Why does Doug Staley work for Preble?

Doug Staley is the Code Enforcement Officer's helper. He is paid a considerable amount of money to take the burden off the 'real' Code Enforcement Officer, Town Supervisor Betty Ann Pitman. This job was done by the town clerk at one time Another local community does this job with a stay at home mom who schedules inspections around her kid's school schedule. It is just a part time job that can be done by anyone who knows the local codes. To put it another way... If Doug Staley can do it just about anyone can do it. I can think of several people who have the knowledge and expertise to do it right now and they live right here in Preble. Plus it doesn't have to be done by just one person, it could be shared by two or more people. It would be a nice second income for someone. It has flexible hours and you get to meet new people. The only reason Staley is doing it is because the Town Board never looked for anybody else to do it. No notice that the job was available or anything like that. They just keep rehiring Staley year after year. It's time to give a local Preble citizen a shot at the job. Besides county planning is there to back up our guy if any questions come up. Why are we paying someone who doesn't live in Preble to do this? Our Town Board sends this job and several others out of Preble when a local person could do them. Our bookkeeper is out of town as are our lawyers and our assessor. The Town Board has never made any attempt to look for local people to do any of these jobs... Why not?

After all, could anyone do worse than Staley? Staley was the one who gave the go ahead for the Song Mountain well. Staley was the one who allowed Flying J's use of the buffer zone... TWICE! Staley is the person who has been the cause of ALL the problems in Preble for the last 5 years that I am aware of. I have heard that he has been a problem longer than that. He is disliked in other communities he works for as well and he has a nefarious past with a certain fire department south of Preble. This year Staley was responsible for the fire lane fiasco that took time and money from all concerned because he tried to enforce a law that did not exist! Now we find out... thousands of dollars later... that we cannot create such a law and therefore cannot enforce it! Then we find out he usurped the supervisors power behind her back as outlined in my previous story. Why is he still employed by the town? Why?

I cannot think of any good reason to keep him.

At the 12/9/02 Town Board meeting Staley's contract came up for renewal. Tom Fox asked if we (the Town Board) ever asked anyone else to do this job. Peter Knapp was the only one who answered by saying that Atlantic is the only other company that could do it. In effect he pushed Staley's rehiring which is telling in light of what came out about Knapp in my previous story.

With all the trouble we have had in our town over the last 5 years it seems logical to get rid of the one person at the center of it all. Staley's actions have cost the town and the people of Preble tens of thousands of dollars. He is the main reason there is division in the town. It was his actions and his alone that caused this so why is he still working for us? Indeed why hasn't the town brought a mal-practice lawsuit against him?

Imagine what it would be like if one of the trusted residents of Preble was in the position that Staley has. The dissent and division in the town would decrease dramatically.

How much is he paid?

I will be uploading his contract in the near future that lists his fees. Administering the towns programs for fire, building inspections and land use regulation costs the taxpayers of Preble $9,012.00 a year. In addition Staley charges an hourly rate (unknown at the time of this writing) for services such as special reports, site plan review, environmental quality review, flood plain mang., and architectural engineering designs, plan review, or special studies.

The good news...

He can be fired with 30 days notice for any reason whatsoever.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Frank Hogg
12/30/02