Who’s running Columbus after the council fired the city manager? Mayor explains
Former city manager Isaiah Hugley’s termination months before his retirement makes the transition more difficult, Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson told the Ledger-Enquirer, as he works with other officials to keep the city running.
The Columbus Council voted 7-3 Tuesday night to fire Hugley, meeting the required supermajority threshold as the mayor did not initiate the motion.
“I was disappointed,” Henderson said Wednesday. “My opinion is that Isaiah brings a lot of value to the community.”
Hugley was set to retire at the end of the year, Henderson said, and keeping him on for six more months would have made for an easier transition as officials use the time to find a new city manager.
Henderson announced in March that a five-member advisory board had been assembled to work with the management consulting firm Mercer Group Associates of Litchfield Park, Arizona, in the search for a new city manager.
“(Mercer) has helped us, actually, with the last several placements that we’ve had to make,” Henderson said. “During our discussion with them, we target the first part of January as having somebody in (the city manager position).”
Hugley’s termination, which was effective immediately, will not necessarily change those plans, Henderson said.
“It’s would be beneficial if we could (speed up the process),” he said. “But we’re not going to sacrifice the process and diminish the process by being in a hurry.”
If it’s possible for Mercer to expedite the search without messing up the work they have done, Henderson said, he’d ask them to look into it. Otherwise, the city will continue on the same timeline they’ve had since Hugley announced his retirement.
No interim city manager appointed
In the meantime, Henderson hasn’t appointed an interim city manager. The city is “fortunate” that Hugley prepared deputy city managers Pam Hodge and Lisa Goodwin to handle any issues that arise, Henderson said.
Hodge and Goodwin will continue the momentum that the city is seeing with the mayor playing a larger role, Hodge told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email Thursday. Any signatures or decisions that would normally go to the city manager’s desk will now come to the mayor as per the city charter, Henderson said.
Each deputy city manager has departments they oversee, Hodge said, and nothing will change along those lines. Hodge is over finance, planning and development, while Goodwin is over operations, including departments such as the METRA Transit System, Columbus Civic Center, Citizens Service Center and Parks & Recreation.
“We work as a team and keep each other abreast of all issues concerning city operations,” Hodge said.
Citizens won’t see a break in the delivery of services, programs or projects, she said.
The Ledger-Enquirer didn’t reach Goodwin for comment before publication.
Hugley’s 40 years of experience working in the Columbus Consolidated Government, including the past 20 years as city manager, isn’t going to be easy to replace, Henderson said.
“It’s going to make it different and a little bit more of a challenge to work through almost everything that we do as a city government,” he said. “But we are going to turn the page, and we have an obligation to do great work for the citizens of this community. And that’s what we’re going to do.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM.
