The Knox County Board approved an agreement last night that ends Rachel Secrist’s tenure as head administrator of the Knox County Nursing Home.Secrist’s departure is practically immediate, with Director of Nursing Donna Motz acting as an interim according to the chair of the Board’s Nursing Home Committee, Bob Bondi.
Details of the severance agreement are unknown and WGIL has made a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of the agreement.
The final vote approving the severance was 9-5.
Bondi joined Members Dick Conklin, David Erickson, Lyle Johnson and Brian Friedirch to vote against Secrist’ dismissal, saying “we’re probably making a big mistake.”
“I hope everybody looks very seriously at this situation and considers are we actually going to do dig ourselves a deeper hole or are we going to band together as a team and work our way through this,” Bondi says.
An audit this spring revealed the Nursing Home has $1.2 million in unprocessed insurance claims, and it remains in question how much of that money can be recouped.
Members Erickson and Johnson both voted no, saying they would’ve like to have seen a process to further train Secrist, that’s already underway, carried out.
John Hunigan spoke in support of the severance there were many “managerial inconsistencies” that couldn’t be ignored.
