County Weed Boss Quits Over Job Shift, Suspects Retaliation Mueller: No Vendetta Over Being Cited In ‘94

Bonner County’s weed superintendent has quit his post, saying he’s spent more time battling a commissioner than noxious weeds.

Richard Metz was the weed boss for five years. He resigned this weekend after his department was gutted and he was assigned to other jobs at the urging of Commissioner Bud Mueller.

Some of the problems, Metz said, may stem from Mueller being cited for not controlling weeds on his property.

“I feel that is probably part of the reason for what is happening to my department,” said Metz. “I suspected that could be a problem when he (Mueller) was elected.”

Mueller was cited by Metz in July 1994 for not spraying noxious weeds on his property. In his resignation to commissioners, Metz included the letter sent to Mueller about his weed problem, saying it “may have some bearing on recent events.”

Mueller has not seen the resignation letter, but called the accusation that he had a vendetta against Metz nonsense.

“That’s not even close to being the truth,” he said. “I didn’t even know who he (Metz) was until I took office.”

Mueller said it was his neighbor who complained about his weeds and Metz was only responding to the complaint. The incident was nearly three years ago and Mueller said he has sprayed his weeds ever since the complaint was made.

This is the second time Mueller has been accused of carrying out vendettas after taking office. Members of the now-defunct building department levied the same charge after Mueller and Commissioner Larry Allen voted to abolish the department and building codes.

In a lawsuit, the former county employees said both commissioners had run-ins with building inspectors while they were building their own homes. Mueller refused to get a building permit for what he said was a storage building. He later sold the building as a home and needed to get a permit from the building department.

Mueller and Allen have denied any wrongdoing or that they abolished the building department for personal reasons. Both campaigned for cutbacks in county government, including streamlining the building department, they said.

Mueller has criticized Metz and his department but said he has no intention of doing away with it. By state law the county is required to have a weed control department.

“I’ve been trying to get the weed department moving,” Mueller said. “We are definitely in a mess in this county with weeds and one of the reasons is because we have done nothing for years.”

Metz disagrees. Programs have been cut or put on hold since Mueller took office, he said. The one employee Metz had was moved to another post. Metz was put into the road department. That’s made it impossible for him to do his job controlling weeds, Metz said.

“I’ve done everything from sweeping the shop floor to filling potholes,” Metz said. “The job responsibilities have been changed from those I was hired to perform. The department is no longer what it had been built up to be.”

The commissioners office is now fielding calls from residents wanting to rent spraying equipment to kill their weeds. Private contractors also are being called to help spray roadsides in the next three weeks.

“The state says we have to take care of the weed problem and we will,” Mueller said. “This is not a personal thing.”

, DataTimes