As the city of Rincon welcomed its latest employee, city manager Donald Toms at Monday night’s city council meeting, it says goodbye to another, longtime building and zoning inspector Cathy Hughes.

Her letter of resignation was received on Aug. 21 and her last day will be Sept. 12. She did not cite any reasons for leaving, according to Mayor Ken Lee.

Hughes has been the city building and zoning inspector for 13 years. At one time she was both head of the building and zoning department and the inspector.

She was fired by interim city manager David Schofield in April for various infractions, including failing to make contractors resubmit plans if the setbacks were incorrect. After appealing the decision, she was rehired on April 25.

When asked if he expects filling the position to be hard, Lee answered, “I would hope not.”

City planner LaMeisha Hunter began advertising for the position on Wednesday.

Like Lee, Hunter hopes the position will not be hard to fill. She said Hughes has an assistant and there are others in the community who can help with inspections if need be.

“We don’t look to be lacking someone who can do inspections,” Hunter said.

The job description has undergone some tweaking and with a future hire, the duties of the job will be more detailed.

Calls to Hughes were unreturned.

Councilman Paul Wendelken made the announcement about her resignation after he and other councilmen debated whether to make the announcement at all. The question was whether it was newsworthy. 

After conceding to the councilmen, Wendelken later came back and made the announcement anyway.

“I think it’s newsworthy,” he said.

Hughes’ resignation letter states:

“I have resigned my position as the Building and Zoning Inspector for personal reasons. I have enjoyed my tenure with the City of Rincon. I have no further comments on this matter.”