OTTUMWA — Impassioned speeches were made on Rachel Dolley’s behalf, noting the care she provided them and the lack of assistance she’s received as the Wapello County Veterans Services Officer.
Yet, the county board of supervisors upheld the veterans affairs commission’s action last week to fire her.
In a resolution approved by the supervisors Tuesday, Dolley was fired for “incompetency and misconduct,” as stated under Iowa Code. Commission chair Rick Hindsley said Dolley did some good things as the VSO, but elaborated on the rationale behind the firing.
“We had the president of the state VSO organization and three other VSOs from other counties come into her office, and they were appalled at what they found,” Hindsley said. “They said they’d never seen an office in such disarray. They said that the files they found for 2024 weren’t in a fie cabinet, they were in boxes under the VSO’s desk, which is a gross violation of HIPPA.
“That’s just part of it. I don’t know how many more times I had to come back and straighten things out.”
Hindsley said the meeting to fire Dolley was a public meeting but that it became “boisterous.”
“I announced we would not take any comment or questions from the public, and that anyone that caused a disturbance would be asked to leave,” he said. “Numerous other VSOs offered to help her, and she turned them down.”
John Fenner, a veteran and volunteer who was at the meeting, said Dolley is a victim of a hostile work environment, a sentiment that was echoed by both Dolley’s husband, David, as well as veteran Garrett Crosby.
“You want her out of the office where people can see her, and she’s not getting that help because you guys are restricting her,” Fenner said toward Hindsley. “I worked in a hostile environment, and she’s working in one. I was there when Don (Lewis) fired Terry (Bradley). I was there when Don resigned, when he should’ve been fired.
“She’s done more to try to help these people, and you guys aren’t doing a damn thing about her work environment. She used to go to all the food drives and coffee drives until she got told she couldn’t do that.”
Hindsley said Dolley was placed on a performance-improvement plan and “she failed in all but one of those.” Supervisor Carrie Teninty asked for documentation to reflect that, but Hindsley said “we don’t have anything in writing, but we have documentation of failure to perform her job.”
Hindsley acknowledged Dolley has helped veterans, but he recalled an incident in October when a veteran went to her for help, and that the issue hadn’t been resolved when Dolley was placed on administrative leave in December and someone else came in and solved the issue “in 15 minutes.”
“We’ve never said she didn’t help some veterans,” he said. “And the ones she’s helped, she’s done a good job from what we understand. But there’s a lot more she didn’t help that she could have, and that’s where the problem is.”
Supervisor Bryan Ziegler, who is the supervisor representative on the commission, said “a lot of attempt was made to reconcile and correct the situation.”
“It didn’t seem like we were making any progress. I for one spent extra time devoted to reconciling things,” he said. “We do know that there was a lot of good that did occur, but when we weigh it all together, I think this is the way to proceed.”
David Dolley said his wife’s case backlog is large because too many demands were placed on her, as she was the only paid employee. He also said documents from her performance-improvement plan weren’t placed in her permanent file at her request.
“I’ve sat back and saw this hostile work environment,” he said. “Part of the PIP instructions were to call every single veteran every single week and give (the commission) and update on their case. They wanted a log of every single form that was ever filed on every single veteran.
“Currently, the VSO sees 159 people a month, and having an assistant is based off county size. Story County has three times the population, and they have an assistant. They see three to six people a month. Rachel is seeing 23 per day. She’s so backlogged that that PIP part was so egregiously unattainable.”
Crosby also said Dolley was professional in the way she treated his cases.
“Over the last few months I’ve gone down to the VSO’s office multiple times and from the first time I went down there to know, she has been under a constant worry of losing her job,” he said. “She’s worried about losing a job that most people don’t want to do. Wapello County’s VSO record isn’t good, so let’s propose some solutions.
“She’s doing a hell of a job. Instead of pointing a finger at one person, maybe get her some more people. Maybe you should start helping her instead of trying to fire her. I know she’s passionate about helping veterans.”
The supervisors’ role was largely symbolic because of their role with the budgetary aspect of the commission.
“Unfortunately we don’t have any government control over hiring, firing or who they appoint because they are run by a separate commission,” board chair Darren Batterson said.