John Anker speaks on controversial Columbus Council vote, his criticism of Isaiah Hugley
John Anker has no plans to run for Columbus Council or mayor, he told the Ledger-Enquirer, while also discussing his controversial appointment to replace former Councilor Judy Thomas and whether he will push to fire the city manager he has criticized.
When the council debated appointing Anker to take over Thomas’ citywide District 9 seat March 11, during the same meeting where she resigned, Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson argued that the council should know that whoever was appointed to the interim seat would not run as an incumbent as tradition dictates.
“Historically, council has talked about the individual and made sure that they’re making a commitment that they’re not going to use that interim incumbent label to run for an office on council,” Henderson said during the meeting. “I don’t know if anyone’s had a chance to offer that up to Mr. Anker.”
Anker ran for two citywide races. He lost to Henderson in the 2022 race for mayor. Then he lost to Travis Chambers in a 2024 runoff for the District 10 citywide council seat.
He has had these conversations about running for office again with his wife, Anker told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“I think she would like me to immediately say, ‘I’ll never run for another office,’” he said. “Although I don’t have any plans, not to say ‘yes’ or not to say ‘no’.”
Anker has ideas about how a “good mayor” would lead, he said, but he doesn’t have plans to run for mayor or Columbus Council.
“But I will help facilitate something positive for a strong leader in this position,” he said.
Henderson, in his second term, isn’t allowed to run for mayor again. The next election for mayor will be May 19, 2026.
Anker said he doesn’t have any initiatives he plans to immediately push for while serving as an interim councilor.
“I’m going to sit and listen,” he said. “I’m going to learn.”
Anker acknowledged that he has been a loud voice in calls to fire city manager Isaiah Hugley, but he said he doesn’t want to lead any effort like that. Hugley confirmed in December to the Ledger-Enquirer that he plans to retire at the end of the year.
“I would rather take it day by day,” Anker said. “It’s not a personal attack against the city manager. December 31 is his last day, and we’ll just have to wait. I’m not in a hurry to do anything. I’m going to be listening.”
Reacting to the appointment
The events of the March 11 Columbus Council meeting were shocking to Anker, he said.
He joined other Columbus residents, Madeline Burns, Karen Gaskins and Nancy Karnotski, during the public agenda portion of the meeting to criticize Hugley’s job performance.
This group decided to speak out after attending a previous council meeting, when employees of the Columbus Civic Center and Columbus Parks & Recreation Department asked questions about the newly created sports and entertainment authority.
Anker criticized Hugley about this meeting because the city manager said he didn’t know that the new authority was coming and wasn’t being a “good leader” to the employees.
“We came away from that city council meeting frustrated and upset,” Anker said.
The group regularly gets together for lunch and talks about what’s happening in the community, he said. And after watching what happened with the sports and entertainment authority, they wanted to speak out.
Some of his “political friends” advised Anker not to join in because he would have nothing to gain and it would hurt his “clout politically,” he said.
“I said I’m not running for office,” Anker said. “I don’t care about my clout. I’m not trying to gain (anything). I don’t expect Isaiah to be gone tomorrow. All I expect to do is change the talk. I’m tired of accepting that it’s always going to be this way.”
During his public agenda speech, Anker called for Hugley’s termination.
But before any of his group made speeches during the meeting, John Shinkle read a letter from Thomas announcing her resignation because of her declining health.
Anker was caught off guard by the resignation, he said.
“Nobody will believe it, but I had no dream, vision or idea of what he was doing,” Anker said.
‘Who wants to serve on this city council?’
Thomas’ declining health has been a topic of conversation for a while, Councilor Glenn Davis of District 2, said during the March 11 council meeting.
“It was unfortunate that we’ve got to this point,” Davis said during the meeting. “But I think in our hearts we knew it was going to happen, and many of us have already talked about this and deliberated on it.”
A couple of months ago, at least one councilor asked Anker if he would be willing to put is name up, he said.
This led to conversations with friends and family where he indicated he would be willing to accept the interim seat if Thomas stepped down, Anker said.
By the time the March 11 meeting came around, his wife had asked Anker not to accept the potential appointment, he said.
“She was adamant about it,” Anker said.
As Anker appeared at the council meeting, he was frustrated with the direction the meetings had been going and shocked when Shinkle announced Thomas had stepped down, Anker said.
After he realized the time had come for him to potentially be appointed, he stepped out of the meeting to call his wife.
“I told her I only had two minutes on the phone,” Anker said. “But I needed her to trust me, and I asked her to give me some grace.”
In response to criticism about other potential candidates not being considered, Anker questioned who else would want to take the job.
“Who wants to serve on this city council with this government?,” Anker asked. “Who enjoys this job? I’m not going to pretend that I’m not going to serve with pride to try to make a difference, but is it a joyous job to go sit there and listen to this junk? No.”
Anker agrees with Davis’ assessment that it’s been common knowledge that Thomas’ health had been declining in recent months, and people in the community had the opportunity to make it known they were interested if this situation arose.
Former Mayor Teresa Tomlinson noted in a news conference last week that councilors having discussions about replacing a councilor outside of a public meeting could violate Georgia law.
In response to Tomlinson’s news conference, Davis provided a statement to the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.
“To my knowledge, there were no discussions that would violate Georgia’s Open Meetings law,” he said. “Any claims suggesting otherwise are incorrect. The council operates within legal guidelines, and any official decisions about filling a vacancy follow proper procedures.”
Despite all of this, Anker said he is shocked by how everything happened so fast but believes it will turn out for the best.
“I think this is more positive for Columbus than negative,” he said. “That’s what I want the citizens to know. There’s actually more positive that can help more citizens around our city than negative.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Removed Danny Arencibia from the group criticizing Isaiah Hugley
