Dozens of angry Woodbine residents confronted city council members at a tense town hall July 28, demanding to know why the city hasn’t filed an audit in the past five years and pressing their elected officials to address a medley of municipal issues stemming from the missing documents.
Their city, established in 1908 and Camden County’s seat, has not filed an audit since 2020, making Woodbine ineligible for state grants and putting it at risk of losing its charter. For months, political factions in the town of a little more than a thousand residents have hardened, with many blaming its five-person council for failing to responsibly govern Woodbine — and being too internally fractured to efficiently solve the issues.
The two-hour town hall last Tuesday took on urgency because of a new twist: Citizens are advancing forward with petitions to oust three different council members from their seats, as the council has moved slowly to provide transparency about the financial problems.
Janet Heath, who has lived right outside Woodbine’s municipal border for 27 years, has been working to amplify the recall efforts. Heath said council members are failing to effectively communicate, voting as a block against Mayor Kizzi Knight and repeatedly dismissing citizen concerns. The missing audits, Heath said, reflect long-term failures in accountability and transparency.
“Any of these council members could reapply and rerun to keep their jobs, but there’s no reason to do that if they’re not willing to have the best interest of the city and the citizens, and for them to realize that it is government of the people, by the people, for the people,” Heath said.
The public servants charged with solving the town’s opaque budget problems say the issues arose from staffing shortages that originated during the pandemic. No officials addressed the recall petitions at the town hall. Councilman Rick Baird — the official whose recall has progressed the furthest — said to constituents that while steps should have been taken earlier, completing the audits is now largely in the hands of auditors from an Atlanta-based firm the city hired in March.
“I apologize for whatever role I had,” he said of the city’s financial- and communication-related issues. “All I can do moving forward is to work on making it better.”
Woodbine on December 4, 2024. Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current GA
Incomplete audits, impacted funding
Georgia law requires all local governments to file audits detailing the municipality’s financial activity. Governments were previously expected to complete annual audits, but after the passing of House Bill 224 in May 2026, municipalities with annual expenditures less than $2.5 million may submit audits every two fiscal years instead.
At the town hall, Baird said Woodbine has an annual budget of $1.2 million. He assured residents that the five years of missing audits will be complete before Woodbine’s 2026-27 audit is due July 2028.
Because of the missing audits, Woodbine is illegible for state grants. This includes the state Department of Transportation’s Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant (LMIG) program, which allocates funding based on the city’s population and total centerline road miles for its local road system. Jill Nagel, a GDOT district communications officer, wrote in an email to The Current GA that LMIG grants are typically used for road construction, repairs and other infrastructure projects.
At the town hall, Baird told attendees that Woodbine was unable to access $203,515.25 in LMIG grants. Earlier that day, Nagel wrote that the city actually lost out on $245,766.54 over the 2022-2026 LMIG cycles.
Baird said CKH Group, an Atlanta-based accounting firm that began working with the county in March as per city council minutes, will need at least three more months to complete the “first phase” of the 2021 audit. Only after submitting the report to the state will the firm begin work on 2022’s audit, then 2023’s and so on.
Woodbine Mayor Pro-Tempore Louise Mitchell told constituents the audit delays stemmed from staff shortages, the pandemic and the illness and resulting death of the city’s then-clerk in 2021. Baird said the city struggled to train and retain replacement clerks until they hired its current clerk in 2025.
“The delays in the audits didn’t happen overnight. Therefore, the resolve of this issue is not going to happen overnight,” Mitchell said. “But I guarantee you, it is in the process of being corrected.”
Jannie Everette was born and raised in Woodbine and moved back to her rural hometown in 2012. Everette told The Current GA that if other municipalities are able to complete audits amid staffing issues, she sees no reason why Woodbine shouldn’t be able to do the same.
Jannie Everette reads a question to the Woodbine City Council at a town hall on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Credit: Daneen Khan/The Current GA
As constituents raised similar concerns about why the 2021 audit still isn’t complete, Baird agreed that things should have been done earlier, but said all the council can do now is work toward compliance.
“Beating that horse to death might make you feel good,” he said to the packed room. “It’s not going to improve how we get there.”
Mayor Knight said she learned of the incomplete audits through an email from a community member in 2023. She then reached out to Woodbine’s city administrator, Samantha Young — who was not present at the town hall — to figure out what happened. Knight voiced her frustration at the meeting, saying that while she agrees the council is going in the right direction, she sees the audits as part of a bigger issue of transparency, oversight and government accountability.
Transparency concerns
Heath said to The Current that the city council has a history of communication issues.
“We need transparency,” she said. “We need them to try to do everything they can to get the city operating as it should, so that we can be eligible for grants again.”
Along with the audits, Woodbine’s comprehensive plan no longer meets state requirements. Aaron Carpenter, the assistant executive director of Georgia’s Coastal Regional Commission, wrote in an email to The Current that the outdated plan puts the city out of Qualified Local Government (QLG) compliance, which prevents it from accessing various grants and loans from agencies across the state.
Carpenter said the CRC is leading a joint Camden County comprehensive planning update with the county, St. Marys and Kingsland, due in June 2028.
“Although Woodbine has been invited to participate in the joint planning effort, I can’t yet confirm its participation,” Carpenter said. “The project remains in its preliminary stages, with the planning process expected to begin in earnest during the next calendar year.”
At the town hall, the council said they were unaware of any planning meetings. Knight said Young, as the city administrator, was supposed to share the invitations, but Baird said when Young called the CRC, a representative admitted they did not invite Woodbine to participate.
When Knight asked him why he was the only member of council with that information, Baird said it was because “he asked.” Voices overlapped in frustration — “everybody asked,” one person called out.
At one point in the town hall, Baird said Woodbine has enough money to operate the city but not to maintain its roads, an issue he said other cities in Camden County also share. Knight said Woodbine’s tight budget — and reduced Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) allocation from the county — is exactly why the city must be eligible for state grants.
“How long have you been the Mayor of Woodbine?” Baird then asked her.
Knight, who was elected in 2019, replied instantly: “Long enough to know we have big issues.”
“Almost five years, correct?” Baird continued, with Knight agreeing. “And does the charter not specify that you have oversight?”
“Thank you. Thank you for opening this door,” Knight said, pausing for claps and cheers. “Yes it does. That’s where the disconnect comes in, because it is my responsibility, but I have been challenged on every hand with that oversight.”
Knight said every time she reached out to the city administrator for audit updates, she received different answers. The agendas she prepares for council meetings, she said, aren’t always the ones presented.
Woodbine resident Deondra Holzendorf then addressed councilors for disrespecting Knight at public meetings.
“If she says one thing, then you vote against it,” she said to the council. “The citizens have come together to ask you questions that you guys will shun off, because you don’t care.”
Deondra Holzendorf addresses the Woodbine City Council at a town hall on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Credit: Daneen Khan/The Current GA
Outside of the meeting, multiple residents spoke with The Current about public meeting minutes being inaccurate. Everette shared stories of neighbors struggling to get their mail delivered, as well as receiving water and sewage bills from the city despite having private cesspool systems. Constituents all echoed the same needs: transparency, accountability and conversation.
During the meeting, Mitchell said nobody attends city council meetings until controversies arise (“I’m somebody,” one attendee called out, with others similarly chiming in).
“When you hear that there’s something going on and there’s an issue, you should come,” Knight then said. “This is your money. We work for you. You elected us. So you can call it controversial. You can call it whatever. But this is information that the citizens need.”
The future of Woodbine
If Woodbine’s audit issues are not resolved, the city may lose its charter and become an unincorporated territory in Camden County, state Sen. Mike Hodges told The Current.
Hodges hoped to see the city engage an auditor and suggested the officials should review their charter to see if it’s the most efficient way to govern their town — steps he’s proud to see the city taking. But if Woodbine cannot get its affairs in order, then the state Senate and House may vote to revoke its charter entirely.
“If they can’t fix this, if they can’t govern in a reasonable and responsible manner — and if the constituents, the people of Woodbine, don’t elect commissioners who can — then why even have a city?” Hodges said.
At the town hall, Chris Balch from the Atlanta-based Balch Law Group spoke about Woodbine’s charter review process. Balch said he submitted a revised proposal for the charter that refines the roles of elected officials, which he said will be available for Woodbine residents to view at the city council meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday.
While residents don’t want to lose their charter, many have lost faith in their governance. Some are petitioning through the Reclaiming Woodbine Community Action Group to remove councilors through recall elections.
The Reclaiming Woodbine Community Action Group mission statement on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Credit: Daneen Khan/The Current GA
Rockney Carter, the acting elections supervisor for Camden County, said the recall process begins with an application where citizens notify the Board of Elections office of their recall request and legal reasoning. For Woodbine, the applications required signatures from 10% of registered voters at the time the particular official was on the ballot.
The initial goal was to recall all five city councilors: Knight, Mitchell, Baird and councilors Phillis Drummond and C.C. Higginbotham. However, only Baird’s recall is past the initial stage; residents did not get enough signatures to proceed with Knight and Drummond, and the other two councilmembers can not be recalled until they’ve completed 180 days in office. As that period has just concluded, Everette said the community will now resume their efforts.
After a recall application is approved, organizers must collect signatures from 30% of the registered voters when the official was on the ballot. Everette said residents submitted Baird’s recall petition on Friday.
Carter said the election board will certify the signatures and, if cleared, will call a recall election. If the majority votes to have Baird recalled, Woodbine will have a special election to determine a replacement; recalled officials may run in the special election to keep their positions.
“But there’s no reason to do that if they’re not willing to have the best interest of the city and the citizens,” Heath said.
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