West Augusta know that I fought for them. When I was on the school board they wanted to close National Hills School, and I wouldn’t allow them to do that.” Making an oblique reference to Smith’s involvement in an altercation at Wild Wing, where he allegedly attempted to use his influence to assist an acquaintance after an arrest for disorderly conduct, Echols says he has learned to sidestep the entanglements that come with elected office. “I used to get calls when I was on the school board,” he says. “When the person starts out the conversation ‘I voted for you,’ the red flags go up.” Resisting those kinds of things, he says, is part of who he is. “You’ve got to be in a situation where you don’t let any power or authority go to your head,” he says. “I’ve always been the kind of person — I’m Kenny before I was elected, I’m Kenny when I’m on the board and I’m Kenny when I get off the board. It’s always amazed me how when people get a little authority it always goes to their head.” 11OCTOBER2012