Buswell resigns as Joseph mayor; Collier steps in lagrandeobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lagrandeobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
JOSEPH â The Joseph City Council began the road back from dysfunction, Tuesday, July 20, by voting in a new mayor pro-tem and taking other measures in the wake of the censure and resignation of one of its members.
Councilor Lisa Collier was elected by her peers to serve as mayor pro-tem, the position former Councilor Kathy Bingham was removed from June 30, as well as from committee assignments for a year and banning her from contact with city employees after several complaints against her were received by City Hall.
Although the council has a new pro-tem â who serves as mayor in the mayorâs absence â filling Binghamâs former committee assignments will have to wait. The same is true for applications for other committee assignments. Making such assignments is the mayorâs job and Mayor Belinda Buswell was absent from the last council meeting. Pro-tem Administrator Brock Eckstein said she was home sick.
JOSEPH â The clouds that have covered Joseph City Hall with gloom for weeks â if not longer â may be lifting thanks to the efforts of its new interim city administrator, Brock Eckstein.
Last week, Eckstein met with Dennis Welch, the cityâs parks, Main Street and facilities supervisor, and discussed the harassment allegations that have kept Welch off work since March 22. He cited stress, âgaslightingâ and harassment as reasons for his time off. Welch returned to work Sunday, May 16.
âThe cloud is lifting and the sunâs coming out and thatâs what I want,â Welch said Monday. âI just want to come to work and do my job. I know the people here appreciate me. Theyâve made that very clear.â
JOSEPH — A scathing rebuke from the Joseph Chamber of Commerce, a second employee complaint of harassment and residents calling for transparency greeted the Joseph City Council during its meeting
JOSEPH â To honor his military service and his 96th birthday, one of Wallowa Countyâs last World War II and Korean War veterans, Lee Cutler, was presented Thursday, April 8, with a U.S. flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol and with a new Marine Corps flag.
Cutler has flown one of each from a pole outside his Joseph home for years.
Glenn Smith, a community health care worker from Winding Waters, said Cutler âdisplays his flag proudly,â but theyâre getting worn so they were being replaced.
Kim Hutchison, president of the Eagle Cap Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, made the presentation of the flags April 8. The national flag was obtained by U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Oregon, to honor Cutlerâs service and his birthday.