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COLUMBUS, Ga. —  A Columbus family is facing the demolition of their home through a city land grab to make room for a new roundabout on Steam Mill Road.

The city manager’s office didn’t even bother to personally inform the family before they found out on their own at a public meeting by chance.

City councilors were in absolute disbelief of the situation, with several of them visibly distraught by the utter failure of the city manager’s office.

The Johnson family, who worked their entire lives as upstanding citizens and proud members of the community, have lived in their home on Southern Pines Drive for over thirty years. 

Now on the verge of finally enjoying  retirement after careers in the United States Army and Civil Service, the family was eagerly hoping to bask in the fruits of their labor through  their golden years, accompanied by the decades of memories they’ve made at their home over three generations with their son DeMarco and three grandchildren. 

Despite doing everything right and paying their dues for thirty years, the family is now fighting against the city’s malfeasance to save the home they’ve worked so hard to build, maintain, and love through three generations. 

Thanks to the city’s years-long plan to demolish their home without even bothering to tell them, the Johnson family is now faced with the hardship of having their entire lives uprooted and their retirement plans destroyed as a result of the city’s insincere  callousness — all for a mere  roundabout installation.

The project, which can be viewed on the city’s dedicated website of SteamMillRoadStudy.com, plans to widen the road to three lanes and install roundabouts at the cost of $22.5 million paid for by the city’s TSPLOST.

Georgia law permits government seizure of private land for public use through eminent domain under strict guidelines outlined in GA Code § 22-1-2 (2022), provided that proper procedures are followed and the property owners are justly compensated to include their legal fees, relocation costs, and other damages.

However, that absolutely does not make the city’s treatment of the Johnson family right — not by any stretch of the imagination.

FAMILY SPEAKS UP

During the city council meeting held on July 25, 2023, Johnson Family son and spokesman DeMarco Johnson spoke politely yet firmly during the public agenda to bring the matter of his parents’ home to the attention of council.

Johnson took the time to explain the backstory of the tragic fatal accident on Steam Mill Road on October 6, 2022. Because Johnson’s parents are civically engaged and care deeply about the community, they just-so-happened to attend a public meeting held a few days later at a local church on October 11. 

It was at that meeting that Johnson’s parents first saw a slideshow presented by the city that had their home marked for demolition to make room for the installation of a roundabout. The family had not received any prior notice despite the years of planning that led to that moment. 

Johnson’s mother broke down in tears crying, understandably distraught by the callousness of the city’s disregard for their home, their memories, and their life — which was made abundantly clear by the city’s inability to personally notify the family before blindsiding them at a public meeting they just-so-happened to be attending.

After that moment back in October 2022, Johnson said he reached out to Councilor Toyia Tucker (District 4) to set up a meeting with his family, Tucker, Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge, and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). The meeting intended to see what could be done as well as to see what the family may have ‘missed’ over the previous years while the plan was being put together. The Johnsons, to no surprise, didn't ‘miss’ anything; the city just inconsiderately  dropped the ball on them.

Johnson said his family left that meeting with high hopes of resolving the issue after expressing their feelings to city officials. The meeting resulted in the city promising to keep the Johnsons informed on how the situation was progressing. 

However, no such further contact was made. The city went silent, leaving the Johnsons in the dark.

“Nobody has contacted us to let us know what’s going on,” Johnson told councilors. Johnson said the only additional communication that has occurred was a phone call ironically initiated by his mother after not hearing any more from the city on the subject. 

No one from the city made any effort to follow up with the family on their own accord to keep them informed of the city’s plans to demolish their home after promising to do so.

According to the Johnsons, the only notice they ever received from the city was the same generic letter that every other resident in the area received, which simply said the city was “doing some rezoning in your area.” 

The letter was not personally addressed to the Johnsons by name and made no mention of the home’s planned destruction through eminent domain.

“If you cannot contact one home on a single road,” Johnson said, “and tell one set of individuals what’s going to happen in their life in the next year or six months, then what are we doing with the rest of our community?”

COUNCILORS FLABBERGASTED

With the exception of one, it was the first time councilors learned of the situation despite the project plan’s years of  development.

Councilors were absolutely speechless and in total disbelief of the city manager’s bureaucratic failure to not even bother to personally notify the family of his plans to destroy their home.

Neither City Manager Isaiah Hugley nor Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge had bothered to inform councilors of the situation either, despite councilors asking them about this exact concern several months ago.  

Back on May 5, 2023, Tucker specifically asked Hodge if the families impacted by the project had been properly notified. Hodge falsely responded by saying “I believe so.” Not only did Hodge and Hugley fail to personally inform the Johnsons, but they flat-out lied to city council about it when they were explicitly asked if they did.

Just about every city councilor at the table personally expressed their sincere and grave concerns with the city’s obviously-neglectful fumbling of communication. 

It is important to note that the entire process is the responsibility of Hugley and his underlings, though Hugley would again attempt to excuse away his obvious failure that has already caused real damages on the Johnson family’s life and livelihood.

HUGLEY’S USUAL CHARADES

Despite the entire debacle being his own responsibility, Hugley did the exact opposite of what any reasonably-responsible city leader would have done. Instead of offering condolences and bringing solutions to the table, he called Deputy City Manager Pam Hodge up to the podium to present a prepared slideshow on why the Johnsons’ situation was somehow justified and not his fault. 

Hugley’s disgusting powerpoint deflection only made him look even worse, and just about everyone in the room knew it except him. 

Nonetheless, Hugley continued to feed even more of his usual excuses and deflections, interjecting at opportune points in obvious attempts to explain why the results of his personal failure weren’t his fault — all at the expense of the Johnson family, who were seated ten feet in front of him the entire time.

Hugley also claimed that since he himself received a generic mailer about the project, that somehow satisfied the Johnsons’ need to be personally notified of their home’s destruction. Hugley conveniently forgot to mention, however, that the generic letter he was describing made no mention whatsoever of the Johnsons’ home being destroyed. Hugley blatantly sought to discredit the Johnsons in order to preserve himself at their expense; he presented illogical and patently-flawed arguments that painted his victims as the bad guys. See what he did there? He does it often.

Hugley’s continued set of similar excuses appeared to even further expose himself as the Machiavellian he is, ever-so-blinded by his own pathological methods that he didn’t even realize how flagrantly his stupidly-disingenuous lack of integrity was being displayed.

For example: When questioned on why he had a prepared slideshow to respond to the Johnsons’ presentation during the public agenda of the meeting, Hugley claimed he ‘didn’t even know’ what the Johnsons’ presentation was about — despite having just presented a literal slideshow he had made in advance to present in response.

Councilors noticed, and they weren’t buying it — and neither were the Johnsons nor just about anyone else in the room.

CALLING OUT DEFLECTION

Councilor Joanne Cogle (District 7), who was visibly in disbelief throughout the entire presentation, called Hugley out on his extremely obvious deflection:

“I'm actually kind of really having a hard time wrapping my head around this whole situation and I think we're deflecting from the problem that we have that's currently being talked about — in that we have a lovely presentation, but it doesn't say in there ‘oh by the way we're tearing down your house.’ I think (looks at family) Johnson family, the city of Columbus has done you an incredible wrong and I would think that if my house was the only house that was on the street … we would have the courtesy to go knock on the door and wait for them to answer — and not say ‘oh they weren't home’ but to make physical contact with them and say ‘we are considering this project, what do you think?’ or ‘these are the options.’This happens in the movies and this this is what they make movies about. This doesn't happen in Columbus Georgia — but apparently it does. So like, I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we're deflecting from the situation by showing a presentation of how we're gonna accommodate it when we have done this injustice to our citizens and that we're about to — and even if we're not, the fact that they had to sit there and think that their house was going to be torn down and that they were going to have to uproot themselves and move and lose their memories and their retirement and move forward, like I, I, I can't. I can't even put myself in their shoes because it's a lot. It's mind-blowing. Like, my head is exploding that we even have gotten to this conversation. I, I would hope that on any sort of TSPLOST project that the council wouldn't have to sit there and look at the map and go ‘huh I wonder if there's a house in the way’ or a citizen won't have to sit there and go ‘huh I wonder if my house is in the way of that.’ We have failed from the engineering standpoint. Why wouldn't we come up with this in the first place? Why would we just mow through a random house? I could go on and on, but my mind is blown and I am sorry, Johnson family, that you have had to go through this and that we are even up here having this discussion.”

Councilor Charmaine Crabb (District 5), also spoke in response to Hugley’s excuses and the obviously-intended presentation he had Hodge prepare and present:

“Had you talked to the Johnsons and did you let them know that you were going to discuss this with the engineers? And that you were, you know, at least keep them informed on what the next steps are and what you're doing? I mean, do you understand — you've got to understand — and you've got to see the difference of a general letter going out to everyone along Steam Mill Road using that Corridor for a while during construction, or you losing a foot or two on their front yard, and losing a house. You've got to see the difference there. It seems like (it should require either) a one-on-one letter or reaching out to them. The fact that you saw DeMarco Johnson on this Steam Mill Road project (agenda item) and you didn't even (connect in your mind) the Johnsons that are losing their house with the Steam Mill project kind of concerns me. It just seems, I mean, it just seems like you wouldn't have to be like ‘we don't know what they're coming to talk about.’ You would have seen the name Johnson and you would have known that there's a Johnson getting their house displaced, and that would have been like the first thing that would have come to my mind.”

Several other councilors also called out Hugley on his set of responsibility-avoiding excuses, which ironically made Hugley expose himself even more as he continued to dig in deeper. The more Hugley continued to talk, the dumber and less honest he exposed himself to be.

In response, Hugley blamed the fact that it was Hodge’s first day back from vacation. His pathology continued through several other similarly-obvious rounds of excuses.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Councilor Toyia Tucker then apologized to the Johnsons on behalf of the city, since Hugley, Hodge, nor the mayor had the common courtesy or initiative to do so throughout their self-preserving antics. 

Tucker did. The public noticed.

“Since no one has said it, on behalf of the City of Columbus, I'm going to apologize. I'm sorry. I am sorry that the Johnson family is going through this. I truly am sorry.”

In contrast, Hodge said the following:

“I don't want this to appear that we’re insensitive.”

Perhaps city councilors — and the public — ought to take note of the stark differences between those two responses, as well as Hodge’s use of the word “appear.”

Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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