Reeling from PutnamLIVE.com's revelation that she issued herself more than $20,00 in overtime checks and lives in a house owned by Mayor Rusty Casto, Nitro Treasurer Tifney Terry has resigned.

Terry gave Casto the news Friday morning, blaming him for "duress and hostility" and threatening to sue him.

"Council didn’t do anything wrong, says Terry.
"All of it goes back to Mayor Rusty Casto, who failed to allow the necessary implementation of the changes necessary to address the findings that were brought out of the 2005 audit."

"Let the lawsuits begin," says Casto.

Those lawsuits are already underway. Nitro citizen Karen Fritz filed suit because Nitro refused to release financial records that she says will prove Nitro can't properly account for taxpayer dollars. It is during litigation over Fritz' Freedom of Information Act Requests that copies of Terry's overtime checks were made public. PutnamLIVE.com was the first news outlet to publish those checks.

September 29th, Terry sent an email to PutnamLIVE.com attempting to make the public believe that she wasn't getting anything more than her $38,000 annual salary as Treasurer and Office manager. She failed to use the word "overtime" in the email.

"There were bonuses paid to city employees in December of 2005.  I did not participate or accept said bonus," Terry claims. "There was an across the board pay raise given by council that was to take effect July 2006 (5%) which would have meant an additional $1,900 per year for me - I did not take that raise."

But she did take more than $20,000 in overtime. Earlier this month, a stunned City Council suspended overtime for non-emergency salaried employees, placed Terry on paid leave, and launched an investigation.

The firm of Chambers and Paterno to investigate Nitro's books since Terry took over in 2005. Friday morning Casto, Nitro Recorder Rita Cox as well as City Council members Bill Clark and Rita Estep met with Linda Tolley-Raffle of Chambers and Paterno. Casto declined to comment on the investigation saying Council will receive a report during its first November meeting.

It is not known if Terry plans to move out of Casto's house.