DEERFIELD TWP. — The legal battle that began when township clerk Kristin Spiekerman sued the board of trustees in July 2000 has ended with a settlement.

        Both sides agreed to drop the lawsuit on Oct. 18.

        Most of Mrs. Spiekerman's claims in the lawsuit had previously been dropped by a Warren County judge. The lawsuit was filed after the trustees refused to approve three months' worth of meeting minutes and stripped her of her duties as recording secretary.

        Trustee Bill Morand said the litigation cost the township more than $30,000. Mrs. Spiekerman said she paid about $10,000 in legal fees.

        Mrs. Spiekerman, who has since regained her power to record the minutes, has agreed to:

        • Drop her claim that the trustees held an illegal executive session in October 1999.

        • Sign the minutes from several meetings, which were taken by the township's former administrative assistant last year.

        Mrs. Spiekerman said she previously refused to sign the minutes because she did not record them and she disagreed with what they said. The trustees have agreed to make minor revisions to the minutes.

        “I'm signing them alongside (human resources coordinator) Leeann Shroder's signature with the caveat that I do not attest to the accuracy or the completeness of the minutes,” Mrs. Spiekerman said.

        Under the settlement, no money will be paid out and neither partyadmits wrongdoing.

        “We felt it was important to get on with the real business at hand and continue to move the township forward by ending the legal bickering initiated by the clerk against us,” Trustee President Larry Backus said.

        The clerk's lawsuit also accused trustees of demanding that she prepare minutes that are politically slanted, delete relevant comments and rewrite motions to exclude embarrassing state ments made by them during meetings.

        She also claimed that trustees have not given her adequate help or office space to do her job.

        “The basis of my battle is because no other clerk elected to office should have to put up with what I put up with,” she said.

        Mrs. Spiekerman said she has worked from her home since a dispute in early 2000 when trustees moved her office into what she called “the township's garage.”

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