The trustees as persons: Clay Township's short documented line — Thomas, Dobson, and the holders the record has not named

2003–2026 · as of November 2026

Robbie M. Thomas — the examiner's trustee: Clay's documented line opens with the state examiner, not a sketch: the State Board of Accounts' examination report for Clay Township names Robbie M. Thomas as trustee for the term 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2010, and the report's contents were discussed with Thomas himself on 24 September 2007 — the whole of his profile at first-hand strength: two full terms, the township's assistance office and its fire ground in his keeping through the decade the territory was forming, and no biographical line in any source reached beyond the office and the term. His name's return is part of his record as the files print it: in 2026 a Robbie Thomas stands among the Republican candidates for the Clay Township board, sixteen years after the trusteeship, and both files print the name in both places without asserting more than the record carries.

Mike Dobson — the chairman who took the chair above him: Dobson's profile has the one narrative turn Clay's line affords: he chaired the township board in 2007, in Thomas's second term — the board's own chairman, Alice Langel, had held the chair in 2006 — and at the November 2010 election he took the trusteeship itself, as the Republican, with 5,389 votes in the Tribune's results as preserved. The manner of his taking office is the record's cleanest succession fact on either township's modern line: the fiscal body's chairman elected to the executive office at the term's turn. How long he held it, the open record does not say.

The holders the record has not named, printed as the gap they are: Across the terms of 2015–2018, 2019–2022, and 2023–2026, Clay Township had a trustee every day — the Auten Road office at 18355 Auten Road kept its hours, the assistance work ran, the fire territory's provider unit had its executive — and no open source reached in two passes names the holder or holders. They stand in this succession as unnamed profiles: the office filled, the persons unprinted. The two men who sought the office for the term beginning 1 January 2027 are entered as what they are, candidates and not holders: Sean O'Brien (D), unopposed in his primary, of whom the record reached cannot say whether he defended the seat or sought it open; and Matthew "Matt" Clayton (R), placed on the ballot by his party's caucus of 2 July 2026. The settlers for the unnamed holders are the State Board of Accounts' later Clay Township reports, which print the schedule of officials term by term, the Clerk's canvasses of 2014, 2018, and 2022, and the certified precinct summary of 3 November 2026 in the county's DocumentCenter — the same documents named in the Government depth addendum, where the line stands numbered at this same strength.

Sources:

1. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Examination Report of Clay Township, St. Joseph County, for 2006 (in.gov, report B31110), as carried in Government (banked) — Trustee Robbie M. Thomas, 01-01-03 to 12-31-10; the report discussed with Thomas, 24 September 2007; board chairs Alice Langel (2006) and Mike Dobson (2007).
2. South Bend Tribune, November 2010 results as preserved — Clay Township trustee: Mike Dobson (R), 5,389 votes.
3. Government (banked) — the Auten Road office (18355 Auten Road, South Bend; also Clay Fire Station 22); the 2026 Clay ballot whole (O'Brien unopposed in the primary; Clayton placed by the caucus of 2 July 2026; Robbie Thomas among the Republican board candidates); the Clay succession gap and its settlers, standing after this section.