ELYRIA — A shouting match erupted Wednesday between County Administrator James Cordes and Vet­erans Service Commission employee Alshi Williams after the commission­ers approved only a portion of the money requested by the Veterans Ser­vices office to replenish its travel budget.

Commissioners approved $6,000 of the $10,000 in additional travel money requested by Veterans Services Executive Director Donald J. Bates — enough to pay for the five-day hotel stay for a conference in Indepen­dence attended by Williams and a co­worker, but $4,000 short of the money Bates wanted to get through the year.

County Commissioner Betty Blair cut off the discussion after the angry exchange between Cordes and Williams.

After the meeting, Cordes blamed Bates for allowing Williams to loudly complain to commissioners about the delay in reimbursing $1,180 owed to him for the trip earlier this year.

“Where it went wrong was (for Bates) to allow a junior member to berate the board,” Cordes said.

Cordes said the county commis­sioners asked him to draft a letter to the five-member Veterans Services Commission asking for a face-to-face meeting without Bates in attendance. Commissioner Ted Kalo said after the meeting that he would like the face-to-face meeting with the com­mission to see if they can “come to a meeting of the minds.”

“Their job is to give direction to their director,” Kalo said. “He works for them.”

As for the county’s dire financial sit­uation, Kalo said he is nervously awaiting sales tax figures due for release this week.

“We’re looking at least a $3 million to $4 million shortfall for next year,” Kalo said. “Everything is contracting, but they (veteran services) seem to be expanding.”

County Commissioner Lori Kokoski said she thinks many of the problems between veteran services and the commissioners relate to Bates. Kokoski wouldn’t say whether the commission should ask Bates to step down.

“If they think he’s out of control, that would be the best solution,” she said.

Kokoski said that Bates knew several weeks before the Independence trip that the county wanted him to follow the rule requiring employees to drive back and forth to conferences if they were within 50 miles, as the Independence one was, but Bates allowed the employees to rack up hotel expenses on their credit cards.

Alshi Williams stayed overnight and so did investigator Yolanda Bond, who had costs totaling $1,184. A third employee who lives in Wellington drove back and forth.

Bates did not return phone calls or e-mails Wednesday on why the extra $4,000 was needed for the commission’s travel account. Bates declined in an e-mail to weigh in on the proposed meeting between commissioners and his board. At Wednesday’s meeting, the hostilities began when Williams complained about the reimbursement delay and told county commissioners that he was ordered to stay overnight at the conference. He said he has a wife and five children, and he’d be wary of covering the cost of future training or travel expenses if he’s not going to be promptly reimbursed.

“This is crazy — I’m doing my job,” he said.

Cordes, in turn, said the county is a “whole team’’ and that the team is in a tough financial situation following the defeat of a proposed sales tax increase.

“I keep hearing about you, your family, your five kids,” Cordes said. “We have 100 people laid off.”

Kokoski also told Williams “nobody’s blaming you” for the trip expenses, but that times are desperate. Last week, three more employees of the Sheriff’s Department were laid off, she said.

“The taxpayers decided we are not going to get any more money,” Kokoski said.

During the discussions, Blair asked Bates to look into whether his employees could “telecommute” — attend upcoming conferences via video hookups.

“Maybe some of the training sessions could be done that way,” Blair said. “Be proactive — Lorain County has always been proactive.”

After Wednesday’s meeting, three of the five veteran service commission members — G. Robert Childers, McKinley Dickerson and Chairman Robert Mackin — said they back Bates and believe he is doing a good job.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

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