An attempt by some Newton County commissioners to move the operation of Washington Street and Nelson Heights community centers to the city of Covington during Tuesday night’s meeting at the Newton County Historic Courthouse was put on hold after commissioner J.C. Henderson said he was not informed of the move in advance.

The motion, originally proposed by District 5 Commissioner Levie Maddox, was for the county attorney to negotiate a contract, or an intergovernmental agreement, with the city of Covington and bring it back to the board of commissioners (BOC) during its Oct. 18 meeting.

Maddox said the motion stemmed from a delinquent tax notice on a 63-acre tract of land on Laseter Street that was purchased by Nelson Heights Community Center in 2014. The amount due from back taxes, fines and a lien by the city of Covington totals $11,237.44.

Back taxes for the years 2008 through 2012 were owed on the piece of land purchased in 2014. A structure on the property was condemned and demolition by the city of Covington for a total of $7,000, which placed a lien on the land.

Rumors spur protests at council meeting

Word of the suggested transfer of the community centers’ operation to the city leaked out prior to Tuesday’s meeting. Approximately 20 adults and 10 children showed up at Covington City Hall during Monday night’s council meeting to express objections to the transfer.

Pastor James Durden, of Nelson Heights Community Church, and Sandy Henderson, wife of District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson were the primary speakers about the centers during the public comments period at the beginning of the council meeting.

“I don’t know where the rumors are coming from,” Sandy Henderson said. “The rumors that said the Covington Police Department was going to take over the building …”

Covington Police Chief Stacey Cotton, who attended Monday night’s meeting to help present findings of the Policing in the 21st Century task force, said it was news to him if there was any truth to the rumors of the city putting a precinct in at the community center.

Durden gave the council a brief explanation of why he was there, despite the council having never placed the issue on its agenda.

“We’ve been approached about the center being taken away from [District 4] Commissioner [J.C.] Henderson,” Durden said, adding that the group had come “to make sure you all see who you’ll take the center from; make you think twice about taking the building from the people.”

Durden also repeated the rumor he heard, that Nelson Heights Community Center would become a Covington Police Department precinct, and said, “If problems haven’t been solved without a precinct, it won’t be solved with one. The drug dealers, the drug houses are still there. They’re not afraid. This is what they do, even with the community center sitting there.”

He said the children in attendance came not because they were forced to, but because they wanted to, asking why the city would want to take away a building that provided lunches to children in the summer and afterschool homework help and snacks during the academic year.

Sandy Henderson told the council the center’s after school program is set to start the week of Aug. 22.

“The community center needs to stay just like it is,” she said. “We want the building to stay just like it is.”
The city council has not asked to take over the operations of the center, and a motion on the floor at Tuesday’s BOC meeting did not pass to give the city permission.

“We hadn’t really talked about it in depth,” said Covington Council member Kenneth Morgan, Post 1, West. “It had been mentioned county wanted us to take it over.”

He said it’s his understanding at least one commissioner talked to the mayor, but he was not approached, nor has the issue come up in front of the council for discussion in a public meeting.

DEALING WITH BACK TAXES

At a BOC meeting earlier in the year, County Attorney Megan Martin said the county would need to either attempt to reduce the taxes and fees on the Nelson Heights Community Center by requesting the city of Covington release its lien, sell the property, or pay the back taxes and fees.

“We can continue to pay this bill, or we can show courage and make an adjustment to allow these assets to move forward and prosper for the greater good of the community,” Maddox said Tuesday night. “I believe the city is ready to take over Nelson Heights and Washington Street. This would alleviate the county’s continuing financial burdens regarding the operation of the [Nelson Heights Community] center. It’s no secret the county’s finances are in bad shape.”

Lanier Sims, District 2, seconded the motion made by Maddox, before J.C. Henderson, who is on the board of Nelson Heights Community Center and represents the district in which the center is located, implied a deal was made with the city in violation of Georgia’s Open Meetings Act.

“What I’m saying is that they were having meetings when they weren’t supposed to have meetings,” Henderson said.
Henderson asked Martin to put together a letter asking the state’s attorney general to investigate a possible open meetings act violation, but later rescinded that request.

While speaking of Covington’s potential interest in Nelson Heights Community Center, Henderson brandished a copy of an email chain between himself, County Manager Lloyd Kerr and County Clerk Jackie Smith, concerning a visit by Covington officials to Nelson Heights.

In the email, Smith told Kerr that Henderson was asking what the visit was in reference to.

“They want to look at the building prior to pursuing obtaining the building form the county,” Kerr’s email from Aug. 4 said. “It is my understanding that the Mayor and some council members have expressed interest to the BOC.”

A discussion concerning the Nelson Heights Community Center was never held in a public meeting of the BOC or Covington City Council prior to Tuesday. Covington Mayor Ronnie Johnston told The News he was never in a meeting with three commissioners concerning Nelson Heights or Washington Street community centers.

The state Open Meetings Act requires any meeting of a quorum of a public body to be open to the public or closed under limited and specific guidelines. Three members would constitute a quorum of the county commission.

“We had a discussion in [a recent] executive session,” Johnston told the BOC Tuesday. “[The city council] is willing at this point to have further discussions with the council on this issue.”

“There wasn’t any action taken at the time, which is why you didn’t know about it,” said Council Member Chris Smith, Post 1 East.

Chris Smith said he didn’t know what was going to happen next with the community centers. “Personally, I can’t see where the city would benefit from taking over these properties. The way I see it, we already pay county taxes for the facilities. I don’t think it’s fair to taxpayers or right for the city to take over the operation of that facility because the county can’t keep it up.

“The city doesn’t need to get in the middle of that,” he said.

Maddox explained to his fellow commissioners Tuesday why he thinks the city should help with the centers and how the community would benefit from that arrangement.

“I believe we cannot next level our community centers,” he said during the commissioners comment portion of the meeting. “The city of Covington can. They have a cash cow and we are broke. They can next level it.

“Everyone who knows Mr. Johnston knows he is an eternal optimist. I think he has passion, energy, and I think he can build support around those programs. He can do that with Commissioner Henderson, who was the visionary, who I have applauded for being the visionary of that center a number of times,” Maddox said.

Commission Chair Keith Ellis pointed out that Maddox added the discussion of Nelson Height’s delinquent taxes to the agenda after the BOC’s deadline of Wednesday for placing items to be talked about during the following Tuesday’s meetings, and also said Henderson should have been involved from the beginning.

“The commissioner that birthed Nelson Heights, that came up with the idea originally, was Commissioner Henderson,” Ellis said. “For him not to be involved in some of these conversations is outrageous.”

Ellis also let his frustration be known about a commissioner talking with the city about county assets.

“To be bartering with the county’s assets is certainly something this board ought not to be in the business of doing,” Ellis said. “It creates division among the black community and the white community as well.”

District 1 Commissioner John Douglas then made a substitute motion that the discussion of moving Nelson Heights and Washington Street community centers to control of the city of Covington “start over” and that the board should “be sure to include J.C.”

“I don’t really have a problem with [Maddox’s] motion,” Douglas said “I do have a problem with doing something in a commissioner’s district if the commissioner is not a part of it.”

Douglas’s substitute motion passed 4-1 with Maddox voting against.

Sandra Brands contributed to this story.