Outcry at Columbus Council. Residents question vote appointing John Anker to citywide seat
More than 20 Columbus residents spoke at an overflowing city council meeting Tuesday to express their displeasure with how former Councilor Judy Thomas’ seat was filled and to defend city manager Isaiah Hugley.
Columbus Council appointed Councilor John Anker to the citywide District 9 seat during the same meeting Thomas resigned for medical reasons. The council voted 6-3 to appoint Anker, despite Mayor Skip Henderson’s objection that the community didn’t have an opportunity to nominate other candidates for the seat.
Anker lost the 2022 mayoral election to Henderson and the 2024 District 10 citywide council election to Travis Chambers.
Critics of the vote argued that the council was not transparent and the appointment subverted the will of Columbus voters. They also argued Anker’s appointment was part of an effort to fire Hugley because Anker has been outspoken in his criticism of Hugley.
Last week, the Columbus branch of the NAACP called for Mayor Henderson to ask the Georgia attorney general to investigate whether councilors broke Georgia’s Open Meetings Act by having a quorum privately discuss potential replacements for Thomas.
If a quorum of councilors privately met to discuss city business, whether in-person, by text or email, they broke state law, says a March 19 news release from the NAACP branch.
Columbus residents spoke during the public agenda portion of Tuesday’s council meeting in support of Hugley, against the appointment of Anker and called for an investigation into whether state law was violated.
Marvin Broadwater was the first person who spoke about these issues during the public agenda.
Columbus Council’s transparency is questioned
“I ask you tonight, where is the transparency in this ordeal?” Broadwater asked during his speech. “Perception is always a person’ reality.”
Broadwater lamented that there aren’t any regulations in the city charter about appointing an interim councilor. Appointing Anker disregarded the will of the people who voted against Anker, he said.
“I am here tonight to ask you to start the process of changing the charter immediately for this issue,” he said. “This will show that those six (councilors) doing this recognize the will of the people.”
Royal Anderson, chairwoman of the Muscogee County Democratic Committee, also spoke. She promised the political party will work to campaign against councilors who voted for the appointment.
Council seats are supposed to be nonpartisan, Anderson said, but “about every decision made in these chambers means either blue or red.”
“Be prepared to be challenged by Democrats who stand on democratic values and are eager to improve the everyday lives of people in Columbus, Georgia,” she said.
Council seats for Districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be up for election in May 2026.
Columbus resident Simi Barnes, daughter of the late Councilor Jerry “Pops” Barnes, said the process councilors used in appointing Anker showed that “corruption runs deep” and referenced her father while speaking in support of Hugley.
“If he were here, he would have your back,” Barnes said. “And as the daughter of the hardest-working elected official, so do I.”
Support for Anker appointment and criticism of Hugley
Columbus resident Kathryn Tanner was the only person who spoke in opposition of Hugley and critics of the appointment of Anker.
“For the last year and a half, I’ve sat here for meeting after meeting where questions were asked of the city manager that he either was unaware of or said he would get back to you,” Tanner said.
She continued stating that councilors shouldn’t be “threatened and coerced by special-interest groups like the NAACP” and that a person should not be allowed to keep a job because of the color of their skin.
“(The NAACP) is not a ‘special-interest group’,” Ed DuBose, national NAACP board member and the Georgia state administrator, said during the public agenda. “We are a civil rights organization . . . We work for Black, white, Democratic, Republican and all people who believe in freedom.”
Tanner agreed with calls to investigate whether the council broke state law, but she also voiced support for the investigation of the Columbus Consolidated Government Finance Department. An investigation by the district attorney of the Towaliga Judicial Circuit is underway into whether a crime was committed by city officials after the city experienced a backlog in processing business and alcohol licenses.
Columbus NAACP branch president Melvin Tanner Jr., not related to Kathryn Tanner, presented Henderson with a petition calling for an investigation into whether the Open Meetings Act was violated. He did not disclose the number of signatures on the petition, but he said they are continuing to gather more signatures.
“Effective government is a partnership that hinges on integrity and mutual respect between elected offices, appointed staff and the citizens they serve,” he said.
The Rev. Johnny Flakes III of Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church noted the number of residents who appeared at the council meeting, filling up the chamber with more residents watching from an overflow room. Residents have been “galvanized”, Flakes said.
He asked everyone who disagreed with the council’s process of appointing Anker to stand. Almost everyone in the room stood up.
“We are here to let you know that there will be a reckoning,” Flakes said.
Isaiah Hugley responds to critics
After the public agenda portion of the council meeting, Hugley addressed some of the criticism against him during the past few council meetings.
“It has been said the $45 million was missing,” Hugley said.
Outside auditors came in and determined that this was not true and needs to be put to rest, he said. Hugley asked for the auditor to return to the council and explain that $45 million isn’t missing.
In its first report, the Atlanta-based accounting firm Acuitas reported there were 8,771 delinquent businesses from 2017 through 2023, with an average estimated cost of about $5 million.
Much of this revenue was collectible as the department dealt with the backlog, Hugley said.
In her remarks during the public agenda, Columbus resident Kathryn Tanner also criticized Hugley for his wife, state Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus), receiving money from the city government. This follows a similar criticism from Columbus resident Nathan Smith, who raised the issue during the public agenda portion of the Feb. 25 meeting after seeing the payment in the city’s annual audit.
Hugley responded to this criticism by asking deputy city manager Pam Hodge to address the issue. Hodge said Carolyn Hugley received a grant as a State Farm agent in a program for small businesses run by the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Community Reinvestment Department and funded by the federal American Rescue Plan.
When Carolyn Hugley’s application came to Isaiah Hugley’s office to be signed, Hodge said, he contacted the city attorney and the mayor. Hugley did not sign his wife’s documentation, she said. Hodge signed it.
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 8:30 PM.
