THE LINEUP HAS CHANGED...

At the last Town Board meeting various appointments and hirings took place:

At the last Township election, you voted to separate the position of Clerk/Treasurer.  This has been enacted.

A new Town Clerk was hired: Barb North.  I cannot give you any more information about her such as past work experience, as the Board did not share this with the public.  Introduce yourself next you're in.

A new Town Treasurer was also hired: Marsha Wilson.  Again, I cannot give you any more info than that as the Board did not share such details as past work experience with the public. "Welcome" to Marsha.



If you have followed the blog, you are aware of the "upheaval," and I would say controversy, regarding the Building Inspector position.

Darrel Gilmer, Township Septic Inspector, was hired as the Township Building Official.  Darrel has been active in this field for quite some time.  He did ultimately agree to the two-year term of the contract, instead of only the 90 days he was willing to commit to previously.

The Township can have only one Building Official, by statute.  Mr. Gilmer does not do commercial inspections.  The Board hired Greg Staber as Deputy Building Official, in charge of commercial inspections. Greg asked for a one-year contract term, with an option to renew for the second year.  This is due to Eureka's low volume of such inspections and his accompanying insurance cost increases.


Two Planning Commission seats were up for appointment, those vacated by Commissioner Jennings and Commissioner Frana. Many thanks for the time and commitment over the past three years! 

There were four applicants for these two postitions: Philip Cleminson, Fritz Frana, Bob Frederickson, and Carrie Jennings.

Dr. Carrie Jennings, geologist and former Board Supervisor as well as Commissioner, was reappointed.  As a geologist, she has valuable background, knowledge, and experience that is unusual in a Township Planning Commissioner.

Phil Cleminson, former and current Task Force member (Transfer and Agritourism), was appointed to the other position.  During his interview, Phil stated that he has "absolutely no agenda." 



And the pitch...

YOUR EUREKA SCORECARD:

I write this as one Eureka citizen concerned about the state of the Township.

Clerk/Treasurer:  We had a veteran of fourteen years who left us.  You can ask her why. When she was persuaded to return at least for a couple of months just as Treasurer, she was then, in my opinion, insulted by the then-Board's offer of a much-reduced hourly salary, even though she would be doing the same amount of work as Treasurer and just not as Clerk any longer. See "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight?" post.

Interim Treasurer:  A person from a neighboring township agreed to fill in for a while, but only temporarily.  My question about her stay here: Did any Board member (How about the Chair?) make sure she knew for which meeting they needed the budget from her so they weren't "scrambling" the night before the Annual Meeting? In my opinion it is the Board's responsibility to be well-prepared for the Annual meeting, and personally I wouldn't take it for granted that anyone filling in would know exactly what was expected. This person has now found full-time employment elsewhere

Deputy Clerk who became Clerk: At the last Planning Commission meeting and at Monday's Board meeting there was/will be an announcement that she is resigning her post. She has had enough. She has also stated that she stayed on as long as she did because she "felt sorry" for the townspeople who were trying to get permits and didn't want to leave them in the lurch.  She doesn't even live here, but she cares about you!

Building Official: As a Commissioner who waded through all of the former Building Inspector's files, the Board at the time asked me to help interview new people, which I was happy to do.  Of the three candidates, it wasn't even close. Scott Qualle was definitely "Qualle-fied" and very professional. I remember describing him as "a breath of fresh air." You can refer to earlier posts for more detail, but I then sat through a number of meetings in the last year or two during which I was actually embarrassed for the Township at the way in which Scott was treated.  Board members didn't even understand for a while where their authority ended and his began. (One citizen had actually stated at a meeting that, "The Building Inspector (Mr. Qualle) should be 'reined in.' " Clearly, he did not understand the Building Official's authority either.)

When the time came that Mr. Qualle's contract expired, the Board put out a call for applicants.  Scott was the only one who responded by the deadline.  But the deadline was extended.  One more applicant eventually responded, but he was willing to commit to only 90 days, not the 2 years asked for.  This time problem was going to be "negotiated."  That individual still was willing to sign for 90 days only.  Could the Board's earlier treatment of Mr. Qualle have weighed in on his decision, I wonder? (Newly-elected Supervisor Behrendt has asked to see all the paperwork that was involved in this matter. We'll see where we end up.)

Again, it is just my opinion, but I don't think someone should be "let go" for doing his job according to his sworn duty and his license. I also think that if qualified persons apply and are willing to serve for the time period asked for, someone should probably be hired.  Ask yourself why this didn't happen.

Township Attorney: At the Reorg Meeting, at Supervisor Ceminsky's instigation, the Board will continue with Kelly and Lemmons for the short time being, but will again look at other firms. We are talking about a "Superlawyer" law firm here (Mpls./St. Paul magazine), but apparently that isn't good enough for Eureka? (This isn't the first time for that, either.)  Ask yourself why.

Former Board Supervisors, including me, have often discussed how, because Commissions and Boards come and go, the Attorney is the logical source for institutional memory.  Once we have a good firm that has become familiar with our Township, as we do once again now, it actually costs the Township more money to change and bring any new law firm "up to speed."  And to what end? Could it be that the appropriate advice isn't always what "some" want to hear perhaps?



Well, I hope that this is a "seventh inning stretch," and that we will have our act together before the end of the ninth.  I just wish we hadn't worked ourselves into such a deficit.