Technical Issues Delay Sidney Council From Interviewing Prospective Members
Posted
Amanda Bridgman-
SIDNEY – The Sidney Town Council Monday was hoping to interview three candidates to fill the empty seat on the board, but technical difficulties halted those plans.
Sidney held their first Zoom council meeting Monday that was due to begin at 6 p.m. but didn’t start until 6:21 p.m. because several people weren’t able to figure out how to log on.
Council President Sharon Rancourt said the original plan of the night’s meeting was to “interview” three people in the town who expressed interest in filling the vacant council seat that was left empty by Brandon Allen, who resigned Sept. 18 due to health issues. Kosciusko County Democrat Party Chair Brian Smith let a 30-day time period lapse without appointing a Democrat to the seat. It then became the council’s job to fill it.
Allen was the seventh person to resign this year in Sidney. In January, former clerk-treasurer Lana Wolfe resigned, along with town council member Republican Ricky Bradley, as there were some questions about how they came to office. Democrat Kenneth Koontz resigned due to his failing health. The only Sidney official who did not resign at that time was Democrat Jack Wolfe.
Bradley was replaced by Republican Rancourt, and Lana Wolfe was replaced by Republican Etta Hurd, both appointed by Republican Party Chairman Mike Ragan on Jan. 23. Koontz was replaced by Democrat Gavin Parrett, who was appointed by Smith.
Lydia Neal was appointed to the clerk-treasurer position Feb. 25 after Hurd resigned Feb. 10 due to health concerns for a family member. Jack Wolfe resigned March 15. Smith said Jack Wolfe did not give a reason for his resignation. A special meeting was in the process of being scheduled to remove Jack from the council after his resignation was requested. Allen was appointed April 14 by Smith.
Neal resigned from the clerk-treasurer’s position on May 9. Ragan was not given a reason for Neal’s resignation. Lisa Parrett was appointed clerk-treasurer May 26.
“It’s gonna be very brief,” Rancourt said during the Zoom meeting Monday. “The first meeting was intended to allow any candidate that was interested in joining the board an opportunity to join us and give us an overview of what their interest was in joining the board. ... We recognize we have a lot of turnover and in order to mitigate that, we’re just looking for the right candidate. Unfortunately, what has happened is we have three potential people who have expressed interest and two were unable to log onto Zoom ... and the other candidate was not available. So the good new is, we have three people interested. The bad news is, we weren’t able to get everyone together to make it happen.”
Rancourt said the reason the meeting was held virtually this month was because Councilman Gavin Parrett recently had surgery and is immobile.
“So doing this in person isn’t an option,” Rancourt said.
The three people who have expressed interest in the position include Jack Wolfe, a former board member who resigned at the request of Smith and other board members; Eric Adams, a man who came into the town office and expressed he was interested; and Laura Lent, who Rancourt described as a woman in her mid-40s who owns property in Sidney and her father “was a board member for probably a better part of her life.”
When asked about the seemingly impromptu council meeting posted Monday posted on the Times-Union website, Rancourt said she’s following the law by posting a sign on the door at the firehouse 48 hours in advance.
Rancourt also said, when asked if she’s worried about the status of the council and the troubles it has faced, that she’s not because this is the first opportunity that the council has had to fill a seat themselves instead of by a political party appointment.
“First of all, up until this point, the town had zero say in who gets appointed to our board, so whatever political party was vacated by whomever they got to pick and they got to put in place,” Rancourt said. “So we never had a say, and so in this particular case, where we finally have a say, we have actually done ... kind of just like a job description, for lack of a better word, like can you write grants, can you use a computer, can you use Excel.”
She said most of the problems with the former appointments by political parties are because people think they know what they’re signing up for, but they really don’t. Now, the council finally has control of explaining that beforehand and really interviewing the people interested. They’re optimistic.
The Sidney Town Council meets at 6 p.m. the second Monday of the month at the firehouse. Whether or not that meeting will be held in-person or virtually is to be determined.
