NEWPORT – After a dispute stretching over three months, it looks like Lincoln County Sheriff’s detective Abby Dorsey is headed to a new job in the district attorney’s office.
County commission chair Claire Hall announced Wednesday that she and commissioner Kaety Jacobson had signed off on a revised job description that had snarled Dorsey’s hiring by the DA’s office since February. Hall said District Attorney Lanee Danforth could move forward with hiring Dorsey.
After a contentious public meeting two weeks ago, commissioners asked the county’s human resources director, its legal counsel and Danforth to work out acceptable language in two areas of the job description.
Commissioners had concerns whether the position belonged to the county employees union and wording in the job description that gave the district attorney’s office and the detective the ability to initiate investigations of county employees and those working for other agencies or governments in Lincoln County.
That meeting, which included Sheriff Curtis Landers, took place April 11. In a Facebook post this week, Danforth said it took 10 minutes to agree on the changes.
Dorsey, who had worked in the sheriff’s office for 23 years, resigned in January after getting an offer to move into a detective position with the DA’s office following the retirement of Ron Benson, who had held the job for 19 years. After getting approval for the hire from the human resources department in January, commissioners Feb. 8 put the change on hold after noticing the job description gave the position wide latitude to initiate investigations of county and other government employees, although it had been there for years.
That set off a contentious back-and-forth between Danforth and the human resources and counsel’s office. Danforth went public with the dispute, posting frequently on Facebook and showing internal emails and correspondence over the issue. In a March 31 letter she threatened commissioners with prosecution over allegations they were exceeding their authority.
“The district attorney will be able to fill this needed position on her team,” Hall said in a statement Wednesday. “The commissioners have fulfilled their responsibility in making sure that potential union and liability issues are addressed. It’s my hope that we will move forward with the attitude that the people of Lincoln County have won.”
On Sunday, Danforth posted on the district attorney’s Facebook page that she hoped Dorsey could start in her office soon.
“I am thankful for the progress that has been made since April 6 and am cautiously optimistic that Detective Dorsey will be able to start in the DA’s Office on May 1, 2022,” she wrote. “I am disappointed that it has taken 10 weeks to do something that could have been and ultimately was handled in 10 minutes.”
But it is not clear if the issue is entirely over.
Dorsey filed a complaint April 8 in Lincoln County circuit court against Hall, Jacobson and commissioner Doug Hunt alleging they met outside of a public meeting or in an improperly called executive session to put her hiring on hold. The complaint asked to void their decision and award attorney fees.
Dorsey’s complaint has not been scheduled for a hearing.
