Two charges dismissed against former county nurse
By Ted Pennekamp
Two misdemeanor counts against former Crawford County Head Nurse Gloria Wall were dismissed on May 2 in Crawford County Circuit Court.
Wall, 69, was charged in on Feb. 13, with one count of dispensing a prescription drug without a practitioner’s order, and one count of possession of an illegally obtained prescription. Wall had faced up to a year in jail and fines totaling $1,000 if convicted of both counts.
Wall, along with nurse Judy Powell, were escorted from the Crawford County Administrative Building on Oct. 18, 2017 and placed on paid suspension. The investigation into Wall began on Oct. 20, 2017.
At the Nov. 10, 2017 regular personnel committee meeting, which Wall and Powell had requested be held in open session, Wall and Powell were discharged from their positions by a unanimous committee vote. The reason given for their terminations was that they had falsified Powell’s vacation time records over a number of years.
Under the direction of Labor Attorney Ed Corcoran, Wall and Powell made written requests for the personnel and public health committees to conduct an informal review of their terminations. At a meeting on Nov. 14, 2017, the terminations were upheld.
On Dec. 19, 2017, the county board voted 14-3 to combine the health department and the human services department and rename it the health and human services department. Supervisors Mary Kuhn, David Olson and Donald Stirling voted against the resolution.
Dan McWilliams, who was the human services director at the time, was named as the head of the newly formed health and human services department.
On April 17, the county board approved the hiring of Cindy Riniker of Elkader as the new public health supervisor.