Bunker Hill Clerk-Treasurer Andrea Newnum submitted a letter of resignation to the Bunker Hill Town Council this week.
“I will no longer be bullied and (have) my name run through the mud because I know my job,” Newnum said in an email to the Peru Tribune on Thursday.
Newnum is the now the fourth clerk-treasurer in a row to resign.
Newnum took the job in late 2015, following predecessors who were charged with financial crimes.
Former Bunker Hill Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Wilson, who is currently charged with official misconduct and theft, owes the town $73,400 after a special investigation revealed she used town funds to purchase personal items and make payments to her real estate business.
Wilson is pending a change of plea and sentencing on July 19 in Superior Court II.
Before Wilson, former Bunker Hill Clerk-Treasurer Sara Betzner was required by the Indiana State Board of Accounts to reimburse about $24,600 to the town after an audit revealed she mismanaged the town’s finances for more than three years.
In her letter of resignation, Newnum cited the differences of opinion regarding processes and goals for Bunker Hill, and the lack of mutual respect and support among the council, clerk and employees.
Newnum wrote some of the council members use bullying and verbal abuse as a management style.
“Unfortunately, these tactics directly oppose my personal business philosophy, which advocates a more sensitive approach,” Newnum wrote. “Not only is it unconscionable for me to work in such a hostile environment, it is also physically and mentally debilitating to work under such stressful circumstances.”
Bunker Hill Town Council member Luis Nino saw things differently.
“I do appreciate her time, I do appreciate any American citizen and resident of Bunker Hill that attempts to help us work together,” he said.
But Nino said he was unsatisfied with what he perceived as taking matters of public interest and making them personal. “She can make it like she was a victim, but I can show that she was incompetent to my expectations,” Nino said.
Nino hopes that Bunker Hill will be able to move forward, and that the next clerk treasurer will stick around.
In the resignation letter, Newnum said that resigning was extremely disconcerting.
“These present difficulties do not negate the fact that I have derived much enjoyment in the 4 years of employment with the town,” she wrote. “I would love to thank the residents of the town for their faith and encouragement in me and trusting that I could help the town get in a better financial position.”