Mayor responds to calls for investigation into whether Columbus Council broke state law
Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson is looking into whether there is any material evidence suggesting Columbus Councilors violated state law, he told the Ledger-Enquirer on Friday.
His comment comes two days after the Columbus branch of the NAACP called for an investigation into whether a quorum of councilors privately discussed choosing former Councilor Judy Thomas’ replacement.
If a quorum of councilors privately met to discuss city business, whether in-person, by text or email, then they broke Georgia’s Open Meetings Act, said a Wednesday news release from the NAACP.
This move by the NAACP comes after former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson brought up a potential Open Meetings Act violation during a March 14 news conference defending city manager Isaiah Hugley and questioning the council’s process to appoint Thomas’ successor.
Anytime a citizen requests for the city to look into something, they will do it, Henderson told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“We’re in the process of taking a look at it to see if there are any material issues we could forward on to the attorney general’s office and ask them to look into it,” he said.
If there is anything to forward to the attorney general, Henderson said, they would do it in the next few days.
Thomas resigned for medical reasons March 11 during a council meeting. Later that meeting, the council voted 6-3 to appoint as her replacement in the District 9 citywide seat John Anker, who lost the 2022 mayoral election to Henderson and the 2024 District 10 citywide council election to Travis Chambers. The motion was approved despite Henderson warning against voting so quickly and with no other candidates publicly being considered.
In a March 13 interview, Anker told the L-E, “I did have conversations with a councilor or two over time, asking, ‘Would you be willing to put your name up?’”
Anker declined to identify with whom he had those conversations.
“To my knowledge, there were no discussions that would violate Georgia’s Open Meetings law,” Councilor Glenn Davis told the L-E in a March 14 email. “Any claims suggesting otherwise are incorrect. The council operates within legal guidelines, and any official decisions about filling a vacancy follow proper procedures.”
The process to nominate Anker was done differently than how it’s gone in the past, Henderson said.
“There is no written requirement on how to handle those situations,” he said. “But going back to 1997, I’ve seen it done maybe four or five times. And this one was a bit unusual.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM.
