As trial continues in Gwinnett Superior Court in a lawsuit between Snellville’s mayor and city council, City Clerk Melisa Arnold resigns her position affective the end of the month.
The 24-year city employee cited stress from the trial as the reason for her decision. Arnold along with City Manager Butch Sanders and the five city council members are named in the suit brought by Mayor Kelly Kautz.
“Because of what she’s been put through, she just said physically and mentally she couldn’t handle it anymore,” says Mayor Pro Tem Tom Witts.
He tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish that he and the other council members wanted to keep Arnold on the job when they blocked Kautz’s appointment of a new city clerk in January.
The council maintains it has the authority to make the appointments of the clerk, city manager, and city attorney, not the mayor.
“I always fight for employees and she certainly needed to be fought for and that’s what five members of the council are doing, as well as the city manager,” says Witts.
Kautz has testified her access to the administrative offices of city hall was revoked by Sanders the day after she appointed Phylliss Richardson to the position.
Judge Warren Davis has indicated he will likely rule on some of the issues from the bench, but may take longer to decide which party has the ability to appoint and terminate city positions.
