By Jason Emerson
Editor
The town of Fenner has a new town clerk after the resignation of Paula Douglas last month from the position. Jennifer Stoker, of Fenner, became acting town clerk on Feb. 1 and was officially appointed by the town board on Feb. 8 to fill the position for the rest of the year.
“I know she’ll do very well,” said Town Supervisor David Jones. “She’s a hard worker and very conscientious. She was the first name we thought of [when the position needed to be filled], and, so far so good.”
Stoker has lived in Fenner for 15 years. She is married to John Stoker and helps run the family farm; she is also a long-term substitute teacher in the East Syracuse-Minoa School District. Stoker has never held a municipal or public office before, although she was appointed a deputy town clerk in Fenner on Jan. 30.
“I’m really enjoying it so far,” she said after the town board’s Feb. 8 regular monthly meeting.
Stoker takes over for Douglas, who resigned in January for “personal reasons,” according to Jones. Her last day was Jan. 31.
Douglas had no comment as to why she resigned her position.
Douglas was elected town clerk in 2015 for a two-year term, and the position is up for re-election this November. If Stoker desires to remain town clerk, she will need to run for election this year, otherwise, her appointment will expire on Dec. 31, Jones said.
During the Feb. 8 meeting, the town board also discussed the possibility of changing the town clerk position from an elected one to an appointed one, as a good way to find and/or retain qualified people for the job, Jones said. “Other towns have done it and different supervisors have told me they like it better as far as the people you can select from,” he said. “They think they’ve had better luck with it, let’s put it that way.”
The town of Cazenovia changed its clerk position from elected to appointed in 2014, while the town of Nelson rejected undertaking the same change in 2015.
Board members Bill Cody, Hannah Strack and William Wester all said they would be in favor of the change if it was something town residents wanted, although no decisions were made at the meeting.
Jones said that whether the position is changed or not, it will still be on the November ballot since it is too late to submit the question to the county board of elections for popular approval.
The board did vote on Feb. 8 to change its policy on public comments during board meetings. The new rule is that residents wishing to address the board during its public comment period will be asked to write their names on a sign-in sheet, but do not need to include the topic and general summary of their comments to the board, as was previously decided in January. The intent of this new rule is to make the process for public comments more formalized.
Also at the meeting, the board made its annual organizational appointments. The board typically makes such appointments during its January meeting, but some insurance issues had not been finalized last month, so the appointments were tabled until this month’s meeting.
The 2017 town appointments remained nearly the same as those in 2016, including:
- Jennifer Stoker as town clerk, as well as clerk for the planning board and zoning board of appeals.
- Hannah Strack as deputy supervisor
- Dave Jones as town budget officer
- Carol Roberts as secretary to supervision/bookkeeper
- Joanne Buyea and Lisa Dolan as deputy town clerks
- Roger Cook as zoning and codes officer
- Rhonda Weigand as assessor
- Stokes and Levy law firm as town attorney
- Gerald A. Davies as town historian
- Gordon Baker as dog control officer
Also appointed was Charles Swart to a five-year term on the town zoning board of appeals, while Donna Griffin was reappointed to a seven-year term on the town planning board.
The town board meeting schedule will remain the same 2017, with meetings to be held the second Wednesday of every month, with and meetings times to be at 12:30 p.m. December through March and at 8 p.m. April through November.
The complete list of 2017 town appointments can be obtained and read at the Fenner town office.
