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COLUMBUS, Ga. — From the mayor and city manager undermining city government by outsourcing efforts to a state-funded NGO, to the city bailing out a failed housing development project with a grant it isn’t even eligible for, to councilors calling out the shabby state of the downtown area to no avail, here’s all the muck that’s fit to print from the Columbus, Georgia area, along with a look at what to expect in the week ahead.
MAYOR & CITY MANAGER USING STATE FUNDED NGO TO UNDERMINE LOCAL GOV’T
This story was originally published on July 17, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — “The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands: for it being but a delegated power from the people, they who have it cannot pass it over to others.” — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, published anonymously in 1689.
The mayor and city manager praised the outsourcing of local governmental responsibilities to a new state-funded, Atlanta-based non-profit program during the city council meeting held on July 11, 2023.
City councilors, on the other hand, rightfully voiced some serious concerns during the meeting, noting that the state-funded program blatantly undermines their own jobs as our city’s elected representatives.
The program, titled ‘Neighborhood Navigator,’ is a new initiative conducted by the Georgia Family Connection Partnership, Inc. Its operation, however, permits the state-funded organization to conduct many of the same functions city councilors and other local government entities are already responsible for conducting.
The program is organizationally housed under the charge of City Manager Isaiah Hugley.
During the meeting, a representative of GaFCP gave a presentation to city council on the new ‘Neighborhood Navigator’ program. Councilors took serious note of what the state-funded program entails, which undermines their own responsibilities as our city’s elected officials.
Explore the full story to see the serious concerns of city councilors.
CITY COUNCILOR SOUGHT TAX DOLLARS FOR PERSONAL TRAVEL; DIDN'T RECUSE FROM VOTE
This story was originally published on July 18, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A city councilor recently tried to have his personal travel expenses to a private conference on Jekyll Island funded by taxpayer money.
During the city council meeting held on July 11, 2023, Councilor Tyson Begly (District 10) also did not recuse himself from voting in favor of his own personal financial reimbursement.
While the Columbus Code of Ordinances does permit the reimbursement of travel expenses for official city business, that rule does not apply for travel of a personal nature — whether it is for professional development, leisure, or anything else; only official business is considered a reimbursable expense, as dictated by Section 2-18.10(a):
“Councilors are hereby authorized the same reimbursement for expenses incurred for travel as well as other expenditures while in the performance of their duties as councilors and as appointees for boards, commissions and committees as the same are reimbursable by other officers and employees when on city business.”
Nonetheless, be it through ignorance or wishful thinking, Begly sought to have the Fountain City Taxpayer fund his unofficial personal travel to a private conference on Jekyll Island this fall.
When the item was called for a vote by the Clerk of Council, Begly also did not recuse himself from voting in favor of his own personal reimbursement despite his obvious conflict of interest.
Explore the full story to see how a city councilor just tried to have taxpayers fund his personal trip, along with how he didn’t even bother to recuse himself from voting in favor of his funding.
HUGLEY SEEKS STATE GRANT BAILOUT FOR INELIGIBLE FAILED HOUSING PROJECT
This story was originally published on July 19, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — City Manager Isaiah Hugley recently persuaded city councilors to bail out a failed housing development project after its shortsighted financing plan predictably collapsed.
The financially-failed project, known as Elliott’s Walk, is being carried out by NeighborWorks Columbus: a nonprofit organization operating under the legal name of Columbus Housing Initiative, Inc. The project intended to build new-construction ‘affordable housing’ units on undeveloped land in South Columbus between Bull Creek and Victory Drive.
The project is literally a stone’s throw from the site of a recent triple-murder and several other shootings that all took place at the local Motel 6. It’s also a short distance from a recent drug bust on Fort Benning Road that yielded 31 grams of trafficked meth, 2 grams of heroin, illegal firearms, and other assorted drug paraphernalia.
Built in phases, the proceeds from the sale of the first few completed homes were supposed to be reinvested to help finance the construction of the rest of the project — though the area’s extreme rates of violence, drug use, and general depravity have made selling units to qualified buyers predictability difficult, despite NeighborWorks’ naive intentions.
As a result, city manager Isaiah Hugley used a presentation from NeighborWorks to appeal to city councilors’ emotions in hopes of having them apply for a state grant to bail out the predictably-failed project. Without even realizing that the project isn’t eligible for the grant they were being asked to apply for, councilors took the bait.
Explore the full story to see how Hugley conned councilors into a state bailout for an insolvent project that isn’t even eligible for the grant.
CITY BOTCHES HOSPITAL PROPOSAL FOR INDIGENT CARE; COUNCILORS LIVID
This story was originally published on July 20, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Area hospitals and city councilors alike were not thrilled with the city’s application process for its indigent care program, leaving councilors absolutely livid after hearing that almost no healthcare providers had even bothered to apply.
Indigent care programs like the Georgia Indigent Care Trust Fund are designed to “pay hospitals for health care for low income Georgians. Through the ICTF, many people with low incomes can get either inpatient or outpatient hospital care, even if it is not an emergency,” according to GeorgiaLegalAid.org.
Last year on June 30, 2022, the city’s contract with area healthcare providers for providing indigent care subsidy funding expired after being in effect for thirty years. One month prior to the expiration date, city councilors passionately sought to increase the number of area healthcare providers that could participate in hopes of providing a wider range of care to Columbusites who needed it.
In response to city councilors making their intent to expand coverage options very clear, city bureaucrats developed an application process for area hospitals that disqualified almost all from being able to participate; the requirements were just outlandishly unrealistic.
Nonetheless, the city sent out the new RFP in May of 2022. As would be expected, very few healthcare providers applied; they could be counted on one hand.
Explore the full story to see how councilors have delayed their vote of approval to ensure the city gets the process right and meets the project’s intent.
CITY COUNCILORS POINT OUT SHABBY DOWNTOWN UPKEEP; EXCUSES FOLLOW
This story was originally published on July 21, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — The downtown area is in need of some basic infrastructural maintenance, and city councilors are starting to notice it themselves in their own daily lives.
According to councilors themselves, they feel as if the city only cares about reactively cleaning up the downtown area for big events, but doesn’t have a proactive maintenance plan to keep it that way for citizens all the time.
During the city council meeting held on July 11, 2023, Councilor Glenn Davis (District 2) described the conditions he witnessed during a recent evening outing downtown. After accidentally not parking in a marked parking space, he noticed how extremely faded the old parking lines were.
Davis then began to look around the area and noticed other things like hanging tree branches, trash, and poor landscaping that didn’t paint the picture of what the downtown area is supposed to be.
Though a previous effort had been made to have contractors clean the area and repaint the parking lines several months ago, the city was allegedly not able to find a vendor to do so.
After his recent experience downtown, Davis publicly brought the issue to city manager Isaiah Hugley’s attention again.
The area’s city councilor, Joanne Cogle of District 7, has campaigned for better upkeep throughout the uptown area since before she was even sworn in as a councilor back in January. Despite her efforts and those of her colleagues like Councilor Davis, the city manager’s office has yet to implement a maintenance plan to fix the issues as the area remains in an ever-increasing state of decay.
In reply, city manager Isaiah Hugley made several excuses as to why his office has not been able to paint freaking parking lines in the seven months since January. Hugley blamed the size of the job, a lack of vendors, and the distribution of resources available — but made no effort to take responsibility for the lack of an existing maintenance plan in the first place, nor did he commit to solving the problem.
All Hugley did was make excuses as to why he hasn’t done it and why it isn’t his fault.
Explore the full story for the details and see what city councilors had to say.
LOCAL RIVER ORG CHANGES STANCE; NOW POSTING E. COLI DATA ONLINE AGAIN
This story was originally published on July 22, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. —A local river conservation organization that tests our river weekly for E. Coli contamination has decided to resume publishing its findings online to the nation’s leading recreational waterway quality website.
Amid a chronically-unsolved contamination crisis at the confluence of Phenix City’s Mill Creek into the Chattahoochee River, the Chattahoochee River Conservancy has announced they will begin posting their data on SwimGuide again after a two-year hiatus beginning in 2021.
The move means that anyone on earth who searches the internet for water quality information on our little section of the river will now be able to see the water’s accurate contamination status.
Previously, since 2021, a simple google search for “can I swim in the river in Columbus, Georgia” produced search results that did not include current data. Whenever a real-world E. Coli contamination event was occurring, anyone searching the internet would have no idea and only be shown results that said “no current data available.”
To make matters unintentionally worse, the organization had stopped posting their own data to their own website as well, making any real time data on our stretch of the river completely absent from the entire searchable internet. The only way to check and see if the water’s E. Coli levels were safe enough to swim was to visit the CRC’s social media pages, which means you would have already had to know where to look instead of relying on google to show you.
Now, with the CRC’s weekly water tests once again being updated on SwimGuide, anyone searching the internet for our local water quality information will be able to have live updated data available at their fingertips through the nation’s leading recreational water quality website; no pre-existing local knowledge of niche social media accounts required.
Explore the full story for the details and see how you can help the CRC keep our local river clean.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Columbus City Council is scheduled to meet this Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. on the second floor of the C. E. “Red” McDaniel City Services Center located at 3111 Citizens Way, Columbus, GA 31906.
The meeting is scheduled to include an audit presentation of Columbus Fire & EMS by Internal Auditor/Compliance Officer Donna McGinnis.
Councilors are also expected to vote on altering the city’s code of ordinances to create a Liberty Theatre & Cultural Arts Center Advisory Board.
The city attorney will again seek council’s approval on a resolution authorizing the reimbursement of funds to the Hospital Authority of Columbus. We can likely expect heated discussion on this topic as councilors have passionately held steadfast on ensuring the larger contractual issue is handled correctly.
Deputy city manager Pam Hodge will also be providing an update on the city’s indigent care fund situation.
Several other items of importance can be viewed in detail through the meeting’s agenda packet, including an update on the Columbus Police Department’s new take-home vehicle policy.
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A Look At Personal Safety
As the Columbus Police Department continues to unify under its new leadership model, violent crime is still likely to exist at higher levels than we would all like — even in what have previously been thought of as the “safer parts” of our city.
We at the Muckraker want to encourage our readers and their loved ones to remain hyper-vigilant as they go about their daily lives.
Based on lifetimes of experience and the combined professional careers of us at the Muckraker and our associates, here are what we consider to be the most important ways Columbusites can make themselves “hard targets” to avoid becoming a crime victim:
Back Our Blue
In closing, we at the Muckraker would like to thank the outstanding men and women of the Columbus Police Department who continue to shell out for the safety and well-being of our city each and every day, despite the abhorrent temporary conditions they are currently forced to work within.
“All police officers are entitled to outstanding leadership.”
Our city cannot thank you enough for what you do for us.
If you’re out and about throughout the week and see one of our city’s brave and valiant police officers, be sure to thank them. We’d bet it would mean an awful lot to them.
Residents are strongly encouraged to express their concerns and condolences for the brave men and women of the Columbus Police Department by emailing Mayor Skip Henderson directly at SkipHenderson@columbusga.org, while cc’ing their respective city council members on the email.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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