Group, Have a small community where the elected town clerk is also a part-time town employee. The employee is looking at some disciplinary issues, what does one need to be wary of in doing such things?? Larry Vickers, Jr. Attorney At Law, P.L.L.C. 600 Emporia Street, Suite B Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401 Phone: 918-682-5900 & 303 South Thornton Vian, Oklahoma 74962 Phone: 918-773-4004 http://www.lvickerslaw.com<http://www.lvickerslaw.com/> E-mails from this firm normally contain confidential and privileged material, and are for the sole use of the intended recipient. Use or distribution by an unintended recipient is prohibited, and may be a violation of law. If you believe that you received this e-mail in error, please do not read this e-mail or any attached items. Please delete the e-mail and all attachments, including any copies thereof, and inform the sender that you have deleted the e-mail, all attachments and any copies thereof. Thank you.

Elected officials can be removed, but that requires the District Attorney. Employees can be fired. Generally, the Town Board can take away the employee-functions and pay, but is pretty limited in doing anything to the elected official-functions and pay. A recurring problem is, what do you do when the Town Clerk wants to take vacation? Does the Town Board need to approve? My Towns have been fortunate that the Town Clerk and Town Board get along well enough to make everything work. The Town Board wants to be sure the Town Clerk's duties are covered, the Town Hall is open, etc., so they ask the Town Clerk to "request" days off, but I don't think they could make her/him stay. Good Luck! Mark H. Ramsey For the Firm Taylor, Foster, Mallett, Downs, Ramsey & Russell, P.C. P.O. Box 309 Claremore, OK 74018 918-343-4100 918-343-4900 fax mramsey@soonerlaw.com<mailto:apixley@soonerlaw.com> The information contained in this electronic mail transmission (including any accompanying attachments) is intended solely for its authorized recipient(s), and may be confidential and/or legally privileged. If you are not an intended recipient, or responsible for delivering some or all of this transmission to an intended recipient, you have received this transmission in error and are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from reading, copying, printing, distributing or disclosing any of the information contained in it. In that event, please contact us immediately by telephone (918) 343-4100 or by electronic mail at postmaster@soonerlaw.com<mailto:postmaster@soonerlaw.com> and delete the original and all copies of this transmission (including any attachments) without reading or saving in any manner. Thank you. From: Larry Vickers <larry@lvickerslaw.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2022 3:44 PM To: OAMA luistserv <oama@lists.imla.org> Subject: [Oama] Town Clerk/Town Employee Notice: This email is from an external source. Do not open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected e-mail. ________________________________ Group, Have a small community where the elected town clerk is also a part-time town employee. The employee is looking at some disciplinary issues, what does one need to be wary of in doing such things?? Larry Vickers, Jr. Attorney At Law, P.L.L.C. 600 Emporia Street, Suite B Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401 Phone: 918-682-5900 & 303 South Thornton Vian, Oklahoma 74962 Phone: 918-773-4004 http://www.lvickerslaw.com<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fwww.lvickerslaw.com%2f&c=E,1,U5v8AWR4JhsCtKuw6wM0ue_mjJueQgPmKfsKdWCLbVyFpsTqAYnTFVxSkCOIeOUJ8rYjPvZPsYUVlGlJVHR4FhxQUoqpiQKxxfQ4Am3Lann-4pk,&typo=1> E-mails from this firm normally contain confidential and privileged material, and are for the sole use of the intended recipient. Use or distribution by an unintended recipient is prohibited, and may be a violation of law. If you believe that you received this e-mail in error, please do not read this e-mail or any attached items. Please delete the e-mail and all attachments, including any copies thereof, and inform the sender that you have deleted the e-mail, all attachments and any copies thereof. Thank you.

Larry, You know this, but just so it's said - obviously the Town can't "fire" the elected Town Clerk. I only note this because there have been instances, in the past, where a Town *might have *"fired" the elected Clerk and stopped paying them even for their elected position. Per 11 O.S. 12-109, the Town Clerk can be employed to perform duties not related to their Town Clerk position, and receive separate compensation for doing so (provided by ordinance). That leaves a fun, lingering question of what duties are not related to the Clerk position. But that would be a more traditional employment relationship and one that the Town can separate. Put differently, you could fire (or take disciplinary action) the Clerk from their non-Clerk position/duties (and, thereby, they would lose the extra comp for those duties) so long as you don't attempt to "fire" them from their elected position and duties and comp. Can you put the elected Clerk on paid admin leave while investigating them? I can't find any authority that would allow a Town to take action that would result in the Clerk being prevented from performing their elected Clerk duties. You could certainly take away their ability to perform the non-Clerk duties (since that is an appointed position/duties). But the main purpose of Ad Leave is often to remove the employee from the workplace. I'm not sure you can do that with an elected Clerk. As support for that position, consider the Aldermanic statutes. 9-117 allows the Council, for cause, "any officer of the City except the mayor." We know there is a distinction between officers and employees (and Title 11 defines the term office/officer as being any elected position and the Clerk/Treasurer, whether elected or appointed). Contrast that with 9-118, which references the Mayor's power to suspend "an appointed officer or employee". Contrast it with 10-121, which grants the power to suspend any officer or employee to the City Manager "or other authority which has the power to appoint or elect the officer or employee." And, yes, contrast it with the Town Board of Trustees specific statute, 12-114, which allows the Board to remove for cause any "appointive officer". 9-117 might be the result of loose legislative drafting. But it's unique in that it authorizes the governing body to suspend any public officer of the City without limiting language like "appointed officer" or that the power only resides with the person or body with the power the appoint. I know for a fact that 9-117 has been used to suspend with pay elected Clerks and Street Commissioners in Aldermanic cities. It's rare, but I can think of two instances where it was used to effectively put such an elected executive type official on admin leave with pay. But that kind of language isn't found within the Town statutes. Matt On Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 3:44 PM Larry Vickers <larry@lvickerslaw.com> wrote: > Group, > > > Have a small community where the elected town clerk is also a part-time > town employee. The employee is looking at some disciplinary issues, what > does one need to be wary of in doing such things?? > > > *Larry Vickers, Jr.* > *Attorney At Law, P.L.L.C.* > > *600 Emporia Street, Suite B* > > *Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401 * > > *Phone: 918-682-5900* > > *&* > > *303 South Thornton* > > *Vian, Oklahoma 74962* > > *Phone: 918-773-4004* > > *http://www.lvickerslaw.com <http://www.lvickerslaw.com/>* > > E-mails from this firm normally contain confidential and privileged > material, and are for the sole use of the intended recipient. Use or > distribution by an unintended recipient is prohibited, and may be a > violation of law. If you believe that you received this e-mail in error, > please do not read this e-mail or any attached items. Please delete the > e-mail and all attachments, including any copies thereof, and inform the > sender that you have deleted the e-mail, all attachments and any copies > thereof. Thank you. > > -- > Oama mailing list -- oama@lists.imla.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oama-leave@lists.imla.org >