Northfield Charter Commission Chair Tim Clack resigns
In a letter to the City and copied to the media, Clack explains…
To: City of Northfield, C/O Mayor Dana Graham
From: Tim Clack, Charter Commission Chair
To the Citizens of Northfield:
Recently, I have spent a large amount of time reflecting on the last 2 years I have spent serving our City on the Charter Commission. During this time, I have witnessed certain City Councilors completely disregard terms of our Charter, verbally attack Commissioners representing our Charter, and continually show a complete lack of respect to our City Ordinance. Yes, our Charter is an Ordinance. In addition, the ongoing behavior of our Council continues to diminish and portrays Northfield as an embarrassment. Even while having no direct role in this behavior, I’m ashamed to say I’m engaged in anything related to the City of Northfield governmental functions. I’m quite sure I’m not the only Staffer, Commissioner, or Committee member that feels this way, but most likely, I’ll be the only one brave enough to stand up and say so, publicly.
Serving on the Charter Commission is a voluntary role, appointed by the Third District Judge of Rice County. I take seriously my volunteer activities and strive to ensure the effort put forth supports a good cause. Like most of you, I balance a full time job, family, keeping up with home duties, and carve out time for volunteering. It is critical to me that the time I spend volunteering is helpful to others. Without a reasonable City Council majority or support of the Citizens of Northfield, driving forward compliance and support of our Charter, I feel my time has gone to waste.
As of May 13, 2016, I will resign my appointment to our City of Northfield Charter Commission. It is with great angst and regret I reach this decision. Simply stated, I can no longer support the majority of current City Councilors elected to serve our community. I truly hope I’m on a short list of people who intend to vacate roles in our local government as I’m confident our community will be hard pressed to find others willing to expose themselves to the poor behavior of a majority of our City Councilors.
Tim Clack
Northfield
KYMN will follow up with additional information.
