Springfield city council members accepted Jeff Northway’s resignation as mayor tonight and called a special election for mayor for Nov. 6.
The election will be to fill the remainder of Northway’s term, which ends Dec. 31, 2013.
Qualifying will cost $35 and will be held from 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 27, through 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at Springfield City Hall, 130 S. Laurel St.
City officials said they recently discovered that Northway was convicted of three felonies in Texas in the 1980s. They said he lied and said he was not a convicted felon when he applied to run for mayor.
Northway resigned July 12 and has declined to comment.
The city said Northway was convicted of two felonies -- theft by receiving and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in 1983 in Harris County, Texas. He received a three-year sentence on those charges.
After serving the sentence, he was convicted in 1989 of a third felony for unauthorized use of a vehicle.
Northway had recently won a court battle with the city when the Georgia Supreme Court overruled a Superior Court order ousting him from office.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the city said it discovered Northway was a convicted felon and asked him to resign immediately.
City Attorney Rick Rafter has said the city will seek reimbursement of all attorney fees incurred because of the Northway litigation, due to Northway’s “false swearing on the notice of candidacy and perjury during his deposition.”
