City Council votes 7-3 to terminate City Manager Isaiah Hugley seven months before his retirement
Hugley has served as the City Manager of Columbus for two decades. He is the longest-serving city manager in the city's history and the first black executive to hold the position.
Hugley announced earlier this year that he planned to step down from his post at the end of the year. The council did not wait.
If the mayor does not recommend the city manager be terminated, it takes seven votes to remove him from office, according to the city charter.
Mayor Skip Henderson did not make the recommendation. Councilors Byron Hickey, Charmaine Crabb, JoAnne Cogle, Toyia Tucker, John Anker, Glenn Davis, and Walker Garrett voted to remove him from the job.
Two of the seven votes came from city councilors who are serving unexpired terms. Hickey is filling the spot vacated by Pops Barnes. Anker is filling the seat vacated by the resignation and subsequent death of Judy Thomas.
Hugley has been embroiled in a highly publicized legal dispute with six city councilors. He has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Councilors Hickey, Crabb, Cogle, Tucker, and Anker. Those councilors had been critical of a 2022 American Rescue Plan federal grant awarded to Hugley's wife, Carolyn Hugley, a State Farm Insurance agent and Georgia House Minority Leader.
In April, Hugley threatened legal action if the six councilors did not retract their statements and issue a public apology. The councilors have not done either.
Two city departments have been the subject of criminal investigations in recent years. The Finance Department has been under scrutiny and the subject of audits and investigations into mismanagement. There were multiple arrests last year after a Columbus Police investigation into Animal Control.
Hugley has been in the city manager's office since 1998, when he was one of two deputies under former City Manager Carmen Cavezza. He was elevated by the council and then-Mayor Bob Poydasheff in 2005.
Hugley started with the city in 1984 as an assistant director of Metra, the city's transportation arm.
Hugley is a 1975 graduate of Spencer High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history/pre-law from Talladega College in 1979 and a Master's degree in public policy and public administration from Mississippi State University.
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