By Mari Radtke
The January 2022 meeting of O’Brien County Conservation was the first that brought an attorney to the meeting. Although that attorney, Kay Fairchild Godfredsen would not name a client. It now seems Fairchild Godfredsen’s interest was on behalf of Amber Wetherell. Wetherell, until Tuesday, February 22, 2022 was the Assistant Director of O’Brien County Conservation. Her letter of resignation was effective that day.
Fairchild Godfredsen also attended the regular Conservation board meeting in February 9. The original tentative agenda for OCCB was sent out without fanfare. A revised tentative agenda was distributed on Tuesday February 8, 2022 around 4:00pm in the evening. The revision was the addition of an agenda item. OCCB added approval of hiring an attorney for issues relating to employment law.
A couple hours later, approximately 6:00pm, 27 individuals at 33 different email addresses received an email from Ms. Fairchild Godfredsen. Without revealing a reason, Ms. Fairchild Godfredsen demanded, under Chapter 22, a record of all communications between any 2 of the named persons over the past 18 months. She wanted all text and phone records over that period as well as transcripts of every discussion about O’Brien County Conservation, O’Brien County Conservation Board, Prairie Heritage Center and Little Sioux Valley Conservation Association (a not for profit organization). Out of the 27 people whose privacy was invaded with this request, 7 of them were never contacted based on the email addresses, which were not protected for privacy.
Chapter 22 in Iowa is the law covering public records. Out of the 27 individual just 10 are current public officials and 5 are no longer in public service.
The demand for records and transcripts (can you imagine creating a transcript of a conversation you had 18 months ago?) even extended to a media representative, Mari Radtke. That request was to 4 different newspaper email addresses. 28 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) protects work product of all media, its sources and methods of acquiring information. At this writing it is unclear if her action violated this federal law.
On Wednesday, February 16, 2022 OCCB held a closed meeting under rules allowing strategic discussion with counsel for imminent legal action. The O’Brien County Board of Supervisors did the same thing on Thursday, February 17, 2022.
A closed session of both boards was convened on Friday, February 25, 2022 under the same rules. The joint boards, in open session approved directing the chair of the Supervisors, Dennis Vanden Hull to sign a Separation Agreement.
The terms that brought the parties to this point are considered a personnel matter and not public information. Wetherell’s resignation is permanent. She will never ask or be asked or accept employment with O’Brien County in the future. She was awarded 9 months of COBRA insurance paid by the county at a cost of $14,949.00, $4500.00 and her unused vacation time in the amount of $6300.00. The total compensation is $25,740.00. The demand for public records made by Fairchild Godfredsen was also dropped as part of the separation agreement with Amber Wetherell.
Following the adjournment of the joint meeting, OCCB members huddled with Director Travis Scott to discuss staffing needs, requirements and compensation. Several positions and skills were discussed. The board members will consider some distributed job descriptions and organizational charts for discussion on March 9, 2022.