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Caroline Bier, the executive director of the Butler County Veterans Commission, has resigned from the agency, citing a hostile work environment.
Her departure after just 11 months on the job is the latest controversy involving the vet board, and it has at least one county commissioner demanding that something be done to fix the agency that some are calling “dysfunctional.”
Bier hand-delivered her resignation letter on Saturday to board secretary Bob Perry, which listed her reasons for quitting. At the top of the list: Board President Fred Southard, who Bier said created a hostile work environment for her.
“The repeated accusations, negative comments, personal attacks and disrespect that have been displayed towards me is affecting both my physical and mental health,” Bier wrote about Southard in her resignation letter.
Southard told this newspaper he had no comment until after the vet board meets in a special session Wednesday to discuss the matter.
The commission, which serves about 25,000 veterans and oversees a $2 million budget, unanimously voted to hire Bier last summer, after former executive director Curt McPherson abruptly resigned in the midst of allegations he created a hostile work environment. There was a field of 18 candidates, and Southard staunchly supported Bier for the job. But things evidently deteriorated over the past year.
“It’s a great loss,” Perry said, adding he tried to talk Bier out of leaving. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do to bring her back. I don’t think she would even consider coming back if Fred’s still there.”
Perry said when he went to the commission offices Monday there were “all kinds of sighs and sad looks and tears” among the employees. He said Southard is not very well liked.
“I’ve told Fred so often he treats people like criminals up there,” Perry said, referring to agency employees.
Bier said the hostility has been escalating with Southard since last fall, and she can’t take it anymore.
“It’s just been very hostile, questioning every decision that I make and things like that,” she said. “I just felt the past couple months that things have been getting more personal. Three times in the past couple meetings he’s accused me of lying or intentionally leaving him out of things.”
One of Southard’s biggest gripes against Bier has been his feeling that she leaves him out of important things involving the board. Just recently, he chided her after not receiving an email about a special meeting held with Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser last week. And this past fall, Southard essentially accused Bier of exceeding her authority by trying to set policy by drafting the job descriptions for a $10,000 salary study at the agency.
County Commission President Don Dixon said while the county commissioners have no authority over the vet board, the common pleas judges, who oversee and select the veterans board members, do. Dixon said it’s about time the judges addressed the situation with the dysfunctional board, and he also plans to speak with state Sen. Bill Coley and Gmoser about changing legislation regarding how vet boards are put together.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to have to be the judges that step in. Legislation is going to have to change to restructure the way that board is appointed and who has authority over the board…,” Dixon said. “The judges have a pretty undefined power, and if they see that this is not right and they have the appointment, I believe they have the ability to step in and make whatever changes need to be made… This is not just a one-time disagreement or a two-time disagreement, this has gone pretty much nuclear.”
The common pleas judges appoint vet board members and have the ability to remove members “for cause.” Presiding Judge Patricia Oney said she plans to consult the other judges about what should be be done.
“You’re probably right,” she said when this newspaper asked if it was time to take action. “I have to figure out what to do.”
Bier said she is leaving her options open on a potential lawsuit against the veterans board. If she opts to sue, hers would be the second against the agency in two years. The commissioners paid former service officer Charles Thurmond $20,000 after he threatened to sue over bullying and racial slurs he allegedly endured while on the job from 2007 to 2012.
Bier said she doesn’t want to take money away from veterans, but she also doesn’t want anyone else to be subjected to what she has suffered.
“I know that by pursuing something legally it’s going to take away from the veterans,” she said. “But I’m a veteran too, and I wouldn’t want any other veteran to be mistreated and talked to the way that I feel I have and some of the other employees in the agency.”
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