Holly Staley, a Ronda commissioner who was serving her first term, resigned at the regularly scheduled meeting of the board of commissioners on Tuesday evening. Staley, whose term would have expired in December spoke at the end of the meeting during the public comments section.

"Mrs. Staley read a written statement at the meeting, but she has not presented the town with an official document resigning her position," Lahoma O'Lague, with the town board said. "She wrote down what she wanted to say because she said she was nervous."

Staley accused the board of not helping the town, unfairness to its residents, and discrimination.

"The board has bent the rules for the rich and likable and struggled to be fair with those they didn't like," Staley said. "Many issues have been tabled by the board and then never brought up again."

Mayor and board chairman Victor Varela disagrees.

"I was surprised by her resignation," Varela said. "I understand that she has frustrations with decisions and actions being made slowly, but government is not fast.

In rushing decisions sometimes mistakes are made, but we work toward due diligence and making decisions that benefit all the residents."

According to Varela, even though Staley has not presented the town with a written resignation, her statement to the board in the public comment section of the board meeting was recorded and as such will be recorded in the written minutes of the meeting.

"I believe the statement was clear and direct and included in the minutes, I believe this one will stick," he said.

Varela continued by saying that the town of Ronda has received over $2 million dollars in grants geared for infrastructure over the past two years and the town is progressing.

Ordinances have been put in place to disallow the discharge of firearms within the town along with an unsafe building ordinance.

"Ms. Staley has missed quite a few board meetings this year," Varela said. "Whether this was due to other obligations or personal issues, I don't know, but everybody else made the effort to attend the meetings and be a part of the decisions for the town.

I will say that in private conversations with Mrs. Staley, I found her ideas very constructive. She had very good ideas that were worth considering. She seemed very frustrated and didn't feel like we were doing enough, but like I said, I disagree. We are making progress."

As to the issue of Staley's accusation that items were tabled by the board and never brought back up, Varela said that he and the town clerk at least bi-annually go back through the minutes of the prior meetings to bring issues back before the board that were tabled possibly at the first reading.

As mayor, Varela holds the chairman of the board position, but has no vote except in the case of a tie breaker.

Staley is the daughter of Manuel Wood, also a Ronda town commissioner who has supposedly also resigned but has not done so formally. Wood is the commissioner who has started a petition to ask for the dissolution of the town of Ronda.

Some of his complaints are that the residents of Ronda pay too many taxes for the services they receive.

Neither Staley or Wood ran for re-election this year.