The sign was simple. The message was clear. “Honk for Kim to quit.” Heather Dotson stood holding the sign on the sidewalk outside Demorest City Hall, within sight and earshot of the woman she was protesting – City Manager Kim Simonds.
“It was a steady honk after honk and thumbs up and ‘You go, girl,'” says Dotson. “It was very overwhelming. Very confirming.”
Dotson and her fellow protestors – seven in all – didn’t feel so upbeat when they decided to stage their peaceful protest on Thursday. They felt beaten down.
For months they watched frustrated and confused as Simonds worked with two newly-elected city councilmen, Nathan Davis and John Hendrix, to dismantle the city’s public safety departments. First, they attempted to merge the Demorest Fire Department with Habersham County Fire Services. They then worked in concert to fire the city’s police chief and rehire his predecessor.
After weeks of political fallout, Davis publicly admitted to what many had suspected all along: He, Hendrix, and Simonds were meeting and making decisions together in secret. Hendrix’s wife was even present for some of those meetings, according to Davis, but they excluded the city’s two other elected officials, Councilman Sean Moore and Mayor Rick Austin. Such actions are outside the bounds of the city charter and in direct violation of Georgia’s Open Meetings Act.
Armed with that information, angry residents demanded their ouster during a contentious Demorest City Council meeting on May 5. Davis and Hendrix both offered to resign. Neither has done so. Demorest Mayor Rick Austin asked Simonds to resign. She declined.
Simonds’ refusal to quit was the final straw for Dotson and the other women who turned out in downtown Demorest on May 7 to protest.
“When we saw she declined, it didn’t sit well with us,” says Dotson. In their frustration, the women, all of whom are married to local public safety officials, decided to take a stand.
“We all have kids so we have paint and posterboard, so, we threw some signs together and said, ‘We’re going to meet on Georgia Street to bring awareness to the situation.”
They did.
Throughout the day, they stood. Throughout the day, people honked. So many vehicles honked in support of their protest that people started to complain. A woman in an apartment across the street came out to tell them she couldn’t sleep. Workers inside City Hall reportedly called 911, trying to get them removed. The local coffee shop owner asked one of the protesters to move away from the corner near his shop. She did. Dotson took her place.
Still, even amid the frustration and anger, sympathy seeps through.
“My heart really hurts for Kim,” Dotson says. “I would love to have held up a sign that said, ‘Kim come out and have coffee with me and have a conversation with me because I don’t understand what’s going on.’ We have begged her, ‘Please tell us what is going on,’ and we don’t get anything.”
Others have expressed sympathy for Simonds, believing she may have been pushed into making the decisions that led to her current predicament. Mayor Austin, who was present when Simonds fired Krockum, previously said she appeared “extraordinarily nervous” and commented “…I need to keep my job” when telling Krockum he was losing his. Asked by Now Habersham if her job was ever threatened, Simonds says, “Simply put, no.” She continues to maintain she fired Krockum for “performance issues,” although he was never disciplined a day on the job.
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As questions continue to swirl about the secret meetings and Simonds’ motivations, the sympathy for her only extends so far, especially by those who feel their family is threatened.
“Public safety, we’re one big family. If that’s not evident, I don’t know what is,” Dotson says. When asked what it will take to satisfy them she adds, “Kim needs to resign. Davis needs to resign. Hendrix needs to resign, and the city charter has to be looked at more closely and even changes made so that not one person has too much power.”
Until that happens, the people of Demorest can expect more protests and cars honking outside City Hall. “This is not a game,” Dotson insists. “We will not resign until she does.”
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