Politics

Clerk's Mass Mailing Angers Some West Bloomfield Officials

April 21, 2015, 4:41 PM


Township Clerk Cathy Shaughnessy

 

Some West Bloomfield trustees are fuming over a mass mailing sent out without board approval by Township Clerk Cathy Shaughnessy at a cost of $7,100, The Oakland Press reports.

Some trustees called it a self-promotional mailing, writes Carol Hopkins of the daily.

Shaughnessy said the mailing was to remind voters of the May 5 statewide election, the paper reports. She said she didn’t need board approval.

“I am the clerk, this is an important statewide election, and my job is to encourage people to vote,” Shaughnessy is quoted as saying. She notes that she is not running on the May 5 ballot, and added that the mailing is within her budget.

Supervisor Michele Economou Ureste says the “glossy, oversized postcard with (several) references to (Shaughnessy’s) name and her email address ... was mailed to every home in the township without board approval.” Shaughnessy’s name appears three times on the mailer.

Ureste said the cost should be paid by Shaughnessy from her campaign funds.

Treasurer Teri Weingarden agreed, according to The Press.

“It was unethical for Clerk Shaughnessy to spend over $7,000 of taxpayer-money clearly for self promotion and without township board approval," Weingarden says "This is not the first time Clerk Shaughnessy has used township funds for self-serving mailings, nor is it the first time she has spent township funds on unapproved items without township board approval.”


Read more:  The Oakland Press


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