Stanley discussed at special St. Joseph town meeting

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• St. Joseph Town Board takes dispute to court

A special town of St. Joseph Board meeting was held Tuesday, Aug. 23 night to discuss what to do with the now temporarily vacant clerk/treasurer position. The vacancy comes after the town filed a restraining order against Clerk Mary Stanley.

Her ability to perform her duties came into question during the Aug. 4 board meeting, with concerns that she was not providing the board with important items on time, such as meeting minutes from previous meetings, and came to a head with discussion of why she had not deposited a refund check for the town, which culminated with Stanley storming out of the Aug. 4 meeting, and causing a disruption during the Aug. 18 meeting, ending with the police being called. Following that, a restraining order filed. Two police officers were also in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting as a precaution.

In reaction to this, the Town Board decided to change all the locks in the town hall, and change all the access codes immediately to limit access to the hall.

“I think for the time being we need to keep access to the town hall as limited as possible,” said Town Chair Dan Gavin. He noted that the only people with direct access to the town hall would be town personnel for the immediate future. Other organizations and groups currently using the hall would still be able to use the facility, but would need to have a Town Board member present to open the facility for them.

The Town Board then went into closed session for approximately 30 minutes to discuss what would be done about the position of clerk. After reconvening in open session, the board provided a brief statement, saying that they are going forward with the removal of Mary Stanley from the position, and plan to have an expedited process to fill the position beginning on Sept. 1, during the next regularly scheduled Town Board meeting.

Until such time that a new clerk/treasurer can be hired, Chair Dan Gavin will work with Deputy Clerk Kelly Spaniol to help keep the town running, although some Town Hall services will not be available during that time.

Tags: saint joseph, news, government