Saving Sheppard's job was wise move
Flathead County’s senior population is feeling pretty good about the county commissioners’ decision last week to keep Agency on Aging Director Lisa Sheppard on the job, and rightly so.
In the face of what we believe was unfounded criticism of Sheppard’s job performance and a move to oust her, she truly embodied grace under pressure Tuesday, speaking from the heart to the commissioners and a room packed with her supporters about all she’s done to meet her job description.
Sheppard is a true professional, and Flathead County is fortunate to have someone so skilled leading an agency that touches the lives of so many seniors and their families. And it’s not just administrative skills she brings to the table, it’s a passion for serving seniors that exudes from her very being.
Her rapport with the county’s elderly residents was on full display as one by one they stepped to the podium to tell the commissioners about how well she is leading the Agency on Aging.
At first, Commissioners Gary Krueger and Pam Holmquist seemed to take a shoot-the-messenger approach to dealing with Sheppard. It should have come as no surprise to anyone when she outlined numerous safety hazards at the rented Agency on Aging building on Kelly Road earlier this year.
Why blame Sheppard for telling the truth?
The fact is these deficiencies existed long before Sheppard arrived on the job last November. It shouldn’t have been news to the commissioners. After county officials and insurance representatives toured the rented barn in February and saw the safety issues up close, the county took steps to make some minor improvements.
Of course the looming issue is the fate of a proposed new facility for the Agency on Agency. Krueger and Holmquist say they want to work through this year’s budget before making a decision. They recently scrapped a $450,000 block grant application that could have been used for a new building.
Sheppard was encouraging seniors to write letters of support for the project — community support is a big plus for such grant applications — and we have to wonder if the two commissioners perceived this as somehow holding their feet to the fire to make a decision about where to build it.
Krueger wasn’t deterred by the popular support shown for Sheppard, nor by the obvious excellence of her performance. He still went ahead Tuesday with a motion to dismiss her before the end of her probationary employment period, but when Holmquist chose to remain silent rather than support Krueger, the motion died for lack of a second. We applaud Holmquist for shifting gears and listening to the public’s pleas.
Now, the commissioners may have bought themselves a little time as they commence with budget review sessions with department heads, but the decision still needs to be made about how to accommodate a growing Agency on Aging that’s striving to keep pace with a burgeoning senior population. The rented red barn won’t cut it much longer.
The day of reckoning will come, and we’ll all be watching.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.