17-04-2025
Augusta Housing and Community Development Director put on paid administrative leave
AUGUSTA, GA. (WJBF) – Augusta leaders confirmed Wednesday that the city's Housing and Community Development Director, Hawthorne Welcher, has been put on paid administrative leave.
According to commissioners, the decision was made in a legal session on April 1st, just a few days before Masters week.
Welcher is now off the job due to what they call 'compliance issues'.
Welcher was hired as the Housing and Community Development Director back in July 2015, but he's been involved with the department since 2008.
Before that, he also worked with the Aiken Housing Authority for 10 years.
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Now, he's temporarily off the job.
'Director Welcher was placed on administrative leave until further notice based upon some preliminary findings of some compliance that we discovered that were not followed,' said District 6 Commissioner Tony Lewis.
He says the decision was made to put all parties involved in the best position going forward.
'We wanted to make sure that we gave him a fair chance for us getting together to get what we need, that way it wouldn't put him in a bad position. So, we deemed it necessary to allow him to be put on paid administrative leave until such time that we could investigate these findings,' Lewis said.
Some commissioners say the move was initiated by the mayor's office, but Lewis says it was a joint effort.
'When it was brought to our attention, all of us were in agreeance that we needed to look into this matter to try to get it resolved,' said Lewis.
The last time we saw Welcher was almost a year ago, when the city held a groundbreaking for the affordable housing apartment known as The Lenox.
Lewis says despite the investigation, he and others are satisfied with Welcher's work.
'Absolutely. I can say that I've been satisfied with the job that he and his office have been doing,' said Lewis.
We are still working to find out more details, including what those issues specifically are.
We did reach out to Mayor Garnett Johnson for comment, and he declined.
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