The Peru Gazette

Peru – Eight years of relative harmony on the Peru Town Board appears coming to an end. Politics, word parsing and disagreement over facts appear to be rearing their heads.

The disharmony centers on filling or not filling the Council seat that opened when Councilman Brandy McDonald was elected Town Supervisor. Two years remain on McDonald’s council term of office. The Board can either fill the seat with a successor to be elected in November or leave it unfilled. The Board failed to agree on a replacement at its January 2, 2018 meeting. (Councilman Langley was not present at that meeting). Last night January 18, 2018, the Board failed a second time.

Democrat Councilman Jim Douglass nominated Democrat Marque Moffett to fill the position until December 31, 2018. Moffett made an unsuccessful bid for the office in the November 2018 election and has been regularly attending Council meetings. McDonald seconded Douglass’s motion. When it came time for a vote, Republican Jim Langley and Republican Melvin Irwin voted no, while Democrats McDonald and Douglass voted yes. Failing to receive a majority, the motion failed.

Prior to the vote Councilman Jim Langley read three pages of prepared remarks. Referring to the open seat Langley said, “Either intentionally or unintentionally, I seem to have been left out of this conversation.” Langley said that he had not been advised that Donald McBrayer would be nominated for the open seat at the Board’s January 2, 2018 meeting. Supervisor McDonald responded saying he had informed Langley of his plans to nominate McBrayer (a Republican) in Langley’s office at a December 27 meeting. Appointing someone to the office was also stated on the meeting’s published agenda. Referring to Marque Moffett’s appointment Langley asked, “What are we saying. You ran for the office, you didn’t win, but we’re going to appoint you anyway.”

Referencing his thirteen years as Chairman of the Clinton County Board of Legislators Langley said he always informed new legislators that they were county legislators, not Democrats or Republicans. They should make their decisions on what’s best for the county as a whole.

Councilman Melvin Irwin said, “In the past couple weeks I felt trapped. I feel like a go-between my party and the other side. Frankly, I feel like a playground monitor. Marquee, no disrespect to you, but I think this Board needs to get its act together and maybe we’ll go forward with just four people. Maybe we’ll learn how to compromise and get along, act like adults and do the job we were hired to do and getting paid to do.” Irwin did not state why he voted against appointing Moffett.

Councilman Douglass countered that “I think we’re acting like adults. It’s not about politics. We appointed Dianne Miller, a Republican. She was appointed because she is the best person for the job.” Douglass said that he hopes the Board can make decisions on what’s best for the Town of Peru. Langley responded, “I don’t think anybody disagrees with that at all.” Editor’s Note: The last 10 minutes of this meeting was not recorded because of a technical issue.