Maybe they ought to serve popcorn at Huntertown Town Council meetings.

The shouting, snide remarks and personal attacks are slightly entertaining for an outside observer. But Huntertown residents should be outraged at the petty, unprofessional and unproductive way town leaders are conducting town business.

Huntertown is becoming an example of small-town politics at their worst. Dates and times for council meetings are changed seemingly on a whim with inadequate public notice, making it difficult for Huntertown residents to follow council actions. Even if residents figure out when a meeting is taking place, the council is apt to discuss things that aren’t even on the agenda, as happened during the Feb. 15 meeting. Council President Jim Fortman announced the council was going to “go over bids for computer service.” And the council members proceeded to discuss the bids.

Then newly elected Clerk-Treasurer David Rudolph admonished the council members, saying, “You do realize this isn’t even a kosher way to do a bid?” His advice was not well received.

The Feb. 21 meeting was equally contentious, and after the meeting adjourned, most of the council members stayed behind to complain about Rudolph.

“Last night, having the Boy Scouts come, that wasn’t the best meeting for them to see with the bickering and unprofessionalism,” Fortman later acknowledged, referring to two scouts who had attended the meeting.

The town leaders are spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with questionable proposals that would alter the duties performed by the independently elected clerk-treasurer and neglecting the more important issues the growing town north of Fort Wayne should be confronting.

Center of the turmoil

Rudolph, 65, served the small community just north of Fort Wayne as a council member for a total of 25 years, first joining the council in 1979. During his career he’s owned a sewer and drainage business, owned an appliance store in Auburn and was a partner in developing the Stoners Mill subdivision in Huntertown. He also worked as an account executive for Verizon until he retired in 2004 when he got sick – very sick.

Rudolph, who has been married to his wife, Janine, for 45 years, has four sons and 13 grandchildren – the youngest of whom was born just two weeks ago – has a rare blood disorder called POEMS Syndrome. He spent a long time at the Mayo Clinic, received a bone marrow transplant and was in a coma for three days. (POEMS is an acronym for polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal gammopathy, and skin changes.)

“I went from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane – actually, I’ve been though a few canes,” Rudolph said. “I’m probably just pretty lucky to be here.”

The disease attacked the peripheral nerves in his legs, decreasing the feeling he has from his knees to his feet. “It’s something I’ve learned to deal with,” he said. “I just grit my teeth and move on.”

One way he chose to move on was by returning to public service after his health improved. In 2009, Rudolph was chosen by a Republican Party caucus to fill a council seat vacated by Jim Reid, who had been arrested and later convicted of theft and fraud for using Huntertown Volunteer Fire Department money for personal use.

In 2010, Rudolph decided to run for clerk-treasurer against the longtime incumbent, Robin Riley.

“She was a very good clerk-treasurer for what she was elected to do, but she did way beyond.” He claims she signed a computer services contract before bringing it to the council, for example.

He was also concerned about the nepotism created when Riley hired her daughter and sister to work for her in the town’s utility office.

“He may say that now,” Riley said. “But he was there when those family members were hired. He was there when his own son was hired for a summertime job.”

Rudolph narrowly beat Riley in the primary. Then he garnered 65 percent of the votes in the November election to beat former councilman John Hidy, who jumped on the ballot as an independent late in the game.

Ugly campaign

The campaign was dirty, with most of the negativity coming from Rudolph, according to Fortman and Councilman Gary Grant.

Rudolph suggests council members, with the exception of Patricia Freck, were unhappy he defeated the longtime former clerk-treasurer and now have a vendetta against him.

Since Rudolph took office, some council members have tried several times using different tactics to add a utilities manager to the payroll who would supervise the employees who currently are supposed to report to Rudolph. The utility manager would report to a utility board. (That – surprise! surprise! – could be the council).

Referring to Rudolph, Fortman said, “He no longer is a council member. He no longer has any say in some issues. He needs to understand he has a different role now.”

But according to state law, Rudolph would cast the deciding vote if the council ever has a tie.

“We’ve had two months of meetings, and we’ve done nothing but amend the salary ordinance and discuss that (utility board) ordinance,” said Patricia Freck, who is in the minority in standing against the change.

She said Fortman and Gary Grant, the primary proponents of the change, have failed to explain how the change will benefit the town or its residents. She also notes Fortman and Grant received the fewest votes of those elected.

Rudolph argues it takes away the help he needs to do his job and has filed a lawsuit.

Grant counters that he offered many times to meet with Rudolph to discuss what help he needs to get his job done, but Rudolph refused.

Grant said he is simply following through on a promise he made during his campaign for office.

“We felt all the employees should answer to the governing body,” Grant said. “I feel they should be protected by the town. They should not have to worry about their jobs every four years.”

But Riley, the former clerk-treasurer, hired those employees, who understood that if she no longer held the office, there was the possibility their jobs would be in jeopardy.

At the Monday meeting, the council passed the questionable ordinance establishing a utility board and then hastily posted the utility manager opening internally. But on Thursday, Fortman sent out an e-mail that said the meeting had been advertised incorrectly, invalidating all the actions at the meeting. He wrote that those items would be added to the agenda for the March 7 meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m.

Allen County Auditor Tera Klutz said that while she enjoyed working with Riley while she was clerk-treasurer, Klutz is con- cerned. “Just because an election happened, it should not change the way things are done,” she said. “To change it after the election seems very backhanded. It doesn’t show concern about what the people, the voting people of Huntertown, want.”

By law, the town must adopt its budget by Nov. 1. Adding a new position adds new spending to the already-adopted budget.

Klutz has good reason to be concerned because as county auditor she is responsible for ensuring all the county’s units of government follow the law in matters of budget and fiscal policy. She is also a former resident of Huntertown and still owns property there.

Huntertown resident Jim Potter started a referendum petition to allow voters to decide whether to create a utility board.

Share the blame

Rudolph admits he shoulders some of the blame for the acrimony.

“Part of it was my fault,” he admits. “I’m pretty straightforward. I don’t make things sound like sugar when they are not. It probably wasn’t what I said. It was probably how I said it.” He also acknowledges having a bad temper and having lost it.

Rudolph is quirky, outspoken and, indeed, a little volatile.

But he is also putting his personal assets on the line to defend his principles. He has to pay his attorney out of his own pocket and will not see any financial gain. His salary of $55,700 remains the same whether or not he wins. The council members pushing to remove some of his duties are asking Huntertown taxpayers to pay their attorney fees.

One thing all of the council members and the clerk-treasurer agree on is that the town needs to move beyond this squabble so that it can focus on the bigger challenges facing the growing town. The latest census numbers show that Huntertown had the greatest growth in northeast Indiana. Huntertown’s population increased from 1,771 in 2000 to 4,810 in 2010, a 172 percent increase.

All five council seats are at-large. And most of the council representatives live in a relatively small area of the town. The council should consider creating some council districts to ensure all residents, especially recently annexed areas on the south side of town, are equally represented.

The growing population means demand for services are also increasing. Town leaders need to focus on getting a water plant built and deciding whether to build its own sewage treatment plant or renegotiate a deal with Fort Wayne City Utilities to continue handling Huntertown’s sewage. The discussions over sewage treatment have also escalated into a legal battle between the city and town.

Town leaders were forced to put the $1.4 million water treatment plant on hold after they discovered the land they bought for $500,000 could not supply enough water. The town borrowed $4.5 million from a state revolving loan fund to pay for the water plant and other water improvements.

Rudolph says the town spent a lot on money on the water treatment plant but still has little to show for it. “We might as well have just thrown it out the window,” he said. “All we’ve gotten out of it is a water tower and some piping.”

Town leaders also need to do a much better job of keeping the community informed. Tacking a note in the lobby of the town hall is not enough. The town website needs to be kept up to date, and Rudolph needs to do a better job of posting meeting minutes on the site in a more timely manner – regardless of the obstacles he claims are being put in his way.

“We have such a nice community here,” Rudolph said. “The crime and crime rate is almost nonexistent. The school system is one of the best and the housing options are great. We’ve got a lot of attraction to a lot of people.”

Rudolph is correct that Huntertown is an attractive community with a lot to offer. The town council and the clerk-treasurer need to move beyond the animosity so that they can work together to keep it that way.