Harrison commissioners demand firing of Nick Homrighausen from CIC

CADIZ — Two Harrison County commissioners are calling for the Harrison County Community Improvement Corp. to fire its executive director, Nick Homrighausen, saying that he has "breached our trust."

Homrighausen is the son of embattled Dover Mayor Richard Homrighausen. The mayor, the subject of an investigation into his conduct last year, has faced multiple calls to resign from council and Dover residents.

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On Wednesday, Commissioners Don Bethel and Paul Coffland issued a press release announcing that they were giving the Harrison County CIC until April 21 to sign a proposed new contract with the county and "to terminate the person currently employed by the HCCIC that breached our trust."

"If the HCCIC leadership decides not to sign the new contract by the above date, they will be responsible for the current agreement being terminated and losing the privilege of representing Harrison County and its citizens," the press release said.

How the CIC is responding

Dale Arbaugh, the CIC president, told The T-R in an email that he had received the press release.

"At this point I have no comment to make," he said. "I will be meeting with the leadership soon and then we will have comment."

Nick Homrighausen made a similar statement.

"At this time we are reviewing all documents and have no comments until all documents have been fully reviewed," he said.

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The two sides have been at odds for several years.

What are the concerns?

The commissioners, in their press release, said they have identified several issues with the agency and have tried to reconcile differences with the CIC by asking for modifications to their agreement.

In January 2021, commissioners hired outside legal counsel to provide them with advice in dealing with the CIC and also discussed their displeasure with the job Homrighausen was doing as the county's economic development director.

"Unapologetically, I will admit he has been, in my opinion, unprofessional, unethical and untruthful to me on multiple occasions, with no disciplinary action whatsoever," Bethel said at the time, according to the Harrison News-Herald newspaper in Cadiz.

"So there has to be some changes concerning the economic developer in Harrison County and unfortunately I'm at the end of my rope."

Concerns repeated

Contacted Wednesday, Bethel repeated his concerns that Homrighausen has displayed "unethical behavior and dishonesty."

He said there have been multiple times when Homrighausen has been dishonest, "not only to us but other entities in the county."

"Obviously the Harrison County CIC wants us to forget it happened," Bethel said.

"The executive board wants us to just ignore it, and we refuse to do so. We demand that this person does not represent Harrison County in any fashion."

The two commissioners concluded their press release by saying, "We fully believe that if county commissioners lose trust in and question the business practices of a Harrison County business partner, commissioners certainly shouldn't stay in business with them without changes, especially when Harrison County taxpayers are footing the bill."

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Nick Homrighausen under fire as director of Harrison County CIC