Tama County Administration Building, 104 W State St., Toledo, Iowa. -- File photo

The fallout from the controversial firing of former Tama County Human Resources Manager and Insurance Administrator Tammy Wise continued on Monday morning as the board of supervisors once again discussed reassigning the duties of the HR department at the top of the agenda.

After the termination of Wise by a 3-2 vote at last week’s regularly scheduled meeting, the supervisors held a special meeting last Tuesday evening to temporarily reassign her duties to PJ Greufe & Associates LLC, the firm that, during the Jan. 13 supervisors meeting, was approved to conduct an audit of the county’s HR department.

At this week’s meeting, the supervisors set things in stone by placing the HR, insurance, and Title VI coordinator duties under the jurisdiction of the Auditor’s office and officially hiring PJ Greufe & Associates LLC for consulting services for one year at a rate of $1,500 a month.

Greufe was also hired to conduct a staffing audit at no additional fee.

“It’s something that we just wanted him to prioritize, with the budget, to find out what positions potentially could be combined, and those kinds of things,” Board Chairman Mark Doland said.

On Tuesday, the supervisors issued a press release that listed the reasons for Wise’s termination.

“Ms. Wise was terminated following an audit of Human Resources policies and practices and a complaint from a member of the community that she may have personally benefited financially as a result of the purchase of an item without paying required sales tax. This item was included, at least indirectly, with the purchase of other similar tax-exempt County property,” the release reads.

It then goes on to list the alleged Tama County Employee Handbook and Iowa Code violations Wise committed.

Acceptance of gifts Iowa Code 68B, Government Ethics and Lobbying — “Ms. Wise did not pay sales tax on the item in question resulting in a financial savings exceeding $500.00.”

Failure to comply with state and federal law; failure to have adequate knowledge of and to comply with the County’s policies and procedures; and failure to perform duties as outlined in the employee’s job description or to carry out reasonable assignments or instructions —

“Ms. Wise was not administering the FMLA program in compliance with Federal Law.

Ms. Wise was not administering the drug testing policy in compliance with Iowa Law.

Ms. Wise was not administering the harassment policy in compliance with Federal and Iowa law.

Ms. Wise negotiated a union agreement that violates the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Ms. Wise was not administering the Veterans Preference Act in accordance with Iowa Law.

Ms. Wise was not administering a recruitment policy in accordance with Iowa Law.”

The News Chronicle requested a copy of the full audit but has not yet received it. When contacted by the newspaper, Wise declined to comment on the individual accusations contained in the press release at this time as she had not seen the release but offered a general statement on the situation.

“It’s not good. I love my county. My county is top priority,” she said.

Also on this week’s agenda was the discussion and possible action to conduct a financial audit of the HR department, conduct a financial audit of the Insurance fund, conduct a financial audit of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) fund, and make a referral to County Attorney Brent Heeren to investigate claims of employee misconduct. All of these were removed from the agenda.

“We will remove those from the agenda; those processes are already in motion,” Doland said.

He added that the Department of Management “strongly suggested” the county adopt a hiring freeze before reading a document on the issue. “An immediate hiring freeze has been authorized by the board of supervisors. Any offers that were extended and accepted, or actions already communicated to prospective employees prior to the hiring freeze being implemented will be processed as normal. Recognizing that it may be important for certain positions to be filled during the hiring freeze, an exemption to the process has been developed. The hiring freeze applies to new positions, replacement staff, full-time, part-time, and temporary positions regardless of funding source. Exemptions will be considered for essential staff and approved by the board of supervisors. A hiring freeze exemption form request would need to be completed, signed by the department head or elected official and submitted to the auditor,” it read.

The countywide hiring freeze until June 30, 2025 was approved by the supervisors.

A funding agreement with E911 was approved, reading as follows.

“E911 holds control of a surplus of $2,028,230.85 of unused money from previous budget years and the radio project that was funded by a bond taken under the previous set of supervisors. E911 proposes that Tama County transfers from the surplus account the portion that was from the radio project in an amount of $909,778.70 in a surplus of $80,000 from fiscal year ’23 to total $989,778.70 back to the general supplemental fund. E911 also acknowledges that for fiscal year ’24-’25 we would not receive the additional $1.2 million of money from the county general supplemental fund as budgeted. Tama County Board of Supervisors acknowledges that in the future fiscal years E911 will be appropriated no less than one million dollars per fiscal year for operating cost as the surplus fund will be depleted and can not support operation of the communications center. This request is the bare minimum required to operate and is lower than what has been appropriated in previous fiscal years.”

A liquor license for the Traer Golf Course was approved.

Next week’s meeting was moved due to the holiday to Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 8:30 a.m.

A public hearing on the deappropriation of funds was set for March 3 at 8:45 a.m.

The supervisors formally approved the term limits for the newest Board of Adjustment members. Berleen Wobeter’s term is set to end on June 30, 2025, and John Wagner’s term is set to end on June 30, 2028.

County Engineer Ben Daleske reported that they’ve been doing some brush cutting, and on Wednesday they were out after some freezing rain. The engineer will also be meeting with NextEra Energy to see if any updates are necessary for their road use agreement.

The engineer was asked by the supervisors about a box for a dump truck which was an item approved by the previous supervisors. The box was a controversial matter because it cost $163,249.

During public comment, Roger Wacha quipped “$163,000 for a box? Is it made out of gold?”

Claims totaling $267,615.34 were approved.