Myers accuses Hugley of threats, Hugley accuses Myers of bullying

A Muscogee County School Board member has accused the Columbus city manager of threatening the job of a campaign volunteer who is trying to oust his sister from the board. And the city manager has accused the board member of threatening and bullying him, other board members and the superintendent.

In interviews Thursday with the Ledger-Enquirer, city manager Isaiah Hugley emphatically denied the allegations from Frank Myers, the District 8 representative on the nine-member school board, which included Hugley calling the campaign volunteer, Nathan Smith, a profane name.

Smith declined to answer any questions about the dispute.

The hullabaloo provides more evidence that the campaigns are turning up the heat in the July 26 runoff elections. Advance voting for the District 1 and District 7 seats on the nine-member board started July 5 and continues through July 22.

Hugley’s sister, Pat Hugley Green, is the three-term incumbent representing District 1. Her opponent is political newcomer and retired educator JoAnn Thomas-Brown. In the District 7 runoff, former board chairwoman Cathy Williams, the president and CEO of NeighborWorks Columbus and wife of Ledger-Enquirer reporter Chuck Williams, faces political newcomer Shelia Williams, executive director of B&O Services, a company that provides services to the intellectually disabled and is owned by Thomas-Brown.

Myers, who was elected two years ago, is helping the Thomas-Brown and Shelia Williams campaigns in his attempt to overthrow the board’s establishment.

Last month, after Smith posted on social media what Hugley called “an untruth” about him, Hugley called Kinetic Credit Union to ask whether Smith, as an employee there, could have access to Hugley’s savings account and whether he ever did access that account.

Hugley said the Kinetic executive he spoke with didn’t directly answer the latter question but assured him his account would be protected from such a violation. That conversation apparently was relayed to Smith.

The controversy boiled over in the audience of Tuesday night’s debate among the school board candidates, conducted in the Columbus Public Library by the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

During the debate, Smith moved from his front-row seat to a seat in front of Hugley, near the rear of the auditorium. Smith was now sitting next to Superintendent David Lewis’ wife, who immediately moved two seats away from Smith, Hugley said.

Hugley added that the only regret he has about the dispute is that he also didn’t move away.

Instead, Hugley said, he told Smith, “Your candidate needs to get her facts straight,” and Smith turned around and accused Hugley of trying to get him fired. Hugley then asked him to “step outside.”

After another audience member followed them and started recording the confrontation on her cellphone, Hugley said, they returned to the auditorium. They were outside for “only seconds,” Hugley said, and he insisted he never cussed Smith.

“There were no words of profanity used by Nathan Smith or me,” Hugley said. “That is something made up by Frank Myers.”

Columbus NAACP president Tonza Thomas walked over and stood against the wall next to their seats to monitor the situation. Hugley said he told Thomas, “I’ll just call the credit union tomorrow and talk to them.”

Thomas told the Ledger-Enquirer, “Isaiah said, ‘I’m going to call your boss in the morning because you don’t have any business in my personal account.’” She added that Smith was “totally disrespectful to our city manager.”

The next day, Hugley said, he talked to another Kinetic executive and reported his argument with Smith. He never asked Smith to be fired, Hugley said, but expressed concern that their employee publicly confronted him.

Hugley emailed the Ledger-Enquirer what he said is a scanned copy of text messages Myers sent him Tuesday night:

▪  9:52 p.m. “Isaiah — are you and I communicating at this point? Please let me know. I have an important message for you. Sincerely, Frank Myers.”

▪  10:32 p.m. “Isaiah, did you get the above message?”

▪  11:05 p.m. “I understand you had a heated exchange with my friend Nathan Smith tonight at the school board run off debate. While I appreciate that you are concerned about your sisters’ (sic) political future and that she is under a lot of pressure, let me be clear, sir. If anything happens to Nathan’s job, YOU will become the story, and not your sister. Understand?”

In an email addressed to Myers and also sent Thursday to the Ledger-Enquirer, Hugley wrote, “I find it unorthodox and even alarming to receive such a threat from a public figure. You were not present at the forum held by the NAACP so I can only assume that Mr. Nathan Smith left the forum and called you because he is concerned that his action could possibly impact his job. I am disappointed and very concerned that you felt it is appropriate to text me in such a manner.

“I have not had communication with you in any way in several years though I have read about and watched school board meetings and have witnessed your acts of threats and bullying of fellow school board members, and the MCSD superintendent. I just never thought I would have to deal with these same concerning acts. It is my hope that you can find peace with yourself, fellow members of the school board, the MCSD superintendent, and others, as we all work together to make Columbus a better city.”

Myers responded to Hugley with this email:

“Tuesday night, Nathan Smith sat down in front of you at the NAACP candidate forum,” Myers wrote. “YOU initiated a conversation with Nathan — in public — witnessed by several people — where you were quite hostile towards Nathan and referred to Nathan as a ‘motherf-----.’

“You then invited Nathan to go outside. As witnessed by many in the room, Nathan followed you outside, where you promptly backed down from your physical threats and told Nathan that you would just handle this with Nathan’s boss.

“And you have the audacity to call ME a bully?

“Nathan has agreed to take a lie detector test as to these facts. Are you willing to join Nathan?

“I look forward to your prompt response.”

Hugley said he hasn’t responded to Myers or Smith since then, and he reiterated to the Ledger-Enquirer: “There was no physical threat. Again, you’ve got to consider the source. … Frank is making this up as he goes. That’s typical of him, based on what I’ve watched and observed.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Myers accuses Hugley of threats, Hugley accuses Myers of bullying."