Peabody fills council vacancy
Staff writer
Peabody City Council formally accepted the resignation of councilman Christopher King at Monday night’s meeting.
King was not present, having moved out of town “fairly recently,” according to Mayor Catherine Weems.
Even when King was living in Peabody, he had not attended council meetings in person since autumn. (Occasionally, he attended virtually but kept his camera off.)
King’s absence followed the disappearance and death of his husband, former Peabody city clerk Jonathan Clayton, last August.
“He has attended very little since Jonathan passed away,” Weems said. “That was a little traumatic for him.”
Clayton’s death was embroiled in scandal. At the time of his disappearance, he had been under investigation by Kansas Department of Commerce for possible misappropriation of grant money while working in Mullinville and Peabody.
It also was revealed in August that Clayton had been convicted of embezzling grant money while working in Pennsylvania.
King’s period of nonattendance left Peabody with only three of five council members. Richard Baker, another councilman, has not shown up since June 10.
Weems said she could not explain Baker’s absences.
Former councilman and mayor Tom Spencer was chosen to fill King’s seat on the council.
Spencer, sitting in the back row of the room, walked to the front and took his seat among the council after being sworn in.
“He has a passion for Peabody, and it’s good to have some depth on our council,” Weems said. “Everybody here is new, so having some past experience is helpful.”
Peabody also has been without a city clerk for almost a month. Rayna Crawford resigned Jan. 27.
“It’s tough sometimes, working in your own community in public service,” Weems said. “Some people are just not very nice, and I think she just felt like it was too much. She wanted more time with her family and a little less stress, so she decided to go back to her banking job.”
Weems is serving in Crawford’s position for now.
In other action Monday, the council agreed to let the Peabody Community Foundation rent a room in City Hall to use as office space.
The foundation will pay $50 a month.
Director Paige Barnes said she planned to meet donors, conduct board meetings, and work day-to-day in the space.
“The foundation would basically consider this home,” she said.
The room used to house the Peabody police department before it moved to its own building.
Now, it holds “mostly just receipts and invoices and bank statements,” Weems said.
Police chief Philip Crom announced that his department had received new .40-caliber Glock 22’s.
The firearms were donated from the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Office in Topeka.
Crom is attempting to hire a third officer.
“I did have one that we interviewed last week,” he said. “There were some issues that came up. He’s not going to be the one for us. We’re going to keep looking.”