At the onset of Monday night's Newton City Council meeting, Mayor Chaz Allen announced the council had received a resignation letter from Director of Administrative Services/City Clerk Candice Van Zee.

Because the letter was received less than 24 hours before the start of the meeting, the council could take no action. Allen did, however, make a brief statement, thanking Van Zee for her 12 years of service to the city.

During recent committee meetings, a proposal to eliminate her position in favor of the creation of comptroller and executive assistant/city clerk positions. If she had been retained for the executive assistant/city clerk position, she likely would have taken a substantial pay cut as part of the committee's proposal to the council as a whole.