Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Shawano County Planning and Development Director Tim Reed was terminated from his post Thursday and escorted from the courthouse, a week after a county committee voted to end his employment.
According to minutes from a Dec. 2 meeting, the Planning, Development and Zoning Committee went into a closed session to discuss Reed’s job performance evaluation “and to confer with legal counsel” concerning the evaluation.
After coming out of closed session, the committee voted unanimously to put the evaluation on file, then voted 4-1 to direct the county’s corporation counsel and administrative coordinator to “take action as directed by the committee concerning (the) personnel issue discussed in closed session.”
Supervisors Steve Gueths, Marlin Noffke, Gene Hoppe and Tom Kautza voted in favor. Supervisor Ken Capelle cast the sole no vote.
“It was voted on to terminate Mr. Reed,” Administrative Coordinator Tom Madsen said Friday.
Madsen said Reed was offered a severance package and was given a week to decide whether he wanted to accept it.
“It was a generous offer,” Madsen said. “He never responded.”
According to the county’s management and administrative manual adopted early this year, the committee that oversees a particular department has the authority to terminate an employee, if the administrative coordinator agrees.
If the administrative coordinator does not agree, the matter would be settled by the Administrative Committee.
Madsen ultimately decided to go along with the PD&Z Committee.
“In the best interests of the county, it would be better if we terminated the relationship between (Reed) and the county,” he said. “Actually, the best interests probably of Tim, too, to start fresh someplace else.”
Madsen said he could not go into detail about the reasons for Reed’s termination.
“The committee, PD&Z, no longer had faith in him to do the job,” Madsen said.
Reed’s situation was complicated by the fact that he also answers to two other committees: the Land Conservation Committee and Solid Waste Management Board.
“The other two committees gave him a good evaluation. PD&Z didn’t,” Madsen said.
Reed was escorted from the courthouse shortly before noon Thursday by Madsen and a sheriff’s deputy.
“That’s standard operating procedure,” Madsen said. “When someone is terminated on the spot like that, you bring a deputy up. You walk him to his office, get his keys, his ID badge, credit cards, whatever he’s got that’s county owned, and he’s allowed to remove his personal effects.”
Madsen said he sent emails after the termination was carried out informing members of the other committees and County Board Chairman Jerry Erdmann, and recommending that Zoning Director Robert Jacobson be made acting director.
He said all of the responses were amenable to that.
“I don’t foresee the county replacing Tim any time soon,” Madsen said.
“We’re going to divvy up some of the stuff Tim does amongst other staff and see what we can do,” he said. “This is standard operating procedures in counties, too. Can we go without this position for a while, and how long can we do it, and maybe, can we combine? If there’s a way of being creative and moving some duties around, maybe we don’t have to replace this position.”
Reed started with Shawano County in 1998 and was made planning and development director in 2002. His 2014 salary was $73,875.