Dear Editor,
I recently received an email written by the Superintendent of Westfield Washington Schools and it laid out some very good criteria that would serve our community well if we and Dr. Grate graded our candidates by these same standards.
“It is in our schools, where we model the guiding principles of honesty, hard work, responsibility, compassion, and respect. It is in our schools that we provide the necessary scaffolding for social and emotional learning, fostering the development of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.”
– Dr. Sherry Grate, March 6, 2017
Fortunately, we have Marla Ailor, candidate for Washington Township Trustee, who exhibits all of these and a record of accomplishments. The Trustee is not only responsible for taking care of our Township’s most needy but also for our parks, cemeteries and fire safety and a list of others. This is an everyday job that requires accurate care and honest and detailed reporting to the county, state and public. Marla’s job history, volunteerism, school service and service to our veteran’s community through the VFW (elected trustee) have prepared her to work for you as Trustee. Trustee is a leadership position and those who know and have worked with Marla know she is more than qualified.
Is it a pass or fail grade for our current Trustee Tolan based on the above principles? Your vote decides! Would you Pass or Fail based on the following?
- Submitted to this paper and another that she took office on Jan. 1, 2014, when it was actually 2015
- Claims she was overwhelmingly elected but she ran unopposed
- Spent over a year and thousands of dollars to produce a Strategic Plan for Washington Township which contains the data for Washington Township in Ohio and to date she has not submitted an amendment to the Board to rectify this error
- Had the budget approved in 2018 for four publications of the OWWN magazine promoting advertising to cover costs and an April 24, 2018, publish date, but then printed the magazine more than one month early on March 23, 2018, with her picture on the cover and no opportunity for others to advertise
- Is reporting a drop of $2.2 million in Township assets with no explanation
- Touts a new website as an accomplishment but it is missing meeting agendas, minutes, documents and financials, making it a less than useful source of information but at a great expense
- Rebranded our Washington Township, Hamilton County, Indiana, to a non-existent entity: Westfield Washington Township, at an extremely high cost for new signage, websites, etc.
- Cut personnel but then didn’t report some wages and benefits costs and outsourced other work that could have been done by employees or volunteers
- Changed the Township Board to a nearly perfunctory entity
- Budgets are being spent on software and websites but only now while campaigning for a second term has Tolan determined she needs to hire and train someone who can use them, making the large cash outlay worth it – is she doing her work that is overdue?
- Spending more than half of the budget for OWWN outside of Washington Township
- Her campaign maligning her opponent Marla Ailor with falsehoods
- Having the City Economic Developer Matt Skelton represent the Township as legal counsel, attending most board meetings, advising on all agreements with the City and filing no conflict of interest.
Perhaps we give Tolan an “E” for effort, but this is a job that requires results and a job with diverse responsibilities that must all be met. The above listing is based on facts. Go back to the top of this article and apply what was said. Is this honest, respectful, socially aware, responsible decision-making? These are goals and qualities expected in our children but certainly should be evident in our elected officials. Is there more to be discovered?
Washington Township deserves the most qualified trustworthy person who can handle everything the job requires. Marla Ailor will bring back Township Board involvement and volunteerism that have been missing these past three years and she will focus on everything that is Washington Township. Being nice isn’t the most important qualification for this position, but Marla has that, too. Do the best you can for our Township and vote an “A” for Washington Township: Marla Ailor for Trustee.
And while we are assessing the performance of candidates and grading them …
Ken Alexander of Westfield is asking for the vote for County Council District 4 based on fiscal conservatism and knowing the job of change-orders and has said he will get money back from County to Grand Park for what Grand Park has contributed to the County. (Grand Park already gets back hotel fees and has received monies from the County.) (Ken was not endorsed by Hamilton County Fiscal Conservatives – that is Rich Sharp.)
While Director of Grand Park, Ken had possession of the checkbook for the Grand Park Sports Campus Operating Fund, which is not allowed by law as it is a duty and responsibility of Clerk-Treasurer. He over drafted same checkbook three times in the amounts of $150,000 in June 2015 and $136,972 in January 2016, which the City covered from the General Fund after the fact in late 2016; and in the amount of $1,462,827.72 in 2016 which was covered by transferring funds from the 2012 COIT Ban Construction Fund. (All supporting records reside in the office of the City of Westfield Clerk-Treasurer.)
Ken explained he didn’t know how much money was in the bank account so he didn’t know he was in overdraft mode, not even after the first or second time. This totaled $1,749,798.72. Sounds like a teenager with his first checkbook that writes checks as long as he has some and doesn’t understand budgets or the consequences of spending money you don’t have. But as a County Councilor he would hope to increase budgets and taxes and approve projects – clearly a tax and spend candidate.
As Westfield Public Works Director, Ken did approve voluminous change-orders for the construction of Grand Park which were significant in amount with an upcharge on each one, inflating the costs to taxpayers. Regardless of liking or not liking Grand Park, there seemed to be no budget restrictions for Ken as he continued to approve change-orders.
Just these activities would contradict a conservatively fiscal approach to decisions. A person such as Ken Alexander who did these things should not be elected to any position where he has any vote or influence on taxpayer dollars – not that he’s not a nice guy otherwise.
And to Tony Murray, head of Firefighters PAC, what research did you do before endorsing Ken Alexander?
P.S. I love our firefighters and all they do, but I think they are backing the wrong candidates to best serve us. Of course, Marla Ailor as Trustee will serve the firefighters as one of her sworn duties.
Linda Naas
Westfield