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This story was originally published on August 9, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — The Columbus Consolidated Government approved $740,000 of taxpayers’ money to be distributed to a total of 44 local organizations through ‘crime prevention grants’ at the August 8 city council meeting.
However, with the long list of beneficiaries ranging from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra to a local fraternity chapter headquartered out of the city manager’s own personal house on Steam Mill Road, the credibility of the system’s measures of effectiveness and organizational vetting seem practically non-existent.
Councilors had only received the book-length list of all 44 grant applications a week prior. The list had been prepared all the way back in June, though no one bothered to send it to them with enough time to adequately review it.
Though some councilors tried to delay the vote so they could more closely examine the grant applications, their efforts resulted in an inconclusive 5:4 vote. Some councilors then strongly urged Mayor Henderson to delay anyway — which he could have done — though Henderson refused and insisted on approving the grants without any further inspection.
Five city councilors continued to urge their colleagues to reconsider, though they slammed ahead anyway.
Ultimately, all grant applications were recklessly approved in a batch-action vote with all members of council present voting in unanimous approval.
The councilors who urged for diligence were right. They should have delayed, taken their time, and looked more closely.
Here’s why.
THE PLOT THICKENS
Perhaps if officials actually took the time to review what they were voting on instead of hastily slamming things through, they would have found what took us at the Muckraker about ten whole minutes to notice.
One of the organizations to receive the funding is Omega Lambda, listed as item #29 on the Mayor’s Agenda under the Crime Prevention Grantees. The organization was slated to be approved for a $25,000 grant from taxpayers’ money.
However, a quick search on the Georgia Secretary of State’s website shows only one registered organization in Muscogee County with the name “Omega Lambda.”
That sole organization is the “Omega Lambda Iota Social Action & Scholarship Foundation, Inc.,” which has a Georgia Control Number of K715553.
Clicking through the organization’s filing history at the bottom of the page allows an examination of their most- recently-available state registration from 2020. The document shows that Omega Lambda’s principal office is located at 4019 Steam Mill Road.
A quick check through the city’s Public Access Site for Property Assessment & Tax Information reveals that the address of 4019 Steam Mill Road is the home address of City Manager Isaiah Hugley.
Without disclosing a conflict of interest nor making any mention of its possibility whatsoever as required by the Appendix Two of the City Charter, the city manager just had $25,000 of taxpayers’ money funneled to an organization’s shell company headquartered at his personal house on Steam Mill Road — all of which is verifiable through public records on the city’s own website and the Georgia Secretary of State.
This is serious banana republic stuff.
Below is a complete list of all 44 organizations that received a combined total of $740,000 of taxpayers’ money through ‘crime prevention grants,’ of which $25,000 magically found its way to the city manager’s personal home.
Perhaps their vetting should be taken a little more seriously given the city’s years-long track record of continuously increasing rates of violent crime, which rival that of third-world countries.
Perhaps officials should note how strongly the city’s culture of third-world banana republic ‘grant’ funneling correlates with the out-of-control recent violent history of our city. We’ll give you a hint: it isn’t coincidental.
Here’s that list of all 44 organizations.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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