Hogansville mayor sheds more light on city manager’s resignation as interim steps in

Published 10:00 pm Friday, July 1, 2022

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HOGANSVILLE — Prior to addressing Hogansville residents’ concerns on inner-city matters at the city’s first town hall of 2022, the Hogansville City Council first elected to further address the recent, and sudden, resignation of its city manager, Jonathan Lynn.

During the city’s town hall, resident Albert Prado asked council for additional details on former city manager Jonathan Lynn’s resignation. Mayor Jake Ayers said at the start of the town hall Lynn offered his resignation to the council at its June 20 meeting, and he and the council entered into a written agreement on the resignation. The agreement, Ayers said, limits the council from sharing information on details of the resignation.

“You ran on the platform [of transparency], I think the community needs to understand the reason for the city manager’s resignation,” Prado said. “Are there any open investigations as to why the city manager left?”

City attorney Alex Dixon reiterated Lynn offered his agreement, to which the city agreed to it.

“The city council is not going to comment any further,” he said.

Ayers said the matter was not a lack of transparency but rather an issue of personal privacy for the individuals involved.

“No one is trying to hide anything,” Ayers said. “We reached a mutual agreement for [Lynn’s] resignation. That’s exactly what happened, and it truly is as simple as that.” 

Following a four-hour executive session at the council’s last meeting on June 20, the council unanimously accepted Lynn’s resignation. The meeting ended just before midnight and Ayers nor councilmembers initially commented on the resignation.

Assistant City Manager Lisa Kelly will be serving as the interim city manager until a new city manager is hired. Kelly formerly served as interim city manager from January 2020 to July 2020 before taking on the role of assistant city manager when Lynn was hired in June 2020.