Mayor says paused Columbus city manager search ‘misrepresented,’ announces restart
During a news conference Wednesday at Columbus City Hall, Mayor Skip Henderson provided an update on the city manager search and addressed criticism he has received about the decision to pause the search
The mayor’s office announced the news conference the day after Henderson had a heated argument with Columbus Councilor John Anker of citywide District 9 during Tuesday night’s council meeting. Henderson said he wanted to further respond to the criticism of the pause he has received from city councilors and residents..
“We encountered a situation that necessitated that we pause the process a little bit,” Henderson said.
The search began at the start of the year after the news that former city manager Isaiah Hugley planned to retire at the end of 2025. When the council voted 7-3 in May to fire Hugley, following the investigation of the city’s finance department, Henderson told the Ledger-Enquirer he had no plans to speed up the process in searching for a new city manager.
This decision to pause the search was made because they did not have a candidate they could bring to the Columbus Council for approval and a recommendation provided by the search committee, he said.
The plan is to reboot the search in the first or second week of January, Henderson said.
“I will tell you this: We’re continuing to move forward,” he said. “If we have somebody walk in the door, say they’re interested in talking about the city manager’s position, they turn out to be a superstar, then we’re going to talk to them.”
Columbus city manager search and hiring process
Henderson also explained more about the hiring process.
“The process has gotten convoluted from a number of different perspectives,” he said. “People have sort of misrepresented, either intentionally or unintentionally, what the process is.”
The city charter is clear and succinct, Henderson said. The mayor’s role is to provide a name, he said, but the charter does not detail a process for how a mayor should do that. It also says the Columbus Council has the authority to vote to approve the applicant, he said.
“Everything runs very smoothly until people start getting in the other lane,” Henderson said.
The process to hire the city manager is the same one used to hire the police chief and the fire chief, he said. Four members of the Columbus Council were involved in the panels interviewing applicants: Councilors Travis Chambers of citywide District 10, Garrett Walker of District 8, Bruce Huff of District 3 and Mayor Pro Tem Gary Allen of District 6.
Henderson pushed back against Councilor Toyia Tucker of District 4 claiming an applicant had received a job offer.
“There’s no offer until we get to a point where we’re ready to present to the council,” he said. “We put it in writing that this is an offer letter we are making to you, but that piece doesn’t take place until you’ve held negotiations.”
They held negotiations with one candidate, Henderson said, but the negotiations did not continue because they didn’t come to a “meeting of the minds.”
This has happened while filling other positions, Henderson said, but this time was different because members of the council reached out to people “they perceived to be some of the candidates.”
“That was unfortunate because, if a councilor gets involved in the negotiation process, in my mind, that negates the opportunity to revisit hiring that individual,” Henderson said.
The names of the applicants are not required to be made public, he said, but the name of one finalist will be made public at least two weeks before the council votes on approval.
“The finalist is when we’ve made a decision on the one candidate that we want to present to council,” Henderson said.
At that time, the council will have the opportunity to review the resume and talk to the individual, he said.
“When we talk finalists,” Henderson said, “that is what we mean: the individual we are prepared to bring to council.”
He respects the council, which is why they were included early in the process, Henderson said.
“A couple of the councilors are newer,” he said. “They were appointed, not elected, and they didn’t understand the process.”
Henderson further responds to criticism from councilors
Another councilor who has criticized the process was “disappointing” because they’ve been on the council for a while, Henderson said, and they “played the part of a school yard bully, throwing sand at people from a sandbox.”
This councilor called him a liar, he said.
“In fact, the truth is, this councilor is extremely uninformed as to the process,” Henderson said.
Henderson wouldn’t identify the councilor, but Tucker wrote in a Facebook post Monday, “When I hear a BLATANT lie on the news that a job offer wasn’t made by CCG regarding the City Manager Search, it’s highly disappointing and disgraceful! The person is Well Qualified and I will not continue to support the ostrich’s head in the sand.”
In regards to the heated exchange Henderson had with Anker during Tuesday night’s meeting, the mayor said, “I think he still tries to make it a personal vendetta against me from time to time. And I get it. That’s OK. But when sitting around that council table, you’ve got one job — that’s to try to make life better for the people in this community.”
Henderson does believe that the criticism from Tucker and Anker could make finding a city manager more difficult.
Anytime there’s a disruption in the legislative or executive branch, the information will be out on social media, Henderson said.
“And people that we interview are interviewing us,” he said. “They’ve seen some of these clips, and I can tell you that the professional panel we have with all of the current city managers and county managers, it was a big focal point for them in trying to advise us on how to move.”
Members of the city manager search advisory board are:
- Audrey Boone Tillman, general counsel for Aflac
- Pastor The Rev. Marcus Gibson, pastor of Greater Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church
- Richard Bishop, former assistant city manager and former CEO of Uptown Columbus
- Billy Blanchard, director of Covey Equity and former executive vice president of Columbus Bank & Trust
- Robert Wright, founder and chairman emeritus of Dimensions International and former Columbus Councilor.
Henderson echoed his sentiments from past council meetings, saying that he will not “sacrifice quality for speed” in the city manager search.
“Keep in mind, this is not a city manager for me for the next four years,” he said. “This is trying to make sure we get a good individual in that office, so that when I leave, whoever the mayor is that follows me has got somebody who’s had a little bit of time to kind of get used to the work and the responsibilities and can hit the ground running for that new mayor when they come in.”
