Madison County Board member challenges fellow Republican Prenzler’s hiring decision
A recent addition to Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler’s administration has drawn criticism from a board member who says the appointment ignores voters’ wishes and skirts the county’s rules.
Prenzler has hired Steve Adler as a $45 per hour contract worker to help fill some of the duties of the county administrator, a position that has been vacant since April.
Adler also collects a pension for his 30 years of work at the Alton Mental Health Care Center, where he retired as an administrator. Adler is former director of the Metro East Sanitary District, and in March of last year, was hired to assist in the county’s coronavirus pandemic response.
Mike Madison, a Republican County board member, said he and other members are upset because Prenzler appointed Adler in January without their approval and despite a 2020 voter-approved referendum against such hirings.
Prenzler, also a Republican, defended the appointment, and Adler said the criticism is just politics.
In November, voters overwhelmingly approved an advisory referendum against elected county officials, employees and contractors from what some call ``double dipping” or receiving a salary from the county while also collecting monthly payments from a government pension. The referendum, however, only asked voters their opinion and was non-binding.
Adler works 24 to 40 hours per week for the county at $45 per hour, according to Prenzler.
See how much county employees are paid at https://www.bnd.com/publicpay
Unconfirmed by county board
Madison said the majority of board members are also concerned that Adler performs duties of the county administrator, a job normally approved by the county board.
“If somebody is going to be doing the job of county administrator, that person serves at the pleasure of the county board and the chairman. Not one or another,” Madison said. “Kurt brought him in in a hired position and effectively is going around the board and he’s done that on several occasions.”
Madison said any administrative position of power in the county needs to be approved by the full board.
“Does he have authority over others? Is there a job description? Does it fit the pay of said job description?” Madison asked. “These are the questions I have, and I’m not the only one. The vast majority of the board wants answers.”
Other Republican members of the county board did not respond to BND requests for comment.
Prenzler said Adler’s addition to his administration comes at a time when the county is short-staffed. He said Adler is covering some of the duties of the county administrator.
“We’re filling a hole since we haven’t had an administrator here since April,” Prenzler said. “What we’re looking for here is someone who does have the experience to get things done and we’ve been short-handed, so he’s helping out in that area.”
The county board fired former County Administrator Doug Hulme and former IT Director Rob Dorman in a bipartisan vote after allegations that they improperly accessed county emails for political purposes in April 2020.
Prenzler said until the county finds a permanent replacement for Hulme, it needs Adler’s help. Some candidates for county adminstrator have been interviewed, but Prenzler said he’s not ready to propose a permanent replacement for county board approval.
Adler said: “I mean there’s a big vacuum here. They haven’t had any administration to speak of since my predecessor was discharged by the county.”
Prenzler also argued that November’s advisory referendum focused on elected officials, which he said doesn’t apply to Adler.
The official wording of the referendum talks about county employees and officials: “Shall retired Madison County employees and officials drawing a pension be permitted to also draw a salary for service in another position as an employee, official, or independent contractor of Madison County?”
Adler says criticisms are ‘purely political’
Adler said the criticisms against his job with the county are nothing new for him. It’s something he said comes with the territory of working in local government.
“If you’ve been in and around the public system as long as I have, there’s a constant din in the background, and you have to listen over it,” Adler said. “A lot of it is based on political issues, but the reality is that I have a lot of experience in public administration and Mr. Prenzler wants to use it.”
In March 2020, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Prenzler hired Adler to help his administration with pandemic-related issues. That position only lasted a few months and was heavily criticized by county Democrats, who deemed Adler “unqualified” for the work.
Adler said the criticism in March, the current criticism on his new job with the county and the loss of his position as director of the Metro East Sanitary District have all been due to politics.
After his retirement from the Alton Health Center, Prenzler appointed Adler director of the Metro East Sanitary District, a sewage treatment district that operates and maintains flood levees throughout the metro-east.
He was removed from the position in 2020 when state legislation shifted control of the sanitary district’s board to Democrats and required that the director of the sanitation district live in the district, which Adler did not. The board replaced him soon after the legislation passed.
Adler said a rule that forces the county to avoid hiring people who draw pensions would make it difficult to find employees with experience.
Madison, on the other hand, said the rule protects taxpayers and gives younger people a chance to get started in local government.
Adler also worked as Prenzler’s campaign manager during his 2006 run for treasurer. At the time, Adler was a member of the county board.
Prenzler and board continue to clash
In January, the county board clashed with Prenzler over appointments to fill three county board seats left vacant by people who had resigned over the past several months. Each of the appointments was either unanimously, or nearly unanimously, voted down.
Several county board members, including Madison, said Prenzler didn’t include them in the process of selecting new appointments and didn’t take the recommendations of departing county board members into consideration.
Madison said the board’s bipartisan move to deny the appointments was a result of Prenzler’s “continued attempts” to go around the county board that he said have gotten more brazen as time has gone on. He said board members are often surprised by votes on important topics that are brought to the county board with short notice or without prior communication.
After the January votes, the board ended up approving a set of new members that Prenzler put forward, but only after the chairman worked with the board and considered recommendations from departing board members.
For the time being, Madison said the county board has no plans to act on Adler’s appointment. He called any action on it a “slippery slope” and said that would only be necessary if Prenzler continued to go around the board.
Adler said he’s not distracted by the criticism and is continuing his work with Prenzler’s administration. He said the county should focus on working together as COVID-19 continues to be a prominent issue for the community.
“I have stuff that I’m focused on doing for Mr. Prenzler,” he said. “We’ve gotta move the boat forward with whatever team we have and we all have to try to row in the right direction.”