OAKLAND TOWNSHIP — Oakland Township Clerk Dave Mabry has stepped down from his post.
Township Supervisor Robin Buxar made a public announcement of Mabry’s resignation, which he submitted in a letter dated Sept. 15, during the Oct. 14 Board of Trustees meeting.
Resignation letter
“I am writing to inform you of my resignation as Clerk of the Charter Township of Oakland effective immediately. When I chose to seek the position of Trustee, and then accept the position of Clerk, I did it as a way of paying back to society for the good life that I have had. I now consider my debt paid,” Mabry said in the letter.
“This decision comes after considerable reflection on the current environment in which the Board of Trustees operates. I did not enter public service to become a spectator to dysfunction and obstruction. Too often, I’ve seen decisions driven not by good governance and principled leadership but rather by ego, personal attacks, and a lack of emotional intelligence,” he wrote in the letter.
“I believe in the power of representative government to do what is right for those being represented, not to serve the ambitions of those who confuse visibility with value. It has become clear that some on the Board of Trustees are not of the same mindset. I am no longer able to effectively perform the duties of Clerk.”
Mabry said he will miss working with the “wonderful people in the Township Hall.”
“We had built an excellent team. I wish them only the best going forward and I will miss each and every one of them, especially those who worked in and with the Clerk’s Department. Thank you to those people for all you did to help the Clerk’s department during elections.
“I apologize to the residents of Oakland Charter Township for not being able to complete my term.”
Mabry became clerk in February 2023 after Buxar was appointed supervisor following the resignation of Dominic Abbate.
Buxar said she thinks Mabry did “an outstanding job” as the clerk.
“He took that role on, he went to classes, school, learned, listened, was very — in my opinion — fair and evenhanded. He tried to play it fair and square,” she said. “I’ve been there, I’ve done it. It’s certainly not easy and he was forced into a lot of very difficult situations. Everything he asked for to help him make this township better, or achieve better for that department, was routinely pushed away, and I think it’s sad. He essentially is saying he was more or less just pushed out.”
Trustee Emily Campbell had a different view of Mabry’s departure.
“I don’t think any of us wished Dave out of his job. The decision to leave was his,” she said. “We all have to compromise, negotiate and get along on all decisions because we have seven individual opinions on where we think things should go. We’re all elected to serve our constituents and there is a commitment to us to honor our oath to the last day, and that means you just get along with everybody, unless there are extenuating circumstances. To say that the rest of us were obstructive or dysfunctional, I think that doesn’t speak well for the board and all we do to try and communicate and get consensus and bring right things to the township and to the people. As far as him wanting to leave immediately, there was a rush, it seemed, on his part. But at the same time, without a clerk, we can’t pay our payroll, we can’t pay our vendors, we can’t write any checks, so our thing was we want to do the right thing for our residents and keep things flowing, keep the township functional. So, it wasn’t our intent to be mean to not accept it. Our intent was looking at the functionality for our community. I wish Dave well. I thought he was a pretty nice guy and I’m sorry he decided to leave us, but I can’t see on my part or anybody else’s here that we forced him out.”
Trustee Jack Elder thanked Mabry for his time with the township.
“I came into township government at the same time and he is a good guy. I didn’t know him before that,” he said. “I think he did a great job. I’m very sorry to see this come to an end. I wish him the best.”
Finding a new clerk
The Board of Trustees voted 6-1 to accept the resignation letter Oct. 14, with an effective date of Oct. 28. The board has 45 days from Oct. 14 to appoint a replacement, under state law.
Treasurer John Giannangeli, and trustees Emily Campbell, Jack Elder, John Casadei and Jeanne Langlois voted in favor of the motion, while Buxar voted against it.
The majority of the board argued that if it allowed the termination to be effective Oct. 14, there would be no one at the township to sign its checks and payroll, a duty that the Michigan Township Association states can only be done by the township treasurer or deputy treasurer, along with the township clerk or deputy clerk.
The township’s previous deputy clerk resigned in September. Also in August, the majority of the board voted to pause funding to the clerk’s assistant position until further action from the Board of Trustees. The clerk’s assistant position remained vacant at press time.
Buxar, who noted she was out of town in another state for most of the last month, said she voted against the motion due to concerns with the delayed effective date. She said she expected the other members of the board to have accepted the clerk’s resignation while she was out of town for work.
“I have an issue of keeping someone, you know, not accepting a resignation to benefit the township,” Buxar said. “He’s not even living down here. He’s driving from another home here now to sign the checks. I don’t know that it’s necessarily fair.”
The township clerk is one of the seven part-time elected officials who make up the Board of Trustees. The clerk is responsible for maintaining the official records of the township, administering all elections, and ensuring compliance with state and local laws related to open meetings, public records and elections. It’s a part-time position, and delegation of most duties may be performed by the full-time deputy clerk, who reports directly to the clerk.
The vacant clerk position will be filled by appointment by the Board of Trustees, and the appointee will serve until the November 2026 general election. To continue in the role beyond that date, the appointed clerk must seek election to complete the full term.
Trustees said they expected to make an appointment at the Oct. 28 Board of Trustee meeting.
For more information, contact Township Manager Joseph Merucci at (248) 651-4440, Ext. 214.
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