A subcommittee will search for a new assessor for Webster County now that Webster County Assessor Wesley Ray has finished his duties.

The Webster County Conference Board, which oversees the assessor’s office, met Wednesday to, among other things, officially accept Ray’s resignation.

Ray unexpectedly gave his two-week notice on July 14 after a little more than a year on the job. His last day was July 28.

He didn’t publicly give a reason for his departure.

But meeting minutes from the Conference Board’s April 13 meeting reveal Merrill Leffler, chairman of the Conference Board and a Webster County supervisor, requested an executive committee be formed by the Conference Board to review the local assessor’s office. There is no record in the minutes of the board voting on that.

The assessor is not a county position, and isn’t overseen by the county Board of Supervisors like other county positions.

The Conference Board is made up of all five members of the Webster County Board of Supervisors, the mayors of the 13 towns in Webster County, and representatives of each school district in the county.

The April 13 minutes were taken by Ray.

They show Leffler saying he had complaints regarding Ray from members of his staff and other departments.

The minutes also show Ray expressing his frustration at not being provided with an opportunity to defend himself.

The minutes note that after “lengthy discussion” the Conference Board agreed to have the assessor meet with Webster County human resources and Fort Dodge human resources to discuss issues.

Ray was hired in February 2016 and started on the job a month later. He was hired to replace former Assessor Jeanette Thanupakorn, who was fired in late 2015 after the Conference Board claimed that she failed to help it appeal a state ordered valuation increase.

Thanupakorn has filed suit against the board, with a trial scheduled for January 2019.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Conference Board agreed to look for an assessor offering a salary between $70,000 and $90,000, based on other assessors’ salaries in comparable counties.

Ray was hired at $80,000, which went up to $82,000 in July.

The state will provide a list of qualified candidates, according to Leffler. Then the county will advertise.

“Last time we got the list, we sent a letter to everyone on the list who was eligible, we posted it on the Iowa State Association website, and we had Amy (Porter, Webster County human resources director) post it on the Webster County website as well,” said Deputy Assessor Angie Vinson, who was named acting assessor during the meeting Wednesday.

The board also appointed a second subcommittee to interview the candidate after the first subcommittee has done some negotiations. The full board will meet again when it has a vetted candidate to consider.