Fred Southard, vet board president, said Tuesday that he would resign amid allegations that he created a hostile working environment for the agency’s former executive director. And he made good on his promise today by presenting his letter of resignation at the meeting.
His official resignation came four days after Caroline Bier quit because of Southard’s “repeated accusations, negative comments, personal attacks and disrespect.” Bier, a former Marine, had been on the job as the commission’s executive director for 11 months.
The Journal-News obtained a copy of Southard's three-page resignation letter on Wednesday.
In the single-spaced letter, Southard says when he joined the commission in 2014 he was a positive and optimistic person. However, he said, the “completely dysfunctional” board has worn him down.
“Over the past seventeen months it has been a continual stream of arguing and bickering and fighting among each other. That is not my life and that is not the way I want to live,” the resignation letter states.
Southard said he considered resigning from the commission in 2014, saying, “I foolishly thought that maybe I could just sit there for a year as a member and attend a monthly meeting, take up space and collect an inflated paycheck for doing nothing but coming to one meeting per month.”
Bier, who reportedly could not be convinced to stay by commissioner and board secretary Bob Perry, told the Journal-News on Tuesday that if Southard goes, she might withdraw her resignation. This morning, she did just that and the board reinstated her to the job.
Prosecutor Mike Gmoser took the entire vet board to task at today’s meeting, telling commissioners Perry, Tom Jeffers, Lowell Stewart and Ken Smith that if they didn’t pass a $10,000 salary study and a new travel policy for the board within 30 days that he would start the process of having them all removed “for cause.” The vet board had previously voted down both the travel police and salary study for what some have said were questionable reasons.
Bier’s was the second hostile workplace claim involving the Veteran Service Commission in two years. The vet board last year agreed to pay the agency’s former service officer Charles Thurmond $20,000 to stave off a threatened lawsuit over racial slurs made by former executive director Curt McPherson.
Butler County Commission President Don Dixon has said he wants to get a legislative fix to the selection of vet board members. Veteran Service commissioners are selected by county common pleas judges and each serves a five-year term.
Southard was selected by the judges in 2014 over then board president, Dan Biondo. And when former vet board member Tom Stamper’s seat came up for reappointment, the selection process was marred by a series of application errors and improper election procedures. Jeffers was eventually named Stamper’s replacement after a month-and-a-half delay.
Like Dixon, retired Butler County Judge Michael Sage had previously suggested the state legislature should change the way veterans board commissioners are named.
“Maybe it would be time that we seek out active duty military people or members of the local guard or reserves to sit on the board — people who would be much more tuned in to what are the current issues,” Sage said. “I don’t think it should be five angry, old men in the back room making deals. I think the state needs to change how the board is constituted, but I tell you it would be a political battle.”
A couple months ago, Southard invited State Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp., to a meeting to discuss a possible bill that would clarify some of the provisions that led to the board selection snafus here. They wanted state law to read that “up to” or a “maximum” of three candidates can be recommended by veterans organizations, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion. And Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser added that he would like to see a “sour grapes” provision in the law to prevent those seeking a spot on the board from “post hopping” in order to get recommended.
Southard also wanted to take the common pleas judges out of the decision-making process. He suggested the judges only be “figureheads” in the process, and that a committee of veterans should be convened to screen the candidates and send one name to the judge.
Derickson said trying to take away the judges’ appointing authority would be a very tough sell. Southard then agreed to drop the judge appointment issue.
Butler County, however, isn’t the only place dealing with vet board controversies. Montgomery County recently learned they have to crop their 11-member board by six commissioners because the state law that allowed county commissioners to appoint members to the veterans board no longer applied.
The Greene County vet board had to dismiss their executive director last fall after it was discovered he violated a number of office policies, including falsifying records, insubordination or abuse of management and misuse of county property. Former Greene County commissioner, now State Rep. Rick Perales, who is vice chair of the House Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Public Safety Committee, said “absolutely” the legislature should look at fixing what appears to be a flaw system for appointing vet board members.
He said selection has gone smoothly in his county mainly because the judges there sought his counsel as a veteran when they selected new members. He said the selection process is a delicate balance because they need someone who is plugged into veterans issues and concerns — of all generations — but also understands the commission needs to be run like a business.
“Just because someone is a veteran doesn’t mean they are the proper person to put on the commission,” he said. “You need business people. You need people who can reach Korean era veterans, Vietnam veterans who are different, they come from a different time and then reach all the veterans coming back from Iraq and Iran. That’s a skill set that not many people have.”
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