WILLARD, Mo. – Navigating treacherous waters is nothing new for politicians. 

Willard Mayor Pro-Tem Sam Baird, he’s working against tidal waves. 

“At the end of the day, this has been the most horrible event I’ve ever been involved in as an alderman, I’m sure that’s true for the mayor and the other alderman and the city staff,” Baird said. “It’s stressful and the community is upset and we’re trying to keep the staff from tweaking out because this is hard on everybody.”

Willard’s mayor and an alderman resigned, for different reasons, in a span of three days. 

“It was a tough decision to make. You know, I love this community. This is my hometown, and this is where I grew up,” Samuel Snider, who resigned from his mayoral position Thursday afternoon said. 

Snider tells OzarksFirst that resigning was the best option, given disagreements with others in the city’s Board of Aldermen. 

“I just felt that, you know, I didn’t. I wasn’t going to get a fair hearing,” Snider said. 

An impeachment hearing was scheduled for Thursday night but was canceled after Snider stepped down. 

“I had seen and reviewed all of the evidence on the impeachment side, a lot of the gaps were from Mr. Snider’s unwillingness to answer questions at prior meetings that sort of thing,” Baird said. 

Corey Hendrickson, the alderman who resigned earlier this week, pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $300,000 dollars from PRIME Trucking. 

Baird says those allegations and legal matters have nothing to do with the city of Willard. 

“Corey’s issues are between himself, PRIME, and the government and God, and they have nothing to do with what’s going on here,” Baird said. 

Snider adds while the municipal government is down two people, the citizens of Willard deserve the best.

“Every [city] deserves a local government that’s full of people that care about the community and want to work together and want to progress the city,” Snider said. 

Baird agrees the people deserve the best government possible, he’s got a lot to do, quickly. 

 “We can do without a mayor a lot more easily can do without a city administrator. We’ve not had a permanent city administrator since about August of last year, August to September,” Baird said. “So that’s a long time to be without a steady hand to guide the ship.”

Baird says he expects to elect a new mayor at their next meeting this upcoming Monday. 

Snider tells OzarksFirst he plans to run for Willard Mayor again next April.