Numerous members of the community, former City leaders, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel, fire department personnel and others, were on hand Tuesday night to implore the Griswold City Council to seek a resolution to issues they have with the Griswold Rescue Department and its former Captain, Julie Kline. The Council held a special meeting to address the matter of Kline’s resignation, along with the resignations of nine members of the Griswold Rescue Department.

Griswold City Council

Mayor Jeb Peck reiterated an earlier, written statement, that said no decisions were made concerning Kline or the  Rescue Department, when a special closed session was held November 14^th. Peck said “In previous meetings with our former City Manager and Mayor, they had discussed with the Rescue Department’s Captain and officers, about the By-Laws, and how they needed to be followed.” Peck said “Months later, that still had not changed. The Department’s lack of following by the By-Laws set by the Department has been an on-going concern.”

He said another issue was the low number of volunteers on the Rescue Department, and the response of the Department trying to improve them. “The Council had also previously discussed the number of calls in which we did not have enough personnel to show up, and had to be taken by another Cass County Agency.” Peck said they had also asked for some reports from members, of members, and calls that they were going on, and we found those reports to be inaccurate.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, all of the speakers commended the Rescue Department and its former Captain. Former Mayor Lee Wyman said that while he and Julie didn’t always get along, they could work together. He said “When nine people follow her out the door, there’s an issue.” Those nine people he said, “Trust her…I trust her…what you guys have to remember is you didn’t only affect Griswold, you affected Lyman, Lewis, Grant, Elliott, all of the rural people…all any of us are asking it, try to work it out.” He said a Department of four or five people cannot handle the 150-200 calls each year they receive.

Jeff Pope, with the Lewis Fire Department/Lewis 1^st Responders, said the current number of personnel on the Griswold Rescue Department (Four active) is not enough to help in a critical time of need. Pope said the six members of Lewis 1^st Responders have always worked well with Griswold Rescue. He said a multi-vehicle accident with multiple patients would become a matter of “Who lives and who dies,” with regard to response time from Red Oak or elsewhere. Pope said it’s not just EMT’s who have been lost by the resignations, it’s their experience.

Cass County Medical Examiner/Director Dr. Elaine Berry told the Council it was her opinion that whatever happened in the closed session “Was wrong, it should not have happened that Julie would get that angry and resign, and the fact that [so] many people left with her means that there’s something really wrong.”

Dr. Elaine Berry

She suggested the Council get a Mediator to resolve the issues. Dr. Berry went on to say “I am NOT comfortable as a Medical Director continuing to be the Medical Director of an ambulance service that has inexperienced EMT’s, brand new ones without the leadership that’s been there before.” She also said unless the new people can prove to her they know what they’re doing, she doesn’t want her medical license “Extended out there to people who don’t know what they’re doing.” The EMT’s she said, by law have to practice under her license, thereby making her liable.

Former Mayor Jerry Putnam said the Council partly “Misused” their closed session. He said also “What you did wasn’t really legal.”  Following the Public Comment period, the Council appointed Brad Amos as the new Rescue Department Captain. Amos said earlier, they had received five new applications from people who want to join the Rescue Department. Each of the Council members said toward the end of the meeting, they want to talk with members of the Rescue Squad both past and present, and have tentatively planned to do so next week during a work session, but no action would be taken at that meeting.

A national survey by an Iowa marketing firm finds Americans place a high value on family but to maintain good familial relationships, they want to keep politics off the table this Thanksgiving. Doug Jeske, president of the Meyocks (MEEKS) Group in West Des Moines, says the presidential election two weeks ago was so divisive, many families are placing a ban on all political discussions, especially during dinner.

“The popular vote was split very closely and it was a really strong, contentious and bitter campaign,” Jeske says. “Americans would like to sit down and appreciate what they’re thankful for but they really don’t want to upset each other with conversations about politics right now.” Family remains central to Thanksgiving, far outpacing food, football and Black Friday, but to keep family a blessing, Jeske says many of us will chose to avoid conversations that might change our feelings toward family members.

While the survey found politics are strictly off-limits during many holiday celebrations, almost as many respondents said “money” is another forbidden subject. “Americans in particular are pretty private about their finances,” Jeske says. “They either don’t want to be doing too well or too poorly so they just prefer to keep those things to themselves especially — or even — with other family members.”

Nearly a quarter of Americans -do- still expect to talk politics this Thanksgiving. Jeske notes, there is no correlation between those willing to talk politics and whether alcohol is served with the meal. Many of us were taught that politics and religion are two topics you should never discuss in polite company and Jeske says the survey did also ask about that other taboo, religion.

“We asked whether Americans typically say a prayer before the holiday meal,” Jeske says. “One thing that may be surprising is that Americans were equally likely to say a prayer if they were sitting down for Thanksgiving in an urban environment as they were a rural environment.” The survey found 56-percent of respondents always say a prayer before the Thanksgiving meal, 27-percent sometimes say a prayer and 17-percent never say a prayer. The survey also found 96-percent of Thanksgiving dinners will feature turkey and about 40-percent will feature a “kids table,” though about a third of time there’s a kids table, adults sit there, too.

(Radio Iowa)

State Auditor Mary Mosiman says she doesn’t see much of an impact from a three-year old state law that was designed to crack down on embezzlement in Iowa’s small towns. The state auditor is now conducting surprise inspections for 600 small towns once every eight years. “I’m gonna say we haven’t seen any reduction. When people want to commit fraud they figure out a way to try and do it,” Mosiman says.

The law was passed because of an increase in small town embezzlement and a general lack of oversight. Mosiman says doing the checks and then publicizing it when they find something wrong has helped in some ways. ” We’ll put out a fraud on a small city and we’ll get calls from another city to walk through procedures with them — so there is some benefit,” according to Mosiman. She says the threat of surprise inspections is sometimes not enough to stop someone.

“There are some frauds that have been taking place for a decade or longer. So, once they get involved in it it is hard for them to turn back,” Mosiman explains. The auditor says a handful of towns have received a second follow-up visit. She says some small cities are surprised that the state is taking their bookkeeping practices seriously.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department say federal search warrants were executed today (Tuesday) at several locations in Omaha and Council Bluffs. The warrants were executed by agents and investigators with the FBI’s Task Force. The nature of the warrants were not revealed, and officials say no comments will be released until documents have been filed with the court, as part of the public record.

Authorities say warrants were executed at the following locations in Council Bluffs:

• Two warrants executed on Tenth Avenue, Council Bluffs.
• Avenue B, Council Bluffs.
• South 19th Street, Council Bluffs.

Additional warrants were executed at the following locations in Omaha:
• North 15th Street, Omaha.
• North 93rd Street, Omaha.
• Rees Street, Omaha.
• South 39th Street, Omaha.
• North 111th Plaza, Omaha.
• South 48th Street, Omaha.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) – A 45-year-old Iowa man has been found guilty of vehicular homicide in the crash deaths of three people in northeast Nebraska. Online court records say Christopher Cox, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, pleaded no contest to three counts last week in Dakota County Court. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 4.

Authorities say Cox’s car ran off U.S. Highway 20 west of Jackson on June 9 and struck a concrete creek barrier. He told officers he swerved to avoid hitting a deer.

Two of his passengers died at the scene: 57-year-old Connie Fauzae and 9-year-old Espinoza Lara, both of Council Bluffs, Iowa. A third passenger died later at a Sioux City, Iowa, hospital: 10-year-old Jose Lara, also of Council Bluffs. Cox was treated for minor injuries.