Dawn Haggerty resigns as Mayor of Canyon Lake

Photo provided by City of Canyon Lake

City of Canyon Lake Mayor Dawn Haggerty announced her resignation from her position as mayor during a specially-scheduled City of Canyon Lake city council meeting, Wednesday evening. Dawn did not resign as a member of the council.

Following an internal review of expense reports submitted by city council members, an Ad Hoc Reimbursement Committee determined that there were several mistakes in some of the reimbursements Dawn had submitted. The mistakes included lack of proper documentation and errors on reimbursement forms that resulted in Dawn being overpaid for some of these expenses, the council announced at the Wednesday meeting.

At the request of the four other council members, Vicki Warren, Randy Bonner, Larry Greene and Jordan Ehrenkranz, a special council meeting was held to address Dawn’s compliance with current Reimbursement Policy throughout 2016.

In light of the investigation, there were several options available to the council for addressing the issue, said City Attorney Elizabeth Martyn, including reimbursement of funds, barring future reimbursement of funds and asking Dawn to step down as mayor.

Prior to the council making one of those decisions, Dawn voluntarily stepped down as mayor. The council accepted the decision.

After the adjournment of the open session meeting, the council went into a closed session meeting. Dawn, who was visibly upset, left the meeting and did not attend the closed session meeting with the council.

Vicki, the mayor pro tem going into the meeting, has assumed the duties of mayor. The council will be appointing a new mayor pro tem at the next city council meeting on Wednesday, May 3.

Further discussions regarding repayment of the overpaid expenses will be held by the council at a future date, said the new mayor. Vicki also stated that the council plans to further investigate City Manager Aaron Palmer’s role in these problems.