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INDIAN TRAIL The Indian Trail Town Council voted Tuesday to ban Mayor John Quinn from contributing to the town's newsletter and Web site, saying comments in the latest draft of his newsletter were “whiny” and “horrible.”
Council members said the mayor's comments should reflect well on the town and should have focused on events such as Indian Trail's new farmers market and the council recently passing the town budget without a tax increase.
“It doesn't mention anything positive since the last newsletter went out,” said Indian Trail Town Council Member Dan Schallenkamp.
The move to ban Quinn is the latest in a series of events that reveal a deepening rift between the Town Council and the mayor.
The council recently voted to deny Quinn contact with town employees except through Interim Town Manager Peggy Piontek. Board members also ruled that Quinn cannot enter nonpublic areas of Town Hall without Piontek's permission.
Quinn said Wednesday that the council's actions are based on false accusations that he had been harassing town staff members. He said he asked the council to provide specific examples, but none have been given.
Quinn did not attend the town meeting because he was on vacation. But he said Wednesday that the town had asked him to write comments for the newsletter but had not provided any directive or “talking points.”
“In the absence of that, I think the most pressing and critical issue facing the town is what's been going on in the Town Council,” Quinn said. “The level of malice they have been able to produce, and the disrespect they've shown to the voters of Indian Trail in trying to marginalize me and discredit me with false allegations, the folks need to know about that.”
In his newsletter comments, Quinn said that some elected officials come into office with good intentions. He said that later those elected officials try to become “political insiders,” and can become disconnected from what taxpayers want. His comments also referred to “bizarre” goings-on among Indian Trail leadership and stated that new ideas should be respected, not silenced, in the public arena.
Schallenkamp said during Tuesday's meeting that if Quinn couldn't say anything positive about Indian Trail in his newsletter comments, the council should “strike that section of the newsletter.”
Council members discussed asking Quinn to rewrite the article but decided they could not tell him what to write. Instead, the council decided to replace the mayor's comments in future newsletters with letters from Piontek or a future town manager. Council members said they didn't want to continuously monitor the mayor's comments, so they extended the ban to include barring Quinn from writing on the town's Web site.
The ban won't apply to future mayors.
“We're having some problems. Everyone knows this,” Mayor Pro Tem Shirley Howe said. “But we have a lot of good things going on in this town.”
The council voted 4-1 for the ban. Council member John Hullinger voted against it, saying he could not support barring Quinn from the town Web site.
