Peterson, Iowa — The personnel shake-ups that have occurred at the O’Brien County Conservation Board continue, this time with the resignation of the Assistant Director of Conservation.
The O’Brien County Supervisors met in a special closed session Friday afternoon (February 25th), at which time they approved a “Separation Agreement” with Amber Wetherell. She had been promoted to the Assistant Director of Conservation in 2020. The agreement calls for Wetherell to be paid $25,740 for 9 months COBRA health insurance, as well as payout of her accrued, but unused vacation time as a “Separation Payment.” As part of the agreement, Wetherell agreed to withdraw a public records request she made to her employer on February 8th.
Wetherell had submitted a letter of resignation early last week, but listed no reason for her departure.
The resignations began in September, 2020, when long-time Naturalist Charlene Elyea resigned from that position. Elyea has made no public comments about her decision to exit.
In May of last year, the county’s Park Rangers resigned en masse. The rangers resigned due to what an anonymous source close to the situation told KIWA was a “hostile work environment” at the time of the resignations.
Then in June of last year, long-time Conservation Board member Darwin Dau resigned from that post. In his resignation letter, Dau cited his displeasure with the process used in the appointment of Tom Konz of Granville to the Conservation Board, indicating that he felt one member of the County Board of Supervisors “railroaded” Konz’ appointment.
Wetherell made no mention of future plans in her resignation letter, nor was there any mention in her “Separation Agreement” with O’Brien County.
