BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
FONT size=9HOWELL — Barbara Dixel, who served as the Township Council’s liaison to the Board of Education for two years, informed the board on Nov. 17 that she has resigned from that post.
FONT size=9Dixel said she resigned from the liaison position due to the disrespect she asserted she had to endure from the governing body with respect to her duties as liaison. She said her report to the council was always scheduled at the end of the council’s meetings when most of those attending the meeting had gone home.
FONT size=9According to Dixel, when she would give her presentation to the mayor and council, the members of the governing body would use the time to take a bathroom break or leave the dais to make phone calls.
FONT size=9“The children of Howell deserve better,” Dixel told the members of the school board.
FONT size=9She said she hoped the school board would make sure that whomever was appointed in her stead would be “treated with the respect the position deserves.”
FONT size=9Board president Patti Blood said she spoke for the entire board in acknowledging the board’s recognition of the efforts made by Dixel in her capacity as the council’s liaison. Blood said the board members were sorry to see Dixel leave the position, but she promised that the board would continue to work with municipal officials in an effort to keep them informed of what was happening in the K-8 district.
FONT size=9Dixel submitted her resignation as liaison to the school board immediately after she was defeated in her bid to win a seat on the council in the Nov. 2 election. She was not present when the council accepted her resignation at its Nov. 9 meeting.
FONT size=9Republican Councilwoman Cynthia Schomaker praised Dixel’s tenure in the position and her dedication to the task. Just a week earlier, Schomaker and Dixel had squared off in the council race. Schomaker won re-election to a second four-year term.
FONT size=9The mayor and council members were contacted after Dixel had made her remarks to the school board.
FONT size=9Councilman Juan Malave said he believed Dixel had “served the township well in her role as [school board] liaison to the council. I am sorry to hear that Mrs. Dixel felt she had been disrespected by anyone on the council.”
FONT size=9Malave said he had never been aware of any disrespect shown her by any member of the council and said he thought he could speak for all of the council members in observing that they all “fully respected the time she took to dedicate herself to the workings of the school board.”
FONT size=9Malave said Dixel’s regular attendance at school board meetings was additionally commendable since Dixel herself now has no children attending school.
FONT size=9As to Dixel’s assertion that her presentation was always scheduled at the end of a council meeting, Malave said the clerk’s office — not the mayor and council members — prepares the meeting agenda.
FONT size=9Mayor-elect Joseph DiBella voted earlier this year with the rest of the Republican-majority council to reappoint Dixel to the position of liaison. Referring to the copious documentation Dixel would present the mayor and council members with during each of her scheduled monthly presentations, DiBella said, “I was always in awe of and appreciated Mrs. Dixel’s comprehensive reports.”
FONT size=9DiBella thanked Dixel for the time and effort she gave to the community in serving as the council’s school board liaison. The position had been created especially for her by the previous Democratic-majority council.
FONT size=9Mayor Timothy J. Konopka, the only Democrat on Howell’s governing body, will be leaving office at the end of the year after having served two four-year terms as mayor. Konopka was a member of the governing body that created the liaison position for Dixel.
FONT size=9He alone was critical of her decision to leave the position before the end of the year, when her appointment would have expired. Konopka opined that Dixel’s election defeat may be more the reason for her resignation than any other.
FONT size=9“Her motives are suspect. She loses [the election], so she quits,” said Konopka, who went on to note it would appear that Dixel had only taken the liaison position for political reasons.
FONT size=9Konopka said Dixel’s assertion that she had been unappreciated and disrespected by the council was “ridiculous.”
FONT size=9“There was not a time [during her presentations] when we did not take the time to commend her effort and thank her for the work that went into it,” he said. “However, I look down on her resigning. If she were in it purely for the commitment to the children of Howell as she says, she would have completed her term. I have a distaste for anyone who quits like that.”
FONT size=9During the campaign season Dixel and her running mate on the Democratic ticket, Steve Farkas, disassociated themselves from Konopka. Farkas sought the position of mayor after Konopka decided not to seek a third term.