File Photo by Jim Therrien/VTDigger
POWNAL — As have other small Vermont towns, Pownal finds itself struggling to work around an office overseen by an elected official no longer capable of doing the job.
The prolonged ill-health of Town Clerk Karen Burrington and years of overdue license fee payments to the state have prompted a March ballot article seeking to make the elected position an appointed one.
Burrington, the clerk since 1991, has been unable to work for more than a year after being badly injured in a fall, and she had battled illness for several prior years.
During that period, according to local officials, overdue payments to the state for its percentage of dog license and marriage license fees had slowly accumulated, totaling more than $20,000.
In 2017, the Select Board asked for an invoice from the state treasurer’s office, which showed that $15,485 was overdue concerning dog licenses and $5,330 overdue concerning marriage license fees, involving the years 2006 through 2015.
That amount has since been paid to the state using funds from the clerk’s office, board Chairman Nelson Brownell said, and officials believe all related payments are now up to date, pending findings of an annual audit of town accounts or receipt of new information.
For the first time, Brownell added, the clerk’s office will be included in the town’s fiscal year-end audit by an external firm, and that practice would continue going forward should the ballot article pass.
Brownell said the Select Board and Burrington first entered into a verbal agreement, and later a written agreement last fall, that allowed the town to use all fee income collected by the office — including the percentage of fees that would normally go to the elected clerk — to address any overdue fee payments to the state.
When it became apparent the clerk might not return to the office after a fall in late 2016, Julie Weber, an assistant clerk, began serving as acting clerk.
Weber also is running unopposed for the post in the March 6 election, but with the understanding the job could become an appointed one if the ballot article passes. In that case, the elected clerk’s term would expire 45 days after the vote, under a provision in state law allowing an appointed clerk position.
The Select Board essentially would then determine the salary and benefits and hire Weber or someone else as the town clerk.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Pownal considers appointment of town clerk.