Augusta, Ga (WJBF) – Following the jury’s verdict Sammie Sias facing years in prison and hundreds of thousand dollars in fines, under state law he will no longer be drawing his commission salary something he has been doing since he was suspended last year by Governor Kemp.  

“Former commissioner Sias has my prayers and good wishes he is still my friend no matter what,” said Commissioner Dennis Williams.

Sias was not charged with any financial crimes at the Jamestown Community Center.

But testimony in Federal Court revealed he was invoicing the city for repayment with no receipts. and 130 dollars of sales tax money for Jamestown went into his personal account, the lack of oversite is having many in the public demanding   better accountability from the city.

“As they should I am looking at it and I am demanding better accountability if we’re not willing to say this is what we’re expecting, and these are changes that need to be made,” said Commissioner Brandon Garrett.

Commissioners are preparing to spend tens of millions of dollars on recreation projects like Riverwalk from the next phase of the sales tax.

The proposal is to use 5 million of those dollars to hire a local engineering firm   to serve as the project manager on these projects 

“We’re in a hole so we need to get all the help we can to get out of the hole to put us on a progressive schedule so how we can change and improve things,” said Commissioner Dennis Williams.

So, if we can have someone who is overseeing these projects make sure they are completed and Commissioners trying to be smart with SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) money before someone else makes a federal case out of it.