It turns out Lee Ann O’Connor will not be Oxford Village’s new clerk/treasurer after all.

She has decided to remain an employee of the City of Rochester.

“I hope Oxford will forgive me,” said O’Connor, of Waterford. “It’s a nice town. Everyone I met was absolutely wonderful. I just did not realize the impact my leaving was going to have on everyone here (in Rochester).”

O’Connor, who has served as Rochester’s clerk since 2001, was supposed to start work, on a full-time basis, for the village on Aug. 28.

Council voted to offer her the dual position on July 18 and approved an employment agreement on July 26.

She submitted an Aug. 21 letter to council “withdrawing” her employment agreement.

“I sincerely apologize for wasting so much of your search time and I hope that I can be forgiven,” she wrote. “I wish you well in finding someone to fill this critical role.”

Originally, O’Connor was excited about the prospect of starting a new job with new challenges.

But she never realized just how popular and appreciated she was in Rochester until she told folks she was leaving and they expressed their feelings about her.

“I started hearing from people (and) it just made a difficult decision absolutely impossible,” O’Connor said.

When she gave her election workers the news, O’Connor said one of them “welled up with tears” while others had a “stricken look” on their faces.

“I didn’t realize anyone would give a damn. I’m shocked,” she said. “It was like getting to watch your funeral . . . The outpouring was just crazy.”

Because of this and her strong “sense of duty and responsibility,” O’Connor decided to stay put.

“I can’t leave them,” she said. “I can’t leave the community I’ve served for 16 years like that.”

On Monday, Aug. 14, the Rochester City Council voted to allow O’Connor to rescind her resignation.

“I got an e-mail at 3 o’clock in the morning from a resident who said, ‘I’m watching the council meeting and the whole city is smiling,’” she said. “If I was a person who liked attention, this would be awesome, but it’s very uncomfortable.”

She made it clear her decision had nothing to do with anything that occurred during the one-day-a-week she had agreed to work in Oxford until her contract was slated to take effect on Aug. 28.

“That’s what happens with these things. You think because somebody’s leaving, something bad happened,” O’Connor said. “No. Absolutely nothing bad happened. Everyone there was wonderful.”

In her letter to council, O’Connor called the village “a great community with great people” and described the village’s front office staff as “welcoming and helpful.”

Oxford Village Councilman Erik Dolan said he’s “disappointed” O’Connor “will not be a part of the team” that the village is “assembling,” but he is “happy that she feels at home with an organization that values her contributions.”

“I wish her nothing but success and happiness,” he said.

Unfortunately for Oxford, it’s back to the old drawing board when it comes to filling the clerk position, which has been vacant since June. “I would simply urge everyone to remain patient,” Dolan said.

He believes it’s “far more important to find the right candidate” than to simply hire someone “quickly.”

Dolan reminds residents that despite this setback, the village still has “two exceptional department heads” in the form of DPW Superintendent Don Brantley and Acting Police Chief Mike Solwold along with “an equally fine supporting cast of employees that protect the citizens and keep our services rolling day in and day out.”

He added that the village has also been “very fortunate to have secured the services” of Interim Manager Evan Teich.