News : County Accepts resignation of HR Director, $140,000+ Awarded

The resignation of Sue Wilber, HR Director was discussed at the Supervisor's meeting on Tuesday.

According to the agreement, (attached below) she will receive $140,000, plus her salary through October 15, 2024, as well as health insurance, unpaid vacation, and payment of tuition in the Leadership Iowa Program. The county will also NOT contest an application for unemployment benefits.

Benton County Attorney, Ray Lough addressed the board. He said in the spring he was approached by an attorney asking for the preservation of documents which he said is usually the beginning of a lawsuit. He referred the case to Heartland, the county's insurer. Wilber's attorney approached the county's attorney at Heartland about a separation. They evaluated the case and decided that a discussion would be appropriate.

Negotiations on behalf of the county began and an agreement was reached last Thursday. The attorneys came to a severance agreement which included a lump sum payment was agreed to and other obligations that are part of her contract. Lough spoke with Heartland and told them that the county didn't feel that they should have to pay the settlement, so Heartland agreed to pay on the county's behalf.

Lough then asked how that would affect the county's premiums. He explained that because we are part of a Risk Pool, each year the county gets a rebate based on the claims. They assured Lough that "Benton County has an excellent track record for safety and liability claims, so because we are doing so well in those other areas, it doesn't impact us like it normally would."

"We've had this claim and last year's settlement and that's really anything big that we've had for a while. It's not going to cause the impact that maybe the public would fear that it would." Based on that, Lough recommended that the board accept the resignation.

The county is still facing two other lawsuits from the first HR Director, Kristen Nelson as well as another lawsuit brought by County Auditor, Hayley Rippel.

Lough also discussed the Human Resources Department. Friday he met with Wilber before she left and he agreed to take her forwarded emails until he could discuss with the board how to proceed.

According to Heartland, in the Risk Pool there are 10 counties and we are the only one with an HR Department. Two outsource, and the other seven do their own. He presented options for outsourcing to the board. The part-time employee in the HR office would like to meet with the board next week to discuss her position. Heartland has indicated that they would like to see Nancy Jorgenson handle all of the workman's comp claims and things like that.

Lough will meet with the board next week to discuss.

Scott Hansen addressed the board in public comments concerning a public records request he filed on June 14, 2024 to Sue Wilber of the Human Resources Department. Hansen had requested all notes that she had taken from the time she began until the date of the request.

He received a response from the County Attorney, Ray Lough, He assumes that because of the response on June 20, that Wilber had contacted the county attorney. In the response, Lough had said generally that notes taken by a public official during a public meeting are NOT confidential and are subject to an open meetings (records) request. Hansen received no response after that time.

Iowa Public Information Board recommends waiting 10-20 days to fulfill a request, Hansen said he waited 30 days before reaching out to the Auditor's office for an update. Hansen said that he had received nothing at all from Wilber, not even an acknowledgment of the request. He said that he was told that Lough would be in touch.

As a result of the resignation, Hansen asked if this request was going to be fulfilled.

Lough's response was that he wasn't sure. He said that the notes have never been made available and Wilber had refused to give them to the county. He said if they are still on her laptop and there is access, after they've been reviewed for confidentiality reasons, he didn't see why Hansen couldn't have the notes.

The notes taken would be stored on The Cloud, so should be retrievable. Hansen said that it's 2 months later and he really would like an answer. His assumption is that as Wilber was a Benton County employee who was asked to be at the Supervisor meetings by the Board of Supervisors, and he assumes that the laptop she did all of her business on was county owned, so it should be a county record.

(Note: According to item 10 of Wilber's severance agreement, it states that Wilber will "return any and all documents, files or other written graphic, pictorial or recorded materials, whether auditory or visual as well as any and all physical equipment, materials or supplies reasonably construed as property of Benton County, Iowa or any of its affiliates or companies, on or before her termination date from active employment.")

Hansen then asked if the county will be pursuing this or if he needs to go on his own and pursue this. Lough said that the county would.

Hayley Rippel, County Auditor also asked Lough if he could retrieve an email for an invoice for the HR Department, she needs a receipt for a credit card bill. Lough said that he only has access from Friday afternoon, but the assistant might have it.

Doug Cook asked where the assistant HR falls into the scenario. Lough said that they will be discussing it. He said that she likes it here, wants to keep working here, she grew up in Benton County and the county should see if there is a way to keep her. She graduates in May with her HR degree.

Dana Sanders spoke as well asking if all the records that she has in her office, if they revert back to the Auditor's Office. Lough said that according to Julia (the assistant) because she was employed she's expected to maintain the records.