Town clerk lambasts mayor, aldermen in Baldwin

Baldwin’s regular board meeting of aldermen was temporarily upended Thursday with the public address of embattled Town Clerk Chrystal Willis.
Willis had been placed on administrative leave with pay Wednesday by Mayor Donna Lanceslin for reasons cited in a letter as, “insubordination, creating and executing documents beyond the clerk’s authority, abusing her position as clerk, and/or creating a work environment that isn’t conducive to productivity, and other reasons.”
The mayor said to the Banner-Tribune Thursday morning the proposed termination of Willis was not on the agenda for Thursday evening’s meeting due to time constraints. However, she said she intended to expand the agenda to include the proposal at the meeting.
But Willis appeared before the board ahead of the proposed expansion and addressed the overfilled room.
She read out loud the list of reasons Lanceslin had given for grounds for termination, and called them “unfounded and very much untrue.”
Willis went on to say, “The severity of these accusations paired with the detrimental consequences they can have on my professional, my entrepreneurial and my personal life are why I am convicted to stand before you all today.
“This is not about a job. This is about more than a job. This is about what is right, and I am standing here to protect my name and my reputation.”
Willis proclaimed her professional and civic records are without blemish and decried further the reasons for her proposed dismissal as without precedent.
She asked the board to review the audacity of the evidence of her job performance, calling for them to ask themselves whether they could recall just cause for her dismissal, and whether or not such cause was simply “hearsay.”
After a brief exchange with Alderwoman Margaret Coleman regarding previous agreements to procedure, Willis said, “This problem was here before I got here, and the problem continues to persist as long as the council (board) turns a blind eye to the egregious actions, the dictatorship and the unwarranted treatment of staff, including yourselves, by Mayor Lanceslin.
“It is time that people stop throwing bricks and hiding their hands.”
She further asked the council to reflect on her job performance in terms of personally witnessed evidence.
She explained that during the February board meeting, she donated her professional services, beyond those of clerical work, to include “making sure the town of Baldwin would have a web presence and identifiable in-house email addresses, so that we could provide a professional presence moving forward.”
She then accused the mayor and aldermen of colluding against her “behind closed doors.”
She levied nonspecific accusations of fiscal irresponsibility concerning the employment of a contract employee and her own position as being at odds, and told of her apprising the mayor of an idea she intended to execute concerning town employee reviews.
According to Willis, she attempted a second time to present the mayor with her proposal of employee assessments, but as the mayor was inaccessible that day, went on to carry out the assessments anyway, in the interest of saving time.
“When Mayor Lanceslin returned, I provided her with the documentation,” said Willis.
Then, she said she was openly reprimanded by Coleman, who told her she didn’t have the authority to carry out employee evaluations, citing the brief nature of her tenure as the reason.
At this time, Lanceslin gaveled the end of Willis’ opportunity for comment.
Baldwin legal counsel Joseph Tabb pointed out the procedural implications of Willis’ continuing despite not having yet expanded the agenda for such an address to aldermen and the mayor, but Willis insisted she had more to say.
“In closing, if I may,” Willis said. “I am urging lawmakers of this town to wake up and pay attention to what is going on around here.
“Closed mouths do not get fed. Our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence states that when the government fails to meet the needs of the people, the people have the right to revolt.”
She then turned to the gallery and said, “You have a right to know what is going on here at town hall. You have a right to open and transparent communication with the mayor and your council regarding the matters here.
“We are in a situation where our employees are being treated deplorably. We are not in a municipality, we are under a dictatorship.”
Mayor Lanceslin gaveled a final time and had Baldwin Police Chief Harry Smith usher Willis to her seat.
Following the meeting, Willis said, “I felt I had the right to be here and stand up for myself and to tell the truth.”
She lambasted the fiscal structuring of the town’s beleaguered water and sewage system, and insinuated that such problems as antiquated water pipes and misread meters were going purposefully unsolved by town government.
Willis concluded with, “If the town citizens will not act and do not want to know what’s going on, I strongly recommend that the State step in and put the town of Baldwin under fiscal administration which would remove the mayor and the board’s ability to make decisions, and hopefully we would get the help we need to get this town back in order.”
A special meeting will be held July 23 at 6 p.m. at town hall to further discuss the issue.