DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center board closing in on new administrator

DeKALB – The DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center is closer to getting a new administrator.

Officials from the DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center Operating Board said during Monday’s special meeting they will vote on a new administrator at a future special meeting. The date of that meeting was not assigned Monday.

Gary Winschel said the new administrator’s first day has yet to be determined, along with current interim administrator Roger Herman’s last day.

“We’re excited and we hope it’s soon,” Winschel said. “It’s all a process.”

Winschel said the board has fielded 12 to 15 applications for the position and whittled the list down from there. One woman was interviewed by the board during executive session Monday, but board members declined to name her, or any other applicants.

The special meeting comes after former administrator Bart Becker was no longer employed at the facility after his last day Sept. 19 and after a special board meeting for was held at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 19. Line items on that meeting’s agenda included closed session to discuss specific employees and an enclosed management update.

Winschel had said Herman started working in the interim role the same day Becker was no longer employed at the county nursing home. He had declined to comment about whether Becker resigned or was fired and had said the management company that helps oversee nursing home operations does not talk publicly about personnel matters.

Minutes for the Sept. 19 special meeting’s executive session are not posted on the County Board’s website. “Ownership fell short” on “many situations” leading up to Becker’s departure, according to a Sept. 19 email from Winschel to board members obtained by the Daily Chronicle in an Oct. 5 Freedom of Information Act request, but the emails did not shed additional light on other specifics of the situation.

“This is not something that I want to do, or have happen,” Becker said in a resignation letter to Winschel on Sept. 19, which was part of the Oct. 5 FOIA request response. “It is beyond my control.”

Jeff Whelan, DeKalb County Board member and one of the directors on the center’s board, declined to comment further on the circumstances of Becker’s departure. Other board members also have declined ti comment.