Charlie Ripley is going back to the job he held for a decade before being elected to the Cayuga County Legislature.
Ripley will step down from his role as the District 9 representative at the end of the month so he can start working as the town supervisor in Summerhill, the elected office he held for multiple terms before running and winning election for the county Legislate in 2017.
The town's current supervisor, Susan Stout, is resigning from that job at the end of month for "strictly health reasons," she said Monday. She said the town board voted to appoint Ripley to fill the seat at a Sept. 8 meeting. Ripley's two-sentence resignation letter to Legislature Chairperson Aileen McNabb-Coleman is dated Sept. 10.
Stout, who served for four years on the town board when Ripley was supervisor and was a deputy town clerk before that, said she asked Ripley if we would be willing to replace her.
"He knows what to do," she said. "It was peace of mind because he can just step right in."
Stout said having someone with experience with and knowledge of the town's operations is crucial at this moment because the 2021 budget process is starting.
The 15-person county Legislature's District 9 includes the Summerhill, Sempronius, Moravia and Niles.
Both Stout's and Ripley's resignations came too late for their vacancies to be put on the ballots in the 2020 general election Nov. 3. The deadline for those seats was Aug. 23, the Cayuga County Board of Elections said.
The county Legislature can choose to appoint someone to fill the remainder of Ripley's term, which expires at the end of 2021.
Neither Ripley nor McNabb-Coleman could be reached for comment on Monday.
