Henry County has fired its county manager.
County commissioners ended Lyndon Bonner’s contract Tuesday after taking up the issue in executive session during their first commission meeting of 2017.
With a new board in place, the county will be moving in a different direction with county management leadership, Chair June Wood said in a county-issued statement released Wednesday.
Bonner took his dismissal in stride.
“There’s no magic to this,” he said Wednesday. “City and county administrators across the nation serve at the pleasure of elected officials. In case, the termination was without cause. It’s very generous beyond the terms of my employment agreement. There’s no acrimony here. The board made a decision and I have to respect that. The work has been challenging. I look back on this as an extraordinarily good opportunity.”
Former Commissioner Tommy Smith who worked with Bonner said “He’s probably the most qualified county manager Henry’s ever had. He knows county government. He is a very ruled person and a very ethical person and the board couldn’t micromanage him.”
After applying for the job three times, Bonner was hired as county manager in October 2015 after working as city manager in North Miami Beach, Fla.
Assistant County Manager Cheri Hobson-Matthews will handle the day-to-day operations until a new county manager is hired, county spokeswoman Melissa Robinson said Wednesday.
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