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Murray County board hires outside investigator, authorizes chair to sign engagement letter and restores HR director
Summary
After a closed session on preliminary allegations involving two employees, Murray County commissioners voted to retain Flaherty & Hood to conduct an outside investigation, authorized the board chair to sign the engagement letter, approved HR director Sharon Geezy's immediate return, and appointed county representatives to handle a pending AFSCME grievance.
Following a closed session to review preliminary allegations against two county employees, the Murray County Board voted to retain an outside law firm to investigate and took several personnel actions.
Chair (speaker 2) read the statutorily required summary: the board discussed the county administrator's performance on Sept. 23–25 and decided to initiate a further investigation. Staff (speaker 6) presented two investigator options from the state's roster. He said the firm Wiley Reber quoted senior-partner rates (Greg Wiley or Ben Reber) around $235 per hour with a lower investigator rate at $220 per hour and that travel and mileage would be billed at the hourly rate and IRS mileage rate. He then described the Flaherty and Hood proposal, saying their attorney rate would be about $245 per hour, support-staff rates would be lower, travel time would be billed at 50 percent of the hourly rate, and that senior attorney Christina Petzoulis would be proposed as the lead investigator with an estimated 30‑day timeline.
After discussion about in-person versus virtual interviews and possible cost savings from stacking interviews, a commissioner moved to retain Flaherty and Hood for the investigation. The motion carried on a voice vote. The board also voted to authorize the board chair to sign an engagement letter from the firm on the county's behalf.
Separately, the board approved the immediate return to work of human resources director Sharon Geezy and authorized commissioners Welgrave and Carlson to work with legal counsel to provide the board's expectations for Ms. Geezy moving forward. Staff informed the board there is an AFSCME bargaining-unit grievance at step 3 over a holiday-pay policy change; the board debated whether to designate one representative or a committee, amended a motion to form a two‑member committee to act as the county's step‑3 representative, and approved the amended motion. Staff said if step 3 does not resolve the grievance, mediation with the Bureau of Mediation Services would be the next step.
The board also discussed continuity of operations while the county administrator is on paid administrative leave; staff said the HR deputy administrator is authorized to handle operational matters and that no immediate further action was necessary at this meeting.
The transcript records the board's votes as voice votes (ayes/ayes) on these items; there were no roll-call tallies included in the record.
