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COLUMBUS, Ga. — From our mayor unilaterally appointing a chief of police without first getting a legally-required vote of approval from city council, to city councilors voicing their outrage of the mayor’s tyrannical overreach, to officials finally saying it’s time to get serious about combating crime, here’s all the muck that’s fit to print from the Columbus, Georgia area, along with a look at what to expect in the week ahead.
TYRANT: MAYOR BREAKS CITY LAW; APPOINTS POLICE CHIEF WITHOUT GETTING COUNCIL’S VOTE FIRST
This story was originally published on May 8, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — “Tyranny can scarcely be practiced upon a virtuous and wise people.” — John Adams, in his personal diary, July 31, 1796.
Mayor Skip Henderson has brazenly violated city ordinances and the checks and balances of the American form of government by unilaterally appointing a city officer without first receiving the required approving vote of city council, as dictated by the Columbus Code of Ordinances.
On Friday, May 5, 2023, Henderson appointed Stoney Mathis as the new chief of the Columbus Police Department. Henderson’s action was very public and widely distributed through a press release made by his office.
Mathis’ first day of work is Monday, May 8, 2023.
However, the Columbus Code of Ordinances requires the Mayor to first receive a majority vote from city council before such an appointment can be made.
Henderson ignored that law and unilaterally made the appointment without so much as even informing city council, let alone getting their required vote of approval. No such required vote was taken.
City councilors were instead forced to find out about Henderson’s appointment through his press release.
They were purposefully left completely in the dark in violation of city law.
According to sources close to the Muckraker, city council members are not happy about Henderson’s illegal overreach.
Explore the full story to see how Mayor Henderson’s tyrannical overreach violated city law by unilaterally appointing a police chief without getting council’s vote of approval first.
CITY COUNCILORS NOT HAPPY WITH MAYOR’S OVERREACH; SAY IT’S A ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’
This story was originally published on May 9, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — City councilors are not happy with the mayor right now, and they have a legally-valid reason to be.
Despite city ordinances requiring a majority vote of city council to appoint a chief of police, Mayor Skip Henderson instead decided to ignore the law and unilaterally appoint a chief all on his own.
While Stoney Mathis’ impressive credentials do appear to be a fine choice for our city’s chief of police while a nation-wide search takes place, Mayor Henderson is still required to follow the law when appointing a police chief — regardless of however long or short the chief’s ‘interim’ tenure might be.
Instead, Henderson did not even bother to inform council members of his intention, let alone receive council’s legally-required vote before making his unilateral appointment through tyrannical overreach.
A SLAP IN THE FACE
In response, the overwhelming majority of council members are considering Henderson’s tyrannical overreach to be a “slap in the face.”
“This is such a slap in our faces,” one city councilor said in response to the mayor’s overreach on Friday, May 5. “Our mayor doesn’t have the respect for his fellow councilors to inform us first. Not a good look.”
The term “slap in the face” was used by several councilors to describe their genuine feeling of the mayor’s extreme overstep and disrespect for our city’s democratic form of government.
Another city councilor had the following to say when asked about the mayor’s press release on May 5:
“The mayor just announced an interim chief without even consulting council,” the councilor began. “Granted, I like his (Mathis’) résumé as chief in Henry County which has gangs similar to Atlanta, but it is a slap in the face that he (the mayor) kept us out of the loop.”
Explore the full story to see what else city councilors had to say, along with the city ordinances that explain why it’s such a big deal.
MCSO SEIZES $1.1 MILLION WORTH OF METH; VALIDATED GANG MEMBERS JAILED
This story was originally published on May 10, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — The Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office just made the second-largest methamphetamine bust in the history of the city, seizing 25.5 pounds of the deadly drug valued at over $1.16 million.
The insanely-large seizure is rivaled only by their bust of $1.5 million in meth and $2.6 million in heroin back in December of 2017, which was the largest in the history of Columbus.
According to a Facebook post made by Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman, the recent meth bust announced on May 9, 2023 had an estimated street value of $1,163,210.00.
The investigation and subsequent drug bust led to the arrest of two validated gang members, both of whom were already indicted with two counts of murder each.
Though the MCSO did in fact make the bust themselves, several agencies were involved through multiple counties, including:
The agencies tracked down and arrested two validated gang members, whose names we won’t print here because they aren't worth the ink to give them credit. Both were arrested on outstanding warrants.
Explore the full story for the details along with a look at what these criminal scumbags have to look forward to.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAYS ‘WE HAVE A GANG PROBLEM’; ASKS FOR FUNDS TO FIGHT IT
This story was originally published on May 11, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Stacey Jackson is looking for a slight increase in his office’s budget to help make a serious impact in our city’s fight against gang-related crime.
During the Columbus City Council’s Budget Committee Meeting held on May 9, Jackson asked for funds to hire additional personnel needed to investigate and prosecute the city’s growing number of gang-related offenders.
To help his office do that, Jackson says he needs to bring in two additional investigators and two additional administrators. The total cost in new salaries needed would only amount to about $155,000 per year for the city.
Jackson held no punches and spoke frankly and honestly in his justification for his budget ask:
“The reason why I’m asking for these two personnel additions is because recently, in concert with the Attorney General, and by other investigative agencies, and by the Jensen Hughes study, we know: We’ve got a gang problem in Columbus. It’s here. And we have to deal with it,” Jackson said.
Jackson specifically mentioned that many of our city’s gang-related cases now involve juvenile offenders, but they don’t have enough investigators on-staff to cover that recent uptick.
Explore the full story to see how the relatively small budget increase can have a big impact on the safety of our city.
ICYMI: HERE’S HOW YOU CAN APPLY TO SPEAK AT A CITY COUNCIL MEETING
This story was originally published on April 11, 2023 and re-published on May 12, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — “The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.” — John Adams.
As most residents are acutely aware, the political state of the Fountain City has seen better days. Through violent gang-related crime, staggering rates of homelessness, and a poverty rate twice the national average, it is clear that we as a city have our work cut out for us.
Fortunately, the ideas for how to best address and fix these extremely-serious issues do not have to come from behind the bench of our city’s elected officials.
They can come from you.
In fact, our city’s form of government strongly encourages you to take an active role in civic engagement by publicly speaking your mind on issues that are politically important to you.
During each regular meeting of the Columbus City Council, there is a section of the meeting called the Public Agenda.
This section is entirely dedicated to having everyday residents just like you voice their opinions on whatever they deem to be of political importance to our city.
It is incredibly easy to apply.
Explore the full story to see how easy it really is to voice your concerns during the public agenda of a city council meeting.
CITY COUNCILORS SEEM TO AGREE: IT’S TIME TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT CRIME
This story was originally published on May 13, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — After years of what has seemed like outright denial, and after months of tumultuously deciding to finally face the music, city councilors appear to finally understand that it’s time for our city to get serious about the crime and gang-related violence plaguing our city.
On Tuesday, May 9, city council held both a regular session and a meeting of the budget review committee at which they heard from several officials and departments about their concerns for our city’s current ability to combat crime.
One of those speakers was Sheriff Greg Countryman, who had come hat-in-hand to inform city council that his office’s annual expenses had exceeded his allocated budget by a whopping $1.5 million.
We’ll be following up on this in the near future with a detailed break-down of the expenses and why they do in fact appear to be legitimate.
Councilor Tucker (District 4) immediately moved to approve the request. After some light discussion, city council members unanimously voted to provide Sheriff Countryman with the $1.5 million he requested.
We recently published about how the District Attorney Stacey Jackson had also requested a budget increase for a few extra resources, as well as to hire the additional personnel his office requires to properly keep up with the city’s current case rate against gang-related offenders.
The total ask from the DA’s office was for a relatively-low total of just $174,500, of which $155,000 were for the salaries to hire two additional investigators and two administrative personnel.
In response to Jackson’s well-articulated proposal to hire additional investigators and other personnel so he may properly prosecute gang-related offenders, Councilor Glenn Davis (District 2) spoke up in strong support of finding our DA the funding he needs.
Explore the full story for the details and to see what city councilors had to say about how it’s time to get serious about our city’s rampant crime.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Columbus City Council is scheduled to hold a meeting of the Budget Review Committee on Tuesday, May 16 at 9:00 a.m. The committee is chaired by Councilor Judy Thomas (District 9). The meeting will be held on the second floor of the C. E. “Red” McDaniel City Services Center located at 3111 Citizens Way, Columbus, GA 31906.
The meeting will include presentations from four city offices requesting alterations to their budgets for the upcoming 2024 fiscal year. After the presentations are made, the committee will begin reviewing the “Add/Delete List.” The list contains items that city offices are seeking to add to their upcoming annual budget, along with items they are willing to part with to make way for their newly-requested additions.
A Look At Personal Safety
As the Columbus Police Department continues to unify under its new leadership model, violent crime is still likely to exist at higher levels than we would all like — even in what have previously been thought of as the “safer parts” of our city.
We at the Muckraker want to encourage our readers and their loved ones to remain hyper-vigilant as they go about their daily lives.
Based on lifetimes of experience and the combined professional careers of us at the Muckraker and our associates, here are what we consider to be the most important ways Columbusites can make themselves “hard targets” to avoid becoming a crime victim:
Back Our Blue
In closing, we at the Muckraker would like to thank the outstanding men and women of the Columbus Police Department who continue to shell out for the safety and well-being of our city each and every day, despite the abhorrent temporary conditions they are currently forced to work within.
“All police officers are entitled to outstanding leadership.”
Our city cannot thank you enough for what you do for us.
If you’re out and about throughout the week and see one of our city’s brave and valiant police officers, be sure to thank them. We’d bet it would mean an awful lot to them.
Residents are strongly encouraged to express their concerns and condolences for the brave men and women of the Columbus Police Department by emailing Mayor Skip Henderson directly at SkipHenderson@columbusga.org, while cc’ing their respective city council members on the email.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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© 2023 Muscogee Muckraker. All rights reserved.
Be sure to follow Muscogee Muckraker on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see all the muck that’s fit to print as it breaks throughout the coming week.
