To the Editor,

I have come to realize I am wasting my time talking to Becker County Commissioners Nelson, Jepson and Meyer. They have an agenda. Nelson wants power back, Jepson is fulfilling her promise to the union employee’s, and Meyer is a puppet.

I want to thank Jim Vareberg for his honesty and hard work as a commissioner.

I am here to represent the voting residents of Becker County.

When talking to the residents the majority don’t want Pat Oman fired from his position of administrator.

There are three commissioners Nelson, Jepson, and Meyer who don’t have a good reason to fire Oman, which leads me to believe they have an agenda.

The voting residents I have discussed this with don’t want the added expense that will come along with doing this which could be $100,000 or more. Especially conceding he has proven to be one of the best administrators Becker County has had.

Oman has been blamed for the investigative legal budget which he had no part of.

The communication problem that Nelson, Jepson, and Meyer have said they had with Oman doesn’t make sense. When asked, the commissioners stated they had not taken time to communicate with Oman themselves.

Jepson made a statement over the phone to concerned residents that the employees and union officials wanted him fired. In talking with many employee’s, they found Oman to be very helpful with their job and he was good to work with. This shows with the status of exiting employees there were 51 in 2022, and 28 in 2023. Through long phone visits with six union officials, five said that Oman worked well with them, was professional, prompt and Oman finds ways to work through disagreements. 

The union officials said Oman is now doing what the labor attorney had been doing and Oman is much better to work with. It was inspiring and I was proud for standing up for Oman who showed these qualities while serving our county, a good review coming from 5 out of 6 that’s big.

With Oman working on these processes he has been saving Becker County and the tax payer a lot of money.

A department head had thanked Vareberg for the work he has done to show what a great job Oman has been doing as an administrator. I have talked to many voters that have negative feelings about the way this is being handled. This process that has been brought by Nelson, Jepson and Meyer is making no sense. The duration and costs say nothing of what it is doing to the morale of the county workers. Commissioners are supposed to be doing the will of the voters, now the voters are disappointed and feel they are being misrepresented.

Joe Stenger, 

Detroit Lakes