The Etowah county tourism board voted Wednesday to fire Hugh Stump from his long held post

Hugh Stump was fired on Wednesday as executive director of Greater Gadsden Tourism.

The vote happened at the end of the Etowah County Tourism Board’s meeting at The Venue at Coosa Landing. The board also voted to offer the post of interim director to Tynette Lynch, director of hospitality and tourism for the City of Hoover.

Board member Craig Inzer Jr., president of the Etowah County Commission, made the motion to terminate Stump’s employment immediately. Attalla Mayor Larry Means seconded the motion.

Stump had served as tourism director since September 2009. He previously was executive director of the Oxford (Miss.) Convention and Visitors Bureau, and before that was planning and marketing manager for the City of Oxford.

Means, who recently returned to the board as the representative of the Etowah County Mayors Association, cited what he called Stump’s lack of communication and personality conflicts with local mayors.

Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford in an email statement called the board’s decision “difficult but necessary.”