Freeborn County commissioner Dan Belshan is unhappy about being removed from the board that runs the Freeborn County Family Services Collaborative, claiming his questioning of administrative costs led to his ouster.

The county board, at its last meeting, voted 4-1 to remove Belshan from the board, which includes representatives from the city, county and school district, after hearing a letter from the collaborative’s chairman, Bob Graham of the city of Albert Lea. The letter said the board thought Belshan was not supportive of the &uot;general collaborative vision&uot; and asked for his removal.

Belshan, however, said the perceived problem only arose after he began questioning administrative costs, including the $50,000 salary of the collaborative’s full-time facilitator.

&uot;People need to look at the facts,&uot; Belshan said. &uot;The facts are, I supported the collaborative. But what we have at the collaborative is too much administrative cost.&uot;

Belshan said the Freeborn County collaborative &045; an interagency cooperative that recieves federal grant money for local programs &045; spends almost 24 percent of its budget on administrative costs, including $12,000 paid to Freeborn County, which acts as its fiscal agent, and more than $50,000 for the facilitator. The collaborative’s budget is was $262,000 in 2002.

By comparison, he said, nearby Steele and Waseca counties spend $37,500 (10.44 percent) and $19,000 (3.78 percent), respectively, on administration. Both employ part-time facilitators. Waseca’s 2002 budget was $359,000 and Steele’s was $501,714, Belshan said.

Graham, Albert Lea’s city planner, would not comment on the letter asking for Belshan’s removal from the collaborative board. He was replaced on the board by Public Health Director Lois Ahern.

Belshan said accusations that he was not supportive of the collaborative can be proven wrong by his voting record.

&uot;I think we voted 95 percent of the time unanimously,&uot; he said. &uot;The board had been running pretty smoothly, but this came up when we had to look at cost-cutting measures.&uot;