The Semcac advisory board controversy is not over.

Tuesday, April 17, 2001

The Semcac advisory board controversy is not over.

Two years ago, Len Miller, Fourth District Mower County commissioner and the county’s representative on the Semcac advisory board, raised a flap over the community action agency’s leadership.

Then, Miller became the target of advisory board members who were satisfied with the "status quo" and Miller was forced to resign.

He was replaced by Tom Neilon, the Mower County Correctional Services officer.

Now, newly-elected County Commissioner Garry Ellingson, Fifth District, has been appointed to fill Neilon’s position to ensure the county board has its own representative on the Semcac advisory board.

Bruce Henricks, the executive director of the Mower County Department of Human Services, remains the county’s other representative.

If the latest criticisms of the agency’s leadership sound familiar, they should.

"These are some of the same issues that I raised two years ago and they haven’t been addressed," Miller said.

After the resignation of Barb Taylor, Semcac’s assistant director and Head Start Program director, she added fuel to the fires started by Miller’s criticism as well as verification that the questions raised were not idle complaints of a disgruntled Semcac advisory board member.

And, Miller can be excused for saying, "I told you so."

Taylor resigned early this year and issued a scathing indictment of Semcac Director Bruce Hartert, who has been silent on the issue.

According to Taylor, other department directors met with Hartert to air their complaints.

"At each of these meetings the same issues were brought up," Taylor said.

Among the issues discussed was Hartert’s leadership, but there were others, too.

In her letter to the Semcac directors, Taylor pinpointed her criticisms of Hartert.

Taylor concluded her caution to each of the counties in the 11-county Semcac area with an explanation: "I am not doing this to be vindictive or because I don’t like Bruce (Hartert)," she wrote. "It would be so much easier if that were the case."

"I want Semcac to be around fort he next 35 years, providing people with a hand up, helping to build strong communities. I believe that can only happen with a strong leader at the helm," she concluded.

The root of the program goes back to Jan. 22, when Semcac’s directors asked Hartert to discuss strategic planning issues.

Everyone – Debbie Betthauser, Jeremy LaCroix, Holly McDounough, Elaine McGarry, Gary Musselman, Sharon Rustad, Wendy Todd, Duane Weigel and Joyce Peckover, as well as Taylor – made the request.

One of the criticisms was the Semcac executive director’s job description. It was prepared in June 1999 by Hartert for his own job.

The meetings with Hartert, according to the Semcac staff, were fruitless and the problems remain.

Now individual county boards are being asked to intervene to rescue the agency.

Semcac, in part, depends on the member-counties for financial support to accomplish its mission to help the poor.

"This is very disturbing," Miller said of the Taylor letter received last week. "I think it needs to be seen as evidence that the concerns that I raised two years ago have not been addressed and that the issues remain and that they are interfering with the agency’s good works."

"I think they should be investigated," Miller concluded.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com.