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[5:52] » Good morning everyone. Welcome to the uh
Ellis County Commission meeting
[5:57] September 1st of 2026. If we can stand
for the pledge of allegiance.
[6:05] I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the for it
[6:11] stands one nation under God
[clears throat] indivisible with liberty
[6:16] and justice for all.
[6:28] » Okay, Bobby, if you could call roll,
please. Commissioner Nathan Ler
[6:32] » here.
>> Chair Neil Younger
[6:33] » present.
>> Commissioner Michael Burgess
[6:35] » here.
>> We have a quorum.
[6:38] » Order business stays the same.
[6:43] Um, everyone have a chance to look at
the August 17th meeting and 18th.
[6:51] » Yes. Minutes look good.
>> Okay.
[6:54] » How about the consent agenda?
I'll move to approve consent agenda
[7:00] items A through G.
>> Second.
[7:03] » Okay, we have a motion and a second. All
those in favor say I. I.
[7:07] » I. Motion to approve.
All right. Anyone from the audience that
[7:13] would like to speak? That's not on the
No.
[7:22] All right. Introduction of new um
employees. Jennifer,
[7:30] » good morning.
>> You're in the whole room.
[7:32] » Jennifer Taylor, Ellis County HR. And
yes, as you can see, we have quite a few
[7:38] new employees here with us. Our
departments have been very busy uh
[7:42] filling the positions that we have. And
so I will let most departments introduce
[7:47] their employees and I will have our
dispatchers come up. their uh
[7:52] supervisors weren't able to be here this
morning covering for shifts, but I have
[7:57] Lesie Watson and Caitlyn Cisneros. They
are they joined us yesterday actually,
[8:02] so today is day two and we welcome them
to the communication center.
[8:06] » Welcome.
[8:13] » Morning commissioners county public
works director. Beside me is Daniel
[8:16] Geber. You may recall he was here about
nine months ago in the same spot. He was
[8:22] with our bridge crew before. Left for a
short time and came back and he's going
[8:25] to be operating a territory for us the
blade. So we're happy to have him back.
[8:30] » Okay. Welcome back.
[8:38] » Denita Schrader, EMS director. I have
Channing Ratherford with us today. Um he
[8:42] is going to fulfill a part-time EMT
position with us. He's been an EMT for
[8:47] what two years now.
>> Good deal. Welcome.
[8:51] » Welcome.
[8:56] » Morning commissioners and everyone. We
have here Damian. Um I would not want to
[9:01] pronounce his name. [laughter] He's a
bit tricky. So you can have you can call
[9:05] him Damian. He's the new IT support
member that we have in IT. Um and yeah,
[9:10] so we're just happy to have him. Okay.
Very good. Welcome.
[9:18] Good morning, commissioners. Dustin Bar
and Sheriff's Office. I have uh one of
[9:23] our new hires with me today, Ty Losi. He
started on our day shift last week. Uh
[9:28] [clears throat] we also have Mason
Emerson and Mark Bernett. They are on
[9:31] the night shift, so they are probably at
home sleeping right now. So, okay, good.
[9:35] Well, welcome.
>> Welcome.
[9:49] Okay. Ellis County uh breastfeeding
coalition. An introduction to the uh
[9:54] Cottonwood 4 extension agent.
Monique.
[10:04] » Good morning. Monique Kerner, Cottonwood
Extension District and Ellis County
[10:08] Breastfeeding Coalition. So, um, we
brought a few of our members of the
[10:14] coalition with us. So, um, I just want
to introduce Robin Xiha, Jessica Sy,
[10:21] and Christina Morales from the health
department. Um, Jess is from Hayes Med
[10:27] and uh, Robin's a little league leader
and works for United Healthcare and is
[10:31] part of our coalition. So, uh, I just
put together a quick presentation. Um,
[10:37] Commissioner Burgess had asked us to
come talk a little bit more about a
[10:41] designation we just recently received in
August of 2026. So, um, back in 2015,
[10:49] our coalition was formed and Hayes was
actually a pilot for the original
[10:55] certification for communities supporting
breastfeeding. Um, so that was in 2015
[11:01] as well. uh when we started our
coalition. So if you want to just kind
[11:06] of page through some more things will
pop up. So there you can see uh that we
[11:10] started um we the community supporting
um breastfeeding was uh we had to meet
[11:19] at least quarterly. We we meet monthly.
Um we're listed on the Kansas
[11:24] Breastfeeding Coalition directory. Um we
have uh one coalition leader um myself
[11:31] and actually several of us are part of
the the KBC. Um we've like I said we've
[11:37] met for several years um to earn the
plus designation. We had to become more
[11:43] active on social media. So if anybody
wants to go out and check out the Ellis
[11:47] County Breastfeeding Coalition Facebook
page, we post there on a regular basis.
[11:53] um we have active members from at least
three sectors uh listed on the criteria.
[11:59] So those would be things like your
hospital, your health department, um you
[12:04] know, maybe some businesses, new moms,
things like that. Um and then uh we
[12:10] connect with other local or regional
coalitions. Um Robin and I are both on
[12:15] the Central Kansas Breastfeeding
Coalition, so we do network quite a bit
[12:20] with others around us. Um and then I'll
let um Robin take the next part. She's
[12:25] going to talk about Lichi League and our
peer support that we have here in Ellis
[12:30] County.
[12:33] Um, as she said, I'm Robin Chiha and I'm
one of the four accredited Lae League
[12:38] leaders um, here with the Western Kansas
uh, Lae League and Mon'nique and I were
[12:45] just talking right before the meeting
and we've been accredited now I think
[12:49] this is 27 years that we have been
helping moms mother to mother. U, we
[12:55] offer monthly meetings and I don't know
if you've seen our little flyers around.
[12:59] Uh we keep those at the doctor's
offices. [clears throat] The hospital
[13:03] hands them out. Uh we offer monthly uh
support group meetings, uh telephone
[13:10] help. It's all free um to moms if
they're just needing some education,
[13:15] support, that kind of thing. And we have
four leaders uh here with our group. Two
[13:20] of them couldn't be here today.
um
[13:26] » and just like the virtual groups.
>> Yes, we yeah, we've had some virtual
[13:31] meetings and then sometimes we don't
have attendees, but we would like to get
[13:36] that going again as well. I think that's
of value. Um
[13:41] we meet at the library, but we are
looking at changing the location.
[13:45] » September.
>> Okay.
[13:48] » Yeah, I think that will be good. They're
located close to the hospital. So,
[13:58] » right. And Jess's gonna talk about baby
friendly.
[14:02] » Um part of the designation is that um
you have a hospital that is high five
[14:06] for mom and baby or a baby friendly
designated hospital. Um Haste Meadow was
[14:10] designated in 2021 with our uh first um
uh dedication for that. And um so
[14:18] definitely a huge uh process improvement
process um that we go through. It
[14:24] involves implementing 10 steps um that
pretty much hold you accountable. Lots
[14:28] of data collection with our patient um
support and um our nurses documentation,
[14:33] nurses education, education in the
prenatal clinic as well. So um it has
[14:39] been a great thing to be um involved in
that. I think they said there's around
[14:43] on the website it says around 600
hospitals in the United States that are
[14:47] baby friendly designated. So, it is
pretty um prestigious. I think Kansas
[14:51] kind of goes back and forth um probably
between um six to 10 hospitals in the
[14:57] state that have the designation. Um some
places decide to not renew their
[15:01] designation, but we just recently
renewed ours um this last year. So, we
[15:05] had to go through the accreditation
process again um in May. So
[15:11] um and then also part of it I don't the
milk bank.
[15:14] » Y
>> the milk bank is um a a project that we
[15:20] work with the Ellis County breastfeeding
coalition with. Um they helped us get
[15:24] our initial freezer that we store the
milk in. It's a place where moms can
[15:28] donate ex excess um breast milk that
they have and we are kind of a middleman
[15:34] between the milk bank in Denver,
Colorado where they um do the
[15:39] pasteurization process um for the milk.
So we collect it from the moms. They can
[15:44] just drop it off at the front door of
the hospital. We pick it up, put it in
[15:47] our freezer until it's time to ship it
when the FedEx people come and then um
[15:51] it gets shipped out to Colorado and they
go um through the pro pasteurization
[15:56] process out there. We recently started
um having um pasteurized donor human
[16:03] milk available to our patients at the
hospital. Um and that we order our milk
[16:07] then from Denver to come um to be
delivered to the hospital to have it
[16:12] available then for our patients. So
that's been a great project to see all
[16:16] the way through.
>> Absolutely.
[16:19] » I always joke with Jess that that was
our easy button with the hospital
[16:23] becoming baby friendly because they
[clears throat] did all the work and the
[16:27] coalition didn't have to do that. She I
don't think she would agree with me that
[16:31] that was our easy button. But um we
[clears throat] do really appreciate
[16:34] having a baby friendly hospital in our
community. Having that support for
[16:38] breastfeeding mothers and getting them
off to a good start is is huge for our
[16:43] community. So where the work work really
had to happen was in the public spaces
[16:49] realm. So we had around 20 businesses
that have become breastfeeding welcome
[16:54] here. So um it's nothing like over the
top that they have to do. they just um
[16:59] put a little sticker in their window and
um mostly just educate their employees
[17:05] that breastfeeding is legal in the state
of Kansas. Anywhere a mother has the
[17:09] right to be, she can breastfeed her
child. And so, uh that's where the work
[17:14] began really. Uh we had around 20
businesses that originally signed up and
[17:19] so we pretty much had to double that um
to about 43 or so in order to earn this
[17:26] designation. We ended up with 45. Um,
one of the leaders and I went up and
[17:31] down Main Street into a couple of
shopping complexes and we were really
[17:36] pleased with the reception that we got.
Um, everybody was on board with it and
[17:42] just thinks that it's a really good
initiative to support families in our
[17:47] community. Um, and then workplaces. So,
there's a business case for
[17:52] breastfeeding award that can go to
businesses that support their
[17:56] breastfeeding employees. And we have 10
businesses. We had around um seven or
[18:04] eight, I think, when we first began in
2015, and we've added a few more along
[18:09] the way. And uh recently, Ellis County
was the last one to achieve that
[18:14] designation for our community. So,
Jennifer is going to talk about that
[18:17] process. Um, and then in child care, we
had to have at least 20 providers
[18:23] complete uh a KBC or cassedo
breastfeeding course. So, uh, that was
[18:30] also an easy button for us. We have a
lot of um,
[18:35] childcare providers that have gone
through that. And then we had to have at
[18:39] least one child care program designated
as a breastfeeding friendly child care
[18:45] provider. So, um, and that is at Early
Childhood Connections. Their Early Head
[18:51] Start Child Care program is our
breastfeeding friendly child care.
[18:56] Um, okay, next slide. So, uh, we've kind
of already talked about one of those.
[19:02] Uh, you had to have at least one of
these criteria. We were lucky enough to
[19:07] add two of these. So, um, I'll invite
Jennifer up to talk about the Ellis
[19:13] County initiatives and then Jess has
already talked about the milk depot.
[19:19] [clears throat] So, I am super excited
for this group and everything they've
[19:22] accomplished, but I'm also super excited
to be here to explain what we as Ellis
[19:28] County have been able to contribute to
the mix. And so it was kind of a story
[19:34] about turning a negative into a positive
as we were able to take the flood that
[19:41] happened here in our administrative
building and kind of flip that and
[19:44] rebuild with our employees at the
forefront of our mind. And what I mean
[19:49] by that is not only did we rebuild the
entire basement, but we were able to
[19:55] create a um dedicated private lactation
space because coming back, and I know
[20:02] they've kind of touched on this, but
coming back from um maternity leave or
[20:07] having a baby is a huge transition. And
so being able to support our employees
[20:12] by having that space if they choose the
route that route to go is one of the top
[20:17] um top things that we could do at that
point. And so um I know there's a lot of
[20:23] people that helped bring the space to
life, but I want to thank Lori, Greg,
[20:27] Keith, Darren for bringing this space to
life. And then also you guys as
[20:31] commissioners for backing that in the
budget. Um it's an incredible room. If
[20:37] you haven't had a chance to look at it,
please please take a look. Uh but with
[20:41] that space and that backing along with
our comprehensive benefits package, uh
[20:47] we are super excited to be able to
receive uh the employee and I don't have
[20:51] the name correct uh but the gold
breastfeeding employee support award as
[20:57] a along with um the breastfeeding
welcome here. So, we do have um both of
[21:02] those uh behind our name and you can see
different signs in our windows and then
[21:06] also in some of our break rooms.
[21:11] [clears throat]
>> So, you can see the last bullet point on
[21:14] there. Um our city county government
works a little bit different. Um but we
[21:20] do have the haze wreck on board as well.
Um, I visited with Roger on a couple of
[21:25] different points about the swimming pool
staff. And so that was a little bit of
[21:30] explanation to the Kansas Breastfeeding
Coalition and and how we did that. So I
[21:35] just really want to thank um Jennifer
and you guys for supporting our families
[21:41] um in the workplace, especially
breastfeeding mothers. Um it's really
[21:45] important in this day and age that we're
supporting families. So um thank you for
[21:50] that. Do you have any questions?
>> This is just some pictures from the
[21:58] proclamation and the ribbon cutting. Um,
so you can see Mayor Rutder came down
[22:05] and read the proclamation
and we had a nice attendance for that.
[22:10] So, and Commissioner Burgess was there
with his wife as well.
[22:16] » I have no questions. I appreciate what
you do for the for the county and the
[22:19] surrounding areas for breastfeeding. So,
thank you.
[22:22] » Yes, you're welcome.
>> Yeah, I have the same thing and I'm I'm
[22:25] glad we can provide our employees that
space here. It was kind of a
[22:31] » eye opener at first, but
>> here it is now.
[22:35] » Yeah,
>> it's all about education, right?
[22:37] » Yes. And one of our own people
is involved in it big time. So, I
[22:42] appreciate that very much.
>> Yes. I love Jennifer's forward thinking.
[22:48] Thank you for coming. That's uh I
attended there and and could see the the
[22:52] the excitement and and being proud of
the accomplishments that you've achieved
[22:56] over this. But I thought it was
important again to invite you here.
[23:00] Ellis County had some part in that in in
what Jennifer was able to do, but also
[23:05] to let the public understand that um the
benefits and and and just reach out for
[23:11] support.
>> Yes. But it wasn't just something that
[23:13] you guys signed on a paper and said this
is our designation. You really had to
[23:17] put in a lot of effort from the
community, from businesses, from the
[23:20] hospital and others. So I thought it was
a a great opportunity invite you to
[23:25] continue to brag about that with the
public health.
[23:27] » I really appreciate the opportunity. We
don't often get a ch get a chance to
[23:32] talk about breastfeeding, but I always
joke it's a good day when I get to talk
[23:35] about breastfeeding just because it's
it's so important in getting um families
[23:40] off to a good start and getting children
and mothers off to a good start. So, I
[23:45] really appreciate the opportunity.
>> Well, thank you.
[23:49] » Thank you.
>> And then Thank you, ladies.
[23:53] » And then, um I wanted to go ahead and
introduce [clears throat]
[23:56] Ben Sims. Uh he is our new 4
>> just to she didn't have the chance to
[24:02] speak but Christina Morales does
[clears throat] a lot for us as well.
[24:06] She's walking out the room but
>> she's over at our health department. She
[24:09] does a lot over there with uh
breastfeeding over there and the women
[24:12] in in care or wick program that they
have. So
[24:15] » uh women, infants and children. So I
just want to recognize her even though
[24:18] she didn't get a get a talk.
>> Yes, we are excited to have the health
[24:23] department as part of our
>> as part of our coalition. Thank you for
[24:27] coming today. Um we're so excited to
have them a part of our coalition now
[24:32] and having them attending our meetings
and also working alongside us on another
[24:36] project that we do, the becoming a mom
pre prenatal education series. So yes,
[24:42] thank you. Um okay, so um back to the
Cottonwood Extension District. Um Ben,
[24:49] uh has been with extension for a few
years. Ben and act Ben and I were
[24:54] actually hired the same day back in
2022. Um he was hired in Greenwood
[24:59] County and then made his way to Barton
County to be a little bit closer to
[25:04] family and then he joined our office
right before fair. So we've got him
[25:09] broke in really well now. So
>> thank you Mon'nique. As she said, Ben
[25:15] Sims 4 and youth development agent
serving here in the Cottonwood Extension
[25:19] District. She alluded to it. I've been
in extension for about four years.
[25:22] started in Greenwood County as the A and
4 agent down there. I grew up in
[25:25] Missouri 4 program did a lot for me. I'm
just really looking forward to the
[25:30] opportunity to be here to work with this
community working with our 4 volunteers
[25:33] that we have and then working with the
kids. I'm really been impressed with the
[25:36] the families that we have here so far
and and the kids I've gotten a chance to
[25:40] work with getting a chance to go through
the fair and see all of that. So, I
[25:44] think we've just got some really good
opportunities available to us here.
[25:48] We've got some families that are really
active that we can do some really cool
[25:51] things with and I'm looking forward to
promoting the program more, really talk
[25:55] about what 4 is and what we can do and
then kind of just trying to get some
[25:58] more kids involved wherever we can. Uh
that's really all that I have. Um I did
[26:02] want to go ahead and invite you. You'll
get a formal invite in the mail. Um but
[26:06] on October 24th will be our annual
achievement banquet out at the
[26:09] fairgrounds in the evening. We'd love to
have you come out and kind of see what
[26:12] the kids have done throughout the year
and just celebrate their
[26:15] accomplishments. And then I'm looking
forward to I've talked with Mr. Meyers
[26:18] to be on the September 15th agenda for a
national 4 week proclamation. National 4
[26:24] week is October 4th through 10th this
year. And so this proclamation is just
[26:29] to celebrate and proclaim that it is
national 4 week in Ellis County and then
[26:34] 4 throughout the the nation. So do you
have any questions for me?
[26:39] No.
>> Welcome to Ellis County.
[26:41] » Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.
>> He took um Tamara's position, correct?
[26:45] Okay.
>> Unfortunately, Tamara is still in
[26:47] extension. She's down in for county, her
home county, working as a 4 agent. That
[26:51] was a really great opportunity for her.
And then, as Mo'nique alluded to, my
[26:54] wife grew up in Wilson, so all of her
family is here. We're getting ready to
[26:57] welcome our second this Friday. So, just
looking forward to growing our family
[27:01] and being closer to family and being in
this community.
[27:03] » Very good.
>> Good age, too.
[27:05] » Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm already
ready for him to be in. Don't want to
[27:08] rush anything, but I'm excited for it.
>> Well, they have some good breastfeeding
[27:12] facilities, so
>> Exactly. That's what I hear. That's what
[27:15] I hear.
>> They just brought that up. So,
[27:17] » yeah.
>> All right. Thank you, everybody.
[27:20] » You're welcome. Thank you.
>> I'm just going to pass around our family
[27:25] pizza day. I think you guys are aware of
that. And um thank you again for the
[27:30] opportunity to be here today.
>> Thank [clears throat] you.
[27:33] » Thanks again.
>> EJ does good work, too. [laughter]
[27:39] » Our fearless leader. [laughter]
[28:02] Okay. Appraiser um with the study ratio
um Eugene
[28:09] Morning
[28:13] commissioners. Uh you interrupt. Ellis
County appraiser. [clears throat] Um
[28:17] this morning I was just going to go over
the uh
[28:22] [clears throat] reports from the uh can
department of revenue property valuation
[28:26] division. Um kind of in a a nutshell
there there are report cards for the the
[28:32] past year or two years. So
[clears throat] there there's actually
[28:34] two pieces to this. The first one is
going to be the uh 2025 final ratio
[28:40] study and then the uh second piece will
be I'll discuss the 2026 procedural
[28:46] compliance and substantial compliance
reports. So um starting with that 2025
[28:53] um final ratio study um these results
always come out about u about a year or
[29:01] half a year after the
the calendar year is done. It's about a
[29:06] full year after our compliance year is
done. So um the uh in this report here
[29:12] the top two lines would be the ones that
uh would be of interest to you. That's
[29:17] the residential and commercial. Um on
our residential, we did get a median
[29:23] ratio of 97.33.
Um the median basically is the midpoint
[29:28] of values when you're looking at
appraised values and sale prices. So um
[29:34] 100% would be perfect, but uh 97.33
um on a report card chart, I think most
[29:39] people would be pretty happy with that.
And um on the commercial uh actually
[29:45] I'll go back to the media ratio over
there. On the residential um on the far
[29:48] right you'll see that there's 313 sales.
So we have quite a few sales to look at
[29:54] annually to help gauge our our
valuations.
[30:00] On the commercial side we get a ratio of
89.82.
[30:05] Um there was only 12 sales. So a much
smaller set of sales to look at to do
[30:11] some analysis on um does create a little
more volatility when you're trying to uh
[30:16] analyze things with such a small subset
of sales.
[30:21] » Jean, does that mean if a 100 is I guess
you praised exactly right it's at 97.
[30:27] Does that mean we're actually under
underappraising a little bit?
[30:30] » That's correct. So what's that saying is
100% would be we are hitting
[30:35] appraised values are at 100% of sale
prices. So what this is saying with the
[30:40] median ratio it's saying is that sales
prices are 97% or sorry appraised values
[30:48] » are 97% of the sale prices. So okay
>> so if you had a home valued at $100,000
[30:55] our appraised value would typically be
about $97,000.
[31:01] Um some of the measures of uh that are
looked at are the COOD and the PRD. Um
[31:08] I'm going to read off the explanation on
it. It can be a little bit um hard to
[31:13] understand. So I tried to simplify that.
The COOD is uh the coefficient of
[31:18] dispersion. It measures the uh average
distance from the median relative to the
[31:23] median itself. What that means in mass
appraisal is it measures how spread out
[31:28] the individual sale price ratios are in
relation to that median ratio.
[31:34] The the median ratio is chosen because
the median is stable and not distorted
[31:38] by the outliers in the analysis. So what
you what you want to take away from this
[31:43] it's really a consistency score. Um how
consistent our valuations are. So on the
[31:50] residential we had a cood of 8.01 01.
Um, a lower COOD means the ratios are
[31:58] really close together and that
valuations are uniform and consistent.
[32:02] So, um, what that's telling you between
the 97% ratio and the 8.01 COOD is that
[32:09] our our valuations we are slightly
undervaluing properties and that we are
[32:15] uh uniform and consistent in the process
in which we're using [clears throat]
[32:20] on the commercial COOD. We did get a
31.45.
[32:24] It is a little bit higher and that is
again simply because there's only 12
[32:28] sales. Those points are it's a little
more spread out. It's harder to to hit
[32:34] that midpoint
with such a small sales set. Um the PRD
[32:40] that is on that third column there. The
PRD is the price related differential
[32:46] and that shows whether lowpriced and
highric properties are valued fairly
[32:51] compared to each other. Um simply stated
it checks to see if lowerric properties
[32:57] are being valued too high or higher
price properties are being valued too
[33:01] low. Um so if you are um if you're
around the one 1.0 zero means your
[33:10] valuations are equitable across all
price ranges. And so we did on the
[33:14] residential we did get a PRD of one. So
that's saying that our what that is
[33:19] saying is that our valuations are
equitable equitable across all price
[33:25] ranges. Um when you get over um 1.3 or a
little bit over in that range, what that
[33:32] tends to represent is a little bit of
regressivity.
[33:35] um that means the lower price properties
tend to be valued at higher ratios than
[33:40] the higher priced ones. And if you have
a PRD of 0.98 or below, that means you
[33:46] have what's called progressivity
where higher priced properties tend to
[33:51] be valued at higher ratios than lower
priced ones. So um one is the best you
[33:57] can hope for on a PRD and we uh we did
achieve that for 2025 on the
[34:03] residential. In the commercial, we'd get
a 1.18.
[34:07] Um, again, that small subset of sales
makes that that number very volatile
[34:12] from year to year.
[34:16] So, that is kind of a summary of the
residential commercial commercial
[34:22] statistics for the 2025
um valuation year. Um I will circle back
[34:29] to these statistics a little bit in my
final report on 2026.
[34:35] So the other lines at the bottom there,
the state does not measure those um
[34:39] those other subsets or evaluation
classes. So
[34:45] So going to the um
next slide,
[34:50] uh just the letter here from the state
of Kansas. Uh they send one to me. I
[34:55] believe they've also sent one to the
commissioners. The court received um
[34:58] basically still telling us that we are
in compliance. Um the the takeaway from
[35:03] here would be that middle uh middle
paragraph there where it'll state that a
[35:09] score of 75 points or greater is
required to be considered in substantial
[35:15] compliance. So, uh, to be in compliance
with all of the, um,
[35:23] I don't know what the word is, but to be
in compliance with the state, we have to
[35:26] hit that 75 points.
Um, we go to the next slide. Um, and
[35:32] there's about seven pages to this slide.
I'm not going to go through these in
[35:36] line by line here, but basically this
next seven pages, this is a report that
[35:40] contains a list of all the analysis
phases and the submission dates where we
[35:46] sent that analysis into uh PBD. So we,
as you can see, it takes up seven pages.
[35:52] We do lots and lots and lots of analysis
throughout the year.
[35:58] So, um if you would go down about seven
pages there to the um
[36:07] the right document, there'll be a
document titled 26. Yep, that one right
[36:12] there. This document is the procedural
compliance review checklist for 2026. Um
[36:19] and again, this report is five pages.
What this one does is it's going to show
[36:24] whether or not we are in compliance with
the procedures that um the Kansas
[36:28] Department revenue has set out for us.
Um the takeaway from this report is
[36:32] going to be that uh all procedures were
followed as indicated by the Y which
[36:37] indicates yes in every one of these. So
we did get a yes on every uh measure
[36:42] that the state checks up on us.
And then I'll have you go to about five
[36:49] pages down here to the
[36:56] will be the second last page right
there. Yes. So this is the um actual
[37:02] compliance report. You'd want to think
of this as our report card so far for
[37:05] 2026.
And um what this does, it assigns all of
[37:12] those previous reports that I just went
over. um the different compliance phases
[37:17] and then whether or not we are hitting
those with that yes or no in that in
[37:21] that prior report. This one here is
going to actually assign points to each
[37:28] different [snorts] phase that we do
throughout the year. So a play a phase
[37:32] could be um com completed at 100% or
partially completed if you receive
[37:37] partial points. This is where that 75
points uh in that initial letter comes
[37:42] into play. Um so in this report here um
there is a mix of data. So I will point
[37:49] out where you get to under section one
the statistical performance
[37:54] the ratio and confidence ranges that
that is 2025 data. That's the only part
[38:00] of this report that reflects on 2025.
Everything is what we're doing for 2026
[38:06] so far.
>> [clears throat]
[38:08] » And uh you will see at the top that we
did hit um 100%. Um I could go through
[38:14] each one of these. I'm not going to
waste your time with that. Um but as you
[38:18] go down through the mass appraisal
process phases, you can see that we we
[38:25] did get 100% of the uh points this year
that were available. Um so I want to
[38:32] give kudos to my staff. This is not
something I can do on my own. It takes a
[38:36] team and I have a great team working for
me and for you and uh I I think I'm very
[38:43] proud of them. I think you should be
proud of them to to achieve that 100% on
[38:47] on this here. So,
and uh any questions on that?
[38:56] » I have no questions. Thank you to you
and your staff for getting that
[38:59] completed and getting that all in. So,
we appreciate that.
[39:03] » All right. Thank you. Thank you.
[39:08] » Thank you, J.
[39:13] [clears throat] All right, fairground
signs. Darren,
[39:17] morning, commissioners. Darren Myers,
county administrator.
[39:20] Uh, next agenda is to discuss the, uh,
signs out at the Ellis County
[39:26] Fairgrounds. As you know, as the
commission knows, back in July, uh there
[39:30] was a request to rename the center part
of the shank and unride building to the
[39:36] Lauren Zimmerman Interite WF West
meeting room. Uh [clears throat] and
[39:42] with that became the identification that
we needed to update some of the signage
[39:45] on the the building to properly do that,
but also the other ones were quite old.
[39:50] Uh since that time, the commission asked
to come up with a design that would be
[39:54] then taken through the fair board for
approval. And attached to the agenda
[39:58] item today is I'll just scroll down to
it. Those those signs um for the
[40:04] building, they would be about 3T tall by
6 foot wide. And [clears throat] got a
[40:09] quote to have them printed up and put on
metal backing
[40:14] uh to be installed out there. there was
an install price on there, but between
[40:18] our staff and as well as the fair board
and volunteer and their volunteers, uh
[40:22] they would be able to get those signs
installed onto the building. So, we
[40:26] would only have a total expense of just
about $2,100 for the three signs. The
[40:32] second part of the agenda item was to
discuss uh from a previous request from
[40:37] the commission to look at uh purchasing
LED marquee type signs to install on the
[40:43] front of the building. So that way they
could be identified as to for instance
[40:46] the shank or the unrine if there's a
wedding, a meeting, reunion, whatever it
[40:51] may be. Um we could post on onto that
LED sign and change it after each event.
[40:57] So that way if there's multiple events
going on there, people would know which
[41:01] side of the building they would be
entering. When we did just a rough uh
[41:06] estimate on those LED signs, that would
be at least programmable remotely so
[41:10] that you would have to be on site every
time, every week, multiple times to
[41:14] update the signs. Um those quotes were
about $10,000 a sign. And um
[41:21] [clears throat] once we saw that price,
we're like, well, let's see if we can
[41:24] look at an alternate price. And so we
just did the quick search of Amazon
[41:29] because you can find almost anything on
Amazon. Uh you can bring those signs
[41:33] down to about $1,000 a piece, but then
you'd have to be on site with an app
[41:37] logged into the local Wi-Fi in the
buildings to be able to connect to the
[41:40] signs via that route and then program
them. um tried to look at that route a
[41:47] little bit more with staff and then
talking with the fair board and possibly
[41:51] even allowing that app and the password
to the signs to be given to those who
[41:57] rent the building but then that comes
with the chance of it being used
[42:01] inappropriately or not right or
something being posted on the signs etc.
[42:05] Um and no nobody really felt that that
would be the best course there. So after
[42:12] the fair board discussed that they had
made the suggestion that um no LED not
[42:16] to purchase any LED signs to the
commission and they did approve these
[42:21] signs for the building you know just the
the metal signs to be installed on the
[42:25] front and um that total price for the
three signs would be $2,31.
[42:34] » Are there any lights that would shine
onto these signs to light these signs?
[42:39] Uh yeah. Yes.
And I don't remember which ones. I
[42:45] talked to Tom Frost about that.
>> I think two out of the three I don't
[42:49] think the Lauren Zimmerman the middle
room has one, but I think the other two
[42:53] has right at the top eve of the building
there's signs that or LED lights.
[42:58] » Okay.
>> That shine down.
[43:00] » So, we are going to light up the sign
some way of
[43:03] » I think there are exterior lights that
come on. I don't know if they're on a
[43:05] photo track or not, but I could check.
And um like I say, I don't think the the
[43:10] middle one has one, but if the
commission wants, we can we can probably
[43:14] fit that within their budget. It would
cost a little bit to run wiring up there
[43:18] and get a a sign or a light installed,
but we could look at it.
[43:22] » I guess if we need it, you know, but if
not, I it I'm fine with doing this as
[43:27] long as we have plenty of lighting on
them.
[43:30] that would that would get us by until we
can like say do some more research on
[43:35] the um marquees. But I'm I'm good with
that too to light them up at least that
[43:40] way people will know.
[43:45] » Yeah. So is that with the LED signs then
just kind of put it on the back burner
[43:50] for now is essentially what they want to
do or we want to do just
[43:54] » they were fine not having the LEDs at
all. I appreciated the idea in the from
[43:59] the commission, but with the price tag,
there's it's just too much. I mean, the
[44:05] the price that was in there also doesn't
include having to have an electrician go
[44:08] out there and because there's no
electricity up there for them to be able
[44:12] to plug the signs in as well. So, not
only would be the price of the sign,
[44:16] having it installed as well, but then
also having electrician and they
[44:19] [clears throat] just didn't figure that
that was a priority um to have it out
[44:23] there. Okay.
[44:29] Very good. I'll I'll take their
recommendation on it. They're the ones
[44:33] that are out there on a regular basis.
So, I appreciate their input.
[44:38] But so, you do not need a motion to move
forward with those signs or doing that.
[44:43] » No, no, sir. The commission just asked
that before we purchased any sign that
[44:47] you had the chance to be able to view
what uh what they voted on to to move
[44:51] forward with.
I'd give the kudos to Chrisa. She's the
[44:56] one that came up with several designs
and then um she actually got voted on to
[45:01] the fair board this year. So, she's she
was a member and they they took a couple
[45:05] different ones, I believe, and tweaked
them into one concept, which is what you
[45:09] can see here. And so, she did all the
work and um actually all all the work. I
[45:14] just put it on the agenda. So, she got
the quotes and everything.
[45:17] » Okay. Well, thank you too, Carissa.
>> Thanks, [laughter] Carissa. Yeah. Yeah.
[45:24] Okay. Well, we'll get those ordered and
um installed in the next few months. The
[45:29] other thing just as it just popped in my
head, if you haven't noticed, the sign
[45:33] outside this building um in the entrance
is it's only about what 12 years old
[45:40] since we moved into this facility, but
it's very faded. And the sign company's
[45:46] also looking at that to get it um either
resscreened or whatever it's called to
[45:51] have that um that sign redone.
>> Okay.
[45:55] » Just just the insert, not the whole
entire sign. So that way it's not faded
[45:58] so bad and it looks looks better.
>> Okay.
[46:04] » All right.
Thanks, Darren. County administrator
[46:09] report.
>> Uh nothing. Okay.
[46:15] commissioners.
>> Well, after our uh our last meeting, I
[46:21] had a meeting with access
transportation. So, a little update on
[46:25] that. Still moving forward with that, um
we're still doing a lot of information
[46:30] gathering and findings. One thing that
did come out of that and I I mentioned
[46:35] it the next day on our the radio when I
was on the radio with Haze Post, but one
[46:41] thing that the state brought to our
attention, everyone in the room, they
[46:45] posed the question, who's ridden access?
It's it's general public transportation
[46:51] and they asked who's actually been on
scheduled and ridden and uh it's pretty
[46:58] stark contrast because nobody in the
room had
[47:02] So the the challenge was posed to us is
to schedule a ride, get on ride before
[47:10] making any critical decisions on it and
kind of get a gest of it. So I would
[47:15] pose that challenge. I I have not
completed that yet. Uh I plan to do so
[47:19] in the coming days, but uh I would pose
that challenge to anyone here in the
[47:24] room or my fellow commissioners to get
on and try it. Um
[47:29] there there's about 200 people monthly
that ride that that transportation on a
[47:35] day, you know, weekly bi-weekly, daily
basis. So that's about the size of the
[47:41] workforce of our county. So there's just
there's a number of people and there
[47:46] we're going through some factf findings,
but there we're we haven't made any
[47:50] decisions and uh it's an interesting
challenge. So
[47:54] » is the uh Ellis people still is that
pretty much a main deal? A lot of
[48:00] » So there's quite a few the the number of
people from Ellis writing are picking up
[48:04] um there's about three of them. There's
between three and five I believe that
[48:11] are coming over for medical attention
dialysis.
[48:14] » So uh pretty pretty nec necessary need
for those individuals.
[48:22] So that's but that we're still like I
said we're still going through the
[48:25] finding effect of what we need, what we
need to do, where we need to go. Um
[48:31] working through a number of different
programs.
[48:35] » So
>> okay, thank you for the update.
[48:37] » Yes.
>> Yeah. I don't I don't think I've ever
[48:42] ridden access years ago when they ran
kind of the tiger thing. Tiger access
[48:47] after
>> right there's bars. I kind of did
[48:49] » uh safe ride
>> safe ride but yep access itself I've
[48:53] never done so
>> and it is it is a general public
[48:57] transportation anybody
>> can ride just call them and uh schedule
[49:02] a ride you know it's it's not it's not
for strictly disabled individuals it's
[49:08] general public transportation
[49:15] couple updates
had a kamp
[49:19] uh board meeting last week. So, the good
news coming out of that, we voted um
[49:24] across aggregate across all our
membership to keep insurance premiums um
[49:30] neutral for this year. So, that's good
for all the counties. For Ellis, we
[49:34] won't know the renewal forms are going
out, but probably be a little bit of an
[49:40] increase, not as large as we budgeted.
Um Ellis, of course, um one of the
[49:44] larger counties in the membership. Also,
we have a jail which has high liability.
[49:48] Um, so counties without a jail, you
know, don't have that to go with. Ellis
[49:53] also, good or bad, we tend to have a lot
of claims, especially in the last few
[49:57] years. And so that kind of goes into
individual county premiums, but overall
[50:04] it should should be flat or a little bit
of an increase for Ellis County. What do
[50:08] we budget? Six%
>> seven
[50:11] » 7%. So, um I don't foresee it being that
for Elms County. Um along with that
[50:17] though, I don't we're already in our
budget. You know, we basically approved
[50:21] it. We can lower it, but I don't really
see the need to lower it. Um
[50:28] couple of reasons. One, we don't know
what health insurance is going to do.
[50:31] So, if if we, you know, I guess if we
take some of the savings off of
[50:36] liability
budgetarily wise, that could help us
[50:39] with the health insurance maybe. um once
that comes through or if you know at
[50:43] this point we can just kind of kind of
bank it for next year and you know can't
[50:48] expect insurance to not be flat every
year. So um from that standpoint maybe
[50:53] it's just savings for next budget cycle
but overall that's good news out of KAMP
[50:59] for for insurance premiums. Um and then
the other thing I wanted to bring up I
[51:03] don't know if the other commissioners
have been contacted. I had several
[51:06] members from Ellis uh community members
from Ellis contact me yesterday. This is
[51:10] a kind of a growing issue. Um, South
Ellis, uh, the grain elevator is dumping
[51:16] grain where they have in the past. Um,
it's outside of city limits of Ellis.
[51:22] It's in county territory. I don't really
know if we have any authority on
[51:27] anything, whether that's a KDHE or a
USDA issue or a county issue, but um I
[51:35] think we may have to look into it a
little bit for some of the residents
[51:38] over there with uh grain dust, mold
dust, birds dying because they're eating
[51:44] dead old grain and stuff like that. Um
[clears throat]
[51:47] I know it's been brought up over the
city of Ellis meetings. Again, it's
[51:51] outside the city limits, but just
barely. Um,
[51:55] I don't know if it's potentially
something we need to look in our zoning
[51:58] regulations of, you know, setbacks on
grain dumping and those kind of things,
[52:03] residents. I don't know. But, um, been
contacted multiple times now. So, one of
[52:10] the individuals wanted to be here this
morning to to bring it up himself, but
[52:14] he had wasn't wasn't going to be able to
make make the time. So, I told them I'd
[52:19] bring it up to my fellow commissioners
and make them aware if they weren't
[52:22] already.
It's what I got. Okay.
[52:31] All right. Thank you. Um, I did go to
the farmer to farmer um, talk to Darren
[52:36] a little bit about that, but um, I would
like to if the if my fellow
[52:41] commissioners will allow to let Dustin,
Kryley, and Lyall come in and kind of
[52:48] give a little bit of a presentation what
it was on, it was on controlled burning.
[52:53] Um, so which I thought it was pretty
interesting. There was there was quite a
[52:57] few people there, but the word don't get
around. Hopefully we can get it here
[53:01] also. Um do anything we can. So you guys
are good with that then I'll get Dustin
[53:08] and Lyall if we can get them on the you
know agenda. So
[53:15] um then I also did through the Hayes
Chamber went to uh Clicks in the mall
[53:20] which they're they've been there 10
years now. So, um, thanks to them for
[53:25] staying in there and helping us out on
our taxes and helping our people have a
[53:30] place to shop to get clothes. Um, also
remember everybody that United Ways, you
[53:37] know, going. So, if you can you can
support them in any any which way. Um, I
[53:43] say it again, it's a matter of just from
experience, it's when you need it. Um
[53:48] it's very important and there's a lot a
lot of different organizations in there.
[53:53] So
um that's I guess that's all I have and
[53:58] make sure everybody makes to the next
meeting on September the 8th. Meeting
[54:01] adjourned at 9:18.
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