By SHEILA G. KELLEY

News editor

A claim that Marion County commission chairman Dianne Novak worked behind the backs of the other two members caused commissioner Randy Dallke to angrily chastise Novak publically, going to the extreme of shouting “shut up” at her.

After an executive session with county counselor Brad Jantz, Novak asked where the process was on questionable handling of money by former EMS director Ed Debesis. She also asked whether the missing CPR class attendance rosters had been located.

She had talked with Jantz days before the meeting.

After a heavy silence, it was apparent Dallke, commissioner Kent Becker, and county clerk Tina Spencer knew nothing of what Novak was talking about.

Dallke asked the group in general if “there was something going on that the other commissioners should know about.”

Novak said she had been gathering information to have facts to bring to the commissioners for discussion.

Dallke told Novak he believes if a commissioner is working on something that concerns the county, that person should share it with the other two. He expressed surprise that she had talked to Jantz first.

Gathering pertinent information before presenting it to the board is not against the law. Under state law, the place for Novak to discuss items is within the commission meeting, not separately with the other two commissioners.

At this point, Dallke became angry, raised his voice, and shouted at her to “shut up.”

“I’m tired of you accusing me of things,” he said.

“I’m not accusing you of anything,” Novak countered. “You are about as rude as they come.”

For the next few minutes, Dallke flung angry words over Novak’s actions while she made equally angry attempts to answer his concerns.

“What she’s investigating is what he did about his CPR training classes,” Dallke said later. “Our chairman doesn’t care about telling the truth about things. She needs to grow up.”

After numerous snipes between the two, Becker said if any commissioner is looking into something with an employee or ex-employee, he’d like to see Jantz communicate so they are looking at the same information.

Jantz asked for a short executive session to discuss litigation.

Jantz then gave an update on the proposed transfer of the Bowron building to Marion Advancement Campaign. The original proposed date was Dec. 1, but Spencer said that could be problematic with the amount of items currently stored in the building.

Jantz was asked to negotiate a new date so departments had time to remove their records.

“It will put the campaign back a bit,” Marion economic development director Randy Collett said but he thinks MAC will be accommodating.

Attorney Pat Hughes updated commission members on a zoning certificate requested by Diamond Vista wind farms.

The company needs Marion County to verify its contracts with them for their financial institutions. The certificate lists what is currently in place, and all outstanding road maintenance issues.

Sally Tatro with Gallagher Benefit Services presented an outline of what insurance her company could offer the county.