Fred Heinonen
Scandia Area Reporter

At a special meeting on May 31 the New Scandia Town Board asked Jan and Gary Hogle to resign their Scandia Parks and Recreation Committee posts.

The Hogles, who are sister and brother, have been members of the park committee for two and 12 years respectively.

The town board cited ìaccusations and chargesî from unidentified sources, stemming from the contentious first meeting on May 1 between the park committee and new Parks and Recreation Coordinator Marty McKelvy.

McKelvy, who resigned from the parks committee last fall, was recently hired by the board for the newly created position of coordinator, despite disapproval and warnings from the current parks committee.

The Hogles claim the boardís action against them is retribution for their actions in several areas, including: criticism of the township attorney, campaigning for a town board seat, asking a township employee to perform per job description, exposing mismanagement of Lions Park, opposing township functions at a local church, and exposing a state senatorís alleged lies at the Scandia Town Hall.

Jan Hogle has a recording and her own transcript of the May 1 meeting, but the town board was not interested in hearing the tape or reading the transcript.

Fact Finding

Board Supervisors Nancy Madden and Mike Harnetty had been assigned to a fact finding investigation of the ófrom Page 1

ìaccusations and chargesî by interviewing seven people.

Without naming all these people or specifying charges, Madden and Harnetty gave descriptive bits of information about their investigation of the accusations and charges at the May 1 meeting and the after effects as follows:

ïphone calls from citizens, not smooth meeting, not professional, not informed, favored, sensed animosity, got violent, was it sabotage, was attacked, said donít bud in, instigator, unprofessional meeting, limited info, was angry, set up to fail, did not respect, let her do her job and not micro manage, obvious dislike for, and gaveled.

These comments were not all directed toward Jan and Gary. The findings were discussed with the typical, ìhe said, she said, that person lied,î and so forth, according to the report.

Harnetty described three relevant issues:

ïThe parks and recreation chairman must show leadership and control at these meetings.

ïMcKelvy was appointed coordinator regardless of warnings from the park committee.

ïFour or five new members were appointed and personal conflicts were experienced.

The Decision

Harnetty and Madden said Jan and Gary have conflictive styles and they should be asked to resign.

Board Supervisor Mike Hintz said that after 12 years Gary Hogle has run his course. Board Chairman Dennis Seefeldt said the fact finding revealed problems, things have gotten worse and more polarized. He favored asking for resignations.

Board Supervisor Blair Joselyn, who was liaison to the park committee until recently, said it is hard to control the meetings. There has been a history of conflicts.

He suggested written reprimands, but not at the level of dismissal.

The board officially asked the Hogles to voluntarily resign. They were given until June 6 to respond.

Consequences

The Hogles responded negatively with hand carried letters to the town hall office on June 6. The Hogles were on the June 6 town board meeting agenda, but did not appear at the meeting because they said they had not been informed they would be on the agenda.

Their case was not discussed at that meeting.

On June 10 the Hogles received letters from the town board stating that they have been dismissed from the park committee.

The Hogles plan to contest this action.

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