Willard Mayor Snider quits hours before impeachment hearing begins

Longtime Alderman Baird made new mayor of Willard; said Snider ‘should not have held the position in the first place’
Willard Mayor Samuel Snider resigned Thursday, Oct. 26, just hours before his impeachment hearing was set to take place. His replacement, longtime alderman Sam Baird, was voted into and sworn into office Monday, Oct. 30.
The municipal government of Willard has been in upheaval of late, primarily beginning with the decision to hire a new city administrator in September. Snider was away during this time, making it possible for Mayor Pro-tem Sam Baird to appoint Donna Stewart as interim city administrator. Snider, unhappy with the hiring, fired her immediately upon his return. After this incident, the board of aldermen had a special meeting where Snider was censured by the board and Stewart was rehired.
A meeting following this one found Snider in front of the board, issuing an apology shortly before being handed bills of impeachment. With the hearing scheduled for Oct. 26, it was business as usual until the day arrived. On the day of the hearing, Snider held a press conference in Willard at The Hive, where he announced his resignation and his intention to run for the position again next election cycle.
In an interview with the Commonwealth, Snider said that, despite his censure and the impeachment proceedings, he has a shot at winning his mayoral bid.
“Talking to the community, I think that there are a lot of people that would support me in that effort,” he said.
According to Baird, the former mayor’s press conference took place during the city’s Arbor Day celebration, where trees were distrubuted to citizens in the area.
“I mention this because of my frustration of Snider putting his personal agenda ahead of the citizens of Willard,” he said. “As for his running for mayor in 2024, I find it difficult to believe that the citizens will put more trust in a guy who has already misspent the trust he had.”
Because of the resignation, the impeachment hearing was canceled, with a sign taped to the city hall front door saying so, without any further announcement being made. In the parking lot of the community center where the hearing was to be held, groups of citizens were voicing their frustration to each other, having hoped city officials would have appeared anyway in order to address the concerns of the people.
Monday meeting, train back on track
In the Monday, Oct. 30 meeting, the board nominated and unanimously voted for Baird to become the city’s new mayor until the next election is decided. Baird, himself was one of the sitting aldermen who approved his promotion. With the conclusion of the meeting, Willard citizens not only have a new mayor but also an interim city administrator, with Donna Stewart taking back her short-lived position after being hired by the board and fired by Snider in September. Snider is still steadfast in his belief that Stewart does not meet the qualifications to be a good candidate for the job.
“Generally, what we’re calling for is about five to seven years of executive management experience,” Snider said.
Willard has, until recently, been without a city administrator, dating back to September 2022. When asked why Snider did not appoint an administrator during this time, he said that he and the board could not agree on the experience necessary for the position.
“At the time when we discussed it, we weren’t able to come to an agreement on the type of qualifications that an administrator needed,” Snider said.
In an interview, Baird gave his opinion of Snider’s qualifications as mayor, saying that after all of this controversy, it is clear to him that Snider should not have held the position in the first place, calling it a “popularity contest.”
“Elections have become such a popularity contest, people end up electing people who have no business being in charge, but that’s America, and sometimes it gets messy,” Baird said.
What’s ahead
Looking forward, Mayor Baird said that the city has a lot of work to do, but hiring Stewart was a good first step.
“We have a new interim city administrator; that kind of breaks the log jam for a lot of business that has been stagnant,” he said.
In the future, Baird hopes for more cooperation in the city government. He said that one of his goals is to provide more transparency.
“There’s a lot more interest because of the problems we’ve had; I think things will settle down,” Bird said.
Two board seats now open
There are currently two aldermanic seats that remain unfilled in the governing body—one previously belonging to the recently resigned Corey Hendrickson in Ward 1, the other to the newly appointed mayor, Baird, in Ward 2. The aldermen have agreed to hold interviews for the vacant positions soon.