McLean County Times

A member of the Normal Town Council found himself under fire during a recent council meeting for an email he sent that left a clerk’s office employee feeling intimidated.

During the meeting, which was streamed on YouTube, Deputy Clerk Jodi Pornis raised questions about an email she received from Councilman Stan Nord, citing an email received from Nord that she maintains was intimidating, unprofessional and threatening while also alleging that employees in the clerk’s office were committing crimes in the performance of their duties.

“I was very upset and offended to receive an email like this from a council member, both as an employee and a resident,” Pornis said during the session.

Pornis, fighting back tears, noted that the email was escalated to City Manager Pamela Reese, who responded to Nord about the communication and directed him to contact her directly with any issues rather than emailing Pornis. For his part, Nord said the email was not meant to be intimidating or threatening, claiming he was simply raising issues that he’d heard from members of the community.

“There is a question in the public how the town can be an incorporated town and not have an elected town clerk,” he said.

Nord claimed he wanted to get answers about this, but was told the staff commented that he wouldn’t be looking into the issue. Mayor Chris Koos reminded Nord that the city has a city manager form of government with one employee, the city manager.

Reese addressed the issue, pointing out that she has had differences with Nord in recent months, while other members of the council lauded the efforts of city staff and voiced disapproval of their colleague’s email.

“I, as the city manager, have been accused of being corrupt, of discriminating against a council member, of being unethical and immoral, of eroding the public trust, of violating my professional code of ethics,” Reese said during the session. “I was even called a disgrace to my profession because I would not do every task that Mr. Nord asked of me.”

To ensure she was not wasting her time researching the issue, Reese told the council during the session that she told Nord she would only continue to look into his question if the majority of the council wanted her to do that.

“Because the majority of council did not agree that that's how my time should best be spent. I was called a disgrace to my profession,” Reese said during the meeting. “So I've had all of those accusatory statements made of me, not just here at the table, in emails and, frankly, even in the media.”

During the session, Reese noted that she has thick skin and can take the heat as the leader of the organization, and she believes she does a good job/

“And council has said that before it is not staff's role to take those sorts of accusations,” she concluded during the session. “I'm in this position and I can handle whatever kind of accusations council will make of me. But we all know that each of those accusations has been without merit. They have been baseless. That doesn't mean they'll cease, but they have always been baseless and without merit.”