Technology, cameras and swearing in

VINTON — Benton County Supervors approved a letter of reprimand last week for the county’s information technology director after the director neglected to remove a security camera from the Benton County Service Center as he was directed to do.

Supervisors Tracy Seeman and Gary Bierschenk voted to put a letter of reprimand in the employee file of Information Director Ben Turnis. Supervisor Chairman Richard Primmer voted no.

Sue Wilber, human resources director, said at the meeting that she was tasked with investigating accusations against Turnis.

Wilber alleged that Turnis was guilty of swearing, insubordination, lying and providing misinformation regarding removal of a security camera in the conference room.

County Attorney Ray Lough and Primmer directed the camera removal due to confidentiality concerns during closed sessions. Turnis said the decision should be made by the courthouse security committee.

Lough said 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.

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

Wilber said she was doing what she was requested to do. She said she was not belittling employees but was looking into matters brought to her attention. Those matters focused on the language used by an employee.

Wilber said she’s working for transparency and honesty. “I think that when you have an employee that’s being dishonest, that should be looked at.”

It’s not a pleasant job or a job that any human resources people want, Wilber said. It’s part of the job to have tough conversations and look into things that may have gone unaddressed for a long time.

Turnis said the reason he didn’t take the camera down was for personal responsibility. If something happened in that room and officials reviewed the camera footage, the last thing they would see would be Turnis taking the camera down.

Turnis said that when he Lough emailed him to take down the camera two weeks before, he took it down.

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

Primmer asked Bierschenk for his opinion. “I’m going to keep my mouth shut,” Bierschenk said.

Primmer said precedence has been set in asking for the resignation or suspension without pay of employees in similar cases. Primmer asked if the county would be liable if the precedent were not followed in this case.

Primmer told supervisors that they have dealt with things of this nature in the past. “They’re hard. Nobody said it’s easy.”

Turnis warned that the county is setting itself up for failure if supervisors let him go and expect his newly hired assistant to take over.

Seeman suggested putting a letter of reprimand in Turnis’ file for the bad words he said. “And that’s it.”

Residents in attendance asked why the issue didn’t go through the security committee. Loughgsaid this is a legal issue first, not a safety issue.

The County Recorder there’s a lot of frustration in the county, and she’s sure there’s a lot of swearing going on. The employees are there to serve the county taxpayers.

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

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