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Clarkston City Manager agrees to resign from post

Clarkston City Manager Shawanna Qawiy (WSB-TV)

The Clarkston City Council has decided to unanimously part ways with City Manager Shawanna Qawiy during a special meeting on Monday.

Qawiy was placed on administrative leave on Aug. 4 and has resigned. Her effective resignation date is Sept. 29 according to the agreement.

She will receive a severance of $67,500 and will not sue the city, per the agreement.

No new City Manager has been named in her place, though an announcement could come sometime this week.

On July 27, Clarkston Councilwoman Susan Hood abruptly resigned during a town hall meeting where citizens voiced their concerns about the city government.

Qawiy has been accused of creating a “toxic work environment.”

Earlier this year, Clarkston Police Chief Christine Hudson says she was demoted several months after filing an ethics complaint against Qawiy, accusing her of being racist.

Several police officers have cited Qawiy as the main problem in the department. The Clarkston Police Department currently has just nine officers for a city of 14,500 citizens.

An attorney for Chief Hudson, Ed Buckley, said, “In March of this year, [Chief Hudson] asked for an eight, eight and a half percent salary increase for her officers. Then, she was written up and disciplined and suspended in April, and that’s when officers told her they were looking for other positions.”

The chief and city manager have been publicly at odds since earlier this year when Qawiy suspended Hudson without pay for insubordination.

“Very, very trivial incident,” said Buckley. “The city manager, and [Hudson] and one other individual were in a meeting, and the city manager started in on her and she said there we go again or here we go again or something like that, and she got written up for insubordination.”






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