Decision expected regarding health officer’s removal
By HOLLY GASKILL
A special meeting of the Wells County Health Board has been scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 24.
The special session is scheduled for 6 p.m. or directly following an executive session scheduled for 5 p.m. The stated purposes of the executive session are litigation and discussions of classified records and employees’ job performances. The special session is open to the public, but executive session is not.
The only item on the special meeting agenda is the consideration of the removal of Dr. Kay Johnson, health officer for the Wells County Health Department. Their prospective decision follows a 4.5-hour hearing on the matter Jan. 10.
At the time, Chris Esterling, president of the board, and Steve Bales, board member, argued that Johnson had been an absent department leader during ongoing understaffing, among other issues. Since April 2023, the department has had turnover in three of four full-time positions and one part-time position.
Johnson and her legal counsel, Martha Lemert, countered that there had never been expectations for a more directive health officer, nor had that been communicated since she had first assumed the role in 2010. She was most recently re-appointed to a four-year term in 2022.
In response, several board members questioned the necessity of telling the health officer to assume responsibility when full-time leadership resigns. “You are not a neophyte (novice) … how could you see problems that were developing and not become a more active participant?” asked board member Dr. Mary Donley.
Johnson said she would be willing to take the board’s directives for leadership but had not been given a chance.
Johnson stated, “Because after (over) 10 years in this job, and never having had an unfavorable evaluation, suddenly I get hit with, ‘You’re not doing this,’ and ‘You’re not doing that’ and ‘This is a failure of this or that or whatever.’ … I seriously doubt that the performances of health officers over 100 years (in Wells County) were all perfect and that when there were problems, there were solutions other than the public humiliation of the health officer.”
Indiana Code 16-20-1-28 permits a health officer’s removal for failure to perform statutory duties, failure to enforce state rules and “other good cause.” The Health Board unanimously voted to initiate removal in a special session on Dec. 6.
Other board members are Molly Hoag, Ann McNabb, Dr. Bartholomew Hott and Tamara Troutt. Hott and Troutt’s terms began in 2024, filling a vacancy and replacing former board member Tom Longenberger.
holly@news-banner.com
