Government Center flooding, school security and new mayor among top stories of 2018
It was a year full of changes in government and education in the Columbus area.
Here’s a look at the top stories of the year:
1. Government Center flooding
More than six months after a water main broke June 18 on the 12th floor of the Columbus Government Center, crews continue to restore four courtrooms in one of the city’s top 10 government stories of 2018.
Repairs are expected to be completed in February 2019 as city officials consider long range plans for the 47-year-old building at 100 10th St. Many systems are failing and require frequent maintenance to keep the building that houses city administration, multiple city departments and the courts operating.
Construction crews are focusing on floors 10 and 11 to get courtrooms back up and running, Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge said in a Dec. 11 briefing to Columbus Council. Paint is almost complete on the 11th floor, drywall work is underway on the 10th floor and crews are moving to the ninth floor.
“We are really making a lot of progress on the top two floors, hopefully to get them back up and operational very soon,” she said.
2. Mayor-elect Berry “Skip” Henderson
A former member of Columbus Council out polled his nearest challenger on May 18 to become the 70th mayor of Columbus without a runoff.
Henderson, 59, took 56 percent of the vote while Zeph Baker tallied 32 percent. The rest of the field trailed far behind with Danny Arencibia taking 5 percent; Beth Harris at 4.2 percent; Charles Roberts had 1.4 percent; and Winfred Shipman Jr. at 1.1 percent.
After serving 21 years as an at-large councilor, Henderson wasn’t the incumbent in the mayor’s race but he surged ahead like one in a six-candidate field. He was known for his expertise in city finance and budgeting, and had the support of many colleagues who served on the 10-member panel.
Henderson will be installed during an installation ceremony at 10 a.m. Jan. 7, 2019 in the City Services Center, 3111 Citizens Way.
In addition to the installation of mayor, five councilors will be installed, including the new District 5 Councilor Charmaine Crabb, who is taking the seat vacated by Councilor Mike Baker after three terms in office. Other incumbent councilors returning to office are Jerry “Pops” Barnes of District 1, Bruce Huff of District 3, Evelyn “Mimi” Woodson of District 7 and Judy Thomas, in the at-large District 9 seat.
3. School security
In the wake of the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a 19-year-old former student shot 17 people to death, the Muscogee, Harris and Russell county school districts joined others throughout the nation in upgrading their security programs.
MCSD is establishing its own police agency and will have a full-time armed officer on staff at each high school, transforming the district’s security department from 17 part-time officers to 10 full-time officers and seven part-time officers with three additional positions.
Assigning part-time security officers on an as-needed basis will continue at MCSD’s elementary schools and middle schools, but the full-time officers at the high schools could serve nearby middle schools and elementary schools when necessary, according to the plan.
The new officers won’t be hired until the superintendent recommends and the school board approves the appointment of an MCSD police chief.
In Harris County, in addition to the school resource officer that has been rotating between Harris County High School and the Performance Learning Center, an officer now covers the campus that comprises Creekside Intermediate School and Mulberry Creek Elementary School, and the district’s other schools now have their own officer: Park, Pine Ridge and New Mountain Hill elementary schools and Harris County Carver Middle School.
In Russell County, the school district hired a full-time safety director, who is a sworn law enforcement officer supervising three sworn deputies (two full time and one part time).
The massacre in Florida also sparked a National School Walkout Day, which turned into a controversy in Columbus.
MCSD conducted an alternative activity while prohibiting students from participating in the National School Walkout.
An online petition posted by a Columbus High School student called the video conference with state legislators a “sham” and attracted more than 240 signatures.
4. MCSD bus driver incentives authorized after complaints
In October, a month after a rejection of the proposal that would have increased a starting bus driver’s salary by 16 percent, the Muscogee County School Board approved an alternative plan to address complaints about drivers being too few and buses being too late and overcrowded.
The alternative plan includes adding referral bonuses, hiring bus monitors, establishing an accident avoidance incentive and a fund for driver apparel and recognitions.
5. Clerk of Council’s audit
Findings in a Clerk of Council’s audit has led to changes after the review uncovered missing contracts, minutes and some ordinances not properly updated.
The Columbus Consolidated Government has turned to a former deputy in the Clerk of Council’s Office to guide the department four months after details of the audit were released Aug. 14. Sandra Davis, who left the office in October 2014 to serve as Clerk of Commission for the Clayton County, Ga., Board of Commissioners, was selected by a City Council Sub Committee headed by Mayor Pro-tem Evelyn Turner Pugh. The audit suggested having a certified person in the position with a solid foundation not just to move forward, but also for the future of the office.
Davis, a certified municipal clerk, received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Troy University.
The Clerk of Council is responsible for managing the agenda for council meetings, recording ordinances and resolutions adopted by the council and keeping accurate minutes. The position includes updating code of ordinances when changes are made and keeping information on 40 boards, committees and commissions among other duties.
Davis started her career with the Consolidated Government in 1987, serving in Juvenile Court and the Clerk of Council’s Office. She served 18 years under Clerk of Council Tiny Washington, who has been on paid leave since Aug. 3, more than a week before the audit findings were released.
6. New Spencer High opens, and other MCSD properties sold
In August, the new Spencer High School opened. At $56 million, the new Spencer is the most expensive of 24 MCSD projects totaling $192,185,000 and funded by the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax that Columbus voters renewed in 2015 for another five years.
So when folks who are familiar with the former Spencer High School on Victory Drive see the new facility on Fort Benning Road for the first time, no wonder they gush with amazement — because they remember the previous building’s sinking foundation, cracked floors and leaning walls.
In September, the school board sold the former 30th Avenue Elementary School and the vacant one-room schoolhouse now called the Gentian Clubhouse, which is better known as the former Morningside Kindergarten at 5408 Moon Road.
Children of Higher Expectations Academy, a daycare and afterschool program provider, bought the 30th Avenue property for $290,000. Lint Head Investors LLC bought the Moon Road property for $65,000.
In November, the school board sold the former Edgewood Elementary School to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley for $850,000.
The B&GCCV plans to move the East Columbus Boys & Girls Club, 1429 Morris Road, into the former Edgewood school, which is approximately 1 mile away at 3835 Forrest Road.
7. Superior Court Clerk Ann Hardman dies
City officials were shocked to learn Hardman died on March 19 after her health failed while battling colon cancer.
Mayor Teresa Tomlinson held a news conference to express sadness for Hardman’s untimely death and inform the public of her replacement. She was dressed in black and accompanied by teary-eyed staff from the Clerk of Superior Court office, as well as City Manager Isaiah Hugley and Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin.
“We were shocked and, of course, devastated to hear,” Tomlinson said of the news of Hardman’s passing. “Ann was such a great lady. She had done so much to increase the morale, efficiency and functionality of our Superior Court. There was such a level of cooperation and just effectiveness that had been occurring...little over a year.”
The mayor said Hardman held one of four constitutional positions in the county and served the community well.
Hardman was chief executive officer of three Christian ministries, when she was elected to the office in 2016, unseating the long-time incumbent Linda Pierce in a runoff. She was pastor of Faith Worship Center International in Columbus and River of Life Full Gospel Outreach Church in her hometown of Asheville, N.C. She also ran Ann Hardman Ministries, which trains and licenses other pastors, conducts prayer and leadership conferences and plants churches throughout the country. She also authored 10 books.
Chief Deputy Shasta Glover served in the position after Hardman’s death but lost to attorney Danielle Forte, making her the third leader for the office since Jan. 3, 2017.
8. MCSD lawsuits
This year brought several news stories about lawsuits involving MCSD.
The mother of a Northside High School softball player sued MCSD for alleged discrimination by providing her daughter’s teams with treatment and benefits not equivalent to the boys’ teams.
Two lawsuits were filed in connection with the 2016 bus crash that killed driver Roy Newman. Parents of children who were among the seven injured students sued MCSD. One lawsuit seeks more than $3 million in damages; the other seeks an unspecified figure.
And the $25 million Montravious Thomas case continued to make news. Montravious was a Muscogee County School District student whose leg amputation allegedly resulted from being body-slammed five times by contracted behavior specialist Bryant Mosley two years ago.
Mentoring and Behavioral Services LLC of Columbus, which employed Mosley then, filed a settlement offer in Muscogee County State Court. But it’s still unclear what the offer was and whether it was accepted because the lawyers haven’t answered the L-E’s query.
MCSD was dropped as a defendant, leaving Mosley and five MCSD employees in their individual capacities as defendants.
Meanwhile, the Columbus Police Department closed its criminal investigation of the case without filing any charges.
9. Mayor Teresa Tomlinson moving on
The first female mayor to lead the Columbus Consolidated Government is leaving after two terms in office.
Tomlinson, 53, is wrapping up eight years as the 69th mayor of a city with about 2,700 city employees and a fiscal budget of $275.3 million. An attorney, she is set to join the law office of Hall Booth Smith P.C., while also looking at pursuing a higher political office.
“It’s been my joy and privilege to serve,” she said during her last council meeting on Dec. 11. “We have done some big, big things in this community over eight years because the citizens have been with us.”
Some of her biggest accomplishments were noted in a resolution read by Mayor pro-tem Evelyn Turner Pugh. Tomlinson reformed the city budget in the face of declining revenues, improved city services, revitalized blighted and under-utilized neighborhoods, reduced crime and set a vision for unprecedented vibrancy in the state’s second largest city and the nation’s 16th largest consolidated government.
10. Randy Wilkes named Alabama Superintendent of the Year:
In October, Phenix City Schools superintendent Randy Wilkes was named the Alabama Superintendent of the Year.
Since the Phenix City Board of Education hired him in June 2014 from Crenshaw County, the school system raised its graduation rate from 63% in 2013 to 96% in 2017, recorded its highest math and ACT scores in system history and established a reserve of nearly $11 million.
Other signs of progress the school system has made under Wilkes’ leadership include the deployment of 1:1 computer devices to all students in grades 6-12, the development of the $3 million Dyer Family STEM Center, the $4 million Central High School expansion facility, the addition to Sherwood School, the new transportation facility, and the Friends of Phenix City Schools initiative which raised more than $1.1 million for school needs.