Ashland mayor resigns effective immediately

Just weeks after top city leaders lost their job, the mayor of Ashland announced Tuesday he will resign.

Mayor Michael Jackson’s resignation takes effective immediately, but the city will announce it during a scheduled Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday night.

In May, the board chose not to reappoint police chief Anthony Consiglio, city administrator Kelly Henderson and city attorney David Bandre.

ABC 17 News was told Gene Rhorer will fill in as mayor for the time being.

Rhorer was a Ward 1 Alderman.

Jackson told ABC 17 News he and his wife have always had a retirement plan and they have decided to start that phase of their life.

“Our retirement plan has always been to move back to Texas, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Jackson said. “It’s a little sooner than we anticipated, but that was the intent.”

Jackson said the next big step for the city is filling the open positions for the police chief, city attorney and administrator.

“We have committees working to fill those open positions,” Jackson said.

He said he is sad to be leaving the city, but is excited to move to Texas and start living out his plan.

“It has been really, really great working with all the folks with the city and all the various boards I’ve served on,” Jackson said.