WINONA LAKE – During a special meeting Tuesday, the Winona Lake Town Council approved for Clerk-Treasurer Heather James to be added to the town’s bank and credit card accounts.
With the changes of the clerk-treasurer position last year, James said she needed to get access to the town’s bank accounts and be able to ask questions about investments and request bank statements. She said there are also department heads who had credit cards and she needed to be able to access those accounts and verify valid expenses. In order to do this, James said she needed to be added to town bank accounts and credit cards.
James also said former Clerk-Treasurer Laurie Renier and former Deputy Clerk-Treasurer Teena Pence needed to be removed from the accounts.
The Winona Lake Town Council approved James to be added to the accounts and for Renier and Pence to be removed.
James won the Republican primary in May over Renier for clerk-treasurer and didn’t face any opposition for the general election. Because there were are no contested races in Winona Lake this fall, there will be no election on Nov. 7 for the town.
With 82 days left in her term of office, Renier resigned effective immediately Oct. 10, along with two of three staff members.
A caucus was called Oct. 24 to replace Renier and James was the only one that filed for that position to finish out the remainder of Renier’s term as clerk-treasurer before James’ term was supposed to start Jan. 1.