County administrator withdraws resignation
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By Christa Jennings
Senior Staff Writer
During a lengthy three-part County Commission meeting last week, County Administrator Amy Gilliland submitted a letter of resignation then later withdrew it after her notice was not accepted or approved by the Commission.
As reported previously, during the August Commission meeting Gilliland announced her intent to resign at the end of October. However, it was not an agenda item, and no official letter of resignation or written notice was given.
More than an hour of last Tuesday’s hour-and-a-half long meeting was spent reviewing and discussing Gilliland’s written notice of resignation and associated matters.
In her written notice, dated October 12, Gilliland stated that she was giving her 60-day written notice of resignation, in accordance with Article Five of her employment contract. Her notice further stated that her last day of employment with the County Commission will be December 31, unless she was offered employment elsewhere, at which time she would request payment of unused comp time, unused vacation hours and the remaining unpaid salary from her contract ending April 25, 2026.
Gilliland’s notice further reads, “As previously discussed, and agreed upon, I was to complete my contract through April 25, 2026. This would have afforded the newly hired administrator to receive training on the administrative duties, reports, changing names on all accounts – checking, vendors, contracts, credit card, getting them bonded, and numerous other required duties solely responsible by the administrator. I will also need the time to remove myself from all accounts and send letters to the Department of Revenue, Examiners office and to the Federal Treasury Department.”
During last Tuesday’s meeting Gilliland explained that she needed to be on the agenda to “set some things straight.” She stated that according to her contract, if she decides to leave she has to give a 60-day written notice, but that at the August meeting during staff reports she had made a statement that she would resign effective at the end of October.
“I was told to make that statement or they were going to ask for my resignation before that meeting started,” Gilliland said. “So I’m retracting that, and I am putting in my 60-day letter of resignation to end at the end of this year.”
Gilliland said that there are numerous things that just a county administrator handles, adding, “If you don’t go in there, you don’t know what we do. I would think that a commissioner would want to know what’s going on over there. I have commissioners from other counties that actually call me and ask me things.”
She further mentioned the amount of respect she has been shown from other officials and those across the state, which she said she thought was great.
“When I made that announcement in August, it created kind of a firestorm,” she said. “I never dreamed I would have support like I do from the county because everybody was saying you can’t leave, you can’t leave, why are you leaving? And all I could say was, ‘Ask the Commission.’ I’ve not done anything immoral. I have nothing but integrity since I have been here. I have not done anything against my contract. So I’ve been told that there’s pressure. To me, if you wanted pressure, your Department of Examiners would give you pressure. The Department of Examiners are the ones that said, ‘What are they thinking?’ I have not gone out and said anything about anybody. I’ve not talked about a commissioner. I’ve not talked about how I’ve been talked to. I’ve been told to ‘F- it’ and get up and leave my office. I’ve been told to put in my leave today, but I can’t do that because I’m connected to 29 bank accounts, and I’m connected to everything across the county. The Department of Examiners has told me, in no uncertain terms, to remove myself from everything in the county.”
She added, “I’ve already been thrown under the bus. I’m not the reason we had to return the $54,000 ADECA money. I’m not the reason. That grant was here a year and a half before I came, and everything was already approved. The Commission at that time hired East Alabama to manage that grant, just like we hire IAC to manage our ARPA grant. I could not write a check to anybody without having their permission. We had to submit documents and pictures. I gave them everything they asked for. Then they came back and said [things] weren’t approved. We still had over $11,000 hanging out there that we never even asked for, but they wouldn’t take that $11,000 and apply it to what they said we owed.”
However, Gilliland said she was able to save the county some money with writing essays on things such as why the fire department needed new tires and why they needed batteries so the county could recoup some of those funds.
“But it has been told that I cost the county that, and I did not,” she said. “I’ve been told that it was said I cost ARPA over $100,000, and actually I didn’t cost them anything. When Kate was here and said if she could give a grade it would be an A-plus. When I had that federal audit, I had no findings and no comments. Everything was like it was supposed to be.”
She mentioned the importance of federal money and everything being handled correctly and according to proper procedures, including reports.
“I have not breached my contract,” Gilliland said. “The contract was breached when I was told to put in a resignation, when we had already agreed that I would stay through the end of my contract next April.”
She added, “Since I have been here, I will say I have been talked to and treated in a way I never have in any other position. I don’t appreciate it. I don’t like it. I’ve been told I have no friends here. I didn’t come to this job for friends. I’ve been told that as soon as they leave my office they’re talking about me. I’ve been told that my own employees talk and tattle on me. I don’t know if they do or not. I don’t care. I’m here to do a job. I love the county. I like my job.”
She stated that she wears “way more hats” than she should and that the Commission office is one person short, adding that most county administrators across the state do not do everything she does. She reviewed some of the duties and responsibilities she has as administrator in Coosa County, including financials, working with auditors, working with other departments, monitoring the bank accounts, and more.
“My day is not standard,” she said. “I have a list everyday of what I’m going to want to do that day, but if something happens at that jail, I’ve got to stop what I’m doing because we’ve got to take care of that. If something happens with the Highway Department while they’re paving, I’ve got to stop what I’m doing, and we’ve got to take care of that. I can’t tell them we’ll do that later or I don’t have time right now. That holds up and halts so many things in the county.”
She added, “I don’t think y’all realize the full responsibilities that are over there and what goes on in that day.”
She mentioned the county’s financials and that the person has to be bonded to make financial decisions and keep money going to the departments they’re supposed to.
Gilliland stated that she is not a quitter and that she took the challenge of the job even though she only had four days of training, adding that she dug her heels in and called auditors and other administrators, went to classes and more to help learn the job.
In mentioning working evenings and weekends, she said that most county administrators do, mentioning many taking their laptops to conferences and meetings to work while there.
She said that her days are frequently being changed and that she is always doing three things at one time, and sometimes even more, adding, “That’s all the time. We need another person in there. We don’t have a lot of money to pay them. I would hope that you wouldn’t bring somebody in and give them this huge raise, because you don’t have it to pay them. We just don’t have it. But we need help in there. The people that work with me may not think so. I know so.”
Gilliland said there are several administrative offices that has nothing to do with the Highway Department or the Sheriff’s Office and that they let them run themselves. She said they also don’t do grants and don’t do postage, but that they do all of that in the Coosa County Commission Office.
“Every bill in this county comes through that office – $15,000 worth of power bills a month; about $8,000 on the water bills, give or take,” she said. “That’s just on two bills. Everything comes through that office on that county, but you think you don’t have to have a financial person in there. And that’s fine. You don’t have to like me. You don’t have to like anything. It’s called respect the process. I don’t dislike any of y’all. I’ve not gone out and said not one single word. I’ve just kept it.”
She mentioned her husband’s unexpected passing and that she was out of work for a week following that. She mentioned having to have open heart surgery and that she was off two weeks following it, stating that East Alabama kept contacting her those two weeks so she decided she might as well go back to work.
“I’ve had a lot of things hit me since I’ve been here, and I’ve just rose above it and went on,” she said. “I’ve not whined. I’ve not… well, I won’t say I haven’t cried, but I haven’t cried over this job. …I’m tired of the rumors. I’m tired of hearing all of this stuff. Actually we advertised my job, and there wasn’t a job even legally available because I’d not given you a resignation. It wasn’t on the agenda. It wasn’t approved. There wasn’t anything to accept. It’s just y’all were, ‘get her gone, get her gone.’ I’m still walking around here.”
She said people have asked why she’s there since the Commission “obviously doesn’t want [her] there” and said, “It’s just who I am. Unfortunately I have a caring bone. I do. I care about the job. I care about the county. I care about the people I work with. I look out for them. We have open dialogue for this courthouse as far as I’m concerned.”
In further discussion, Gilliland said, “So according to my contract, 60-day written notice. That’s what I’m putting in. I don’t like saying all this stuff. I’m a very private person. But I’ve been left with no choice. I have to take care of me. It’s just me. I don’t have anybody to help. It’s just me. I have to have a salary. I have to have insurance. …It’s not a plea. It’s just, do what’s right. I’m giving you a 60-day notice. If I get a job offer between now and the end of my 60 days, I’m going to take it because I’ve got to take care of me. And I want the money that’s due me. Not allowing me to finish my contract has really put me in a bind.”
Gilliland further said that she was asking for her resignation letter to be approved and to be allowed to stay until the end of the year. She said they had interviews that afternoon with potential administrators and said they need to know the exact things that only the administrator does and a clear understanding of what their responsibilities will be.
She said that the commissioners have said before that she was thrown to the wolves and said she “kind of still is being thrown to the wolves.”
“I don’t think anyone should come into this position and be thrown to the wolves,” she said. “It’s not fair to them, and it’s not fair to the county. It’s not fair to all these people who work for the county and come to rely on that office to make sure their bills are paid, their money’s arrived and their budget’s going right. It’s just not fair. Like I say, if you’ve got a beef with me, that’s fine. Don’t take it out on the county and everybody else.”
Commission Chair Lamar Daugherty said there were meetings both before and after he took the chair position that protected Gilliland’s good name and character. He said one day she approached him and asked him not to drag her name through the mud.
“I’m going to honor that, as a friend,” Daugherty said. “There are some things that went on in this office through lack of organization, whether they were inherited or not. You were offered another employee that you said you didn’t need – actually we did hire another one, but she didn’t pan out, and nothing changed. There’s a lot of things that I’m going to honor my word, and I’m not going to drag your name through the mud – as a friend. …This was strictly a business position from the county, and I’m going to keep it that way.”
During discussion, Commissioner Bertha K. McElrath asked county attorney John Kelley Johnson why he did not inform the Commission at its August meeting about the 60-day requirement in the contract when Gilliland initially announced her intent to resign effective October 31.
Johnson said that Daugherty had come in and discussed with him obtaining a copy of the contract, which Johnson said he provided to Daugherty.
“The contract is what it is,” Johnson said. “It says a 60-day written notice.”
Johnson reviewed information about the Commission approving the contract and information on the position and contract process.
In further discussion, McElrath said that Gilliland saying “the Commission” included all of them, adding that she disagreed with some of it.
“You have been great,” McElrath told Gilliland. “I have had no problems with you whatsoever, and you know that I haven’t from day one. I’ve worked with you on a continuous basis.”
Gilliland spoke on how the issue has hurt her feelings, adding, “I’m trying to protect myself – finish something. But to have it plucked from me like this… it’s disheartening. …I’m not mad. I’ve not been mad. I’ve just been hurt.”
Daugherty said that no one on the Commission has said that Gilliland wasn’t going to get paid and that her health considerations have been a factor and have been taken under consideration.
In ongoing discussion, Commissioner John Forbus said, “I know a lot of employees in the county, a lot of department heads, they don’t know the reason we’re here. I know we’ve talked in meetings, and I’ve expressed my opinion about why we’re here, but a lot of the employees that support Amy – if I was just an employee and had no idea about nothing that goes on in this office, me working every day, me receiving my paycheck and me going home, that was my everyday goal to take care of my family, I wouldn’t know about all of this. If we had the opportunity to sit down with each employee, each department head, and go over the reason that this Commission has come to this decision, I think we could make everybody understand. But like Lamar said, I’m not going to sit down with each employee of the county and every department head and say why my decision and why I will vote for Amy to resign. I’m not going to do that. But if this county, the leaders of this county, the employees of this county, and the citizens of this county expect whatever Commission is sitting behind this table to operate this county on the information that we as a Commission body have received from that Commission office that we’ve asked for and we couldn’t receive, and we have to pass budgets on hoping whatever reporting we get is correct and knowing it’s not because we know the data and the check reconciliations haven’t been done, that it can’t be correct.”
He added, “I think everyone that is supportive of Amy there’s a friendship there. Amy is a very likable person. …I told her I think she was set up for failure when she was hired. They didn’t think about what they were doing to Amy Gilliland by telling her she had four jobs and she comes in and she’s got 25. I don’t think anyone should be done like that.”
“With all the support that Amy is getting from every employee and every department head, it’s support not based on business,” Forbus added. “That seat’s business. These seats are business. We can’t support Amy to keep her job as the county administrator to run this county’s financials because of friendships. We have to have somebody in that seat who doesn’t really care if they’ve got a friend in this county.”
He further mentioned the county’s financials and annual budget review, mentioning the numbers and reports they receive and saying he doesn’t see where he can depend on what those numbers are.
“If y’all as a county and the citizens of this county want a Commission that will continue to operate like that, go to the zoo and get you a couple of monkeys to sit back here,” Forbus said. “They can do the same thing. They can sit back here and look at numbers, and they can be trained to say yeah or raise their hand; they can give you a signal. …If we’re going to build the county on friendships and support leaders and administrators and sheriff and whatever on friendships, then what are we really doing?”
He mentioned discussing and comparing with other county commissioners at conferences and other meetings about them receiving months in advance to work on their county budgets, mentioning that the Commission has a short amount of time to review reports they are given before approving a budget. He also mentioned not knowing if the numbers are correct and mentioned a lack of reporting financials.
“Y’all can sit here as Amy’s friends and Amy’s family and look at us as the body of the Commission like we’re the most horrible people in the world, and the next person we hire may be the same way, and she may wind up having to resign or get fired, too, but at some point we’ve got to find somebody that can get this stuff in order,” Forbus said. “Because y’all look at us to run this county and make decisions for the county and department heads.”
Gilliland said that any commissioner can request a report or financial review at any time, adding that any commissioner can come to the office and let her show them what they do and how things go in the system, adding, “but it didn’t happen.”
“Other counties are calling me to help them or [ask] how do you record this or what do you do, because I felt like they have more confidence in me than you,” Gilliland said.
Forbus said they are not having to deal with it, weekly, monthly or quarterly, stating that if they were sitting in those seats they would understand how Coosa County is being run.
“Everybody in here, every citizen in this county, can be mad or aggravated with me; I’m fine with that,” he said. “If they’re mad with me because I’m trying to make things right and trying to get things organized and running right, then they need to run for office and get over here and sit here and see how it’s done. …Whatever I’m doing in life, I want to do my best at it, and I want to make sure that it’s done correctly.”
In further discussion, Commissioner Brandon Davis also mentioned that they don’t get reports while other commissions get a monthly financial report, adding that the others do not have to request it. Gilliland said that they likely already have that set up, adding that Coosa County did at one time, but that the prior Commission kept throwing it away and said if they wanted a report they would ask for it.
“So that’s fine,” she said. “If you want a report, we can go run them right now.”
Forbus said, “That may be the reason we’re in the position we’re in, because maybe the ones who were sitting here before that ain’t here now allowed that.”
“That’s what I’m saying, but anything you need, I’m glad to give it to you, and do,” Gilliland said. “I have nothing to hide. I’ve been totally transparent with everything.”
After lengthy discussion, Davis made a motion to approve Gilliland’s resignation letter. However, when Daugherty called for a second, there was none, and Forbus said he had some questions.
He proceeded to further discuss the contract’s requirement for a 60-day written notice and asking attorney Johnson why he did not speak up at the August meeting to explain the proper process and the 60-day requirement, rather than wait two months and then it come up.
“I have no problem with Amy being paid out through her contract, no problem at all,” he said. “I think the road we’re on to get a new administrator in here and get her or him on their way of leading this county, I think that we’re just prolonging the wait of Amy moving on and somebody else being able to sit in this seat and get started.”
Gilliland mentioned that they would be bringing somebody else in and “throw them to the wolves” without allowing her those days to show them what the administrator is solely responsible for and show them things they will need to know.
“I’m gonna’ be out; that’s not the problem,” she said. “The problem is, I would hate for somebody to go sit in that seat and not know what to do.”
“I’m not up for setting someone else up with someone else’s ways of doing things,” Forbus said.
In ongoing discussion, Daugherty asked Johnson how the resignation letter could be worded legally for the Commission to honor the contract for its term monetarily, but the letter worded so that October 31 would still be Gilliland’s last day.
“How can we terminate this position by October 31 and still honor the monetary part of her contract,” Daugherty asked.
Johnson said he was not aware of any county contract being able to be paid all the way to the end of it if they do not have somebody doing the work. He said he would be glad to research that issue, but that he was not aware of any way the Commission could essentially buyout a contract when “the individual has not performed the service in order to receive the pay.”
Johnson said he could not answer the question sitting there regarding whether the Commission can pay her through the contract whether she resigns effective October 31 or December 31. Daugherty asked how long it would take him to research the issue and get an answer, and Johnson said it should be a “fairly short period of time.”
Daugherty mentioned that the Commission would be recessing for interviews later that same day and then recessing again until Friday. He asked Johnson if he could have an answer by Friday, and Johnson said he thought he could have an answer before then.
Daugherty then asked for a motion to table the agenda item for Gilliland’s letter of resignation until Friday, October 17, at 11:30 a.m. Forbus made a motion to table the matter until then, Davis seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved.
At 10:37 a.m. last Tuesday, the Commission recessed until 12 p.m. the same day to conduct two interviews for the administrator position. At that time the Commission conducted two interviews for the position and recessed again until October 17 at 11:30 to take action on Gilliland’s resignation letter and to conduct a third interview at 12 p.m.
At the reconvened meeting last Friday, Daugherty explained that in researching the last meeting there had been a procedural error. He said when the letter of resignation was to be approved he had asked for a motion, which Davis made, but then they got into a discussion.
“During a procedural error, we didn’t follow up with that motion, so that motion essentially died, which means we couldn’t have recessed on that item because it was never approved,” Daugherty said.
The floor was then turned over to attorney Johnson to explain the process and what the Commission would now need to do.
Johnson explained that because there was no second on the motion made, the motion died, and the letter was not approved and “has no affect.”
He advised the Commission to add an item to the agenda to discuss with him a pending or threatened litigation. The Commission unanimously approved adding the item to the agenda.
At last Friday’s reconvened meeting, attorney Frank Teel, counsel for Gilliland, presented the Commission and attendees with a letter withdrawing Gilliland’s resignation and giving a newly effective resignation date.
That letter reads, “I, Amy Gilliland, previously on the twelfth day of August, 2025, verbally tendered my resignation as Coosa County administrator to you commissioners, and then on October 14, 2025, I gave a written resignation to you, the commissioners, dated October 12, 2025, to be effective December 31, 2025. Said resignations have not been accepted by the Commission to date, and I am therefore withdrawing said resignations as of today.
“I therefore will continue to work as Coosa County administrator through the end of my contract, which is April 25, 2026, unless I decide to turn in my resignation at an earlier date. I will consider the Commission buying out my contract if the Commission wishes to consider such.”
Johnson then asked the Commission to go into executive session to discuss threatened or pending litigation, which the Commission unanimously approved. The Commission then went into executive session, with commissioners and Johnson moving to the upstairs jury room.
No time frame was given for the executive session, but it lasted nearly an hour and a half. An interview for a third administrator applicant was scheduled for 12 p.m., but the applicant left while the Commission was in executive session.
After reconvening in regular open session, Daugherty stated, “After our discussions in executive session and all, Amy has withdrawn her letter because the motion died. She is working under her current contract. There’s really nothing to do with item number one. It shouldn’t have been tabled and should not be on the agenda since the motion failed.”
He asked Johnson to verify that was correct, and John confirmed, saying that because of the procedural error and the motion failing to get a second it was “deemed to be denied” as far as the motion.
As such, no action was taken following the executive session at Friday’s reconvened meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 1:03 p.m., and the next regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Coosa County Commission will be held at 9 a.m. November 12.
For coverage of the remainder of last Tuesday’s Commission meeting, see next week’s edition.
