Dawson City Council votes to terminate city manager’s contract

DAWSON – Dawson’s City Council voted to terminate its city manager’s contract, during its August council meeting, Thursday. 

Councilman John Harris led the 4-3 vote to terminate City Manager Cherysh Green-Caldwell’s contract. Councilman William Durr, Councilwoman Melissa Marshall and Mayor Robert Aaron also voted in favor of the termination. Councilman Leon Ferguson and Councilwomen Iri Pittman and Sondra Walker voted against. This vote came after a lengthy executive session. 

City Attorney Tommy Coleman said the council terminated Green-Caldwell without cause, meaning the city must continue to pay her until the end of her contract, on Dec. 31. Aaron said Green-Caldwell had made personnel decisions with department heads that various council members, including he, did not approve. 

“When it came to disciplinary reprimands for some personnel, we thought that was a little bit too harsh,” Aaron said.

He did not specify which personnel.

Green-Caldwell began her term as the Dawson city manager in January. The Albany Herald and The Dawson News previously spoke with her about her plans for increased collaboration within the city and the development of Dawson into a “premiere suburb of metro Albany.” The city had just voted during the same council meeting Thursday, to increase the city manager’s purchasing power to $20,000.

“I want to thank Mrs. Caldwell for doing the best that she could under the conditions that she had,” Aaron said. “There are a lot of things that she put in place that we want to keep in place.”

He pointed to the hourly wage increase for city employees and more training opportunities for employees and leadership, which Green-Caldwell spearheaded. Under her brief period of leadership, the city also had been able to fill long-standing vacant positions, including a Code Enforcement officer and finance officer.

Now, Dawson is again without a city manager. This comes after a five-year period of instability within the role after two previous city managers were removed from their position.  

“I don’t know what the future holds, but they’re going to have to find somebody to run the city, and it’s increasingly difficult in rural Georgia to find somebody to come and do these jobs,” Coleman said. 

Aaron said the search for a new city manager will begin immediately. As mayor, he will serve as the interim city manager until a new person is found.

“We as a council have to get on the same page,” he said. “No matter what our differences are . . . we need to find the best candidate that we can find. In the past, it was hard for us to come together. Until we can do that, we won’t have stability.”

The Dawson News has reached out to Green-Caldwell for comment. This is a developing story and will continue to be updated.