Brandon Twp.- The check’s in the mail.
What is uncertain is which box it will end up in.
Up until a few months ago, the township had one post office box for all township mail. But then Treasurer Linda Owen informed the board she had purchased a second post office box with her own funds to receive tax payments.
The board approved by a 3-2 vote at the Nov. 6 meeting to have one post office box, the original one, with Township Clerk Jeannie McCreery collecting the mail.
Despite the directive, Owen plans to keep her post office box and winter tax bills are ready to be mailed with the second post office box listed on them.
‘My fiduciary responsibility is to collect the taxes and if I have no access to collect my taxes, how can I?? asked Owen, who voted no along with trustee Charlene Carlson. ‘I plan to keep the P.O. box. I have done nothing illegal, I’m just doing my job.?
Supervisor Ron Lapp, who voted for one post office box along with McCreery and trustee Sandy Willett, said McCreery is responsible for receiving all mail, no matter what it is, and distributing it and hopes Owen follows the directive she has been given.
McCreery says by law, as clerk she is required to receive and preserve all documents, records and invoices for the township. Her statutory duties include collection of the mail. She acknowledges that Owen has been allowed to collect mail on the weekends, particularly during busy tax season, to get tax payments. But last winter, McCreery found mail that had been tampered with? opened and then taped back up, and received late. Concerned with the security of the mail, she changed the lock on the post office box, which Owen had a key to.
‘These silly arguments should not always be brought up here,? McCreery said. ‘We should be able to figure a way to do this together, but without giving up my responsibility.?
Owen agrees someone had been tampering with the mail, but believes it should have been investigated as a federal offense and McCreery should not have changed the lock without township board approval.
Lapp maintains the collection of mail is the clerk’s responsibility.
‘If (the treasurer) doesn’t comply with the board’s directives, there could be dire consequences,? said Lapp, who did not elaborate. ‘Would we allow anyone else to do this kind of stuff? When do you stop it? We’re dealing with childishness.?