Former Mayor Dee Kopenhaver urges charter update for efficiency, transparency and trust

Former Mayor Dee Kopenhaver told the Augusta City Charter Review Committee on June 25 that the city's charter has not been updated in 29 years and urged the committee to focus on making government more efficient, transparent and accountable.

Kopenhaver described the current charter as “a government that was formed in mistrust and breeds mistrust to this day,” and said the charter should be treated as the city’s “business plan,” updated to reflect modern needs. He said municipal governments are most commonly either “strong mayor” or manager forms and urged committee members to set aside personalities and consider structures that let officials make timely decisions, particularly during emergencies. “Somebody needs to have the authority, not power, the authority to make those decisions,” he said.

Kopenhaver also stressed outreach and transparency as critical to public trust. He said the Augusta Stronger Together charter-change campaign won with 74% of the vote and credited wide community outreach, including Spanish-language communications to Latino residents.

Committee members asked Kopenhaver for examples and aired community concerns during a lengthy discussion. Several speakers focused questions and comments on South Augusta, where residents and committee members raised environmental justice, workforce and infrastructure concerns. Kopenhaver cited economic development wins—he recounted a televised groundbreaking for a Starbucks facility described in the meeting as approximately a $170,000,000 investment with about 130 jobs—and argued that investing authority and accountability could promote citywide benefits.

Audience members and committee members raised environmental and public-health concerns tied to South Augusta ZIP codes and to historical industrial sites; committee members said environmental justice should be a future topic of study. Kopenhaver said the community, having rallied after recent storms, could marshal a similar cooperative response in rebuilding local government processes.

The committee thanked Kopenhaver and indicated the formal government subcommittee would hear more detailed material on comparative city charters in upcoming meetings.