Commissioners reorganize, hire new county attorney

Two of the three Owen County Commissioners are new to their positions. Those new commissioners are former sheriff Sam Hobbs and David Risk.

In fact, the only commissioner who isn’t new to the position is Gary Burton, the board's former president. 

At the beginning of the commissioners’ first meeting of 2025, held on Jan. 9, Hobbs was unanimously elected president of the board, and Risk was unanimously elected vice president. 

Immediately following the reorganization, Hobbs gave a monologue about what can be expected from the board moving forward.

“It’s going to be kind of a lengthy meeting. We got a lot to go through. I’m not here to upset the apple cart with anybody, but I’m going to. It’s just the nature of the beast,” Hobbs began. “I base my faith off of God being in control because He is. We’re just here to do His will and try to make the best of a community that is falling apart.”

After sharing his long-standing attendance at these sorts of public meetings, Hobbs commented on a trend.

“The thing that I’ve seen in the last several years of coming to the meetings and stuff like that is the discord and dislike between the employees, whether you’re elected or appointed or whatever, has turned into a hatred. And it’s going to end. The reason I say that is we’re a team here together,” Hobbs said. “We were elected to serve the people and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. The people have a voice. You’re taxpayers. You’ll have a voice in every commissioners’ meeting. That’s only right. I expect your ideas, your vision, your goals and your solutions to some of the problems that we have.”

Hobbs then quoted Proverbs 23:19.

“This county is going to have a vision for everybody, not just for self-centered seeking thumb-sucking selfish people. I won’t tolerate it. I won’t tolerate rude behavior from nobody,” Hobbs said. “I’m in no way here to tell anybody to pack up and get going. If you’re not doing your job that’s required of you, there’s going to be a problem.”

Hobbs then said that employees are the county’s biggest liability and the county’s biggest asset.

“We’re going to work together as a team,” he said.

He then reiterated that the commissioners do not have any authority over other elected officials. He also said that commissioners should allow for autonomy and leadership from the county’s department heads saying they have a business to run. 

Hobbs was clear that department heads could and should ask for guidance and help from the commissioners when needed and said the commissioners will not interfere unless asked or unless there is an issue. 

“I’m new at this part [being a commissioner], but I’m not new at being around here. I’ve seen how some people have been treated and mistreated, and rest assured of one thing. That’s coming to an end, like real soon,” Hobbs said.

Then, instead of making the usual first meeting of the year liaison appointments, Hobbs announced that those appointments would not be made until February. He cited a “legal problem” but did not go into details. 

“There’s some things facing this county that is going to be revealed in the next 30 to 60 days that could change the whole outlook on certain things,” he said. 

One and only one liaison appointment was made, and that was for Risk to serve as the liaison for the highway department. 

“Gary cannot do that because his wife works there,” Hobbs said. 

Until appointments are made in February, Hobbs said that he would serve as the liaison for the auditor’s office and appointed department heads. He noted that elected officials can go to any of the commissioners that they want.

The commissioners then began with the routine business of approving the meeting minutes and claims. 

In both this meeting and the Jan. 23 meeting, the commissioners addressed the extensive and inappropriate amount of out-of-cycle claims. 

The board then went on to new business.

“This is where the rubber is going to meet the road for some of you,” Hobbs said, adding that it was unfortunate that not everything was going to be good news.

The first matter that was addressed was the contract with Dana Kerr for his services as county attorney.

“We’ve been through this for a couple of months. The current attorney is not here today. He is sick. We wish him the best in his recovery,” Hobbs began. “Dana is not here today, but we have to proceed with business. This has been discussed briefly in a couple commissioners meetings. The contract that the current attorney has is on a week-to-week basis at the moment.”

“Mr. Kerr’s last day will be Jan. 31. I’m not going to sit here and bad mouth him, run him down or anything like that. He did what he did and done what he’s done for what he thought was right. He’s an attorney. I do feel and I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Kerr was led down a couple roads that he shouldn’t have had to go down. That’s my two cents worth. I think if Mr. Kerr had things to do over again, they would be done different. Again, this is my opinion.”

With that, Hobbs moved to relieve Kerr of his duties as county attorney as of Jan. 31. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. 

“This is not the end of this story,” Hobbs said. 

After allowing him to introduce himself, the commissioners hired Tony Overholt from Frost Brown Todd Attorneys in Indianapolis. Overholt has served as the attorney for the county council. The commissioners hired Overholt, who has been an attorney for 30 years, for six months. Overholt has experience representing local government. 

Overholt will be paid between $350 and $375 per hour. 

There is $160,000 budgeted for the county attorney. Under Kerr’s extended 2022 contract that served from week to week until the end of January, approximately $13,000 would have been spent from the $160,000 budgeted for county legal expenses. 

The council separately has budgeted approximately $40,000 for their legal expenses, as Kerr did not represent the council.

At the high end of Overholt’s rate, the county commissioners would have a total of 392 hours before exceeding the appropriation. This translates to a weekly average of roughly 7.5 hours per week without going to the county council for an additional appropriation. 

During the approximately four-hour first meeting, the commissioners also: 

• Worked toward getting a county human resources officer. It was noted that the county attorney should not serve as the HR person. It was also noted that a proposal to fund such a position had not previously been brought before the county council, according to council president Polly Chesser. Hobbs said the goal would be to take insurance responsibilities away from the auditor’s office and to remove drug testing for county employees from the health clinic run by the county health department.
• Discussed and accepted the resignation of the 911 dispatch director, Cherie Anderson. Anderson was not present at the meeting.
• Removed the blue line in the commissioners room that was previously placed to restrict the public from approaching the area where elected officials sit.
• Overturned a previous ordinance dealing with the 911 advisory board to restore it to what it was prior to the ordinance passed in 2024. “The 911 advisory board was basically taken out of any decision-making that involved the 911 dispatch center, other than policies and procedures,” Hobbs said. Burton said he believed it was just the financial side. EMA Director Jack White said that members of the board were not asked for input when that change was made.
• Moved the county maintenance department back to the armory and moved EMA to the previous office location on the Washington Street side of the brick building on the corner of Market and Washington Streets. This is instead of the front of the same building, which is where Jack White had been moved to.
• Addressed an issue concerning the Veterans Service Officer vehicle. Risk asked about the vehicle for the VSO, and VSO Dennis Bucy said they have a 2001 brown van and that they previously also had a 2005 Ford Explorer. The Ford Explorer was purchased, at least in part, through donations from veterans. “I won’t tolerate our veterans being disrespected,” Risk said. He moved to return the Ford Explorer back to the VSO immediately. Hobbs seconded the motion and asked where the vehicle was, and it was said that it was with the county building department. Suzanne Simmerman from the building department said that it was sitting on the empty lot with everything out of it. Hobbs asked when that happened, and Simmerman said at the beginning of the year. Burton said the building department vehicle broke down and he had asked Bucy if he needed both vehicles. At the time, Bucy did not have a driver to transport veterans. This was in May of 2024. “We didn’t know it was donated by, the money was donated by veterans. Had no idea,” Burton said. Simmerman said the building department vehicle was fixed in September or October. 

The commissioners also held a joint meeting with the Owen County Council on Jan. 23. A story on that meeting will be made available soon on The Owen News website, theowennews.org. The commissioners met again yesterday, Feb. 6, and they will meet again at 6 p.m. on Feb. 20 in the second-floor Commissioners Room of the Owen County Courthouse, 60 S. Main St., Spencer.