CASSOPOLIS — Whatever positive momentum Cass County officials have attempted to create in recent months was thrown into peril Thursday, when the county administrator accused one of the senior members of the county board of commissioners of bullying and harassment.

County Administrator Karen Folks blamed District 3 Skip Dyes of creating a “hostile work environment,” and accused the veteran board member of gender discrimination, during the board’s explosive first meeting of 2018 at the county building in Cassopolis Thursday evening.

Folks described some of the confrontations she and Commissioner Dyes have had over the past year, and called of the rest of the board to take actions toward combating the “cancer” that is holding back leadership while the county is in the midst of its recently launched strategic planning project.

The discussion was originally scheduled to be conducted in closed session, but, per the Michigan Open Meetings Act, Dyes elected to have Folks level her accusations in open session, while a number of other county officials and residents looked on.

Folks, who was hired as county administrator in June 2016, said that Dyes began demonstrating bullying and intimidating behavior toward her beginning in January 2017. Folks accused the commissioner of stopping by her office in Cassopolis without a prior appointment and demanded to talk to her, she said. She also pointed out several meetings, including a particularly heated discussion about the county’s vintage courthouse on Nov. 17, where she accused Dyes of yelling at her to the point where people afterwards asked her if she was afraid for her safety, Folks said.

Folks also said that she has spoken with several past and current female members of the county government who said they experienced bullying behavior from Dyes as well.

“I want it to stop,” Folks said. “Enough is enough. It’s disrespectful, and it has to stop. It is not a part or condition of my contract that I have to endure that kind of abusiveness, so I want it to stop.”

Folks made a series of requests to the commissioners following her remarks, including that the board adopt a resolution that would call for a zero-tolerance policy toward harassment in the workplace. She also requested that Dyes begin making appointments with her in advance before meeting her in her office.

After sitting back and listening to Folks’ accusations, Dyes fired back, saying that the administrator rarely communicates with him nor the rest of the commissioners, and since taking office, she has taken several actions that have caused division within the county government.

Dyes also defended himself from her accusations of bullying, saying that he had not gotten to where he is in the community through such behavior, and noted that his father, an African American who moved to Michigan from Jim Crow-era Mississippi, had never even gotten the ability to vote until he moved north.

“I know how discrimination works,” Dyes said, as his voice began to quiver. “I know how it works, because I’ve been there. To hear you use that word so loosely just tears me up inside.”

District 4 Commissioner Roseann Marchetti also spoke up in Dyes’ defense, saying that she had never seen him demonstrate the kind of bullying and intimidation the administrator described.

She also took offense to a claim that Folks had made that Marchetti was somehow complicit with Dyes’ behavior due to them standing together on many issues. Marchetti also said she was offended that Folks has leveled such statements against her without giving her the opportunity to move the meeting into closed session before hand.

“I know all of these people here,” Marchetti said, as she gestured toward the packed audience inside the commissioner chambers. “You have embarrassed me in front of these people, who I have dealings with, and you admit I never bullied you. Skip and I often agree, but often times we don’t agree. When we don’t agree, we let each other know.”

In light Folks’ accusations, Marchetti said that she has been put in an “untenable” position, and that it would be hard for her to continue working with her in the future.

Before the end of the discussion, Folks said that any retaliation, be it through the terms of her employment or attacks against her reputation, she may face for bringing her accusations to light would be illegal under state law.