Statement from Grafton trustees
Grafton Township trustees issued a response Friday night to Supervisor Linda Moore's statement about the recent censures:
"The Township Trustees’ Response to Linda Moore’s Statements:
The goal of the Trustees is to provide Township residents with services, not to find fault with the Supervisor. We have been trying to work with Supervisor Moore since she was elected. It has been very difficult due to her refusal to follow simple requests or to extend common courtesies, such as to put our agenda items on the agenda, or providing us with access to information we need to perform our duties.
In the past, all Grafton Township Supervisors have had an open door policy. Supervisor Moore implemented a locked door policy, installing a lock on the Supervisor’s door for the first time, and even going so far as to install a doorbell on her door inside the building. When residents have come to the Township seeking food from the now-relocated Grafton Township Food Pantry, she has turned them away, refusing to tell them where the Food Pantry is now located, because she does not like the people who run the Food Pantry. She has also now dismantled her e-mail account, making it harder to contact her. So, while many Townships are increasing their technology to provide increased service, accessibility and accountability, Supervisor Moore is moving Grafton Township backwards in those areas.
All Grafton Township Supervisors in the past have also had components of their responsibilities that have required confidentiality, but they have never had any concerns about an entire office being in “lock down…,” especially when it is an office which houses many non-confidential files, the township’s copy machine and other files and supplies that township officials and employees other than the Supervisor need to perform their duties. Now, to make a copy, an employee must ring on her doorbell to get permission to gain access to the copy machine. If the Supervisor does not like you, she may ignore you and not let you in. Or, she may slap you if you try to come into her office to use the stapler, as occurred this past week with Township Administrator Pam Fender.
We are vexed. We ran for office to govern, not to spend hours trying to explain to the Supervisor why she has to share the copy machine or the stapler. Read the censure resolutions. She claims we have passed them in some type of retaliation for the lawsuit she filed against the Township. The censure resolutions have NOTHING to do with the lawsuit. The lawsuit has concluded. We lost. We have taken our lumps. We have moved on. Linda, however, has not.
We understand that some of Supervisor’s Moore’s actions were taken in reliance on bad advice from former consultants. The same thing happened to us when we relied on bad advice which resulted in us losing the lawsuit in the appellate court. The difference is that, once we were informed that our actions with respect to the lawsuit were incorrect, we determined what we needed to correct them, sought advice on how to do so legally, and moved forward. When Linda receives a legal opinion she does not like, she disregards it, even from our current Township law firm which she, herself, selected and proposed at three meetings until we accepted them. When she is told she cannot legally do something she wants to do, or that she legally must do something she does not want to do, even by the attorneys she selected, she simply hires a different attorney. Then she complains about legal fees.
Further, she simply cannot let go of certain issues, such as the fact that Grafton Township does not have anything to do with the Grafton Township Food Pantry, which is a separate not-for-profit corporation. The Township attorney has informed Supervisor Moore time and time again that the Township has no control over the food pantry, it has not operated as a governmental entity, and the Supervisor cannot access the financial records of the independent corporation. She refuses to listen. She states that, “The Food Pantry’s ownership remains in question and has not been legally determined.” It has been legally determined, in writing, months ago, by the Township Attorneys. She simply chooses to disregard opinions she does not like.
We could go on and on, point by point, reminding Linda of the facts surrounding her allegations in her posted diatribe, but it would be a waste of time, because Linda is disinterested in facts and more interested in fiction, and it would probably take us more time to do that than permitted for this site’s posting requirements. If you have specific questions about anything that Supervisor Moore has posted in her response above, please contact any of us and we will be happy to provide you with the accurate background details.
While we are vexed, as well as frustrated, we still believe in the value of Township government. We are committing to working through, around or past the daily hurdles presented by the Supervisor so that Township residents can receive the services they need. We have now hired a Township Administrator to assist us in providing these services, so that life will go on while the Supervisor remains behind her locked office door hoarding staples, files, and copy paper.
We fully support Supervisor Moore in her attempt to learn about the role of the Township Supervisor. She needs to learn that a Supervisor is not a Dictator, and that collaborative efforts will get her farther than slapping, pinching, biting, or her current lock out policy.
If you are really interested in learning the truth about what is happening in Grafton Township, please come to a Board meeting. It will become clear to you immediately who is behaving reasonably and who is not.
Sincerely, Rob LaPorta, Gerald McMahon, Barb Murphy, and Betty Zirk, Grafton Township Trustees"
