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Show Questions raised oven Singleton resignation Information given to the Park Record during the past week suggests that the decision to ask Summit County Health Director Frank Singleton to resign was made illegally in a closed-door closed-door session. According to sources on the Summit County Board of Health, who have asked to remain anonymous, Singleton's resignation was discussed in an executive session March 21. Those sources say that the board members agreed to ask Singleton to resign, then voted 8-2 that they would accept the resignation when it was submitted. According to Utah law, personnel matters may be discussed in executive sessions, but all votes must be taken in open meetings. On March 27 Singleton began negotiating a resignation agreement with the county. On March 28 it was signed by Singleton, County Commission Com-mission Chairman Gerald Young and Dr. Robert Winn, chairman of the Board of Health. Winn challenges the suggestion that the decision to ask for Singleton's resignation was made behind closed doors. "There were no formal votes, no formal decisions," he said. "We did not dismiss Frank. He resigned. That's important." However, it was pointed out to Winn that the resignation agreement which he signed states that "...the Board has requested the resignation of Singleton." Winn responded that the board came to an "informal concensus" to ask Singleton to resign. "We discussed it at great length. If we had done something more formal, it would have affected Frank's future." The official minutes on the March 21 meeting are short. Winn, who acted as secretary for that meeting, said the minutes will state only that "personnel matters were discussed." Winn's recollection of the meeting differs from the version supplied by other board members. "A vote was taken and a plan was given to Frank," one member said. Singleton then made a counter-proposal, according to that member. A second board member said the group voted 8-2 to accept Singleton's resignation after the end of the executive session but before the public was allowed back into the room. "It was not a vote, it was a poll," this member explained. "We went out of the executive session and took the poll before we opened the (meeting room) doors." The Record also talked to County Attorney At-torney Bob Adkins. It was his understanding, under-standing, he said, that a vote was taken to ask for the resignation. This authorized Dr. Winn to sign the agreement on behalf of the health board, he said. A different statement came from County Commissioner Cliff Blonquist. The commissioner said that in a future meeting the health board will take a vote to approve Singleton's resignation. A similar process will take place in the County Commission, he said. At a regular meeting a motion will be made for the three commissioners to approve ap-prove the document. One health board member defended the decision to ask Singleton to resign. With Singleton, the committee found it very difficult to get information on budgets and results of programs, the member said. They had reached a "saturation point" in trying to work with him. A consultant had even been brought in to facilitate relations between be-tween the board and the health direc tor. "It's hard work. You have 11 people on the board with concerns," the person said. The member said Singleton had a problem communicating with the public. pub-lic. Admittedly, he could communicate with state health officials and his staff, the member said. "The staff did support sup-port Frank. Of course. He got them grants." This source also scoffed at Singleton's statements that he would have left quietly if he had been asked. "This quarrel is not new!" The member said that in spite of protests from the health staff over the resignation, no other staffer has resigned. Said Dr. Winn, "Frank had intimated in-timated there would be a lot of resignations. I talked to two health staffers who were in fear of their jobs and their programs." Winn said that feeling was "out of line." "The board and the commission will be supportive," suppor-tive," he said. The Record also talked this week to Teresa Nelson, who signed a newspaper ad last week with nine other health department employees which attacked the manner of Singleton's departure. Nelson said she was later called by Dr. Winn, who said the staffers should go through channels. She said he told her, "Other board members may perceive per-ceive this as an attack on them. They may seem to confuse personalities with programs. Yours may be hurt. " Winn said the board members did not wish to bring out their differences with Singleton. "If he hadn't resigned, we would have had to look at terminating ter-minating him, and maybe gone into those differences tnen. ' "It was Frank's decision to resign and a good one," he said. |