Sharing My Appreciation for Stanley Hawthorne

During last night’s council meeting, our Council terminated our city manager, Stanley Hawthorne. You can see the vote here. Councilmembers Carn and Gay voted in favor of termination; Councilmembers McKenzie and Arnold abstained. 

According to Robert's Rules, if individuals decide not to vote or abstain, the motion can be carried by a majority of those who do vote. In this instance, two votes constituted a majority of the voters, leading to the motion's approval. Had the councilmembers who abstained voted against the motion to terminate Mr. Hawthorne, I, as the Mayor, would have been required to intervene as the tiebreaker per our city charter.

I want to thank Mr. Hawthorne for his service to College Park and the high level of professionalism he brought to the city these last nine months. He is a man of character, vision, and compassion. We were fortunate he chose College Park, and I will greatly miss his leadership.

I will provide an in-depth review of the entirety of last night’s meeting soon.