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COLUMBUS, Ga. — From local elected officials praising each other for doing the bare minimum required after years of negligence left a man dead, to a local news outlet falsely claiming that homicides made up 40% of all deaths in Georgia, to our city’s police force exceeding recruitment goals after only a few months of solid leadership, 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.
RALSTON TOWERS: GOV'T PRAISES GOV'T FOR ENDING DECADES OF GOV'T NEGLECT THAT KILLED MAN
This story was originally published on September 5, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Local officials of both the Columbus Consolidated Government and the United States Congress lauded the reopening of Ralston Towers after the building’s disgustingly-troubled past.
The newly-renovated building is now under entirely new ownership after years of governmental neglect allowed the previous owner’s mismanagement to leave one man dead.
At a ceremony held on August 30, 2023, a band of elected officials praised their work to renovate the subsidized housing apartment complex. Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson, Congressman Sanford Bishop (D-GA-02), and Congressman Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) ironically praised each other for fixing a problem created by government bureaucracy.
For years upon years, the building was owned and managed by an out-of-state firm located in New Jersey that refused to maintain the Section 8 property. The building lacked basic plumbing & water, heat & air conditioning, and structurally-sound conditions. The apartment building was quite literally falling apart and uninhabitable by even the most depraved standards of humane living conditions.
With full knowledge of the abhorrent conditions, local officials failed to find and implement a solution and allowed the problem to continue. Though pleas were made to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), an entire congressional district’s-worth of elected officials were — by their own admission — somehow unable to find a way to fund interim housing for 200 of their own residents so the building could be condemned before someone actually died.
No local developers stepped up to the plate to commit to solving the problem, either.
As a result, residents were forced to live in neglectfully-decrepit conditions, despite it being absolutely 110% against the law for it to occur. Then it killed someone.
Explore the full story to see why having local officials do the bare minimum required isn’t worthy of an ‘attaboy.’
WTVM FALSELY CLAIMS ‘40% OF ALL DEATHS’ IN GEORGIA ARE HOMICIDES
This story was originally published on September 6, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Local news outlet WTVM recently made a rather laughably-false claim in an article published yesterday on September 5, 2023.
The ‘news leader’ erroneously claimed that ‘forty percent of all deaths in Georgia were homicides.’
This is not the first time WTVM has been caught egregiously publishing false information that just-so-happens to support a political narrative.
While homicides have risen here in recent years, they are nowhere even remotely close to what WTVM claimed. Trust us: if 4-in-10 deaths in the state were homicides, you’d really notice.
In reality, homicides accounted for just over a mere 1% of all deaths state-wide in 2022, which is forty times less frequent than WTVM claimed.
How do we know? Actual data.
Explore the full story to see the data yourself, along with how your local ‘news leader’ didn’t correct the claim after we exposed it.
CPD EXCEEDS RECRUITMENT GOALS; SEEKS 30 MORE FOR NEXT POLICE ACADEMY CLASS
This story was originally published on September 7, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — The Columbus Police Department has exceeded its recruitment goal for the current police academy class this September, showing a complete reversal from trends in previous years.
The uptick in recruitment success comes just a few short months after a change in the department’s leadership to Interim Chief Stoney Mathis.
In a video released by CPD to their Facebook page on the evening of September 6, 2023, Officer Andrew Phillips of the CPD’s recruiting division explained the department’s recent success.
According to Phillips, Chief Mathis had previously set a goal for the department to recruit 30 new officers for the current September class of the department’s police academy.
Phillips said that through the help of community relations, social media, and media partners, the department was able to exceed that goal with 33 candidates currently standing ready to attend the September academy class.
That 10% surpassment is an astounding uptick that CPD and the Columbus community at-large should truly be proud of.
Explore the full story for the details on how your skills and dedication are in high demand to protect our community.
STILL NO PROJECT MANAGER FOR $225M JUDICIAL CENTER; COUNCILORS DEMAND UPDATE
This story was originally published on September 8, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — City council has demanded a formal presentation on the status of the city’s new $225 million judicial center project.
The insistence on the presentation came after councilors repeatedly questioned City Manager Isaiah Hugley about why the project lacked a professional project manager.
The project, which is the single-most expensive project in the history of the Fountain City, has seen its entire planning and oversight performed by Director of Inspections & Codes, Ryan Pruett.
Pruett, according to Hugley himself, has been expected to perform this monumental task while still being required to perform his full-time job of running the city’s inspections & codes department.
Throughout the last three city council meetings, Hugley continued to blame costs as the reason for not bringing a solution to the table for properly ensuring the diligent management of the project.
As a result of the continued excuses and lack of information from Hugley, councilors all-but-demanded that Hugley provide a formal presentation on the project’s status at the next-scheduled meeting on September 12, 2023.
Explore the full story to see what officials had to say about the most expensive project in the history of our city.
CITY MANAGER STILL HASN’T DELIVERED ANNUAL BUSINESS LICENSES; REVENUE DOWN
This story was originally published on August 7, 2023, then updated and republished on September 9.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — The city manager’s office still has not delivered business licenses to many local owners for the 2023 calendar year, despite it now being September.
The licenses are required to be renewed every year through the city’s finance department.
Owners have since been operating the entire year without the proper licensing due to Hugley’s bureaucratic bottleneck.
During the city council meeting held on July 25, Councilor Judy Thomas (District 9) brought the subject up to Hugley directly. The move came shortly after councilors approved a new ‘top-down’ audit plan which made Hugley’s office next to be audited.
Thomas told Hugley that if there was a problem — which there most obviously is — that he must inform council about it:
“Mister City Manager, I want to bring something to your attention, if I may. I have had numerous contacts (from) businesses in Columbus — in Muscogee County — that have not received their 2023 business license yet. We're almost to the eighth month, and they haven't gotten their business license. Would you look into that and give us a report on what's happening and what we can expect? And I mean, as I said, we're almost in August and these business licenses have not been issued. And I know of a number of businesses specifically that have not received their 2023 business license. So if there's a problem with that, we need to know.”
Hugley responded with the following:
“We will follow up with you.”
Hugley’s single-sentence reply abstained from any further elaboration.
It is unclear how the manager of a city did not have any readily-available explanation for why the majority of business licenses were now eight months late, in the city he himself is responsible for managing.
Hugley’s evasive response appeared to avoid the subject either out of ignorance or as an attempt to suppress after being caught off-guard — both of which demonstrate a lack of awareness on a subject that the manager of a literal city ought to already be aware of.
Explore the full story to see how staggeringly low the city’s occupational tax has fallen on Hugley’s watch, along with how officials called him out.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Columbus City Council is scheduled to meet this Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. on the second floor of the C. E. “Red” McDaniel City Services Center located at 3111 Citizens Way, Columbus, GA 31906.
The meeting’s agenda is scheduled to include several important items of discussion, including:
You can easily view the upcoming meeting’s full agenda packet through the city’s website. The meeting is open to the public; residents are always highly encouraged to attend.
Join Today. Protect Tomorrow
There has never been a better time to be a Columbus Police Officer! The Columbus Police Department is a state and nationally accredited law enforcement agency dedicated to protecting and serving the citizens of Columbus, Georgia. Become part of a highly trained law enforcement team focused on building and maintaining strong community partnerships that improve the safety and quality of life for every citizen. Join today and protect the promise of a better tomorrow. ProtectColumbus.com
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:
Situational Awareness: Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Keep your head on a swivel. Don’t walk around with headphones in. Keep your eyes moving and scanning around you as you move about.
Trust Your Gut: If something inside of you is telling you that something isn’t right, trust that feeling. For example: If you’re parking your car at night and your gut tells you the dark shady spot next to the alley isn't the best place to park, don't park there. Your intuition is often more powerful and protective than you think.
Move With Confidence: Think about this one for a minute. Are criminals going to target the guy or gal who struts hard down the street like a freaking lion patrolling their own domain, or are they going to leave that hard target the heck alone? Keep your head up. Move from place to place with a purpose. Don't walk around with your face in your phone with your purse wide open. Don’t look weak. Look dangerous.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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