The Columbus City Council fired its city manager. What's going on?

Caption

Then-Columbus city manager Isaiah Hugley listens during the public agenda at the March 25, 2025, Columbus Council meeting.

Credit: Darrell Roaden / Special to the Ledger-Enquirer

The Columbus City Council voted this week to fire City Manager Isaiah Hugley, just seven months from his retirement. This comes after Hugley threatened legal action against several members of the council. Chuck Williams, a reporter for WRBL News 3 in Columbus, has been following this story and spoke to GPB's Peter Biello from his newsroom.

TRANSCRIPT

Peter Biello: Welcome to the program.

Chuck Williams: Good to be with you, Peter; I hope things are going well up your way.

Peter Biello: Thank you very much. They are. Appreciate that. So first of all tell us about this firing; did the city council members who voted for determination elaborate on the reason why?

Chuck Williams: Uh, they did. They presented Mr. Hugley, who has been the city manager in Columbus, Ga., for 20 years — two decades — the reason they gave in a notice of termination. And I'll just read it. It makes more sense to do it that way. "Pursuant to your employment agreement, this letter serves as formal written notice of the grounds of your termination. Over the past several months, departments under your direct supervision, including animal control and finance, have experienced ongoing operational failures and lapses in oversight, some of which have resulted in law enforcement scrutiny, in certain instances, criminal investigation. These investigations have resulted in great expense to the city and its taxpayers." So that's why they say he was terminated.

Peter Biello: So a few things having to do with actual problems. But can you tell us a little bit about one of those problems they mentioned and — and explain why that might really warrant a firing.

Chuck Williams: We had some issues within animal control last year. Several people who worked there were investigated by Columbus Police and were arrested and charged with a variety of charges. It had to do with treatment of some of the animals in the facility. And then our finance department has been under scrutiny for almost two years now. A audit came back with a lot of issues and potential missing money. Troutman Pepper, out of Atlanta, was hired. A guy named Charles Peeler — Charlie Peeler was a former U.S. Attorney — he came in here, did an extensive investigation, was hired by city council to look at it. He found issues, he found some mismanagement, but he found nothing that rose to the level of criminal charges.

Peter Biello: In the context, as I mentioned, was Hugley's threats to sue council members for comments that they made. What did they say that upset Hugley?

Chuck Williams: They involved a 2022 federal grant that was part of the American Recovery Act that was given to Carolyn Hugley, a state farm agent who was the wife of Isaiah Hugley. Carolyn Hugly is a name that may be familiar to some people. She is a state representative from Columbus. She is also the minority leader in the Georgia House and was recently elected that post last year. The grant was administered through the city and the facts that have come out are when that grant crossed the city manager's desk he immediately sought advice from the city attorney informed the mayor and then the deputy city attorney handled that and he removed himself from the process. And as he did that, some counselors have questioned that he should have told counsel, according to our charter, and he did not. And it became a fight.

Peter Biello: I see. And the city council did not cite that as the reason for his termination, but that fight is a known part of the story here.

Chuck Williams: Interestingly, it is not in the termination letter. And it's termination in name only, quite frankly, because he had announced he would retire at the end of the year. As part of this termination notice, the last paragraph: "council will continue to pay your regular salary along with existing benefits, including health insurance, life insurance, and pension accrual through the announced retirement date of December 31, 2025."

Peter Biello: What's next for Isaiah Hugley? Is there any sense of what's in the future for him?

Chuck Williams: This is a fluid situation. And one of the things that is happening out of this is there is speculation that Mr. Hugley will run for mayor in the 2026 election. And his attorney claims that there's a fear of him running for the mayor's office and they are trying — the council, with — through this termination and the statements are trying to discredit Mr. Hughley in advance of a political campaign. The counselors, the seven counselors that voted to terminate him — and it was a 7-3 vote — have only legal advice or not talking about what they did. They're letting the termination notice stand for itself.

Peter Biello: Chuck Williams, a reporter for WRBL News 3 in Columbus, thank you so much for speaking with me about this.

Chuck Williams: Thank you very much, Peter, for having me. I hope you have a great weekend or week or whatever we're looking at right now.

Peter Biello: Thanks, you too. Appreciate it.