Reckless spending, secret emails, and possible retaliation were just a few of the allegations fired off Monday by Wabash County Commissioner Rob Dean against the Wabash County Health Department. During a 20-minute commentary, Dean offered his first example of reckless spending by the health board saying they were willing to spend $33,000 on a new sidewalk at the health department. But, Dean, who also serves on the health board, said he worked with city officials to get the job done for a much lower cost….
Dean said without his intervention, the health board would have spent $33,000 for the same work. Dean also took exception with recent raises the health board approved for employees. He said county finances prevent raises being given to other non-health department employees making it unfair.
Dean said his only ally on the health board is Darrell Thompson who was at Monday’s county board meeting. He echoed Dean’s thoughts on problems at the health department…
Health department administrator Judy Wissel rebutted several of Dean’s more inflammatory comments saying the health department had received $800 gift cards as a bonus during COVID, not $8,800 as Dean claimed. She also said there were no secret emails being exchanged among health board members.
No action was taken Monday on a proposal by Dean to transfer power to approve health department raises and bonuses from the health board to county commissioners.