CRESTLINE — The mayor of Crestline is set to resign his position at the end of this week.
During the regular council meeting Monday evening, residents and news media packed the village hall building with several people calling, once again, for Mayor Allen Moore to resign after he made several racial slurs that were caught on tape by Police Chief Joe Butler in June.
Moore said, “I was planning on resigning by the end of the week, just so you know.”
The mayor later said the resignation is coming but he is not sure when and will email the news media when he makes his decision. His statements come just more than one week after city council members requested his resignation in a letter to him.
During the hour-long video of the mayor having a conversation with Butler, he also makes negative comments toward the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post and many members of that post were in attendance at the meeting.
Kari Pfeifer, a member of the VFW Post No. 2920, spoke on behalf of the members.
“In the past two years, we have donated over $55,000 back to this community. If behavior like this continues in our local government, we will find different avenues to utilize our charity funds,” Pfeifer said during an impassioned speech.
Not only did Pfeifer call for the mayor’s resignation, but she also ousted him from the VFW membership.
“Allen Moore, you are a social member of our post, which means you are a guest,” Pfeifer said. “You are no longer a guest to our canteen. You are no longer welcome.”
She also demanded the resignation of Butler as police chief. He has been on paid administrative leave since Aug. 31 with no explanation from the village administration.
“Both of these individuals are subject to their behavior on that video (the video can be seen here). The degrading language used by both is an embarrassment to this village. The mayor and police chief must be held to a higher standard,” Pfeifer said. “Village pride starts right here, it begins with the mayor, the council, the employees of this village.”
Moore cut her off, citing her three-minute time limit was up. The crowd erupted with applause for Pfeifer.
Several other residents spoke and at one point, council member Gene Toy made a motion to allow them longer than three minutes to speak. The motion passed, allowing each person to speak for five minutes.
“We are not going away. For those who love Crestline and have been raised and born here, this is not going to end. We have a petition going around to ask, once again, for Mayor Moore to resign,” LeAnn Walker-Williams said. “Last week, even city council members submitted a letter asking you to resign, Mayor Moore, and you still haven’t.”
Walker-Williams said the only way for the community to move forward is for Moore to step aside. She pointed out that the state and the nation have viewed the video of the mayor using racist slurs and that is not the image that should be portrayed for the village.
Moore issued a written apology on Oct. 1 for his behavior on the video that Butler recorded with his body camera but residents said that is not enough to repair the damage that has been done to their community.
The council went into an executive session for about 20 minutes during the meeting “to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of a public employee or official.” Also included in the session were village solicitor Rob Ratliff and the village administrator John Rostash. Moore was not included and no action from the session was taken when the council came back into their regular meeting.
Council passed three pieces of legislation including a “then and now” certification for a payment made to Kelstin, Inc., a resolution to confirm the mayor’s appointment of Matthew Knott as a full-time police officer for the village and a resolution accepting the amounts and rates of taxes to be certified to the county auditor.
The next council meeting is Nov. 5 at 6:30 p.m.