The mayor of Dodge City has submitted a letter of resignation to the City Commission.
In her resignation letter, Joyce Warshaw refers to people behaving inappropriately with anger, accusations and abuse.
“Life has dealt out many challenges in our world that have perhaps caused many people to act inappropriately but I do not feel safe in this position anymore and am hopeful in removing myself this anger, accusations and abuse will not fall on anyone else and will calm down,” she wrote.
Warshaw’s heavy decision was made with concerns for her safety after being met with aggression, including threats via phone and email from Dodge City citizens.
Warshaw said she feels her life has been threatened and reasoned that it is because she finds society to be unpredictable at this point.
Regarding investigations into the threatening emails, Warshaw said that some of them have been turned in to the police.
The City of Dodge City released a statement after getting her resignation letter. It says it will follow Kansas statutes in appointing a new mayor.
The commissioners have 60 days from getting the resignation to appoint, by majority vote, a person to fill the vacancy. If they do not, then there can be a resolution passed for a special election.
The commissioners will discuss the process at their Dec. 21 meeting.
