DES MOINES, Iowa — On Friday calls were made to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office about a dispute at the Polk County Administration building.

This comes days after swearing in two new members, electing a new board chair and placing a longtime county administrator on administrative leave.

The reporting officer was told by Chief Ken Pilch that Supervisor Tom Hockensmith was causing a disturbance and had made threats towards other board members.

The officer first saw Supervisor Angela Connolly who, according to the report, told the officers to go talk to the board chair and then left the office. Chair Matt McCoy and the responding officer talked about what had happened. The report reads as follows:

“Matt said the board had made the decision to terminate the county administrator John Norris. Matt said this upset some of the board members and that one of them had wanted to fight. Matt said supervisor Tom had lost his mind and wanted to fight him and board member Mark Holm.”

Deputies there also interviewed Mark Holm, who shared a similar story.

“Mark said Norris was asked to resign and that he started yelling about being fired. Mark said Angela was in his office and that Tom was running up and down the hallway screaming and then comes in Mark’s office, puffs up, and says something like your gonna hate me, I’ll show you, I’ll take you.”

The report said Supervisor Tom Hockensmith left the building before deputies arrived. Administrator John Norris was “not happy, but did comply” when asked to leave the building.

With Norris now on administrative leave, on Wednesday morning the board met briefly to name an interim replacement. In a split vote, members selected Frank Marasco, who is the current head of the county’s administrative services division. Supervisors Hockensmith and Connolly voted against the appointment.

Chair McCoy talked with WHO 13 News on Wednesday afternoon about placing Norris on administrative leave and the police report.

“So, obviously with any personnel decisions, when, the board decides to go a different direction or do something like that, these are personnel decisions and so we really can’t get into specifics related to the actions that the board took,” said McCoy about the decision to place Norris on leave.

The police report stated McCoy told the officer the board made the decision to terminate Norris, and Holm characterized it as Norris was asked to resign.

“He is on administrative leave that is his current status,” said McCoy, who was then asked if there were plans to fire Norris. “I can’t speak to future plans. I can only state that his status is administrative leave.”

McCoy said that he did not see the police incident report prior to the interview, but believed the public should use that as a reference to what happened.

“I’ve tried to get my hands on it and haven’t seen it yet, but it’s my understanding that was released. I have not seen what’s in it, but I would refer you to that because the document appears to answer some of those questions about what occurred here today (Friday),” said McCoy. He would not comment further on the actions that took place due to an investigation still ongoing.

WHO 13 News spoke with John Norris about the situation. Norris said that the two new board of supervisor members, Holm and Jill Altringer, came into his office and asked for his resignation. Norris was then placed on administrative leave. Norris said the report is one sided and he hasn’t been contacted by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for further input.

There have been no charges filed from the investigation, the report stated that the parties wanted time to think through if charges would be filed.

Metro News: