Burkholder named Etna Township board president in first meeting of 2024

In the first meeting of the new year, the Etna Township Trustees meeting had a different tone Jan. 2.

After two years of frequent bickering, yelling and name-calling, the meeting was calmer as Gary Burkholder joined the board following his November election.

Burkholder was unanimously approved as the board's president, taking over for Rozland McKee, who served in the role since April 2022. Burkholder then ran the organizational and regular board meetings, which stretched three hours.

The trustees approved roughly 40 motions that primarily dealt with distributing duties and the administration of the township, including creating an agenda creation policy for trustee meetings, establishing the board president as the point person for the Licking County Prosecutor's Office and other legal counsel, giving all trustees access to legal records and communications from the prosecutor's office and other legal counsel and more.

Burkholder said after the meeting it was important to pass all the changes during the first meeting to set a tone about how the township will handle its business going forward.

"I think we had some cleanup work, a need to do some administrative changes and give direction to the administrator and the staff," he said.

Numerous items dealt with the responsibilities of Township Administrator Nita Hanson. She was tasked with compiling meeting agendas with oversight from the board president and filing written reports ahead of every trustee meeting. She previously would give an oral report during each meeting. Hanson also must create procedure manuals for various tasks, such as updating the website, livestreaming township meetings and emailing the township distribution list. Hanson must provide a draft of the manuals by Feb. 19.

Trustee Rozland McKee said the board was putting a lot of pressure and responsibility on Hanson and didn't want a set date for the draft manuals. McKee said the manuals should be an ongoing project.

Burkholder said he agreed it was a lot of work for Hanson and said board members need to work cooperatively with Hanson and township staff to initiate manuals and other tasks.

But he added there needs to be leniency about the timeframe. Burkholder, who previously served as city manager in Brookville, said after the meeting he'll use his experience to help Hanson prioritize what needs to be done.

"I think it's about being reasonable," he said during the meeting. "But these are some of the objectives and goals that I think are important for the board to start moving forward on."

While many of the dozens of motions passed unanimously, McKee voted against several, including one that requires all elected officials and township employees to provide all logins and passwords to the township fiscal officer. Burkholder and Trustee Mark Evans approved the motion 2-1.

McKee, whose background is in information technology, said there are no circumstances for providing passwords.

Evans said the fiscal officer having the passwords is part of proper due diligence.

"My motto is if you get hit by a bus, the operation needs to continue," Evans said. "If an employee is the only one that has a password to their computer, to the drop box, to whatever, that's not appropriate."

In the 2023 organizational meeting, McKee and former Trustee Jeff Johnson did not appoint Evans to duties, and this year Burkholder and Evans did the same to McKee. Of the eight appointments for positions such as president, vice president, supervisor of township administrator, township representative on the West Licking Joint Fire District board and others, Burkholder was appointed to six and Evans to the other two.

Evans said even though the positions were being split between himself and Burkholder, McKee sits on the boards of the townships two joint economic development zones, five of the townships joint economic development districts, and other positions.

McKee said she served on those boards because she was the president of the board.

"Those are appointed positions, the JEDD boards. They have an expiration date, so that's why he can't remove me from those boards, just to be clear," she said.

Even though it's a new year, Evans and Burkholder passed motions about old topics, including requiring officials and staff to disclose the location of the township's original security camera system, which was removed in October 2022 after McKee and township staff members learned Evans had access to the system. An independent investigator found Evans logged into the system 140 times.

Last January, McKee and Johnson approved replacing the security cameras with a new system from State Security, but the cameras were never installed. Evans and Burkholder also passed a motion directing Hanson to determine and report why the replacement system was never installed.

Zoning inspector resigns after altercation with Trustee Mark Evans

Prior to the Jan. 2 meeting, township zoning inspector John Singleton resigned that morning after nearly seven years with the township.

In his resignation letter, obtained through a records request, Singleton wrote he had the honor of working for a very good board of trustees but an exception to that has been one trustee "that has done nothing but degrade the employees of the Township" for the last two years, both directly in emails and publicly on Facebook. Singleton does not name the specific trustee, but he is referring to Trustee Mark Evans.

An independent investigation in November found Evans demeaned, ridiculed and insulted township employees to the point of violating the township's personnel policies.

Singleton wrote in his resignation letter that the unnamed trustee intended to remove Singleton and the rest of the office staff in January. Singleton added, "He has created a very hostile work environment with the harassments, bullying, and ultimately physically grabbing my wrist and causing injury to myself on February 6, 2023."

Licking County Sheriff Office's deputies were called to the township hall Feb. 6 after an altercation between Evans and Singleton.

With the zoning inspector position open, the trustees unanimously approved assistant part-time inspector Freddie Latella continuing his part-time role.

Burkholder said he was not comfortable filling the full-time inspector position yet and wants to look over the job description before posting the position. Burkholder also said he was interested in potentially hiring a zoning administrator to oversee all planning in the township in addition to a zoning inspector, who would handle code enforcement.

"I think having that extra level of expertise here in the township would be helpful in in accomplishing those goals," Burkholder said.

mdevito@gannett.com

740-607-2175

Twitter: @MariaDeVito13

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Burkholder named Etna Township board president in year's first meeting