Letters: Readers sounds off on Etna Township Trustee behavior

USA TODAY NETWORK
·4 min read

Etna Township residents deserve better from trustees

If Etna Township residents and outside observers expect the Etna Township Board of Trustees to work better together in 2023, don’t hold your breath! This new year started where last year ended. The dysfunctional leadership of Board President Rozland McKee and Vice President Jeff Johnson was on full display at the board’s reorganization meeting in January when they excluded Trustee Mark Evans from all board committee assignments, choosing to appoint only themselves to all areas of responsibility.

Transparency no longer exists on the trustee board. The leadership has removed all department reports from board agendas, refuses to address time-sensitive issues, and consistently doesn’t respond to residents’ questions and public record requests. Trustees McKee and Johnson absconded with the township’s security system recorder after McKee was caught covering up the cameras, and they refuse to disclose its whereabouts. They now have authorized an additional $11,000 for a new system.

The board leadership has weaponized the county prosecutor’s office and outside legal counsel against a fellow board member, the fiscal officer and anyone who dares question their actions. Johnson led the charge to remove a respected member of the community from the Land Use Citizen Advisory Committee because she disagreed with his opinion.

Etna Township voters sent a clear message in the 2021 election when they rejected the failed leadership of the past.Etna Township will only progress when voters this fall elect new leadership dedicated to transparency, civil debate and community engagement. Etna residents deserve better.

Ryan Davis, a member of Etna’s New Community Authority Board and a member of Etna Township’s Land Use Citizen Advisory Committee

Bullying in Etna should not be tolerated

A verbal and physical altercation event happened inside the Etna Township Hall the week of February 5, 2023. But this isn't the first incident. Verbal, physical, and online aggression is the 'norm' for Trustee Mark Evans. No citizen, property owner, business owner, or employee of the Township should endure any form of harassment or altercation from Trustee Evans. None. It will no longer be tolerated by community members.

Any person who enters Township property has a right to a safe environment. That includes being free from any forms of harassment, verbal abuse, online abuse, mental abuse and physical abuse. Workplace violence and aggression is real. It happens every day when individuals cannot regulate emotions. It is scary because a lot of times you can see a physical transformation of individuals as aggression escalates.

I call immediately for Etna leaders to do what it takes to protect the community, property owners, vendors, and our own employees! Safety has to come first right now. We deserve nothing less.

Shelly Christy, Etna property owner

Everyone should feel safe in Etna

A Feb. 10 article reported Etna Board President Rozland McKee called the sheriff while at the township hall because she and one township employee felt unsafe as Trustee Mark Evans arrived wearing a body camera.

After the Sept. 20, 2022, trustee meeting, me and other residents conversed outside the Town Hall. Someone was taking pictures of us. I waved, not thinking anything of it, until I realized it was Trustee McKee. Sarcastically, she yelled from her SUV, “That’s great!”, and drove away, making me feel uncomfortable, unsafe.

Ironically, the tables turned, a sheriff call and complaint is made against Evans. The same fellow board member McKee and Vice President Jeff Johnson removed from his position as Board President in 2022 and assigned no duties to at the 2023 organizational meeting. And the same fellow member who, the Zoning Inspector, John Singleton, refuses to respond to. Seems like another attempt to remove Evans from the board completely.

Evans has been the only trustee to respond to residents’ questions and complaints. He apologizes for inconveniences caused by the inactions of his co-trustees who have refused to address our safety concerns, which include:

  • Zoning Violations:

    • Scanelle Properties (FedEx), Tollgate Road

    • Core5 Development, Mink Street

    • Rhino Storage (previously Storage One)

    • Town Hall lack of stair railing (elderly man fell Dec. 7 due to no railing to grab onto)

  • Noise Resolution Section 1015

  • Refusal to open up JEDZ and JEDD Board positions to residents

  • Public removal of a Citizen Advisory Committee volunteer

Instead, items such as a vacuum or parliamentary training by an inexperienced consultant on township procedures are placed on agendas. McKee canceled the February township meeting “…out of concern for the safety of herself and township employees.” What about us residents? We want to feel safe too.

Doris Caceres Schumick, Etna Township

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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Letters: Reader sounds off on Etna Township Trustee behavior