Supervisors approve reprimand on security camera issue

By Jim Magdefrau

VINTON – A letter of reprimand was approved, 2-1, by the Benton County Board of Supervisors in a matter related to Benton County’s information technology director and not following a directive to remove a security camera from the Benton County Service Center. The meeting was Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at the service center in Vinton.

Sue Wilber, human resources director, said at the meeting she was tasked to do an investigation and gave her summary of what transpired. 

In her investigation, she alleged swearing by Information Director Ben Turnis, insubordination, lying and providing misleading information regarding removal of a security camera in the conference room. County Attorney Ray Lough and Supervisor Chairman Richard Primmer directed the camera removal due to confidentiality concerns during closed sessions. Turnis stressed this should be a decision by the courthouse security committee.

Lough stated the law calls for audio recording and extensive note taking during a closed session. It does not provide for video recording. “This is not something we should be messing with. It needs to come out and we need to be in compliance with the law,” Lough said of the security camera.

Turnis asked if having Wilber do the investigation would be a conflict of interest, as they have had past arguments, instead of an independent investigation. 

Turnis added the reason he didn’t take the camera down as a matter of personal responsibility. If something was to happen in the room and they go back to look at camera footage, the last footage they see is Turnis taking down the camera. He added that when he was e-mailed by Lough to take the camera down two weeks before, he took it down. 

Supervisor Tracy Seeman agreed that it should have been a decision by the committee, and not a supervisor.

Primmer asked Supervisor Gary Bierschenk if he had any thoughts on this. Bierschenk replied, “I’m going to keep my mouth shut.”

Primmer pointed back to incidents in the past regarding swearing and lying by others. He also asked Turnis if he had examples that Primmer was corrupt. Turnis apologized to Primmer for calling him corrupt. Primmer said he accepted his apology. 

Primmer continued that the problem is the precedence that has been set in asking for the resignation of employees or suspension without pay. If precedence is not followed, Primmer asked if this would set up the county to any liability.

In calling for action, Primmer told his fellow supervisors that they have dealt with things of this nature in the past. “They’re hard. Nobody said it’s easy.”

Turnis warned the county is setting itself up for failure if they let him go and expect his newly hired assistant to take over, who has not learned everything with the county.

Seeman said his decision was to put a reprimand letter in Turnis’ file for the bad words that he said. “And that’s it,” Seeman said. Bierschenk said he’d go with that. Seeman and Bierschenk made the motion and approved this. Primmer was opposed. 

Public input

The meeting closed with public input from the audience. When asked why this didn’t go through the security committee, Lough stressed this was a legal issue first, and not a safety issue. County Recorder observed there is a lot of frustration going on now in the county. She said she is sure there is a lot of swearing going on. She stressed they re there to serve the county taxpayers. They are elected to do this.

Kellie Van Ree formally requested the resignation of the three supervisors and HR director. Van Ree is a candidate for supervisor.

They also talked about getting a security camera with a switch. 

HR role

Wilber stressed she was doing what she was requested to do regarding the investigation. She stressed she was not belittling employees. She said she was looking into matters that had been brought to her attention that focused on the language used by an employee. She is working for transparency and honesty. “I think that when you have an employee that’s being dishonest that should be looked at,” Wilber said. She said it’s not a pleasant job or a job that any HR people want. 

She said it’s part of the job to have tough conversations and look into things that maybe have gone unaddressed for a long time. She stressed she’s happy to talk to anybody. Her door is always open.

Duties

Benton County Auditor Hayley Rippel asked why an agenda item on auditor’s duties was placed on the agenda, and then taken off of the agenda. There has been a debate in the past on where official documents are to be stored regarding personnel. Wilber said an attorney at a seminar felt it was “best practice” for personnel records to be housed in HR, since they can’t be privy to open records requests. Rippel stressed the auditor keeps the official records of the board. 

Primmer said he understood this was at the discretion of the board. He would like to get this on the agenda at some other time. 

Meeting video