Kooyman: Commission lying about weed & pest

Former Custer County Weed & Pest employee Harold Kooyman says former Weed & Pest director Bill Kirsch, former foreman Steve Wiese and other former members of the weed and pest department were victims of systematic harassment by members of the county commission that eventually led to the mass-resigning of the employees. 

Kooyman alleges that subterfuge by a county commissioner led to the collapse of the department, and that subterfuge was a result of a personal vendetta by a commissioner against Kirsch.

Kooyman said he wasn’t personally involved in the incident which led to the commissioner’s “vendetta” against Kirsch, but said it was an instance where the commissioner—he declined to name the commissioner—had an incident with another county employee, and the employee told Kirsch. Kooyman said Kirsch in turn reported the incident to the rest of the commission and the commissioner was allegedly reprimanded.

“He’s been after him ever since,” Kooyman said.

Kooyman said on July 11, after a round of golf and some small talk, the commissioner sat next to him and said Kirsch and Wiese were doing “all sorts of things wrong.”

“He said he was going to fire them. He was saying this out in public,” Kooyman said. “It shocked me.”