Hennessey Town Clerk Kelley Vaverka’s full-time job schedule at Love’s Country Stores put a kink in possibly changing the town board’s monthly meeting nights.

The conflict came during a 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, March 26, special Board of Trustees and Utilities Authority meetings.

That was after Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman said their newly-hired attorney, Jared Harrison of Kingfisher, had the second Tuesday night open to attend trustee meetings.

Vaverka told trustees she couldn’t work Tuesdays because she’s an operations manager at Love’s “and there would have to be too many shift changes for everyone.”

She has worked at Love’s for more than seven years, and said trustee meetings were on Thursday nights when she filed for the position last year.

Thursdays worked for her, she said, because she’s “off work from Love’s on Fridays.”

The town’s new attorney also had a Wednesday night opening, said Tillman, “but that’s also my day off.”

‘We’re All Elected’

“Nothing against Kelley,” said Trustee Bert Gritz, “but we’re all elected. I’d ask for time off if I was her.”

“I don’t even know if they’d be able to work it out,” said Vaverka.

“We can’t let a business dictate when we have our meetings,” said Gritz.

Vaverka was the only one to file for the town clerk position in April 2023.

Town clerks are required, by law, to attend meetings, take minutes, prepare and post agendas, maintain records, etc.

Vaverka Will Check With Supervisor

“Kelley has said she hasn’t had a chance to talk with her supervisor,” said Vice Mayor Harold Shaw and suggested they give her time.

“I’m flexible with that,” said Mayor Clif Vogt.

“I don’t have a problem with that,” said Gritz.

That’s exactly what trustees did.

The board recessed their one-agenda-item meeting until 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, April 2.

Attorney Needed at All Meetings?

Earlier in discussions Trustee David Jones asked, “Why do we need our town attorney at all town meetings?”

“We need it for accuracy,” said Vogt.

He added that he wants to make sure they have the correct wording on their motions...and make sure codes are followed.

“Before we ever had John Wynne (who retired last month) as our attorney, we always had an attorney at our meetings,” said Gritz, who is the senior board member. “I feel there are just questions that come up.”

“The attorney should definitely be at all executive sessions,” said Jones.

He also said he knew last month that Harrison had municipal clients in Waukomis and Watonga. However, he didn’t know until after the meeting that he had several other municipal clients.

Tuesday Meeting Advantage

Trustee Gritz said he felt a big advantage for board members in having a Tuesday meeting is that it would require the agenda cutoff to be on Fridays, instead of just the night before meetings.

“That way we’d have the weekend to look over all the reports,” said Gritz. “And agenda items, in case we have questions, and if we need more information before the meeting we’d have time to get it.”

At the Meeting

At the meeting were Vogt, Shaw, Gritz and Jones. Absent was Trustee Randy Bohnstedt.

Also present were Vaverka and Tillman.