Columbus City Council has selected its first openly gay president. Shannon Hardin ascended to the post Tuesday night after being picked by his colleagues in a 4-2 vote.
There was some relatively rare drama on the all-Democratic body, as Hardin beat out Priscilla Tyson for the position. Tyson and Mitchell Brown cast the two votes against Hardin.
The Columbus Dispatch reports the vote came shortly after Hardin told the paper he did not graduate from Morehouse College in 2009, as he has previously said. The paper quotes Hardin as saying he walked in his graduation ceremony, but didn’t receive his degree because of what he sees as an administrative issue.
Hardin says he earned his final college credit from Franklin University and received a degree in 2016.
Hardin fills the council president’s seat vacated by Zach Klein, who left council after being elected to be the next Columbus city attorney.
