SPENCER — Four months after his appointment to the Board of Aldermen, Howard White has announced his resignation.

White was appointed to the board on a 3-2 vote in January after the November resignation of Alderman Kevin Jones, who won a seat on the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education in the 2018 election. The board at first appointed the chairman of the town Planning Board, Jonathan Williams, to the seat, but the decision included a vote by outgoing board member Jones, rendering it invalid.

Members of the board expressed divided opinions on the appropriate means of filling the spot in December. Alderman Mike Boone said the board had a right to chose someone to fill the vacancy until the next election cycle without input from voters.

Others, including Alderman David Smith, said the slot should be filled according to the voters, meaning the candidate who won the next-highest vote total in the prior election. As seventh in the 2017 election for six seats on the board, White was appointed on Jan. 8.

In his emailed resignation letter to fellow board members early Monday, White said the biggest reason for his departure is personal.

“Before coming to this conclusion, I consulted my family, both here and back home, along with a few others whose opinions of me matter immensely,” he said. “My mother’s Parkinson’s is progressing much faster than any of us would like and I need to dedicate far more time helping my sisters with her care.”

His second reason for leaving was the current climate of dissension between board members and the town staff, he said.

“I knew I was returning to a fractured board but had no idea of the magnitude of what had been taking place,” White said. “(I) will not sit here and try to assign any blame … to how it all started and has progressed to where it is. What I do believe is that perhaps if there was more open-minded dialogue, this may have all been avoided.”

He said that having meetings without legal counsel or heeding the advice of Town Attorney Rivers Lawther could “leave the town very vulnerable, if it already hasn’t,” and that he hopes business moving forward could be conducted with “personal feelings and opinions being checked at the door.”

“I need to be able to look at myself in the mirror and know that I am doing the right thing concerning my mother as well as having a clear conscience,” he said. “Feeling that I have tried my best to be a voice of reason … weighed heavily in my decision, and I am comfortable I have done so.”

After a called meeting on Monday, Mayor Jim Gobbel said he was unsure when White’s resignation would be effective, as he had been unable to contact the alderman.

“Maybe he’s thinking it over,” said Gobbel. “I certainly hope so. We need him on this board.”