The city of Porterdale has an opening for the solicitor position, as former Porterdale Municipal Court Solicitor Qader Baig has resigned.

Baig gave his resignation notice to Mayor Bobby Hamby on May 23.

The Porterdale City Council met with Baig in closed session on May 26. Baig left the meeting, and no action was taken by the council when the session reopened. The resignation follows the council's May 2 decision to post requests for qualifications for the municipal court solicitor position, among other positions.

As written in his resignation letter, Baig felt that the "Council's intent to seek alternate candidates may be founded upon disappointment in the manner in which a single case was recently handled...."

The referenced case is that of a DUI received by a Conyers Police Department officer, whose plea allowed his sentence to be lowered to reckless driving. Baig wrote that the mayor, city manager and chief of police all supported the case's outcome.

"The handling or resignation of that particular case was not the motivation for the city's action," Hamby wrote in a letter to Baig regarding his resignation.

Instead, the request was posted in order to make sure the court is "staffed by qualified and respected professionals," a process best accomplished by "periodically opening these positions for review and renewal in a public and transparent process."

The council has expressed a willingness to see Baig reclaim the position. According to Hamby's letter, the city would like Baig to submit his application under the request for qualifications.

In his resignation letter, Baig wrote he would rather "defer to their interest in finding alternate personnel as it relates to the position of solicitor."
Baig's resignation has recently caused the rescheduling of the court session originally set at the first of this month.

The request for qualifications for the Porterdale solicitor position still stands on the town's website, where it has received no applications as of now.