NEW PALESTINE — Some municipal bills won’t be until paid New Palestine Town Council members are certain they are for legitimate services following a record-keeping dispute with the town’s clerk-treasurer.
Council members have once again expressed frustration with the clerk-treasurer, Tonii Pyle, after claiming she is not conducting her duties properly when it comes to paying the town’s bills.
Council members said the issue has to do with town invoices not being turned in, which could keep some of more than 50 claims submitted for April from getting paid on time. At their meeting last week, council members refused to approve paying any of the town’s claims after Pyle submitted the two pages of claims without invoices to back them up.
The issue is the latest in an ongoing feud between the council and Pyle since the council investigated and fired her father-in-law, longtime town manager Dave Book.
The council also verbally reprimanded Pyle, who had sent her husband — who is not a town employee –into town hall to pick up the month’s invoices and take them to Pyle while she was working from home. During the meeting, Pyle told the council the invoices were lost after she had returned them during nonworking hours and blamed a council member for taking them. The invoices were found by another town employee the day after the council meeting.
Pyle had been working from home because she might have been exposed to the cornonavirus, she told the council.
The council told Pyle it could not in good faith sign the claims without proper support documentation showing exactly what each claim is for.
“Vendors are not going to get paid and late fees will be attached,” Councilwoman Angie Fahrnow pointed out.
Council president Brandee Bastin told Pyle the council needed the invoices 72 hours before its meetings so members could compare figures with those listed in the claims.
Pyle, who took office in January, told the council she was sorry, and then sought to clarify the council’s request.
“What is it the council is looking for 72 hours ahead of time?” Pyle said, in a frustrated tone.
Bastin said invoices and payroll records are supposed to be part of the council’s regular claims review. The council in past meetings has dependably received the records, she said.
More than 50 claims were tabled until the next council meeting, slated for Saturday, May 2.
The council also informed Pyle she was not allowed to have a nontown employee, including her husband, pick up official town paperwork anymore.
