doesn’t make sense to me.” Kelly Girtz and ACC Manager Blaine According to county transportation Williams last week of intimidating and disofficials, the cost of buying right-of-way criminatory conduct that has subjected her and constructing a multi-use path south to a hostile work environment. of Boulevard would add $1 million to the “I have endured [for] almost three years $5 million project. Beyond the cost, they in October the most traumatic experiences also argued that, on that portion of Barber, of my life,” Maddox said at a June 8 news a multi-use path would not make cycling conference organized by the Athens Antisafer. Discrimination Movement. “I would not necessarily spend the Maddox filed an Equal Employment money on a multi-use path even if we had Opportunity Commission complaint last it. Is that clear?” Lauren Blais, the chair year alleging that she was confronted of Athens in Motion citizen committee, told commissioners. “The level of comfort is already high compared to some other places.” Barber Street was rated a “2” by consultant Toole Design Group, which means the average adult would feel comfortable biking there as the road is now. However, that was “not acceptable” to Commissioner Tim Denson because it excludes children. People younger than 12 can legally bike on the sidewalk, Blais reminded commissioners. Because so many people bike and walk on Barber, TPW officials wanted to separate bikes and pedestrians, in addition to separating both from cars. But on the Boulevard-to-Prince segment, a path for bikes would not ACC Internal Auditor Stephanie Maddox be safer than biking in the road because of the number of driveby Girtz and Williams after filing an ways, Blais said. Drivers tend not to look for cyclists on the sidewalk or in an off-road open records request for ACC’s 2018 Compensation and Pay Study. Her request path when pulling out, she said. was unrelated to any ongoing audit. She When some commissioners suggested said she wanted to read the report and removing on-street parking to create space explain it to her employees who may have for a path, Blais said that parked cars help had questions about their salaries after not to slow down traffic. “I really feel traffic receiving pay raises, and she also viewed calming is the best option for now,” Blais it as a potential audit down the road. The said, adding that a multi-use path could be incident is evidence of a “culture of manipbuilt later, perhaps in the next round of ulation” and “lack of transparency” within T-SPLOST. Other traffic-calming measures include a the local government, she said. Maddox said she was pressured into “speed table” at Boulevard and a crosswalk withdrawing the request by Williams, who with flashing beacons at Barrow Street. “All she said confronted her and backed her of those elements together should slow against a wall as he accused her of wasting traffic down,” said Sizemore. staff time and requesting the report for selfOne of the commissioners who had concerns, Allison Wright, said she now sup- ish reasons. Maddox was reappointed by the ACC ports the project as planned. The commisCommission for a two-year term on June 4, sioner who represents Boulevard, Melissa 2019. Less than a week later, according to Link, also said she supports it. Maddox, Girtz issued a formal reprimand The Barber Street project is one of the and put her on a personal improvement highest priorities in the Athens in Motion plan for her poor performance as auditor, plan, completed in 2019, and emerged despite not having mentioned anything as an alternative to a failed experiment negative at her last performance review. with striping bike lanes on Chase Street. When Maddox tried to defend her perforIt will connect downtown and Prince, the mance, she said Girtz told her to “shut up.” Boulevard neighborhood, factories in the Girtz said he could not comment on Chase area and a burgeoning entertainpersonnel matters. The ACC Commission ment district, including the Chase Park is scheduled to vote June 15 on renewing Warehouses, Terrapin brewery and General Time, a future mixed-use development with Maddox’s contract, along with Williams’ and other charter officers, Attorney Judd an amphitheater. Drake, Municipal Court Judge Ryan Hope Other Athens in Motion projects curand Clerk Jean Spratlin. rently underway include sidewalks and Despite the timing, Maddox said she bike lanes on Cherokee Road, Jefferson is not focused on saving her job. Instead, River Road and Riverbend Road, as well as sidewalks on Holman Avenue and Magnolia she said that she held the press conference to encourage others to come forward. Street. [BA] However, AADM co-founder Mokah Jasmine Johnson urged attendees to reach out to the mayor and commission. ACC has spent roughly a year conducting an independent investigation into Athens-Clarke County Internal Auditor Maddox’s allegations, which is expected Stephanie Maddox publicly accused Mayor to be finished within the next few weeks.
Williams declined to comment until that report is released. The auditor’s office analyzes departments’ operations at the behest of the mayor and commission, independent of the manager, who oversees the government day-to-day. Friction is nothing new. In 2013, the commission under Mayor Nancy Denson declined to renew the contract of former auditor John Wolfe, pointing to the pace of his work after he took 14 months to produce an audit of the Athens Downtown Development Authority. During Wolfe’s tenure, managers Al Krace and Alan Reddish often disagreed with and ignored his conclusions. When Wolfe was dismissed, the position sat vacant for a year, then was filled on an interim basis by a retired county administrator, Steve Martin. Maddox was hired in 2015 on Denson’s recommendation. Since then, she has only completed two audits, one looking at Leisure Services youth programs and the other examining the sheriff’s office. At an October meeting of the commission’s Audit Committee, the Overview Commission—a group of citizens appointed once a decade to review compliance with ACC’s charter—suggested restructuring the auditor’s office. Staffing has also been an issue; all of the positions in the auditor’s office are currently vacant, and the office is listed as “temporarily closed” on the county website. Despite the lack of staff, Maddox told commissioners at the most recent Audit Committee meeting in March that two reports were “in the home stretch.” [Chris Dowd]
Thomas Elaborates on CCSD Mask Policy Superintendent Xernona Thomas said that some reporting about the Clarke County School District’s COVID-19 policies has been “inaccurate,” but she also confirmed that the district does not currently plan to require masks this fall, even for
unvaccinated students. “Although it is not required, it is strongly requested, and our students have been very compliant,” Thomas said at the school board’s June 10 meeting. “They are wearing their masks, so we have not had any issues using the language that was adapted based on the most recent guidance from our governor.” An executive order Gov. Brian Kemp signed last month says that school districts cannot use the public health state of emergency as justification for requiring face coverings. However, it falls short of Kemp’s promise to outright ban mask mandates, and other districts have skirted the order by including masks in their dress codes. Flagpole reported last week that, in a social media post promoting a video about school being “closer to normal,” CCSD initially said there would be no mask mandate this fall, then edited out the statement when upset parents commented on the post. A spokesman for the district confirmed that masks are no longer required in schools, subject to change based on local COVID-19 numbers. Thomas said she wanted to update the board because “some of what’s been printed and posted does not align with this level of accuracy.” Clarke County’s caseload stood at just 24 per 100,000 people over the past two weeks as of June 12. The seven-day rolling average of new cases was 2.4 per day. There have been no cases in summer school so far, Thomas said. “Right now what we are doing is using our summer program as a way to assess what is working, what we need to modify and see how effective we’re being in that area, as well as looking at other mitigation factors as we make decisions to return as safely as possible in August,” she said. None of the three currently available vaccines have been approved for children younger than 12. While young children are less likely to contract COVID-19 than teens or young adults, and the disease tends to be less serious for young people, it has infected more than 35,000 children under the age of 10 in Georgia, leading to 613 hospitalizations and three deaths. [BA] f
Auditor Accuses Mayor, Manager of Intimidation
JUNE 16, 2021 | FLAGPOLE.COM
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