Yellow Springs residents packed Council Chambers on Friday, Aug. 21, when Village Manager Johnnie Burns, pictured at center, announced his resignation. To his left were Village Council members Stephanie Pearce, Senay Semere, Carmen Brown, Angie Hsu and Gavin DeVore Leonard. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Yellow Springs Village Manager Johnnie Burns resigns
- Published: August 21, 2026
At a special Village Council meeting on Friday morning, Aug. 21, Village Manager Johnnie Burns announced his resignation. Should Village Council accept Burns’ resignation at a future meeting, it would conclude Burns’ 12-year career working for the Village of Yellow Springs.
“At this time, in the best interest of the Village and my staff, I am choosing, at my own free will, to resign from my position,” Burns told a capacity crowd in Council chambers.
“For my mental health, for me and for my family, this is not the time for me to be here,” he said. “I am in no way giving up on Yellow Springs. … God has a different plan for me and it’s not Yellow Springs.”
Burns’ announcement followed a two-hour, executive session among Council members, and was delivered to an emotional crowd of around 75 Yellow Springs residents. In attendance were local leaders, business owners and about two dozen Village staffers — police officers, linemen, meter readers and others — many of whom spoke positively of Burns’ role as manager and critically of Council.
“I know the support is here,” Burns said. “Behind every great leader is a great staff. From the people underneath me to the custodians, you are all phenomenal.”
He continued: “I love you guys more than my own hometown. You are my village. The ship is heading in the right direction — we’ve set the right course — we’re just simply changing the captain.”
A Xenia resident, Burns has served as Yellow Springs’ manager since February 2024 — he is the Village’s 11th manager since the town voted to adopt the council-manager form of government in 1952. His employment with the Village began in January 2014 as the electric superintendent; four years later, he rose to public works director.
Next steps
Though Burns proffered his resignation at Friday’s public meeting, he remains village manager.
As of press time, negotiations between him and Village Council members were still underway.
Once those negotiations come to a conclusion and before Burns’ resignation officially takes effect, Village Council must hold a public meeting to accept that resignation and a settlement agreement via an affirmative vote. That meeting has not yet been scheduled.
“This will be public-facing as soon as enough details have been worked out to put something in front of Council,” Village Council Clerk Judy Kintner wrote to the News early this week.
Burns’ employment agreement, which Council approved two years ago when he became manager, provides for resignation.
The contract underscores that the terms of the employment relationship between him and Council is of an “at-will nature” and “nothing in [the] agreement shall prevent, limit or otherwise interfere” with both the right of the Council to discharge the manager and the right of the manager to resign at any time.
Village Council President Gavin DeVore Leonard and Vice President Angie Hsu jointly reached out to the News on Tuesday to share their intended next steps, notably to begin searching for Burns’ replacement.
“Looking ahead, we are now finalizing the transition timeline to ensure continuity and support for the Village staff to ensure services are still delivered at the quality villagers expect and deserve,” DeVore Leonard and Hsu’s statement reads. “We have assessed our options and plan to contract with an interim village manager as a search for a full-time village manager occurs. We expect the professional search and hiring process to take three to six months.”
According to Clerk Kintner, the last manager search cost an estimated $15,000; she said a hiring firm would likely cost the Village more like $20,000–$40,000.
The Council members’ statement went on to say that the interim manager will have municipal management experience and will help with “highest priority items,” such as executing contracts, partnering with the finance director to ensure a smooth annual audit, supporting decision-making during emergencies and working with staff, Council, partners, stakeholders and residents as regular business and projects continue. A contract and exact timeline are forthcoming.
The statement also noted that “outgoing” Village Manager Burns will be contracted to offer consultation services to support staff with transition questions and projects over the next year. Additionally, DeVore Leonard and Hsu said they have been in contact with department heads to “understand their needs and perspectives.”
“We are committed to keeping the community updated and engaged with all future developments,” the statement concluded.
The transition will also take place without Assistant Manager Elyse Giardullo, who resigned from her position about a month ago after two years of working under Burns’ leadership.
Despite the leadership changes, Burns said in an email to the News earlier this week that there will be no interruption in local government services or disruption to Yellow Springs’ utilities and infrastructure as a direct result of his anticipated departure.
“Our staff is committed to doing the same outstanding job they have always done, and they will continue to respond to issues and emergencies just as they always have,” Burns emphasized.
“While there is a transition in village managers, the day-to-day operations of the Village remain in the hands of a dedicated and experienced staff who know their departments, their responsibilities and how to handle these situations,” he said.
The temperature in the room
Public comment following Burns’ announcement was overwhelmingly supportive of the outgoing village manager, and overwhelmingly critical of Council.
Following Burns’ announcement of his planned resignation, more than a dozen community members went to the podium; many demanded answers for Burns’ departure, with some saying they believed the move to be sudden and influenced by the desires of some Village Council members. Others called for the immediate resignation of Council members.
“Johnnie is the best thing that has happened to this village in the last 20 years,” Mills Park Hotel co-owner Alex Price said. “It is a shame you have chosen to put him and the rest of the village in this position. There is nothing you can do to redeem this action.”
Price later said that all Council members except Carmen Brown were henceforth banned from setting foot in the hotel.
Former hardware store owner Dan Badger also faulted Council for Burns’ resignation.
“It’s important you recognize that what you’ve done is stop any progress for the next several years while this is dealt with,” he said. “The institutional knowledge that’s walking out the door right now, along with the understanding of how to accomplish things in this village is incredible. He had a relationship with every hammer-swinger and wrench-turner in town.”
Applause from the 70-some attendees followed nearly every comment critical of Council.
“Let us clean up this inexperienced, unprofessional mess that sits before us,” villager Patrick Lake said. “You all should be ashamed. Resign now!”
Earlier in the meeting, during the executive session, Lake circulated a petition among attendees to amend the Village charter to limit Council powers — namely to strip the group’s authority over the village manager position and to force a public vote on municipal projects costing more than $2 million. By the meeting’s end, the petition had several dozen signatures.
Following the meeting, Lake said the efforts behind the petition were absorbed into a broader, but unspecified, “civic action” related to his and others’ perception that Burns’ resignation was forced by Council.
Some remarks were said through tears.
“You guys should be ashamed of yourselves,” Sergeant Naomi Watson told Council members. “I’ve seen a lot of you guys out here. I’ve given you a smile when I shouldn’t have. A nod when I shouldn’t have. You guys are fake. You’re not real.”
Other Village staffers spoke up. Assistant Clerk Chelsea Skinner described Burns’ resignation as a blindside, and Streets, Parks and Sewer Foreman Tanner Bussey said that without Burns, the Village is “headed for bleak times.”
Electric Superintendent Ben Sparks lamented the departure of his friend and boss and quelled fears that he’d follow: “I’m not leaving the Village, but I’m just telling you, Johnnie’s irreplaceable.”
After the meeting was adjourned, outstanding negative feelings apparently followed some Council members home.
Via social media, Council member Stephanie Pearce said that one of her children had been approached regarding Burns’ resignation. Similarly, Hsu reported that her family had also been harassed to some degree in the days after the meeting — that all their doors were locked, they were staying elsewhere and felt generally unsafe.
Why the resignation?
Through all the questions, invectives and threats of a recall Council members heard on Friday, the group remained largely silent at the dais, and by the meeting’s end a big question remained — why did Burns resign?
“This is a sensitive time for our community,” Council President DeVore Leonard told the News after the meeting concluded. “We are doing the best to navigate a complex situation. Given legal and contractual reasons, it has been difficult to share more information throughout the process.”
Burns has also declined to elaborate on his decision to resign, but at Friday’s meeting, he suggested that he and his family have broached the possibility since mid-July — around the time Assistant Manager Giardullo stepped down and when Council began having a series of long executive sessions to “consider the appointment and employment of public officials,” as described by Ohio Revised Code.
To Friday’s crowd, Burns said the decision to step down was one that he and his wife anguished over until the night before the meeting — but one they agreed would be best for their family.
“We decided: Today it’s Johnnie Burns and Yellow Springs. Tomorrow, Yellow Springs is Yellow Springs and Johnnie Burns is with his family. I will come back to support, but I will no longer be an employee here … at this capacity, I can’t. I apologize.”
Burns also said he’s shared many long nights over the last month with Superintendent Sparks — “And I was asking him, ‘Did you see anything I did wrong?’”
Burns and members of Council have differed publicly on several policy and spending questions in recent months, particularly since the newest iteration of Council took office in January following last November’s election.
The year began with Short Street still closed from the prior summer to all vehicle traffic in favor of a pedestrian-only gathering space. Despite Burns’ advocacy to keep it closed to traffic for further community-focused improvements, Council voted 4–1 to reopen it.
Burns and Council members also expressed differing views during recent housing-focused staff-Council retreats and work sessions. Council members discussed the Village’s ownership of the Lawson Place apartments and the possibility of acquiring additional municipally owned housing. Burns raised concerns about increasing the workload of Village staffers by managing additional properties.
Then, at the most recent regular Village Council meeting, the group heard a recommendation from an engineering consultant that the Village ought to spend upwards of $8.5 million to improve its wastewater infrastructure. Council President DeVore Leonard asked Burns why the cost of those improvements weren’t included as capital expenses in the latest budgetary decisions; Burns didn’t address that specific concern, but referred to aging technology.
Council Vice President Hsu submitted a letter to the editor this week — the letter can be read in full on page 4 — calling for a villagewide focus on both affordable housing and infrastructure.
“This Council — one that has unprecedented alignment and focus — wants to make concrete policy and budgetary decisions that can move us onto a different trajectory,” Hsu wrote.
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