Commissioners OK Remington As Public Health Officer
Commissioners OK Remington As Public Health Officer
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Commissioners OK Remington As Public Health OfficerBy a vote of 2 to 1, the Kosciusko County Commissioners approved the reappointment of Dr. William Remington as the public health officer for another four-year term, with Northern District Commissioner Brad Jackson voting against the reappointment.
They unanimously approved the reappointment of Larry Coplen to the County Health Board, as well as the new appointment of Dr. Gregory Haase to the Board instead of Dr. Brian Reichenbach.
The Kosciusko County Board of Health on Oct. 18 unanimously voted to recommend that Remington be reappointed to serve another four-year term. His current term expires Dec. 31 and he has served the county as health officer since 1994. Under new state law, the Commissioners have the final say regarding the health officer’s appointment.
However, at the Nov. 9 Commissioners meeting, dozens of county residents spoke to request Remington not be reappointed, citing the mask mandate at Warsaw Community Schools, a “hot mic” incident at Warsaw City Hall and Remington’s long tenure as health officer as some of the reasons he should not be reappointed. Jody Cox, a “Warsaw mom,” also presented a petition of nearly 600 people who do not want Remington reappointed. The Commissioners said they would take everything presented to them “under advisement.”
The other appointments to the Board of Health included Reichenbach and Coplen. At the Nov. 9 meeting, at least one person questioned whether Reichenbach and WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert might present conflicts of interest on the Board of Health because of Hoffert’s position and Reichenbach is married to Heather Reichenbach, the school board’s president.
At the Nov. 23 Commissioners meeting, the Commissioners held off on the three appointment recommendations to the Board of Health for further study.
On Tuesday, with about a dozen people in the audience representing both sides of the reappointment issue, Middle District Commissioner Cary Groninger said, “I know this is a topic of a lot of discussion in our community here in the last few weeks. This has not been an easy decision from a perspective of we took our time and postponed votes to today just to make sure we could gather all the information that we could. We listened to both sides of the argument. We’re making sure we were making a wise, wise choice.”
He said he has served with Remington on the weekly COVID-19 meetings they had, as well as the press conferences.
“I really feel as though he’s been a steady hand at the wheel for this last 18 to 20 months of COVID. He’s a good man. He cares very much about our community,” Groninger said. “It’s been discouraging to me, actually, to see some of the emails, some of the thoughts or descriptions of what he is because some of those just aren’t true.”
He made a motion to approve Remington as the public health officer.
Jackson said he agreed with everything Groninger said, but he had “concerns, just some differences, philosophies with Dr. Remington. But, again, I agree he has done a great job.”
He said because of the things that Remington and he talked about, and because Remington and he weren’t aligned, Jackson said he couldn’t provide a second to Groninger’s motion.
Southern District Commissioner Bob Conley provided the second to Groninger’s motion.
“Likewise, I talked with Dr. Remington numerous times for hours on end sometimes at different times. I really appreciate his steadiness and, having looked at the best predictor of future behavior, his past behavior, I think he’s done an exemplary job of keeping us in line, along with his Health Board members, and the collaboration that they have and the closeness. I think it would be doing the county a service to reappoint him,” Conley said.
Groninger and Conley voted in favor, and Jackson voted in opposition.
The Commissioners then voted 3-0 for the reappointment of Coplen, who represents the public on the Health Board. Conley said Coplen was an asset to the Board as a builder. Coplen “consented” to be renominated, Conley said.
Another appointment that expires Dec. 31 this year was the physicians representative, which was Dr. Brian Reichenbach. The Commissioners did not mention Reichenbach’s name during the meeting. Instead, Conley said, “In talking with a local physician, Dr. Gregory Haase has consented to be the other member that expires this year. He will take office in January 1, of 2022. I talked to Gregory, he’s looking forward to this. He’s tremendously motivated. He’s been a doctor in the community and a good-standing doctor years and years.”
Conley nominated Haase for the Board position. It was seconded by Jackson and approved 3-0.
After the meeting, when the Commissioners were asked about Reichenbach, Conley said Reichenbach’s term expired. When another reporter pointed out that the Health Board approved Reichenbach for another term, Jackson said, “I felt that Greg is a good choice for that position. He’s expressed interest in the past, and to have some new blood on the Board, I don’t think that’s going to be a bad thing.”
Groninger said it was the Commissioners’ decision to select anybody that is going to be on the Health Board. He said they Commissioners decided to switch who was going to be in that position.
