Oxford Village is once again actively looking to hire someone to fill the clerk-treasurer position that’s been vacant since last June.

In the meantime, council will continue using the services of Lori Fisher, the $43-per-hour independent contractor who’s been handling that job’s duties since Aug. 28 and working up to 20 hours per week.

The future of the full-time clerk-treasurer position was a topic of discussion at both the April 23 workshop meeting and April 24 regular council meeting.

Village Manager Joseph Madore told council he discussed with Fisher the possibility of her taking the job, but “she doesn’t want to come here on a full-time basis” due to family obligations and her commitments to Addison Township.

Fisher serves as treasurer for Addison, an office she was elected to in 2012.

She is willing to stay on with the village a while longer, so council, during a third meeting held April 26, voted 3-1 to extend Fisher’s contract through the end of July.

“She doesn’t want to leave anybody in the lurch,” Madore said.

Council has now voted four times to extend Fisher’s contract.

Under the terms of her three-page agreement with the village, Fisher is performing the functions and duties of the municipal treasurer, maintaining the general ledger, handling payroll and performing accounting services. Her time is “not to exceed 20 hours per work week,” according to the contract.

Fisher was originally paid $49.50 per hour, but she lowered her rate to $43 as of Dec. 18. She is not receiving any fringe benefits. As of March 30, she had earned a total of $26,108.

Madore told council he has a potential candidate in mind for the clerk-treasurer position and her name is Teresa Onica.

Onica, who currently serves as supervisor of Atlas Township in Genesee County, was previously that township’s clerk for 16 years before changing jobs in 2016.

She’s a certified municipal clerk and has been honored twice for her work. Once by the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, who named Onica the 2014 Township Clerk of the Year, and once by the Genesee County Governmental Clerks Association, who, in 2010, presented her with the Loretta Manwaring Award for her dedication to public service and innovative work practices.

Not that she didn’t appreciate Madore’s suggestion, but Councilwoman Maureen Helmuth said, “I am always of the opinion the position needs to be posted.”

The village posted the clerk-treasurer position in the Michigan Municipal League’s classified ads. According to the posting, the job has a salary range of $45,000 to $60,000, plus benefits.

Helmuth didn’t like the idea of potentially starting a new clerk/treasurer off at $60,000 annually. “Everybody sees $60,000 and they want $60,000,” she said.

“Everybody keep in mind, you don’t have to (offer) $60,000 right away . . . Feel free to think $52,000,” Helmuth urged.

Helmuth reminded council that the clerk-treasurer does not have to collect property taxes or conduct elections because the township handles both of those services for the village.

“That’s a big burden off the treasurer,” she said. “Not having the elections is a big burden off the clerk.”

Councilman Erik Dolan indicated his preference is to offer whoever is hired as the next clerk-treasurer “exactly” what the village approved for Lee Ann O’Connor.

Last year, council offered the position to O’Connor, who’s currently clerk for the City of Rochester. Officials negotiated with her and approved an employment agreement, but she then withdrew it and decided to stay with Rochester, her employer since 2001.

Under the terms of O’Connor contract, her starting salary would have been $56,000, plus benefits. It was to increase to $58,000 in August 2018, then $60,000 in August 2019, followed by $62,500 in August 2020. After that, O’Connor’s salary was to increase by 2.5 percent once she had completed all of the requirements to be a Certified Public Finance Administrator.

Dolan felt it only right to offer this same contract again because the details of it are “public knowledge” as they were printed in the Leader last August.

“These figures are out there,” he said. “All you’ve got to do is leaf through the paper.”

Offering another candidate something different wouldn’t reflect well on the village, in Dolan’s opinion.

“I think it invalidates our legitimacy if we kind of play the shell game,” he said.

Dolan also suggested the possibility of reaching out to O’Connor and seeing if she would be interested taking the job now that “the situation has changed” in village government.

“I think it’s stabilized,” he said. “I think some of the uncertainty that, I believe, led to (O’Connor’s) withdrawal is no longer present.”

At the time, O’Connor told the Leader she decided to remain in Rochester because she never realized how popular and appreciated she was there and she felt a strong “sense of duty and responsibility” to stay.

Helmuth suggested the possibility of sharing a clerk-treasurer with another community if the village doesn’t get any applicants.

Dolan didn’t like that idea. “I feel like it leads to a lack of continuity,” he said. “I feel like it leads to a lack of job ownership. It (raises questions about the) legitimacy of the village as an organization in and of itself.”

Dolan said if the village keeps “farming out” positions, “eventually, it’s going to get to the point where there’s a question of does the village need to exist?”

“(The question) already arises now.”

Helmuth responded that she doesn’t disagree with Dolan, but if the village doesn’t get any applicants and it needs someone in the interim, sharing an employee with another community is “a way to go.”

Anyone interested in applying for the clerk-treasurer position is asked to submit a resume, cover letter including date of availability and reference list to Madore.

These can be mailed or delivered to 22 W. Burdick St. Oxford, MI 48371 or emailed to manager@thevillageofoxford.org.

According to the job posting, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree or technical college degree in accounting, finance, public administration or a related field.

Applicants must also have a minimum of five years experience working in municipal government, business administration, finance or accounting involving money collection and/or records management.