Ongoing communication disputes and shifting job responsibilities put Shawanda Jones, the city’s public information officer, at odds with senior leadership in the administration.
Those issues “hit the boiling point” earlier this week during a meeting between Shawanda Jones and Mayor Stephen Jones both parties acknowledged was contentious.
“I said, ‘Well I’m not going to resign. You’ll probably need to terminate me,’” Shawanda Jones told The Dispatch on Wednesday. “He (said) he will, and I said, ‘OK.’”
During a Wednesday work session at City Hall, the council discussed terminating Shawanda Jones’ contract four months early, kicking the vote on the matter to next week’s regular meeting. She began working with the city in August 2025 at a contract rate of $2,000 per month. Though the city included a full-time public information officer in this fiscal year’s budget, at a salary of up to $55,000, it has not filled that position.
Aside from problems with who the PIO should report to, the mayor was vague about exactly what issues led to the discussion on Wednesday.
“We tried to continue to work on those issues, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s going to get any better,” Mayor Jones told The Dispatch after the work session.
Shawanda Jones, however, pointed specifically to changes in her role since she was hired and a working relationship with Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett that she does not believe aligns with her original contract.
“He said that he needed someone that would work hand-in-hand with the COO. I told him I didn’t have a problem with it. There had been some communications issues there,” Shawanda Jones said. “I told him he needs to find someone that she (Garrett) wants to work with as well.”
Mayor Jones said the PIO position reports to both the mayor and COO. That perspective, Shawanda Jones said, wasn’t what she signed up for.
“When I was brought in, it was a clear understanding … that I would answer to the mayor and council, not the COO,” she said. “… A lot of my job roles and duties … have changed tremendously since I was brought in to where we are now.”
For example, Shawanda Jones said her initial understanding of her role entailed media outlets reaching out to her, so she could essentially act as “a funnel” to sources in the city. However, some media outlets, she said, have been instructed to take those requests to Garrett instead.
Shawanda Jones said she has spent the last few months creating social media content for the city at various events, one of what she believes are the original tenants of her council-approved contract outside of “verbally amended” changes from the mayor.
She said Garrett is responsible for posting any content to the city’s social media, as Shawanda Jones’ access to those pages “was revoked.”
Shawanda Jones said it was “pretty clear” the arrangement would come to a head at some point, though she hopes the council votes to let her finish out the contract to give her time to train a replacement.
“But if not, I totally respect it,” she said. “It’s not going to be any love lost, and it will actually allow me to get a lot more money a lot more quickly. But at the end of the day, I try to do what’s best for the city. I think that would be best, being able to allow someone to transition in.”
Garrett did not respond to requests for comment by press time on Wednesday.
Potential litigation?
During the work session, Ward 2 Councilman Roderick Smith asked for the potential termination to be added to the council’s Tuesday meeting agenda as a personnel matter to be discussed in executive session.
Mayor Jones pushed back on the request, noting that Shawanda Jones’ contract could not be discussed behind closed doors.
“If you’re discussing the job performance of a particular employee, then that qualifies for executive session,” City Attorney Jeff Turnage clarified during the work session. “But an independent contractor is not an employee.”
Ward 6 Councilman Jason Spears offered a different angle, suggesting prospective litigation could serve as an alternative basis for an executive session. Both Turnage and Mayor Jones denied knowing of any prospective litigation tied to the potential termination.
Shawanda Jones, however, did not rule it out.
“This just happened in the past 24 hours,” she said. “This completely blindsided me. I still have a week to decide on whether I will pursue that, but I will say, because my contract was not followed in its totality, there is room for prospective litigation.”
Either way, Shawanda Jones said she intends to speak for herself to the council on Tuesday.
“I plan on making sure that the council knows that these issues should not repeat with whoever comes in and takes my place,” she said.
Other business
In other business Wednesday, the council:
■ voted unanimously to allocate an additional $600,000 in internet-use tax funds to cover more paving projects, adding to about $2.9 million already allocated for paving; and
■ tabled a vote to amend an employment agreement for a latent print analyst for the Columbus Crime Lab in order to review training costs.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
