Voters in Hoschton will go to the polls next month for a recall election against Mayor Teresa Kenerly and City Councilman Jim Cleveland, according to a published report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The newspaper said the Jackson County Board of Elections on Tuesday night certified recall petitions against the two and then set a Jan. 14, 2020 election date.
Both Kenerly and Cleveland came under fire earlier this year for racially-charged comments they made in separate incidents.
Kenerly reportedly refused to interview a candidate for city administrator because of his race, saying Hoschton "isn't ready for this." The candidate was black. Cleveland, in an interview where he was defending the mayor, made a comment about interracial marriage, saying it was an un-Christian practice.
Both incidents raised the ire of Hoschton citizens, who called for Kenerly and Cleveland to resign from office. When they refused, citizens began circulating recall petitions.
The two elected officials tried to stop the effort in court, but were unsuccessful.
According to the article in the AJC, Elections Board Chairman Eric Crawford said the organizers of the recall submitted nearly 25-percent more signatures than were needed for each petition.
