After harping and sniping erupted between councilman Jack Day and former mayor Dan Curtis, who had yet to officially submit his resignation to the council, several city residents spoke out during the council meeting Monday night.
Dennis Johnson introduced himself as a Troy business owner.
“I’m really disappointed in the city council and the way they’re taking our city. We’re supposed to have some ethics. Y’all have no ethics. You need to start worrying about the city and not yourselves, your own political game,” Johnson said.
At one point a Troy police officer seated up front with the council raised his hand and asked for calm.
Former city council member and Troy resident since 1989, Robert Palmer urged the council to maintain a stiff upper lip.
“I understand this is a very volatile deal going on within the council, but please do us citizens a favor - move on,” Palmer pleaded. “Let’s conduct the citizens’ business and let’s quit the inner fighting.”
Before Johnson finished, the room erupted in applause.
Even then, Curtis pushed the issue that brought things to loggerheads at the last council meeting. Two council members said he acted without council approval when he signed a $5,800 check to a former city employee for back pay. Curtis asked for council affirmation that the check was not illegal. But the motion was not seconded and died.
During the 90-minute meeting, people often spoke out without being recognized. Terse words bounced back and forth between council members themselves, and council members and residents.
City attorney Barbara Quirk, sitting on the front row, looked frustrated, her advice often ignored.
Toward the end of the meeting, Curtis spoke out on why he is stepping down.
“It is with a considerable sense of sadness that I submit this resignation. But I feel it absolutely necessary because, who could work in this environment, really? Since three days before my election, these two people (Jack Day and Karen Machalek) have conspired to minimalize my position,” Curtis said, leaning toward the microphone. “They consulted and conspired, in my opinion, on ways to limit the authority of the mayor. When I took the office of the mayor, some of the disrespect that I was shown … was palpable and still is.”
During the evening, people raised the issue of home sizes in Settler’s Point subdivision now under construction. One builder, residents and at least one council member say this new project, the first of this size in Troy in recent memory, is the underlying cause of the problem. Curtis sees the subdivision as affordable housing that will help Troy grow, whereas Day and Ms. Machalek want more expensive homes.
“What it’s really about, some people don’t want 1,650-square-foot homes,” Curtis said, suggesting the check situation was a way for them to remove him.
Day and Ms. Machalek did not return calls for comment.
After the meeting, Harriet Prinz, former Troy school teacher, resident since 1972, and the only council member to vote against accepting Curtis’ resignation, said people are tired of the squabbling.
“The citizens want us to move forward, you can see that. This is over. This is past, and we need to look to the future. There is a lot of good things going on in Troy.”
