The mayor of Lexington, Mo. wrote an open letter to the city that cited hateful social media posts as his reason for resigning immediately.
"I did not sign up for this mess," Fred Wiedner wrote in his letter. "Or, possibly I did and just didn't realize how mean people could be. Either way it is no longer worth the battle."
Lexington is about 40 miles east of Kansas City. The population is less than 5,000.
Wiedner described what he called hatred, attacks and lies on Facebook.
"I would just urge the citizens of Lexington and for us to all pull together," said Steve Terry, city councilman. "Be patient. We are going to get this situation corrected."
The city was already in the process of searching for a city administrator when Wiedner quit. Wiedner said his troubles began in February when the city council voted to fire the old administrator, a longtime resident of Lexington. Wiedner believes he was blamed for the termination because he was comparitively new in town.
"We have to get past this division, and that's going to take a little time," Terry said.