A recent decision by the Washington County Fair Board to eliminate groundskeeper Randy Lee has ignited a local firestorm on social media and was a topic of discussion at this morning joint meeting of the Washington County Council and Washington County Commissioners.
Second District Commissioner Todd Ewen made a motion to eliminate the groundskeeper position and First District Commissioner and President Phillip Marshall provided the second, but after some discussion between the public, the council and commissioners, decided to vote with Third District Commissioner Tony Cardwell (1-2) against the decision.
Marshall stated he wanted to ask a few more questions from the fair board and tabled the decision until the board’s meeting in September.
RANDY LEE DISMISSED BY FAIR BOARD
According to a statement read in his absence this morning, Lee stated “On August 13, I received a letter from the fairboard saying that my position would be eliminated as of August 23 and I would have 60 days to remove my personal belongings.
“I feel this is an unjust and untimely decision made by the fair board. As a county employee, I’m curious on how a non-elected board would have such authority to do this.”
Commissioner’s Attorney April Geltmaker said that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the county and fairboard “allows for the County to hire a groundskeeper but the fairboard ultimately has control over that groundskeeper’s daily activities and decisions regarding his employment and his retention including his termination.”
Geltmaker also said the MOU allowed the County to pay for mowing, weedeating and spraying through the MOU but also pays the groundskeeper separately from county funds.
Lee said he had been the groundskeeper for the fairgrounds for 15 years and had never had a reprimand or any disciplinary action against him.
He is also allowed to live on the grounds, with utilities paid for his mobile home.
Lee also said he felt the decision to release him was political, noting that Ewen had called him on March 3 and intimidated him.
“I received a threatening and intimidating phone call from Commissioner Todd Ewen,” noted Lee. “Which led to a State Police investigation where two other witnesses, Mr. Ewen and myself were interrogated by the state police detective which led to pending intimidation charges. At this time, i feel this is the reason behind this latest play and authoritarian tactics. I would like for you all to record this decision and feel that Mr. Ewen should be excluded from any decisions regarding these topics while these charges are pending.”
It was Ewen that made the original motion to eliminate the groundskeeper position at the meeting.
FURTHER DISCUSSION
Ewen said the fairboard was trying to restructure the fairgrounds.
“That’s the intention,” said Ewen. “Nobody likes it when a position is eliminated. It’s basically their decision. We have to honor their decision. Everyone on the fairboard works very hard to try to maintain the fairgrounds. They’re not compensated in any way shape or form. It’s getting harder and harder to find people to serve. We have to honor their wishes.”
Ewen made the motion to eliminate the position, based on the fairboard’s recommendation.
He said the elimination would save the county about $10,000 a year.
Ewen said the mowing work would be subcontracted out and they currently had a “verbal” bid of $20,000 a year.
He did not say who made the “verbal” bid.
Marshall agreed that it would be a savings and should be subcontracted.
“This year we had the state fire marshall come in,” said Marshall. “A lot of things that hadn’t been corrected over the years had to be made up so we could put the fair on. We had to fight with that. If someone is overseeing the facility, they should see something that needs to be corrected, then it should have been corrected before now. This being said, i think subcontracting this out will come out cheaper for us.”
Marshall also said that previous Commissioner Rick Roberts had pointed out several times that the fairgrounds had not been kept up.
Councilmember Brad Gilbert questioned the timeline for eliminating the position, since the previous Council had approved the position to run through the fiscal year until Dec. 31.
Ewen said eliminating the position now was to give Lee 60 days to remove his property from the fairgrounds.
Someone from the public asked if request for proposals would be issued for bids to be taken for the subcontracted grounds work and Geltmaker repeatedly said that there was no public comment allowed and that this was a decision for the board to make.
Marshall said. “Wherever we can save money, I’m all for doing it. I’m all for paying someone to do a job but we’re here to serve and save money. I think we’ll be throwing this money away if we wait until the end of the year. I have a few questions myself. How do [the fairboard] plan on doing this? I haven’t seen the report from the fair board. I will table this for another month to get some further discussion.”
The motion was on the floor and Marshall reversed his vote and vote no along with Cardwell.
Many people on social media have blamed the fairboard firing to a letter Lee issued to Salem’s Mayor regarding water treatment issues.
The Fairboard issued a letter to Lee on August 13 and Lee took a letter to Mayor Green on the morning of August 14 with concerns about the city’s water. Lee also serves as a member of the Salem City Council.
Social media posts noted that the firing was due to the letter Lee presented to the Mayor.
However, the fairboard’s decision was made at least 24 hours prior to the letter Lee gave to Salem’s Mayor, who has no authority over the fairboard.
The fair board will hold it’s annual meeting on Monday, October 13 at 6p at the 4H Building.
OTHER BUSINESS
The board approved Corelogic to have access to use county maps.
Paul Eckart from Temple and Temple gave an update on the county highway garage project.
County Highway Department Superintendent Rick Graves gave an update on projects and noted paving work was winding down for the year and preparations for projects for 2026 were being made.
The County Council and Commissioners discussed a possible wheel tax, which is being suggested by the State of Indiana to help make up for revenue due to this spring’s move to reduce property taxes.
There was some discussion that if counties do not inact a wheel tax they might not be elligible for Community Crossing Grants.
Voyles said he felt that was not true and said a new grant would be enacted in 2027 called the Lane Mile Direct Distribution grant.
He said either grant would be available for up to $1 million, but counties couldn’t get both grants. And that if a county wanted to get the LMDD grant, it would have to have a wheel tax in place.
But, he said, not to get the Community Crossings Grant, which has been reduced from $1.5 million to $1 million per award.
