KINDERHOOK TOWNSHIP, MI (WTVB) – There will be no need for a recall election next month in Kinderhook Township after Township Clerk Cynthia Carpenter decided to retire.
According to minutes that were posted on the township’s web site, her retirement letter was accepted by the Township Board during a special meeting last Friday.
After serving ten years as the Kinderhook Township Clerk, Carpenter’s retirement is effective April 30th.
Ginger Kesler filed to run against Carpenter in the May 8th recall election. Kesler is expected to be named by the Township Board during their next meeting on April 30th to serve out Carpenter’s term. Kesler got Carpenter’s endorsement in her retirement letter.
There has been no short amount of bad blood between Carpenter and township resident Michael Exelby who lost to Carpenter by 12 votes in the August 2016 Republican Primary. Exelby filed the recall petition against Carpenter and has raised several issues with her. Those issues included mileage reimbursement, violating the Freedom of Information Act, replacing deputy clerks without notifying the township board and refusing to share information with the treasurer which he says has resulted in fees being charged to the township.
Carpenter blasted Exelby in her retirement letter saying he “has continued to make erroneous and slanderous claims against me, which I have vigorously defended and proved, to be untrue.”
Carpenter said in her letter that while she has been encouraged to run in the recall election, “I can no longer in good faith run because the tenor of the behavior conducted at the board meetings has made serving the Township an untenable position. Therefore, I have decided to retire prior to the election.”
She added the decision is the right decision for her and the township as a recall election according to Carpenter would cost about $5,000 of taxpayers’ dollars.
