In two weeks, Cedar Bluffs residents will go to the polls to decide whether to recall Village Board Chairman Claire Grosse.
The April 7 recall effort comes after resident Nathan Williams submitted petitions to Saunders County Clerk Patti Lindgren on Feb. 20.
Lindgren said 116 of the 130 signatures were valid. During a special meeting by the village board on Feb. 26, Grosse said she would not resign.
“The people of this community gave me a job to do and I don’t quit,” Grosse told the Tribune. “I believe in finishing what I start and if they decide they want to put someone else in there, then that’s what will be.
“I believe I’ve done things the correct way and sometimes that’s hard for some people to deal with.”
The recall comes after a state audit that found two statements for village credit cards issued for then-public utilities superintendent Clarence Thurlow’s use. The cards included charges for what appears to be a monthly membership to a pornographic Web site. Thurlow, employed by the city for about 27 years, has since resigned, but denied any wrongdoing.
Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz said an investigation by law enforcement has not been completed, but no charges have been filed against Thurlow at this time. Stukenholtz said he needs to coordinate with the village board to obtain some additional details.
The state auditor’s office also found other irregularities, listed in a 12-page report. Issues included overtime paid to two employees without documentation of their having worked the hours and the purchase of more than $2,400 in supplies in quantities that appear to be excessive, including 2,700 trash bags, said State Auditor Mike Foley.
The report includes payments and credit card expenses linked to Thurlow and his wife, Kim, the village’s former village clerk/treasurer. Grosse said Kim Thurlow worked for the village for about five years before she was fired on Oct. 28.
Citing the state auditor’s report, Williams, who circulated the recall petitions, said the responsibility not only lies on the employees, but board members themselves.
“If you hold employees to a standard and if they’re both terminated, why doesn’t that standard apply to those who are ultimately in a position of responsibility?” he asked. “The best interest of the community is not being served in my mind’s eye.”
Grosse contends, however, the board has been working with problems that began long before its tenure.
“We were handed a big mess,” she said. “We were a completely brand new board. Everybody either resigned or was voted off so we had five new board members in a two-month period with absolutely no experience.”
Grosse also mentioned one of the difficulties was dealing with the fallout of a previous clerk.
“Her books were awful and the clerk we had at the time (Kim Thurlow) was struggling to get those books straight,” Grosse said.
Kim Thurlow was fired because she was unable to meet deadlines and didn’t perform tasks the board asked her to do on a regular basis, Grosse said.
During Kim Thurlow’s tenure, the village was fined more than $20,000 for missing federal deadlines for reporting payroll information in a timely manner, Grosse said. That occurred in the two years prior to 2008. In the last calendar year, she missed three out of four deadlines.
In November, the five-member board hired Tammy Ramaker to be the new village clerk and Grosse complimented her performance.
“She’s doing tremendously,” Grosse said.
Grosse has seen progress.
“It’s been a very rough road, but we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Grosse said. “We’re finally getting things straightened out.”
Grosse, who is paid $60 a meeting, said she puts in between 20 to 30 hours a week at city hall.
“I’m not the only board of trustee member who does that,” she said. “This board is really investing a lot of their personal time getting this town moving in the right direction.”
Grosse also said Williams circulated the petitions because he is angry at her over a personal matter, something he denies. She also pointed out the special recall election is going to cost taxpayers, something Lindgren confirmed.
Lindgren compared the upcoming recall to one for Ithaca board trustee Dwight Hansen in July 2008. Hansen retained his position and the recall election cost was $1,900.
Taxpayers in Cedar Bluffs, which has 413 registered voters, will pick up the bill for their own recall.
“It’s a little village and it will cost them a lot of money,” Lindgren said.
Lindgren predicts that Cedar Bluff’s recall will cost taxpayers there at least as much as Ithaca’s, if not a little more because they have more voters, which means more ballots and more time.
That distresses Grosse.
“Had he done this early in the fall, we could have done this at the General Election and it wouldn’t have cost us anything,” she said.
Williams said more than 70 percent of the people asked to sign the petition did so. Most signatures were collected by three people; one man collected five or six, he said.
“It took us 60 hours to get the necessary signatures,” Williams said, adding that they had a month to collect them. “There were those who said they knew her and weren’t comfortable signing, but they were comfortable voting.”
Grosse said she sees this as a win-win situation.
“If people vote to retain me, I win because the people have confidence in what I’m doing,” she said. “And if they vote to recall me, I still win because I won’t have to deal with people like this person who’s spearheading the recall election.”
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