Cloverdale utility meeting has dustup

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

CLOVERDALE -- An otherwise smooth-moving Cloverdale utility board meeting turned into an argument when a member of the audience accused the town's clerk treasurer of creating a hostile environment.

Amanda Storrs said that she saw Cloverdale Clerk Treasurer Cathleen Monaco being rude to Utility Clerk Melissa Boldman.

"I came in last Monday to make a payment on my bill, and I was flabbergasted by the rude, unprofessional behavior of the Clerk treasurer to (Boldman)," Storrs said.

Storrs said that Monaco had yelled at Boldman while requesting minutes from a meeting.

Monaco responded that Storrs saw the end of a long conversation and she was frustrated.

"I apologize for you standing there and hearing me, but I had lost my cool at that point," Monaco said.

Monaco would not apologize to Boldman, though.

The conversation that Storrs saw was about transferring audio recordings of utility board meetings from Boldman to Monaco. Monaco was requesting the tapes to take back an authority her office used to have.

Originally, the clerk treasurer acted as the utility board's clerk and recorder, but the previous clerk did not want the job, so it was passed to the utility clerk, explained town attorney Allan Yackey.

Yackey, who said he was unaware of the altercation before the meeting, said that since the utility board is technically a separate body from the town council it was legally difficult to tell if the clerk treasurer had to be present at the utility board meetings. He did say that it made more sense for the clerk treasurer to be there, to be legally safe.

Monaco said that trying to regain control of those tapes was the source of her frustration.

"This has been happening over a couple of months with me requesting the minutes and the tapes," Monaco said. "It had been going on for a couple of months. I had had it at that point. I went through proper channels, going through her boss. Her boss was requesting them and still not getting them."

Yackey said that bringing any complaints to the town council wouldn't have any effect, since the clerk treasurer is an elected position.

"The clerk is not employed by the town council and is there for not subject to the control of the town council, nor is the town council subject to the clerk's control," Yackey said. "Each is elected independently and each has their own authority."

After the board meeting Jeff Boldman, Melissa Boldman's husband, said that they had turned in two letters of harassment to the board, and Melissa Boldman said that the harassment has been going on since August. "I have doors slammed in my face; she slams them so hard that stuff falls off the wall," Melissa Boldman said.

Jeff Boldman said that he and his wife didn't want anyone fired.

Monaco declined to comment after the meeting, saying that the entire thing was one-sided.

The board agreed to supply and maintain uniforms through Cintas uniforms after a sales representative had previously given a presentation to the board for their utility workers. They also agreed to purchase two Carhart jackets for them.

"It's my preference that we go with the uniforms," said board president Cathy Tipton. "For professionalism, I'd just prefer them."

The new uniforms will go into effect Jan. 1.

The board considered different options to store the Jetter Truck during winter. Originally, the board hoped to create a storage area for the truck by extending two existing barns to create a covered, heated area. Tipton said that might be too expensive a project, but still wanted the truck protected from cold weather.

Interim utility manager Rich Saucerman suggested asking the fire department if they had the room to store the truck.

"I don't know of anyone else that's got a barn big enough that's heated to put it in" Saucerman said.

The Endeavor Communications storm drain project, where the town was going to pay to upgrade the storm drains that Endeavor wanted to install to their standards, was postponed. Endeavor didn't want to move forward until next year and the town wanted to make sure the project would fit their specifications and are waiting to hear from different offices.

The wastewater plant had a variety of costs come up, as a sludge pump broke, some skimmers and a PH probe was purchased. The sludge pump was the most expensive piece to replace. The estimates to replace the pump ranged from $3,800 to $10,000, not including instillation. Since the replacement pump wasn't needed immediately, the board told Saucerman to do further research into the pumps.

The town agreed to purchase a replacement fire hydrant near Retired Military Tree and Ground

"If there's a fire hydrant out, that needs to be replaced," board vice president Dennis Padgett said. "That's a no-no."

Don Sublett wasn't at the meeting for health reasons. The board also discussed proper banking policy during the meeting.

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  • Here we go again....

    -- Posted by localman on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 5:31 AM
  • "I was flabbergasted by the rude, unprofessional behavior of the Clerk treasurer"

    flabbergasted

    flabbergasted?

    Are you kidding me?

    Get with the times grandma. Flabbergasted hasn't been used since 1900.

    -- Posted by ProblemTransmission on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 5:38 AM
  • It must be a slow day for news, I'm sure this would never happen in Geencastle.

    -- Posted by razor man on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 8:13 AM
  • I am so tired of the town wasting tax payer money. Why waste money on uniforms to be professional when there is only one employee that act profession in any way.

    Hey how about applying for those grants that have been put in your lap to pay for the waste water material.

    Monaco has a lot to apologize for in the first place. The towns people needs to get together and find some respectfully people to run for these town elected job instead of complaining about who is there, but I guess you have to have low morals and be deceitful to run for an office, No we need to change that!

    -- Posted by feedupincdale on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 11:43 AM
  • Monaco's outburst is no surprise. When she was running the Humane Society shelter she had several confrontations with people. Her atitude caused a lotof volunteers to quit. She needs to take an anger management course

    -- Posted by albert on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 12:14 PM
  • Monaco needs to realize that she doesn't run the Town of Cloverdale or the utility department. She should concentrate on her job and balance the town's books! Which are months behind. Remember, she was appointed by the board due to the Truax resignation, she won't be voted back in the next election....and we "wont apologize" for that!

    -- Posted by newtocloverdale09 on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 2:05 PM
  • Been waiting for this to happen. Monaco wasn't the backside nuzzler the council thought they were getting so now they have a problem with her and using the same old tactics they used with Truax. Same game different players. I'm not saying Monaco is right for what she did but I think there is more to the story and Boldman is a ignorant pawn in a bigger game. Monaco, state board of accounts is who you need to be concerned with, I think you will find out it is not required that you control the minutes unless the utility board has been given certain authorizations by the council. OH I'm sorry, the council is the utility board isn't it? Like Ron White says, you can't fix stupid.

    I noticed that the high payed attorney didn't have an answer again, don't recall ever reading he gave any kind of legal or logical advise without getting someone elses opinion, Oh there was that one time when he was outsmarted by a small time attorney and made a decision on his own that a suit should be settled for about ten times more than what the actual settlement should have been for. Ron White strikes again!

    Cloverdale, when are you going to wise up?

    -- Posted by sadNmad on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 3:59 PM
  • I would just like to asky why the Bannergraphic was at a utility board meeting? I find it hard to believe that the Banner just showed up to see what was going on. Grow up, Cloverdale. Put your personal feelings aside and let these people do their jobs. You will NEVER get someone in there that everyone likes. So what, a door got slammed. Trust me, I've seen bosses do a lot worse. I think your town would be much better if you all just did YOUR jobs and stopped worrying about the guy in the next office.

    -- Posted by WTFRUthinkin on Wed, Dec 1, 2010, at 11:11 PM
  • Wow, WTFRU, this your first blog? The Banner shows up at board meetings quite often. For the "J. Springer" mentality, these meetings are a gold mine! Cloverdale people do not want good people in office, they are to boring and businesslike. Drama kings and queens are what we need running the town, just for the public eye, all that is needed is a lawyer to handle the tricky legal things.

    All the other antics in the past are part of the show. This is what makes this small town worth living in, and big news for the BG.

    Like razorman stated, this stuff doesn't happen in Greencastle, and that's too bad. Maybe the Greencastle should visit Cloverdales board meetings and learn how to liven things up a bit in their town. Then those good folks can have the full span of entertainment promised to all Americans.

    GO AHEAD BannerGraphic,,keep sending your journalists and cover EVERYTHING for us, this is good stuff! I just wish you would report MORE. Often some good juicy details get shadowed by little things like budgets and accounts, policies and what-not.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Thu, Dec 2, 2010, at 6:03 AM
  • Problem Tranny, I like the word "flabbergasted". It's retro, plenty of syllables, and could be a placebo cuss word if you want. It's also an intimidating word to readers who don't know what it means. It got a reaction out of you, did it not?

    Ms Storrs probably should have used a different word in her presentation, did you see the two board members grab their dictionaries? She could have been misinterpreted, and her statements taken as complimentary praise for Ms Monaco's performance as town clerk.

    All in all, I felt the board handled this matter in the true professional manner as expected by the people who voted them in office. No surprises here.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Thu, Dec 2, 2010, at 6:38 AM
  • Xgamer, I sure hope that you are a sarcastic type-o-guy. Otherwise, all my questions as to why Cloverdale is the way it is are now answered.

    -- Posted by WTFRUthinkin on Thu, Dec 2, 2010, at 8:18 PM
  • Some of those town board people should just be fired, and the tax payers should hire kids in there place. Why, well because they dont know what there doing plus there acting like kids. And that lady whos being mean, grow up. I dont know you and i dont like bullys like you. Dont we have enough bullys in our schools, oh ya thats right, i said they act like kids.

    -- Posted by stubbys on Tue, Dec 7, 2010, at 10:14 PM
  • sounds like to me that Monaco isnt someone that wiss kiss the boards hiney, so she is being portrayed as a bad guy now. How bout someone focus on how the town borad tries to run things like their private chess game...

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts=idiot on Tue, Dec 7, 2010, at 11:10 PM
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