Hogansville City Council will go ahead with changing its charter to allow sitting members to be appointed city manager, even though the would-be manager no longer wants the job.

Council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to start the process over to make the change. How soon it can happen depends on the publication schedule – the change has to be advertised in the local legal organ at least twice. A vote could happen as soon as July 18 or Aug. 1.

“We did all the work on it. We need to go ahead and change it,” said Councilman Scott Worthy, who proposed the change.

Council had voted in April to make Councilman Jack Leidner the new city manager, dependent on changing the charter rule. Current City Manger Bill Stankiewicz is retiring.

That plan came off the rails June 7, however, when a vote to make the change didn’t pass. Councilwoman Jean Crocker was absent at that meeting and Councilman Bobby Joe Frazier, who had a falling out with Leidner over a proposed group home in the city, didn’t vote to make the change, so there weren’t enough votes to pass it.

Frazier cast a dissenting vote Tuesday night, but everyone else, including Leidner, voted to make the change.

Members of the Troup County NAACP also questioned the wisdom of changing the rule in June.

Leidner says Tuesday’s move doesn’t mean his hat is back in the ring for the manager’s job.

“I’ve got to run for office, but there’s no sense in not changing (the charter),” he said.

The city has received nine applications since reopening the advertisement for the city manager’s job. The applications will be reviewed July 18-22 with interviews July 28. A vote on a new manager could come Aug. 1 with a projected start date of Sept. 6.

About 30 people had applied for the job when it first was advertised in January.

Jennifer Shrader can be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.