Wilson Town Supervisor Doyle Phillips resigned from his post two days after being sworn in for his fifth two-year term of office.
Phillips tendered his resignation ahead of the town board’s Wednesday work session.
After announcing to the board and residents in attendance that he was vacating the supervisor’s seat, Phillips handed a formal resignation letter to town clerk Diane Muscoreil and then left the town hall before the meeting was officially called to order.
Deputy supervisor Tony Evans was subsequently appointed interim supervisor by the board and sworn in.
Evans indicated that Phillips, 81, had talked about resigning previously and attributed Phillips’ decision to leave the post to “personal and health” issues.
“Doyle was really split. He’s having some personal issues and health issues at home. I really don’t want to go into a lot of that, but his attention has become more divided. He loved what he was doing and loved the town, but he realized he needed to get more attention to home matters right now,” Evans said.
Town board member Bob Hull, chair of the town’s board of ethics, tendered his resignation at the board’s Dec. 20 business meeting.
Evans said his top priority as supervisor is to fill two vacant board seats.
“Right now the task is on the board to pick up two more members. So in time, we’ll be setting up a process to do interviews and accept letters of intent. That’s going be one of our first initial goals is to get us back up to a full presiding board,” Evans said.
Evans is a three-year member of the town board, all of which time he had been deputy supervisor.
Phillips could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.