Editorial: Sumpter Township board immediately replaces Hoffman

Sumpter Township Supervisor John Morgan immediately replaced Clerk Clarence Hoffman, who died July 14, with Hoffman’s former deputy clerk, Esther Hurst.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees, Supervisor Morgan recommended Hurst for the position and the rest of the board agreed. Trustee Don Swinson was on vacation and absent from the meeting.
Trustee Hurst had to resign verbally before 34th District Court Judge David Parrott could swear her in to her new position as clerk. Judge Parrott was waiting for the board vote out of sight in the back room.
Hurst had worked for the township for more than 30 years and as deputy clerk for Hoffman. She retired and then ran against Hoffman for his job – and lost.
Supervisor Morgan, who spoke in glowing terms of Hoffman at Tuesday’s meeting, had dumped him from the Morgan Team in the 2016 election and put in Hurst for clerk. All the members of the Morgan Team won, except for Hurst. Voters retained Hoffman as their clerk and the board was a little hostile to him ever since.
Now the Morgan Team is intact, although a member of the audience threatened recall over Hurst’s appointment.
Morgan has yet to recommend a new trustee to fill Hurst’s vacant position.