ROOSEVELT — The Uinta Basin Association of Governments board of directors has fired its director of the tri-county organization.
Curtis Dastrup had been serving as director since 1997, when he resigned as a Duchesne County commissioner to head the UBAOG after winning the appointment to the post. Prior to being named executive director, Dastrup had served as a UBAOG board member for seven years.
Duchesne County Commission Chairman Guy Thayne sits on the UBAOG board and said that few details will be released about the termination because it was handled in executive session.
"They just terminated his employment. He understands why," said Thayne, adding that the November vote was not a hastily made decision, but was something the board had "been working on for a long time."
But Dastrup maintains he has yet to be given a reason for his termination.
"At this point in time I do not know why I was terminated," he said. "All they said was that UBAOG is an at-will employer and they didn't have to give me a reason for my termination."
Long-time UBAOG employee Laurie Brummond has been named interim executive director.
Thayne said the board is researching the legal guidelines for advertising and appointing a new director. The board expects the process to take a couple of months.
The UBAOG, based in Roosevelt, oversees a $3.5 million budget infused with state and federal grant money. It employs 36 full- and part-time workers. The UBAOG is also responsible for administering the $1 million revolving loan fund that aids local businesses looking to expand or update their operations.
The association administers numerous programs vital to Duchesne, Uintah and Daggett counties, including weatherization, home rehabilitation or replacement, the HEAT program, self-help housing, foster grandparents, aging, the food pantries and homeless shelter, retired and senior volunteer program, social services block grant, community development block grant and economic development and planning.
The UBAOG had been operating fairly smoothly over the past several years. However, prior to that time it had a long history of chronic problems dating to its inception in the 1970s, including employee unrest, lack of proper financial documentation and allegations of misappropriation of government funds.
In the mid-1990s, amid claims that government funds were being misspent, the UBAOG board of directors called for a police investigation and then terminated every UBAOG employee.
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