The Iroquois County Board today (Tues) voted 15-1 with three members absent to recommend to the Ford-Iroquois County Public Health Board that Doug Corbett be removed as administrator.
County Board Chairman Rod Copas said "it's a recommendation to move forward...it's a recommendation to the boards from Iroquois County that we need change.
We'll leave it at that and see where it goes from here."
The vote came after a 6-minute executive session. The board's vote was to uphold a Finance committee decision to recommend the removal of Corbett.
The Ford County Board (Monday night) did not address the issue of the health department, which has been in the news since last October. The Ford County Board did not have the health department issue listed on its agenda.
In Paxton and Watseka, he public comment section of the County Board meetings did bring comment from health department employees, who support Corbett's administrative abilities.
The chairman of the Ford County Board said he still doesn't think such action is warranted.
Rick Bowen said he doesn't understand and he's not comfortable with the Iroquois County Board's request.
Copas obviously, not going into detail, wants to move forward. He said "it's a delicate situation but it's time to get the thing fixed."
Corbett has been the target of criticism by Iroquois County officials in recent months. Most of the criticism is over the installation of solar panels on the agency's Paxton and Watseka offices. Other issues talked about are not being discussed openly. Initial criticism was over the health board's push to extend services to Indiana. That plan has been dropped.
Bowen and some Ford County Board members continue to publicly support Corbett. Bowen has questioned, "what's wrong with thinking outside the box and looking for revenue?"
And Copas knows the Iroquois Board's vote is only a recommendation that the two-county health department board has to act on.
The Iroquois County recommendation to both the Health Board and the Ford County Board is to "remove Corbett as administrator of the health department in the "most expedient way possible."
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