AUGUSTA, Ga. - A divide among Augusta-Richmond County commissioners could stall the trade exhibition and event center from being built. A special meeting to discuss the TEE center was called Tuesday and only half of the commissioners showed up.

There was no quorum at the meeting. All the commissioners who make up Super District 9 did not show up. But they did hold a press conference outside of the municipal building Tuesday afternoon discussing how they felt about plans for the TEE center. They also disputed claims they were against the idea.

“We had no prior knowledge that a new proposal was being crafted, nor were we a part of the meeting that took place on the crafting of this proposal. In other words, we had no input whatsoever on this new proposal,” said District 2 Commissioner Alvin Mason.

That new proposal would mean an extra $18 million to build the TEE center. An additional $17.5 million would be needed to build a parking deck downtown and a new board created to oversee the facility. Those funds are in addition to the original plan which called for $20 million to build the TEE center and spend $37.5 million on Laney Walker/Bethlehem redevelopment.

District 3 commissioner Joe Bowles announced the city may be violating the state constitution if it continues to collect the $1 hotel tax that was set up to pay for the facility, if it's not built.

"I plan on finding a private individual to file a suit against the city for an unauthorized collection of sales,” said Bowles.

The city administrator's office must go back to the drawing board and come up with a new proposal that all commissioners can agree on.

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