Senoia Restarts City Manager Search After Hobby Resigns After One Week

The Senoia City Council has accepted the resignation of newly hired City Manager Christopher Hobby after approximately one week on the job and will restart its search for a city manager, after a special called meeting on Monday.

“On June 8, 2026 the Senoia City Council voted unanimously to accept the resignation of Christopher Hobby and relaunch its city manager search,” Mayor Scott Tigchelaar said in a written statement to The Citizen. “This decision was based on information made available to council after the initial hiring decision was announced.”

Tigchelaar said the city would not comment further on the matter.

Hobby was hired by Senoia just weeks after leaving his position as assistant city manager in Peachtree City, where he had worked for approximately a year and a half.

Peachtree City Mayor Kim Learnard said Hobby’s departure followed what she described as a public incident involving a city employee before a May City Council meeting.

“There was an incident, a fairly public incident, before our second city council meeting in May,” Learnard said. “He was berating a staff member.”

“By the next day, he was gone,” Learnard said. “I think he resigned that next morning, which was Friday.”

Learnard emphasized that personnel matters in Peachtree City are handled by City Manager Justin Strickland and are not overseen by the mayor or City Council.

“Justin Strickland is in charge of all personnel,” Learnard said. “No one on city council is at all in any way involved in personnel or hiring or firing.”

Learnard told The Citizen that when she spoke with Senoia Acting City Manager Rob Parker about Hobby, she shared her belief that Hobby had done good work during his time in Peachtree City.

“I had thought that he did a good job for Peachtree City,” Learnard said.

She said city leaders had high expectations for Hobby before the incident that led to his resignation.

“I had big plans for Chris Hobby. We all did,” Learnard said.

The circumstances surrounding Hobby’s resignation from Senoia remain unclear. The city has not disclosed what information became available after his hiring was announced, saying only that the information led council to accept his resignation and restart the search process.

For now, Senoia is once again seeking a city manager less than two weeks after announcing it had filled the position.