His back’s against the wall now

Don Buie’s luck hasn’t been what anyone would consider “good” in any way. Thanks to Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards, it just got a little worse.

You see, Edwards has apparently asked the GBI to expand it’s investigation into Buie’s activities as downtown manager to cover all of ADICA’s expenditures. One tidbit that will get a good look is the now infamous facade grant given to ADICA board member Lajuanna Woods.

While Mayor Willie Adams might prefer the people of Albany to just move on and forget all about this ADICA mess, but that ain’t gonna happen so long as there are questions left unanswered and problems left unfixed. The GBI investigation will go a long way toward answering those questions.

I’ve done a lot of speculating about Buie and downtown corruption in general, and I sincerely hope that the GBI uncovers all that is going on down there. Yes, we media folks will get to “air our dirty laundry” as Mayor Adams put it, but it’s an essential step in getting that same damn laundry clean. Air it out, clean it, and then we can all move on.

Since the Lajuanna Woods grant will get a close look, there’s a good chance that charges will be filed. After all, Woods’ business is outside of the downtown area where the grants are supposed to be, and she apparently got an overpayment of at least $45,000. Charges are our only hope for getting that money back, since ADICA apparently lacks the fortitude to actually do what’s right in that regard.

Now, in all fairness, ADICA won’t be discussing the grants that Buie issued at their called meeting on Wednesday, but it’s supposedly to give the GBI some space to do their work. Personally, I’m OK with that since it makes sure the GBI has everything they need to get the answers they’re looking for, which are the answers that the people of Albany deserve. However, that doesn’t cut ADICA any slack for their failure to recoup money from Woods, and nothing will unless they can grow a spine and tell Woods to pony up.

So much for the belief that the GBI would finish their investigation into Buie a month ago. They’re still digging, which makes me just that much more curious as to what they’ve found. Perhaps that Buie did receive a kickback from Nicole Brown. Maybe they’ve found that the Shanon Lee checks were issued on bogus grounds. Maybe they’ve found that ADICA paid for all the stuff that has been alleged at the Dollar Square.

Or maybe they found something else entirely. Hopefully, we’ll have answers soon.