A few weeks ago, Augusta Fire Chief Chris James denied it would cost millions for the city to go into the ambulance business and said a $400,000 increase for EMS in next year’s budget would be all he needed.

“We’ll not be coming back and asking for additional funding,” he said.

Remember that?

Well, he must not have, because during a workshop Friday to review cost and revenue “assumptions” associated with James running ambulance operations in Richmond County he did ask for additional funding.

The 911 center will need eight new dispatchers at $345,000 annually, as well as $100,000 to $120,000 for new software to handle additional radio and call volume, according to James.

Pop Quiz: Would you call that:

A. Sleight of hand?

B. Bait and switch?

C. Smoke and mirrors?

D. Cock and bull?

E. Phony baloney?

F. Highway robbery?

G. All of the above?

Answer: G.

Who do those pushing this takeover from Gold Cross EMS think they’re fooling? And you have to ask yourself why. Is it money? Well, they’ve already said they don’t plan to make money and aren’t going to try to collect from anybody who can’t pay.

Or is it power and control? James can barely staff the fire trucks and has implemented mandatory overtime from firefighters to staff his three operating ambulances. Why would he want to take on more work and responsibility when Richmond County has had first-rate service from Gold Cross, despite what James’ public information officer, Chris Meyers, said on Facebook in his attack on Gold Cross Chief Operating Officer Steven Vincent. Meyers slammed Vincent personally and used a vulgar epithet about the company’s service.

It was really unprofessional and childish, especially for a city employee who makes in the neighborhood of $60,000 a year. It’s also against city policy.

Conflict after Conflict: Gold Cross filed suit Monday in Richmond County Superior Court against the East Central Georgia EMS Council seeking temporary and permanent injunctions, contending the entire process to open the ambulance service for bids was rigged from the beginning.

The council, which James heads, voted to open the zone for bids Aug. 2 after months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering between him and some – not all – city officials. Some commissioners were treated like mushrooms. And you know how mushrooms are treated.

But Vincent shed some light on things after filing a Freedom of Information request for copies of communications between James, EMS Council members, James’ designated city attorney Jody Smitherman and 911 Director Daniel Dunlap. The city charged $1,870 for 16,000 pages, most of which weren’t useful, but others are damning.

Courtney Terwilliger, a prominent member of the council and the zoning committee, apparently had lunch to discuss council business with James and EMS Region VI Council Secretary Lisa Smith, a voting member of the council, a week ago.

Smith, who is also the secretary of the Columbia County EMS Advisory Board, regularly forwarded data from that board to James although there were no open records requests for them.

She also sought the advice of James and Smitherman anytime Gold Cross posed a question or asked for information.

“How do y’all want this answered?” she emailed Smitherman and James when Vincent requested the proposed minutes from the June council meeting.

Breakable or Unbreakable? But the strangest thing Smith did was send James a free-form email poem, affirming her allegiance to him and Richmond County:

“He’s touchable. People like me make him safe.

"I’ll not ever protect him. Those ties run deep.

"It was him who supported/took care of me in paramedic school over x2 decades ago.

"It was Tricia that help deliver my oldest child into the world & it was CJ that understood why he didn’t have a “daddy” then. He knew nothing why or how why people like me would love him – but I do. An breakable Bond.

"I will not let him or Richmond cty down. I love too many in it too.”

Smitherman had final approval on council minutes and agendas throughout 2018.

And the records show Smitherman e-mailing back and forth to Dan Gates, the divisional manager of Grady EMS, Richmond County call information so Grady could develop a 911 proposal for Augusta three weeks before the request for proposals came out.

Gates was Region VI EMS director before leaving July 31 to go to work for Grady.

And Smitherman advocated for opening the zone in an email directly to John Graham, the chairman of the council’s zoning committee.

Oops!: Augusta Commissioner Andrew Jefferson’s feathers are ruffled because city officials didn’t abide by the pecking order of whose names should go on plaques on city facilities, specifically the walking track at the Henry Brigham Community Center.

Commissioners’ names aren’t on it, but the mayor’s, Administrator Janice Allen Jackson’s and Recreation Director Glenn Parker’s are, and Jefferson wanted to know why.

After all, as Jefferson said, “The top of the totem pole is the Richmond County Commission.”

Jackson was hard-pressed to explain exactly how it happened, first agreeing that it was an oversight, then trying to walk that thin line between blaming her staff while not blaming herself. It was tricky. But the important thing, she was quick to say, is that a replacement for the granite marker is on the way.

Jefferson said that when staffers don’t follow the written policy for whose names go on plaques, they should have to pay for the replacements.

I haven’t asked yet how much the plaque cost, but it wasn’t cheap if my granite countertops are any indication.

Warning! Road to Public Records Closed!: The mayor has taken great umbrage that I requested copies of his 2018 travel receipts.

So I’ve taken great umbrage that he’s taken great umbrage that I made a perfectly legal request and that he’s whining about it, questioning my motives and making it so I'd have to pay more than $2,000 for search and retrieval, when the records are readily available and could be copied in no more than an hour and a half.

Davis has forbidden anyone but his office from releasing information about his spending, a completely unprecedented move in Augusta-Richmond County government.

He must have something to hide.

What’s in a Name?: So I told you about the little red dog that showed up in our yard. I tried to find him a home, but we’ve had no takers. I put his picture on Facebook and on a sheet of paper and wrote “FOUND on Wrightsboro Road in Thomson,” along with my phone number, and took it to the vet’s office and tacked it up on the bulletin board.

While waiting for that phone call that never came, we put him in a fenced-in garden area with access to our screened-in porch. Pretty nice accommodations, I must say. And just like that, he went from being on the streets to having his own private garden apartment.

He’s grateful for it, too, because anytime he catches a glimpse of me or Ernie, he starts wagging his tail and jumping to the top of a five-foot chain-link fence. After a few days of this, I started thinking, “This dog needs to go to the vet. We don’t know whether he’s had a rabies shot.”

So we made an appointment, and right before we left, I made a big mistake. I said, “He’s got to have a name. We can’t take him to the vet and on the line where it says 'Name' put down 'Dog.'” So I looked at him awhile, and the name “Rusty” just popped into my head.

An hour later, we left the vet’s office with Rusty on a leash, all vaccinated with a tag to prove it.

We didn’t mean to keep him. Honestly. But once you name a dog, he’s yours.

Latest Augusta Chronicle Video