The city council next week will consider contracting with a former WCBI reporter for public information officer duties.
By Oct. 1, she could become a full-time city employee.
During a work session Tuesday at City Hall, the council discussed giving the role to Shawanda Jones, who worked at WCBI for about a year starting in 2023 before going to WDSU-TV in New Orleans, where she is currently employed.
If approved, Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett said the city would pay Jones $2,000 per month through a professional services contract through at least Sept. 30.
“I would ask you all to look at actually employing her at that time,” Garrett told the council.
The salary for the full-time position would range between $50,000 and $55,000 annually, Garrett said. With benefits, the total cost to next year’s city budget would be closer to $75,000.
Among Jones’ duties, she would serve as a media contact for all city departments, disseminate city information through social media and other platforms and assist city representatives in effectively communicating with the public or city employees.
Ward 4 Councilwoman Lavonne Harris tabled approving the contract at the council’s Aug. 5 meeting, asking instead for more information.
While the council agreed to include the contract on next Tuesday’s agenda, Ward 6 Councilman Jason Spears raised concerns over the city’s other staffing needs next year, specifically a request for a new employee to act as an assistant to Garrett and City Attorney Jeff Turnage. He also asked Mayor Stephen Jones (no relation to Shawanda) if the public information officer would become a de facto wall between the public/media and city officials.
“This individual isn’t the gatekeeper for access, whether it be to us, to the police chief, to you or anyone else, that they still have those lines of communication directly too?” Spears asked the mayor. “They don’t have to go through her gate to get to you or get to Jammie? …”
“No,” the mayor responded.
“(I just want people to know) this is not something we’re building a fence up to the public … to say, ‘Well, you’ve got to go talk to this person first,’” Spears said.
Criticisms of city messaging
The conversation also turned to criticisms of the administration’s response to an officer-involved wreck July 16 where Officer Jeremy Harris was traveling 77 mph down College Street, lost control of his cruiser and crashed into a vehicle carrying five civilians that was stopped at the 22nd Street South intersection.
City police released initially incorrect information, which downplayed the severity of the civilian driver’s injuries, though it was later revealed he was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center for a brain bleed. A Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office investigative report revealed Columbus police officer Jeremy Harris caused the crash by driving recklessly, though he and another officer falsely claimed the civilian driver caused the crash.
The investigation also showed CPD canceled the drug test for Harris at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, though city policy mandates the test should have been conducted within an hour of the crash. Police Chief Joseph Daughtry said Harris instead took a drug test at the city crime lab the next day.
Much of this information came to light through reporting in local media, including The Dispatch.
That prompted Stephen Jones to issue a press release Aug. 4 that, among other things, blamed “confusion” at Baptist for Harris not receiving a timely drug test and claimed the hospital had apologized to the city and implemented training to avoid similar issues in the future.
Baptist released a statement Aug. 6 refuting the mayor’s claims, asserting that it followed its protocols and attempted to administer the drug test.
On Tuesday, Ward 5 Councilman Gary Jefferson insinuated the whole debacle proved the city’s need for a public information officer.
“With some of the information we’ve been seeing out lately, we’re in need of a person,” Jefferson said. “We’ve got a lot of information that (The Dispatch) ‘helped’ us put out. … We need someone to speak as one (for the city).”
Then Spears directly bemoaned the quality of the writing in the mayor’s Aug. 4 press release.
“I don’t want to step on toes, but when I read that response with sheriff spelled with one f, that kind of pushed me toward having (the public information officer) position,” he said.
Jones offered a lighthearted defense.
“Actually, that went through three people and we still missed it, so I don’t know,” he said, chuckling. “But you know what? If that’s the only thing people can get out of it, and not the message, but misspelled words, then they really weren’t looking for the message.”
To that, Spears offered a seemingly unconvinced, “Maybe so.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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You can help your community
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 31 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
