Residents can voice their opinions on how the city is providing preferential treatment to private business owners whose enterprise happens to overlap with current government agenda by contacting their city council members. 

COLUMBUS, Ga. — If there was ever an example of how favoritism and preferential treatment drive the wheels of government in Columbus, this is it.

City officials will be taking a local ‘bus tour’ through Columbus in hopes of identifying the special interests of a select group of favored businesses who were hand-picked by the city’s government.

THE CONCEPT

The ‘bus tour’ was first brazenly discussed during the city council meeting held on December 6, 2022. Several high-rolling businesses and owners were mentioned by-name — Gamache, Woodruff, and Halter, to name a few —  as city officials lauded over the opportunity to provide them with favoritism and preferential treatment not afforded to the general public.

The tour is intended to allow city council members and other officials to meet with a select invite-only list of local business owners on-site, all in one day, so they can better understand their ‘needs and wants’ and in turn better serve their special interests.

THE FAVORITISM

No public notice, open call, nor forum was provided to the public to afford the same opportunity to other businesses who aren’t as top-of-mind or as favored by city officials. Only the select few who were hand-picked by the city government are eligible to have their special interests served.

It is unclear why this favored group of businesses and owners cannot simply request to speak during a city council meeting to redress their grievances, or to simply send an email to their elected officials like everyone else is required to. 

During the city council meeting, deputy city manager Pam Hodge stated that she had — in an official capacity — reached out to no less than ten select individuals at her office’s discretion. Hodge stated that she had heard back from at least six of them, all of whom had been enthusiastic about having the ‘bus tour’ full of city officials come to serve the special interests of their private economic enterprises.

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“And just to add to that,” Hodge said, “I’ve already reached out. I have a list of about ten. And, positive comment: I have confirmation from at least six right now, so (there is) high interest in participating.”

THE PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR

This is not the first time in recent months that the Columbus city council has brazenly discussed how they plan to serve the special interests of high-rolling residents. 

Back in October of 2022, city council members openly discussed how they were basing legislative decisions on the whims and wishes of a local developer, ignoring representative government for an oligarchical theme instead.

In September of 2022, a Columbus city employee described how getting close to the city manager opened doors for her career, exposing how nepotism for “like-minded” people gave her special opportunities to advance.

THE BRAZEN PATTERN CONTINUES

City manager Isaiah Hugley was the first to introduce the idea during the council meeting. Hugley framed the topic by explaining how he had a private conversation with Jason Gamache,  a local real estate and business mogul, while riding around town on Gamache’s golf cart.

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“I was talking to the mayor and the mayor pro tem,” Hugley began, “about the work session at the end of January, on January 31st, and it goes to what council Woodson was saying, that yeah, I got a call from — and I'll just call his name, I don't think he'll mind — Jason Gamache. You know, because we heard about the Rialto, and he wanted to provide some clarification. It’s not what was stated and how it was stated and so forth. And he (Jason Gamache) says, ‘Come down with me and get on my golf cart, give me 30 minutes.’ And I did that. We went riding up Second (Avenue) and he pointed out things to me — and I won't name all the buildings and facilities — but he says, ‘that building.’  You know, I really did not know his level of involvement and um this guy is a young guy. He's investing in uptown in our community and he is doing so much.” 

Hugley then went on to explain how his golf cart ride with Gamache led him to thinking about other big-time developers in the area, and how their special interests might benefit from preferential treatment from the Columbus Consolidated Government as well.

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“And then I thought about Chris Woodruff,” Hugley continued, “a young guy — we're talking under 40 — who (is)  investing so much. And then you think about W.C. Bradley, and what Pace Halter is doing. You think about Chris Wightman and what he's doing in the Panhandle. I mean, these are people (who are) just, you know, they're putting their all into making Columbus that ‘cool city,’ the best it can be.”

Hugley then explained how he came up with the idea to get every city official possible on-board with the idea of providing preferential treatment to wealthy residents whose private enterprises happen to coincide with the city’s current agenda, by serving special interests Hugley already identified — by his own admission— in private meetings.

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“I was just blown away with Jason Gamache,” Hugley continued. “So I came back to the mayor and I said, ‘You know what I'd like to do for the work  session?  I hope you can spare an entire day on January 31st, but you know and I've got deputy city manager Hodge and deputy city manager Goodwin working on it, but I want to come here, and we all get on a bus, and we stop by Jason Gamache and pick Jason up, and say, ‘Jason,’ — and I've had this conversation with Jason — ‘give the council members and the staff, the leadership, the same tour and share the same information with them you shared with me and you're going to blow them away.’”

Hugley continued explaining his plan for using the ‘bus tour’ as a front through which to employ social pressure as a crutch to gain the support of city officials in serving the special interests of this select group of wealthy residents — ‘the gentry,’ if you will.

“And so, you know, kind of like the intra-city visit we did? But I want you (city council) on a bus the whole day on the work session on January 31st. And so we stop at Jason, pick him up, and give him an hour and a half or whatever is needed. And then we go pick up Chris Woodruff and take us over to High(side market); to tell us what you're doing — and we’re on the bus, off the bus — tell us what you're doing and what you're investing. And then we go pick up Pace Halter and W.C. Bradley, (and say to them), ‘Tell us what's all this going on over by the Indigo — and you've done the Rapids Apartments — tell us what you know what's going on.’ And we could say, ‘Buddy, tell us what you're doing?’ And then we go to Chris Whiteman. And so the whole day is what I'd ask you for, because it blows my mind that we have young entrepreneurs investing a hell of a lot of money, and all they're trying to do is just do business in Columbus —  and we got to help them.”

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Hugley appeared to forget that his master plan to serve the wants of the few instead of equally addressing the needs of the many is, by definition, an oligarchical endeavor. 

Nonetheless, Hugley went on to explain why these high-rolling residents somehow require all the attention and preferential treatment the Columbus Consolidated Government can muster — so much so that officials should go to them instead of having them address their personal grievances at a council meeting like everyone else:

“I mean, that's what these guys are looking for: some help. And even I told them to bring Pedal Pub back. (The owner is) a young guy — I don't know that guy, I don't know his name — but bring Pedal Pub,  and, you know, I mean, he’s just someone who wants to do something and make a difference in Columbus. I'm gonna leave it at that, mayor, because I could talk longer but I am excited about momentum. I am excited about young people investing in our city. And we just got to help (acknowledges Council Woodson, then-District 7) to make it easy for them to spend money. And that's all I'm advocating for.”

Hugley and members of city council also seemed to forget that all business owners, developers, and other professionals in Columbus have obstacles in their way — not just the ultra-wealthy few who CCG prefers. Officials also seemed to have forgotten that having a government provide preferential treatment to a select few nepotistic beneficiaries isn’t only a frowned-upon ‘no-no,’ but is a violation of local, state, and federal law. 

Nonetheless, enthusiasm for the ‘bus tour’ remained abound as council members voiced their support for the idea without paying mind to any critical thinking or the implications thereof:

Councilor Charmaine Crabb (District 5) also provided comment on the topic:

“I just wanted to make a quick comment to Mr Hugley. I think that bus tour would be a lot more fun than the ‘good bad and ugly’ bus tour. I'd like to focus on some of the positive things that are happening in Columbus, Georgia. Thank you.

Mayor Henderson also showed his enthusiasm by offering a name for the event. “And another name,” Henderson said, “it's an ‘economic development bus tour.’”

To us at the Muckraker, and likely to anyone who chooses to read the law, the event seems more like a ‘preferential bus tour’ than anything else.

Perhaps city officials should in fact focus on the negative so that it can be fixed instead of burying their heads in the sands of brazen nepotism. It is concerning that a group of grown adults all sat around a table together to govern a literal city without a single one of them even recognizing the blatant oligarchical favoritism on full display, let alone doing one’s duty as an elected official to point it out.

You can watch the roughly ten-minute exchange from the city council meeting and hear the words from the horses’ mouths for yourself through the video below. The exchange begins at roughly the 00:53:30-mark:

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Residents can voice their opinions on how the city is providing preferential treatment to private business owners whose enterprise happens to overlap with current government agenda by contacting their city council members. 

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

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