Quinn Keefe to Dorr Township Clerk?

Quinn Keefe is about to slide into the position as Dorr Township Clerk, with the first step to be on Thursday, March 25, when the Trustees gather at a Special Meeting called at 10:30AM.

How many residents and electors will be able to attend this mid-morning meeting called on such short notice and during normal working hours for most people?

The Dorr Township website carries a mention of this meeting, but no easily-found agenda. To see the Agenda, go to www.dorrtownship.com/Clerk/agenda.html From the homepage of the website, you have to know to click through to the Clerk's webpage and then to click on Agenda. A link on the homepage would have been much better (if you wanted viewers to know right where the Agenda is).

What is to happen on Thursday?

The Trustees are expected to authorize the Town Clerk, Kathleen Schlapp, to appoint a Deputy Clerk by resolution and to have Schlapp appoint Quinn Keefe as Deputy Clerk by resolution. Schlapp is then to swear in Keefe.

The next order of business for the Trustees is to accept the (sudden) resignation of Town Clerk Schlapp, effective March 31, 2010, at midnight.

And the Trustees will get out of Dodge.

If I were the Town Clerk, I think I'd have a little migraine on Thursday morning and call in sick.

The buzz has already started about this. Keefe is the former Executive Director of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce. His departure came last summer, after extreme financial difficulties of the Chamber surfaced. Of course, the Board of Directors had known about them for years. According to the media, he resigned and was given a couple of months to pack up. Apparently, the Chamber hasn't lost its headquarters building on the Square yet, but it's certainly quiet about whatever is going on.

A recession and dead real estate market probably have something to do with the Chamber's name still being on the deed.

What are the qualifications, skills, traits, and abilities that should be sought in a Deputy Clerk? I'll suggest a few; you can add more in comments. How about

Attention to detail
Careful, accurate understanding of complex matters
Prompt recording of business matters
Fast shorthand or stenotype skills
Fast, accurate, careful typing skills
Excellent grammar, spelling and word-smithing for construction of accurate Minutes of meetings
Knowledge of corporate responsibilities and duties

I learned today that when the Clerk leaves next week, on March 31, Quinn's duties might be only as Interim or Acting Town Clerk. Will they have another meeting to decide that? And then the job will have to be advertised and applications and resumes accepted. And then the Trustees will have to select someone from the same political party as Schlapp.

Now why is the Town Clerk departing on sudden and short notice? Why does an elected official bail with a week's notice?

I have attended only one Township meeting, and that one started off with a bang. A resident asked why the January Minutes reflected a matter that had not been discussed at the January meeting. That resulted in a, let's say, "vigorous" verbal response by a Trustee and the Township Attorney. (I'll let you read between the lines on that one.)

What I assumed from the resident's complaint was that the current Minutes do not truthfully reflect the business actually conducted in the January 2010 Township meeting. In other words, the Minutes are false. Is this true? True or false? Or, how about "Truth or Consequences"?

I'll tell you this. If I were the Township Clerk and had reported accurate Minutes of a meeting, they'd be changed over my dead body. Is Clerk Schlapp stopping just short of that line? (I don't blame her.) When people say that Woodstock is a "place to die for," this isn't what they had in mind.

If you think State Government is bad, and that County government is a little worse, and city or village is a little worse than that, then turn off the TV and visit Grafton Township or Dorr Township government for even more insight.

The Dorr Township government is about to get a good shaking, because some believe there should be more reported to the public. All last week-end we heard about "backroom deals" on Obamacare. Let's hear about all deals in the townships, out loud and in public meetings.