City of Hagan adjusting after rash of resignations

HAGAN, Ga. (WTOC) - Hagan city leaders are racing to fill some key positions after a slew of resignations.

Officials there say the mayor, city clerk and a councilmember have all recently left the job.

City of Hagan officials say that they’ve had resignations and position turnovers before but never quite this quickly.

It’s a unique situation, say city staff, who note it all started with the recent resignation of Hagan’s city clerk - the person responsible for the city’s day to day operations.

That then lead to the mayor’s resignation citing family and reasons related to his other job.

“The City of Hagan is not a full-time position as mayor, but it does require a lot of work. And if you’re unable to put that work in, and recognize that, the best thing to do is to step down. Sometimes you have to take care of your own health and what you need to do for your own family. So as a council we understood,” Hagan Mayor Pro-tem Clay Miller said.

Miller is now filling the mayor role for Hagan. He says despite the road bumps, they’ve already tapped the city’s assistant clerk to step into the main role.

“We’re going to have a full staff. There’s going to be a learning curve but we’re in the process of coming back to where we were,” Miller said.

Gena Roberts is the council member who resigned. She says she gave up her post to run for mayor of Hagan.

A move that Miller says will help Roberts qualify in time for the November election and replace her more quickly on city council.

“We wouldn’t get a new city councilman until March of next year. She decided to resign on the day she did so that we could include that election in the election in November to get a council person on their as soon as possible,” Miller said.

“And also it would save the city some money to keep from having a special election later on. So that way, it’s worked out pretty well and couldn’t come at a better time for the election coming up in November,” Roberts said.

And despite the rapid turnover for this Evans County city of roughly 1,500 people, leaders say Hagan city services have not been impacted.

“Those positions have been filled. Everything’s great in Hagan and moving right along and it’s going to be fine,” Roberts said.

Now city leaders are looking to the future, saying they now want to focus on ways to help the City of Hagan grow.

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