Conn has second thoughts (2/17/04)

REDKEY — Longtime town employee Charles Conn unexpectedly resigned midway through Monday night’s council meeting here.

But this morning, Conn called The Commercial Review to say he had changed his mind and wanted to rescind the resignation.

“I’m going to fight,” Conn said at 10 a.m. today.

A veteran of about 20 years of service to the community, holding such positions as street and water department superintendent at various times, Conn said he didn’t originally plan on submitting his resignation Monday but changed his mind as the meeting progressed.

Monday night’s meeting started with a brief executive session between Conn, town board members and their new attorney Leslie M. Horn of the Muncie law firm of Brooke-Mawhorr.

At that closed-door session, Conn was reportedly criticized in connection with recent problems at the Redkey water plant. The town was forced to issue a boil order Friday after the Redkey water tower went dry as a result of an employee error, town officials said.

The problem occurred because a pump had not been switched back into automatic mode, Violet Erlenbush, town council president and wastewater plant supervisor, said.

When the public portion of Monday’s meeting got under way, comments from audience members were heard, and routine departmental reports were aired for about a half an hour. Erlenbush then called for “an intermission,” where she stepped outside the meeting room with Horn and Redkey clerk-treasurer Brenda Adkins.

After that brief break, council members dealt with a motion to put a written reprimand in Conn’s personnel folder concerning his work at the water department. That motion passed unanimously. Erlenbush then said that also during Monday night’s executive session, the board members had discussed the idea of advertising to hire a new water department employee who would also be responsible for taking care of the town garage.

This motion also was approved, and Erlenbush said, “This will affect (Conn’s) wages.”

It was at this point that Conn stood up and announced his intentions to resign.

Conn immediately placed his keys to town buildings and equipment on the council table, and Erlenbush then directed Redkey police officer Michael Daniels to escort Conn to the town’s pole barn-garage to collect his personal belongings.

“It’s just getting dirty and nasty around here,” Conn said this morning, as he announced his intentions to rescind the resignation.

When asked why he quit in the first place, Conn expressed dissatisfaction with some of the town board members, and added, “They wanted to take $9,000 away from my wages” as part of the plan to hire a new employee for the water department.

Conn said today that he had also heard that some of the police department employees were thinking of resigning. Town Marshal Brenda Collett could not be reached this morning for comment about that statement, and clerk-treasurer Brenda Adkins said, “I can’t really answer that.”

“It’s unfortunate that the town board has to make decisions that are unpopular,” Erlenbush said Monday night, as Conn and his wife, Judy, left the meeting room.

“I feel very bad about this, but people’s health is important,” Erlenbush said, referring to Indiana Department of Environmental Management regulations concerning a community’s water system.

A motion to accept Conn’s resignation Monday night was made by council member Dottie Quakenbush, seconded by Erlenbush. It was approved 4-1 with town council vice president Dixie Toy casting the dissenting vote.

Also following the brief intermission at Monday’s meeting, council members reviewed the minutes of a special meeting on Feb. 5, which also followed an executive session.

This closed-door session was about problems with the police department.

Erlenbush asked that those minutes be amended to specify that Daniels should be given a written rather than just a verbal reprimand for not following what the board had described as proper procedures.

At that meeting, complaints about Daniels’ performance as an officer included “telling police matters to the public” and failing to take appropriate action concerning what Redkey deputy John Hankins described as an alcohol-related auto accident.

According to the Feb. 5 minutes as amended, “The council told Mike if they have any more incidents, he will be done. He won’t get another chance. The council told him he needs to do his job.”

In other business Monday night, Redkey council members:

•Heard Redkey Chamber of Commerce secretary Terri Bertram ask the council to split the cost with the chamber of providing entertainment on Saturday night at this year’s Redkey Fall Festival, scheduled for Oct. 7, 8 and 9 in downtown Redkey. Council members approved spending approximately $750 to split the anticipated cost of hiring professional musicians for the Saturday night show.

•Agreed to schedule a special meeting to discuss the possible use of a taser weapon by the police department. Meanwhile, the council directed that the taser weapon should be kept locked in the vault at the clerk-treasurer’s office in town hall.

•Approved the election of Redkey resident Delford Lowe as president of the Redkey Park Board.[[In-content Ad]]