Residents may voice their concerns about the city manager disregarding the Georgia Open Meetings Act and denying the public the opportunity to view all agenda items prior to a city council meeting by emailing their respective city council members.

COLUMBUS, Ga. — The now-canceled parking fee for the upcoming GOP Convention featuring President Donald J. Trump wasn’t even listed on the city’s agenda for the May 30 council meeting, denying the public the opportunity to contact their city councilors before the meeting as required by state law.

Instead, city manager Isaiah Hugley chose to blindside the City Council and the public in hopes of changing local laws for extremely-obvious political purposes, all under the guise of ‘public safety.’ 

Since Hugley chose not to list the item on the agenda — which would have been a reasonably-expected item given Hugley’s claim of ‘public safety’ for an event that was already planned months in advance — city councilors were denied the opportunity to review the matter.

Without having the item published, the public also had no opportunity to contact their city councilors through representative government to voice their concerns.

THE LAW

According to GA Code § 50-14-1.e  (2022) — more commonly known as the Georgia Open Meetings Act — all matters expected to come before the City Council must be published on an agenda and made available to the public prior to the meeting’s occurrence. Keep in mind the phrase “expected” as you read the law below:

“Prior to any meeting, the agency or committee holding such meeting shall make available an agenda of all matters expected to come before the agency or committee at such meeting. The agenda shall be available upon request and shall be posted at the meeting site as far in advance of the meeting as reasonably possible, but shall not be required to be available more than two weeks prior to the meeting and shall be posted, at a minimum, at some time during the two-week period immediately prior to the meeting. Failure to include on the agenda an item which becomes necessary to address during the course of a meeting shall not preclude considering and acting upon such item.”

While the law does allow for other items to be acted upon in the meeting that aren't listed in the agenda, the law specifically states that they must have become necessary throughout the course of the meeting.

Hugley back-dooring an entire topic that did not develop through the discussion of any other agenda item — which is what “throughout the course of the meeting” means — is not permitted.

So-called “add-on items” that do not pertain to matters already published on the agenda are not permitted under state law, as the public is required to have the opportunity to review the agenda prior to the meeting so they may contact their elected officials and participate in their representative government.

You can’t just bring up some unrelated topic that isn’t published prior to the meeting — especially ones that alter local laws without having a public hearing.

THE OBVIOUS

If we can just make up whatever we want and call it an “add-on item” without publishing it on the agenda for the public prior to the meeting, then why is there an entire section of Georgia State Law dedicated to preventing this exact sort of thing from happening?

Nonetheless, that’s exactly what Hugley did.

After all, his last-minute idea to charge the public money was definitely for ‘public safety’ and had nothing to do with a plan to limit attendance at a GOP political rally by charging parking fees.

THE (SARCASTIC) BOTTOM LINE

We’re sure Hugley didn’t intentionally seek to deny a proper public hearing on his unilateral proposal to change the city’s laws at the absolute last minute, despite Georgia State Laws preventing him from doing exactly that.

We’re sure Hugley didn’t intentionally hide an agenda item from the public that sought to charge them money for a political event, even though he absolutely knew that doing so would deny the public their right to contact their city council members prior to the meeting.

Because he’d never do something like that, would he?

We’ll leave you as the reader to infer the sarcasm.

Residents may voice their concerns about the city manager disregarding the Georgia Open Meetings Act and denying the public the opportunity to view all agenda items prior to a city council meeting by emailing their respective city council members.

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

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