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For the second time in less than six months, Decherd has lost an alderman due to differences with other city leaders.

Alderman John Corak, who was sworn into office on Jan. 4, filling a vacancy when Mary Nell Hess became mayor, walked out of City Hall Tuesday just before the 7 p.m. meeting got underway.

Corak said later the straw that broke the camel’s back surfaced when Hess had rearranged the seating order, which initially had Alderman Justin Stubblefield, Corak, Hess and Aldermen Larry Fraley and Glenn Summers seated from left.

Hess had switched Fraley and Corak’s seats, citing that she had wanted to have Fraley, who is the vice mayor, on her right side.

“It was no big deal,” Hess said.

However, Corak begged to differ after seeing the name tag had been moved.

“At that point, I’d had it,” he said later, adding that Hess had told him she was moving him to the “good side.”

“That’s what set me off,” Corak said. “I thought that was a little childish on her part.”

Corak removed the name tag from where it had been placed in front of Fraley’s seat and placed it on the alderman’s bench, saying “consider that my resignation.”

He also repeated a statement he had made at a previous meeting about Hess, saying he deemed her unfit to be mayor.

Corak said the seating-arrangement situation was only one of several issues he had with the mayor. The other issues had revolved around requests for specific actions that had been overlooked by the mayor.

He said the board has dragged its feet on advertising to secure a new city administrator to fill a vacancy left when Rex Clark was fired from the position on June 2022 in a 3-2 vote, and the position was filled in an interim capacity by Water Department Superintendent Eric Bradford.

However, Bradford resigned from the position in February, and the board followed through by calling on the Tennessee Municipal Technical Advisory Service to handle the process to fill the vacancy. In the meantime, Hess has been taking care of city-administrator duties.

Corak said using the MTAS website to even find the open position is difficult, and it should be clearly visible to anyone interested by simply making a routine Google search.

He also said he had been striving to get additional compensation for Police Chief Kenneth Griffin and Fire Chief Chuck Williams who had declined a pay raise so that additional money could go to their personnel.

Corak said his requests have been repeatedly delayed by Hess, and he got tired of the lack of response from her.

 “I don’t have time for it,” he said, referring to how he has been trying to do what he thinks is best for the city only to have it fall on deaf ears. “There’s too much drama.”

Hess said Corak had brought up the city-administrator vacancy issue during a special budget meeting on Aug. 29, but it wasn’t on the agenda.

“That meeting was specifically set to deal with the budget,” she said, adding that the city-administrator issue could be addressed at Tuesday’s meeting, and it was on the agenda.

“But he didn’t stay around for that,” she said, referring to Corak’s early exit from the council chambers.

The board discussed potential steps to further advertise the position.

Stubblefield said the city could put it on its Facebook page and get better results than what’s happened thus far.

Corak said later that the field should be open so that many candidates apply, and the board can select from a broader field in hopes of getting the right person for the job.

Stubblefield and Hess reached an impasse toward the end of the meeting when he said she was withholding information the entire board should be receiving. He added that he and other board members should not have to ask to get the information.

He said he believes the reason Hess had moved the seating was to separate him from Corak because the two have been at odds with the mayor.

Hess at one point smacked the gavel in response to Stubblefield’s accusations.

Stubblefield replied, “You should be smacking that at your husband instead of me.”

Hess said later that when she became mayor, she inherited a series of huge problems placed on her by others.

 “It was a big mess created by those who didn’t know what they were doing,” she said, adding that she’s been working diligently to try to correct the problems.

Despite his differences with Hess, Corak paid tribute to her for the efforts she has made to correct problems with the Water and Wastewater Department by working to get an outside firm to handle the situation.

The board recently hired ClearWater Solutions from Auburn, Alabama, to handle the Water and Wastewater Department’s operations, maintenance and administrative duties, following an order from the Tennessee Water & Wastewater Financing Board to take corrective action.

“She’s done a good job with that,” Corak said.