GREENWOOD TWP — Greenwood residents will not be voting for a clerk in the upcoming March township election. The vote last year by Greenwood residents to replace the elected clerk and treasurer with hired, hourly employees went into effect partially last year. Tammy Mortaloni was hired and started at the end of the elected treasurer’s term last March. Clerk Debby Spicer will maintain her position until the end of her elected term, which is March 2026.
Greenwood Town Board members on Tuesday started the first steps of the transition, and will be discussing the job description, hours, salary, and interview process for hiring a new clerk at their Jan. 13 meeting. The current clerk will serve until the board’s reorganizational meeting in late March.
The board also accepted, with regret, the resignation of the township treasurer, who was recently hired as Tower’s clerk/treasurer. Mortaloni’s last day on the job was Dec. 14, and she starts in Tower on Dec. 15.
“Thank you for everything you have done,” said supervisor Steve Bradach.
Chair Lois Roskoski told the board that one of the finalists for the treasurer position from last spring, Jill Clark, had contacted the board expressing her continued interest in the position. Clark is currently the treasurer for Cotton Township and the deputy clerk in Mt. Iron. Roskoski said the board personnel committee met and were recommending the board hire Clark.
“We interviewed her,” said Bradach, “She was top notch, and she knew what she was doing.”
The board voted to hire Clark for up to 22 hours a month at the existing pay rate of $45 per hour. This is a slight jump from the 20 hours a month Mortaloni was working, but Mortaloni had talked to the board about increasing the hours to that level.
Mortaloni told the board she had already put in 20 hours in December, working on training with deputy treasurer Karen Saarela and getting the township’s year-end financials completed. She asked the board to approve some additional hours so she could finalize the year-end financials as well as complete the IRRR grant applications she has been working on, to make the transition easier for the new treasurer.
The board also approved up to an additional 10 hours in December for Mortaloni for this work.
Saarela said she could remain in the position under the new treasurer.
In other personnel matters, the board accepted the retirement of longtime firefighter and EMR Peggy Nelson, who is moving out of the area. The board voted to send a letter of thanks, as well as a small gift of appreciation for her years of service.
The board will also conduct an evaluation of new Fire Chief Brian Trancheff, which will be done in a closed session unless the employee decides to make it open. Trancheff will be doing evaluations of the fire department members.
The board has not done annual evaluations of staff in the past, but it is part of the township’s personnel policies, and they stated their desire to start doing this annually in January. In future years, this also would include the clerk and treasurer.