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INDIAN TRAIL There's been good news and bad news this summer in Indian Trail.
In July, Family Circle magazine named this western Union County town among the nation's top 10 for families.
In August, the town council and mayor landed in a national weekly syndicated column called “News of the Weird,” which summarizes “the bizarre and the ridiculous.”
That bad news was the result of town council votes essentially banning first-term Mayor John Quinn from town hall.
The council has barred him from any areas except public spaces, from talking to most employees without permission and from contributing to Indian Trail's newsletter and Web site. The reason, says two council members: bad behavior toward employees.
Quinn, who has two years left in his term, describes the council's actions as “un-democratic,” “tyrannical” and “unethical.” And he adds that he's done nothing wrong except ask tough questions.
The tensions have eaten up hours of open and closed town meetings over the past several months, and show no signs of relaxing.
Two council members who have been most critical of Quinn – Shirley Howe and Dan Schallenkamp – acknowledge he has done nothing illegal. But they say he has accused some town staff members of lying, challenged their decisions and made their workplace highly stressful. Interim town manager Peggy Piontek would not comment.
Quinn counters that his day-to-day interactions with the town staff have been “overwhelmingly professional, cordial and even friendly,” and he has not heard a substantiated complaint or specific allegation of bad behavior.
“There should be a process and a set of procedures by which allegations are at least first verified as being true,” Quinn said.
The restrictions on the mayor are “probably legal,” says a UNC Chapel Hill expert on local government. But a conflict like Indian Trail's “certainly is unusual,” said David Lawrence of the university's School of Government. “It doesn't sound very functional.”
Residents of the town, population 26,010, have weighed in as well, since the board acted in mostly 4-1 votes against Quinn.
One critic, town council candidate Kathy Broom, told the council recently: “The decisions of the council have been difficult but necessary. The sad part of this is the current mayor does have some good ideas, but because of his personal attacks, negativity and paranoia, no one wants to work with him.”
More than 30 Quinn supporters rallied to his defense at a meeting last month. Five, including former council member Mercedes Cass, spoke to support him or criticize the town council and staff.
One, town resident Lynn Hayes, said she backs Quinn's efforts to “make our town a better place to live.” Hayes said the mayor has to work with an “uncooperative, disgruntled town council” with “obnoxious, arrogant, un-Christlike attitudes.”
Town board member Schallenkamp says incidents where Quinn has had differences of opinion with town staff, then not accepted the staff member's version of events, led to some of the restrictions.
Board member Howe wrote in an e-mail that the council's actions were a culmination of events, including Quinn's recording employee conversations and “challenging employee's decisions and placing emotional distress upon them.”
“We operate under a council-manager type of government,” Howe wrote. “The rules are very clear as to who does what. The mayor has limited duties but does not appear to understand the limitations.” She added that some restrictions placed on Quinn, including funneling most communication with town employees through the town manager, also apply to council members. Schallenkamp and Howe aren't seeking re-election this fall.
Council member John Hullinger, who did not vote for most of the sanctions against Quinn, says the dispute is “between six or seven individuals and the mayor. There are people who do not like how the mayor interacts with them, and they are shutting him down. This is an example of why people do not like politics and/or politicians.”
Hullinger said he believes “it is un-American to shut down an elected official without proof of allegations. The allegations against the mayor were never substantiated. No specific incident was ever discussed in either open or closed session.”
Quinn has a similar view.
“In the course of doing the job I was elected to do, I'm going to ask tough questions, and in areas where mistakes have been made, they may be embarrassing questions,” he says. “My intentions are simply to bring issues to light so we may examine and take corrective action as necessary. To do less would be a disservice to the people.”
Local government expert Lawrence says that while he's known a few other towns to have similar problems, poor relationships between elected officials can hinder town business.
“You don't want that sort of stuff to happen,” Lawrence said. “Ideally these folks will work together.”
Staff writer Lisa Hammersly contributed.
