Cohutta Mayor Ron Shinnick has resigned after weeks of turmoil over the town’s police department, according to local reporting and city officials. The resignation letter was dated May 15 and the town council accepted it later in the week, with officials moving toward naming an interim mayor.
Cohutta Mayor Ron Shinnick has resigned after weeks of turmoil over the town’s police department, according to multiple local reports and city officials.
FOX 5 Atlanta reported Monday that a city attorney confirmed Shinnick submitted a resignation letter dated May 15, and that the town council accepted it. CBS Atlanta and WDEF later reported the same basic sequence, citing a city official.
The resignation comes after the town dissolved its police department earlier this month and then reinstated it two days later after the council acted to restore the officers’ jobs. AP reported on May 8 that the council had reinstated the department after the mayor fired the chief and officers, though the exact reasons for the firings were not made public.
Local reporting said the council was moving toward appointing an interim mayor. It was not immediately clear whether the resignation took effect immediately or whether any additional formal action would follow on the earlier personnel dispute.
Cohutta is a small town in north Georgia, and the dispute drew outsized attention because of the abrupt move against the police department and the rapid reversal that followed.
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