Earlier this month Decatur Mayor Pro Tem Kecia Cunningham declared she wouldn’t seek re-election after nearly 16 years on the city commission. But Monday night she went one step further announcing her immediate resignation to take a job as key accountant for Public Financial Management Inc. in Harrisburg, Pa.
“It has been my distinct privilege and honor to serve the city of Decatur,” Cunningham told her fellow commissioners. “These last 16 years have been the highest and best use of a life I could ever imagine. I don’t know what I’m going to do now on the first and third Monday each month [when commission meetings are scheduled].”
Cunningham, 49, initially ran for office at the urging of former Elizabeth Wilson, who was mayor from Mayor 1993 to 1999. Wilson was retiring at the time. Wilson and Cunningham are the only two African-American women to serve on Decatur’s commission.
An Agnes Scott graduate and Decatur resident since 1994, Cunningham leaves to join her longtime boyfriend Steve Vaughn, who moved from Georgia to Harrisburg last year. She said she begins her new job next Monday.
City Manager Peggy Merriss said that with Cunningham resigning only 2½ months before the Nov. 3 election, she believes the city won’t need to hold a special election, that instead the commission will appoint an interim replacement. She added that she’d consult with the city attorney later this week to get a definitive ruling.
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