Raised Voices, Frayed Tempers At Regular Grafton Twp. Meeting

A court reporter-style stenotypist recorded the regular three and a half-hour Grafton Township Board meeting Thursday. Trustee Betty Zirk said the steno was recording the session on the advice of Township Attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer.  There were also no fewer than four people making continuous video recordings of the meeting.

Kraftefer wasn't at the meeting, called to an emergency by another client according to her law firm partner Robert Bush.

During the meeting:

The Board retired to executive session for about 20 minutes to review resumes from applicants for the position of Township clerk.  They'd intended to conduct interviews, too, but forgot to tell the applicants.

Trustees told Assessor Bill Ottley to advertise for bids in "the newspaper" for a new assessment program even though he said the current program, not updated since 1995, is starting to show signs of failure. "Is this the first crack in the ice?" asked Ottley. "I don't know," but he couldn't convince trustees the danger of records loss was great enough to simply buy the specialized software from one of the three national companies he'd contacted.

Trustees voted, however, to hire without bid a computer forensics investigator to find out what or who wiped out all the township financial and senior bus records earlier this week and removed all the computer backups, too. "This was criminal activity," said Trustee Rob LaPorta. "This is not any political game," he said.

Township Administrator Pam Fender made it clear she thought Supervisor Linda Moore was the culprit.  "I'm sure you've been at home laughing," she told Moore.

Moore said she'd been instructed to say nothing about the matter on the advice of legal counsel who filed suit on Moore's behalf Wednesday against trustees and Krafthefer for interfering with the way she runs things. "She's taking the Fifth," shouted Trustee Gerry McMahon.

Trustees also voted to hire a part-time helper for Fender to cover for her when she has to be out of the office.  That was even though spectator Loretta Wuich volunteered to do it for nothing.  No hours, salary or means of recruitment were set but trustees agreed the position would carry no fringe benefits.

Spectator Dan Ziller, Jr., interjected Moore ought to do the job but Fender said Moore is no longer coming to the Township Offices.

Trustees had planned to examine how Moore's been doing administering General Assistance for township residents down on their luck but Moore said because of the loss of computer records she couldn't make a report.

Trustees passed a resolution re-affirming Moore can't fire Fender.

There was some planning for the Annual Township Meeting next month.  McMahon said he didn't want to pay for any police protection then.  "We can call 911. They'll be there in five minutes," he said.

In the pics:  (above) A stenotypist recorded Thursday's Grafton Township meeting. (below) The crowd at Township meetings keeps getting bigger and bigger.