Becker County Board meeting descends into arguments between commissioners during County Administrator Pat Oman’s annual evaluation on Tuesday

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – In what should have been a straight forward annual performance evaluation of Becker County Administrator Pat Oman during Tuesday’s county board meeting quickly turned into a 60-minute public accusation filled argument between some of the commissioners on the board.

The evaluation was scheduled to be held in closed session on the board’s agenda, but, prior to the meeting being closed, Oman requested his evaluation take place in public.

The evaluation began relatively normally with Richard Vareberg, commissioner for District 4, saying many positive things about Oman’s performance and crediting him for rooting out some, quote, “bad” employees.

“I’ve watched our employee problems here all but disappear,” said Vareberg. “I’ve heard some employees say, ‘well, this place is toxic,’ and as I got to know them, they were the toxic part. And as those toxic employees left, (Oman) knew which ones they were. It took me months to figure out which ones they were, he knew right away. He has an insight. And some of them were sweet as can be, oh, they were nice, but they weren’t doing good for us.”

Barry Nelson, chair of the Becker County Board, admitted Oman has performed well in some aspects of his position, but also said he would need Oman to be more inclusive with other board members and provide documents in a more timely manner upon request.

“Obviously, Pat (Oman) has done a lot of stuff well,” said Nelson. “One of the issues he would need to improve on is the inclusion of all commissioners. I have felt excluded in many cases. I’ve felt that documents and information are not always readily available for me, or available prior to discussion.”

Erica Jepson, commissioner for District 1, said she wanted better communication from Oman and felt he wasn’t keeping her informed on certain agenda items before the county.

“As a new board member, I was told that we’d meet monthly, so that (Oman) could get to know me and what my hope is for the county,” said Jepson. “And we’ve only had one meeting thus far and that was in January. There have been a couple pretty significant things that have happened that when I questioned about it, why I wasn’t told? Or why the Board wasn’t told? It was blamed on (department heads), that it was their job to notify me of it. And I don’t believe that’s true. I think anytime something happens, it’s not up to the department heads to relay that to the board. It really should be the administration. I’ve asked for documents and I still have never received them. So I would agree that when it comes to communication that could definitely improve.”

David Meyer, commissioner for District 2, said he was put on the Becker County negotiating team as a new commissioner with the county’s public employees union and was disappointed to learn Oman made an unauthorized offer from the county board.

“We also had an unauthorized board offer made to the unions,” said Meyer. “And both of our reactions were, ‘was this in the budget?’ But that upsets me too. I don’t think it’s okay for an administrator to make an offer, or to do things that are huge like that without the explicit consent of the county board.”

Then, things began to devolve from Oman’s performance to accusations of impropriety involving members of the board.

Vareberg accused Nelson, Jepson and Meyer of violating open meeting laws.

“I’m gonna tell you, I’ve seen this from the very beginning, Barry (Nelson) coerced both you guys, broke the open meeting law, put himself in the chair,” said Vareberg. “This is what happened. And there’s been an investigation on this and (Nelson) has been telling everybody, all year, he’s got three votes, ‘I’ve got three votes to get rid of (Oman),’ Pat has been waiting to get fired.”

He continued and said Nelson colluded with the other two commissioners to make himself chair of the board.

“That was illegal,” he said. “And there’s been a lot of illegal stuff going on here and the problem is, you’ve left your fingerprints all over it. There’s a trail for you to follow and when these people get down with this investigation, there’s gonna be some answers here. To sit here, and just say things that are not true, doesn’t work. And it’s like I said, they’ve been threatening to fire this man for a year, you have Barry, and the problem is, if you are going to break the open meeting law, do it with somebody that doesn’t tell everybody.”

Vareberg also said, once his investigation is completed, everyone will be able to have the answers.

Nelson said: ” It’s getting to be an attack on myself.”

“Well, you’re the guy who’s been starting all the trouble,” said Vareberg. “You told us, you want to work with us, after you stole the chair. Barry, if you steal my motorcycle, and I see you riding it by, doesn’t make it yours. When the sheriff catches you on it, and gives it back to me, and that’s what’s going to happen, but you break the law and steal something, and it’s coming for you. And I didn’t want it to go to this. I was hoping that we’d just straighten up, and just follow the rules and have our own opinions, and just follow the rules and do the right thing for the county. But when you work against (Oman), when you complain you can’t have a meeting, but you don’t ask for one, wow. He gives me all kinds of meetings.”

Jepson added Oman himself brought up to her the fact that it would only take three votes to fire him, which was dismissed by Vareberg as a joke.

“I was told prior to me becoming a commissioner by (Oman) that he only needs three votes,” she said.

Vareberg responded: “Yeah, he made that joke all the time. It’s a joke Erica.”

Nelson added: “He made that joke all the time? It’s not a joke when it’s in this board room.”

Vareberg again responded: “Well, you know what, you do things without votes all the time. And you are breaking the law all the time, so I don’t know what you are thinking here. But, like I said, that’s all gonna come out.”

In the end, commissioners voted to take no action on Oman’s employment and plan to readdress the issue during a January meeting. 

Officials for both the Becker County Sheriff’s Office and Detroit Lakes Police Department said their departments are not participating in any investigation of the county board and they had no knowledge of any investigation taking place before Tuesday’s meeting.

To see the full video of the Oman’s evaluation, check out our station’s website.