Wakefield City Councilor Resigns

Wakefield loses a member of its city council.

It’s not because of moving out of the area or other outside commitments.

Julie Hautala says she’s resigned out of frustration.

The city’s auditor exposed a more than quarter-million-dollar deficit 7 months ago.

Hautala says very little has been done about it since then.

She says she can no longer fight for the kinds of internal changes that she feels are necessary to address the deficit.

The remaining council members have 30 days to fill the position, and they have to ask residents to apply for it.

In March, the auditor told city officials that their accounting system needed to be fixed by putting someone else in charge of it.

A week ago Monday, the city council met in closed session to talk about city manager John Siira’s job performance as it relates to the finances.