NEW PALESTINE — The town government and longtime attorney Gregg Morelock have parted ways after 40 years of working together. Morelock submitted a letter of resignation during a council meeting this week, saying it was time to move on.
Morelock will stay on until the end of the month and help in the transition once a new town attorney is hired.
“I represented this town longer than I have been a father, and over time the towns I work with become kind of like children,” Morelock said with a laugh during an interview later. A longtime attorney in Hancock County, he has for decades represented a number of municipal governments as part of his law practice.
Town council members had begun discussions about getting new legal representation at the end of the year. The council this year expanded to five members from three, and consensus to make a change was growing.
While Morelock was surprised to hear his replacement was being discussed, he said the council deserves to go forward with a lawyer it is comfortable with and said his resignation was probably best for both sides.
Anyone attending council meetings this year could notice interactions had become testy at times between Morelock and the newer council members. A couple of months ago, the council asked Morelock in a public meeting to be more cooperative and responsive to the new members.
One of them, Angela Fahrnow, had made several requests of information from Morelock, who wouldn’t oblige her, she said, unless other council members were also part of her request. Things turned so badly between Morelock and Fahrnow that she hired her own counsel to help her interpret legal documents, saying Morelock would not assist her.
The final straw for Fahrnow came in late October, when she asked if she could be part of the town’s closing session for the purchase of Gem Utility. Her requests, she said, were ignored.
“Nobody knew what was going on at those meetings surrounding the closure of Gem Utility,” Fahrnow said prior to the council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4. “He made it a point to keep everyone in the dark and would only tell us ‘it’s complicated’ when we asked questions.”
Morelock did not attend the council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Council president Brandee Bastin read his resignation letter aloud, prompting council member Bill Niemier to say it was time for a change.
“We’ve certainly had some disagreements over the last several months,” Niemier said. “The Gem Utility deal would have still not have been closed if the council had not pushed as hard as we did to get it closed, and there were a lot of other things showing we will be better served with different representation.”
Niemier noted his biggest problem with Morelock was his defense of former members of town government who are still under investigation, referring to former town manager Dave Book and former Clerk-Treasurer Tonii Pyle.
To Fahrnow and Niemier — the two new members who joined the expanded council in January — that drove a wedge between the attorney and those who were asking questions about how the town had been run over the past several decades.
“To divide and conquer and to pick sides and have division is counterproductive, and quite honestly from January to about July, that’s what this council has been forced to endure,” Niemier said. “He’d kind of forgotten who’s the client.”
Morelock said he didn’t feel his job was to always agree with the council on every issue, but rather to present the legal facts.
In his letter, Morelock said, he was resigning with deep sadness and regret. However, he noted it was clear that with the expansion of the council and the town, he no longer has time to devote to the town and still serve his other municipal clients.
Morelock still represents the city of Greenfield and is the town attorney for McCordsville, Ingalls, Knightstown, and Lewisville.
Council members Fahrnow, Chris Lytle and Bastin voted in favor of accepting the resignation, making it effective at the end of the month. Council member Clint Bledsoe voted against the measure, while Niemier abstained. The council hopes to have the new attorney in place within the next couple of weeks.
In his letter, Morelock wrote he was pleased to have played a role in taking the town from a “hamlet without water or sewer service to the burgeoning community it is today.”
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Town of New Palestine closes on its purchase of Gem Utilities. Page A5
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