To the editor:

With the resignation of another trustee from the Grantwood Village board, it makes sense that the duties of five trustees should be divided among the three remaining trustees until the vacant positions are filled.

Instead, an ordinance amending the duties of the chairman and village clerk was passed at the Aug. 16 board meeting giving the chairman the exclusive duty to “preside over all day-to-day operations of the village business.” Previously, the chairman presided only “over all Board of Trustee meetings.”

This ordinance also gives the chairman a new duty: To “countersign checks and drafts upon the village treasury.”

The ordinance was passed by unanimous vote of the three trustees. Copies of the new ordinance were provided at the meeting, but there were no copies of the original description of duties, nor an explanation of the proposed changes. A comparison of the two documents could not be made at the meeting; consequently, there were no questions or comments. I am concerned that the consolidation of duties given to the chairman without an opportunity for review by the residents creates an imbalance on the Grantwood Village board.

Patricia Jones

Grantwood Village

Editor’s note: Mrs. Jones husband, Mike, stepped down as a Grantwood Village trustee in March.