Coles-Moultrie County 911 ETSB Director Signs Employment Contract -Assistant Director To Work From Florida Through December 31, 2021

Coles – Moultrie Co.  (ECWd) –

This is one of those articles we never dreamed we would be writing, but here we are.

What did 911 Director Calvert do?

Director Calvert signed an employment contract with his Assistant, who has moved to Florida, permitting her to continue drawing her paycheck through December 31st of 2021, claiming she is working remotely.  As if that is not shocking enough, both the ETSB Chairman and the Director recommend the contract be extended to January 1, 2023.

The Coles – Moultrie 911 Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB), Chairman Dan Ensign issued this letter to all the board members of this action taken by the Director of the 911 operations for the Coles-Moultrie Counties.  Ironically, after exposing what appears to be an action not authorized by law, he informs the board members that the matter is not a discussion for the ETSB, “..this is not something that needs or warrants further discussion at an ETSB meeting”. 

It appears the Chairman has no clue how off-base he is with this matter.  In an effort to keep this simple.

• An ETSB Director has no authority to sign employment contracts.
• An ETSB has no authority to sign an employment contract for at-will employment for a Director of 911

To our amazement, the ETSB Chairman claims “She will be able to execute her job in the same manner as if she were present within the office”

In reviewing the duties of their assistant director, the following are items she would not be able to perform while living in Flordia.

• Assume the Director’s responsibilities in his/her absence
• Manage the overall dispatch operations.
• Take the minutes for the ETSB meeting.
• On-call after hours and on weekends for any employee call in’s, equipment problems, or personnel issues.
• Represents the department on Police, Fire, and EMS committees and meetings.
• Oversee along with the Director new equipment implementation.
• Represents the department at Moultrie County 911 Committee meetings along with the Director.
• Sits on the union contract negotiation committee along with the Director and Chairman of the ETSB to negotiate union contracts and take notes.
• Hiring, orientation, testing, and retaining new employees.

Fortunately, we have a legal opinion on ETSB and their authority to contract with at-will employees. That opinion was included with this letter to the Edgar County Board Chairman in connection with stopping the Edgar County ETSB from basically doing the same thing, contracting with at-will employees.  Edgar County recognized they had no such authority and did not move forward with the inappropriate contract.

The Coles-Moultrie ETSB is having a meeting today at the Coles County 911 office at 2 pm.  We anticipate the typical pushback after we explain how wrong these actions are and hope that the legal opinion brings them clarity as to why they can’t do what they are doing.

We will keep our fingers crossed this will be a case where they simply correct the matter and move forward.