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TOLEDO -- Yet again, the biggest item on the Tama County Supervisors' agenda Monday was the Board of Health budget as the supervisors held a public hearing on a proposed decrease in the appropriation of the Board of Health budget.
After the Board of Health approved two separate payments totaling nearly $13,000 in March for two homeowners who had their septic systems improperly passed by Tama County's previous Sanitarian, Todd Apfel, the supervisors' attorney, Carlton Salmons, found the payments to be unlawful for multiple reasons after being alerted to the issue by an article in the newspaper.
Current Tama County Sanitarian Chris Behrens was in attendance to answer any questions and to clear up any misconceptions on whether or not the septic systems should have passed.
"Cory Frank (DNR) has been out there. He agrees with my decision. I've had other sanitarians from Iowa County (and) from Black Hawk County look at this. It is a clear fail," Behrens said about Ashley Steven's former septic system.
Steven, a single mother of three, is one of the homeowners who was promised reimbursement.
"To be honest with you, this is the tip of the iceberg. I mean there's case after case after case after case that Carlton made go away when I first started out here, and there's going to be case after case after case," Behrens later said.
Behrens also made it known that on multiple occasions, he had reached out to Supervisor Bill Faircloth and invited the Board of Supervisors to sit down and meet with the Board of Health and Cory Frank from the DNR to talk about the situation. Faircloth rejected the invitation.
"We've had our differences for two years," Faircloth said of Behrens. "From the first time Chris came into this office, he never respected the supervisors."
Faircloth went on to read a letter sent from Kayla Sproul, the attorney Carlton Salmons picked to take over for him once he retired. The letter reiterated the same legal reasons for not paying the homeowners.
Ashley Steven stood up as well, stating that her lawyer is ready to sue due to estoppel, which means that the supervisors had told Steven to go ahead and fix her septic system and said they would give her some amount of reimbursement before going back on their word.
"If you're going to be illegal, at least be a human being," Steven said.
The supervisors went on to pass the resolution two to one, with Curt Hilmer dissenting. As a result, the homeowners will not receive any payments, and $51,000 will be transferred from the county health department budget into the county's general fund. Faircloth stated before passing the resolution, that afterward, they could see if there is any legal way the supervisors could still help.
As they passed the resolution, one of Steven's relatives chimed in.
"Well, gentlemen, I'm outta here. We'll see you gentlemen in court. This was your decision. Be proud of it. Hold your heads high, you stupid f***s."
Since the meeting Monday, the T-R has learned that one of the homeowners who will no longer receive payment from the county, Andrew Smith, has started a GoFundMe to help raise money to cover the cost of the repairs. The link can be found here https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-county-messed-up-now-i-have-to-pay.