Or it should be on.
On today's agenda, commissioners, on last week's meeting, 22nd, if you had the
chance to look over the agenda, minutes, invoices, and the end month APs, any questions on those?
I have none. I will approve them. Second. Motion, second. Call for the vote.
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Today's agenda. Old business. Mr. Whitson and Hunsaker, county cell phones.
On new business, have Marcie Roberts with Live Healthy Montgomery County. Marcie, we're
going to put you up. And then in front of the Jared Gilmore and Phillips presentation
on the county audit.
Then we're gonna ask for an executive session
for 45 minutes, KSA 754319B1 with the board,
commissioners, assistant county administrator,
county administrator.
And after that,
we're gonna ask for another executive session
on confidential information related
to non-elected person of KSA 754319B1.
Mr. Z, anything else you'd like to add to the agenda?
Motion to accept.
Second.
Motion to accept is presented.
Second.
Call for the vote.
Yes.
Yep.
Jeremy.
Rick.
Good morning.
We are here to follow up on what we talked about last week with the cell phones.
I think we have all the information now.
Do you want me to recap kind of what we talked about?
With the T-Mobile US Cellular, we tried out.
We know that they both have government plans.
T-Mobile merged with US Cellular and FirstNet.
So we got with both of them.
They sent us phones.
Jeremy and I, you know, took them around.
He sent them with some of his people,
and I drove some around the county into Wichita
on things. Try out the service. We were both very happy with the service, actually on both
of them. We didn't have a problem with T-Mobile either. But FirstNet seems to have the best
price and the best deals. So the county has 68 phones and 11 MyPhi's cell phones.
U.S. cellular, what we're currently paying is $53,207 a year.
So we're currently paying $4,433.92 a month.
So Bursonet's price for the same amount of phones, same amount of my fives is $34,083.84
cents a year and $2,840.32 a month. So that's about a $2,000, a little less than $2,000
a month savings. They also give us what they call a welcome credit of $13,600 which that
correlates to about five months free, the first five months free. We talked about
devices. They give you all new devices. They transfer the same numbers over. They'll send
people here to help you set the phones up and things like that when they come. That was
the recommendation that Jeremy and I had was FirstNet. The T-Mobile prices, also with
FirstNet everything is unlimited, so there's no data limit. T-Mobile had two different
plans that they sent us with two different gigabyte phones. One was $47,051.04 which
is $3,920.92 a month which is not far off about 500 less we're paying now.
The
the gigabytes were limited on the phones.
It was $36,841.44, which is $3,070.12 a month.
Now, those figures, how we came up with those
is we added, we also have some phones
that we pay a reimbursement for.
So there's 11 phones that people
that don't have county phones, but you reimburse them for the phone they carry. I'm one of them.
Right now, we reimbursed $50 a phone. So I added those numbers into the totals,
but at the amount that we're paying for the phones on that plan. So like FirstNet was $31
a phone is what we'd be paying for a new phone. So I assumed that that's what you guys would
want to reimburse if someone didn't want to carry a second phone. So those numbers are
reflected in the totals.
So some of the information we didn't have,
why we didn't do this last week,
is what it would cost us to terminate our current plans.
So we have three phones that are Verizon.
Of those three, two of them are paid off
so there's no disconnect fee.
We have one phone, it's $140,
is what we'll have to pay for the device.
And then our U.S. cellular, I have a device list here that I finally got from them last
week.
And there's, oh it looks like 10 or 11 of those phones that we still have, we'll have
to pay on it, it totals for all the phones $3,232, that would be our disconnect fee.
And those are because of the people who've got phones recently and those phones aren't
paid off through the plan.
But even that 3232, I don't know that you would ever get
to a point where there was no fee to pay to terminate a plan because somebody's
always going to need a new phone. But we would make that up in the first month.
You think that Jeremy? No, Whitson's done most of the legwork on this stuff.
I was just kind of helping him on it. Ricky said 68 phones and then 11 that we
pay is that on top of the 68 or is that all combined 68 total no we have 68 phones
we're paying for and then there's another 11 we reimbursed for so 79 bones what
we've got total yeah and 11 my thighs and then if first five months they'll give
us a credit of 13,600 yep on the 34,000 a year so and I also talked with them
about screen protectors and protective cases, and for $9 a phone, they'll put a screen protector
and a case on it to prevent damage, so that's also much cheaper than you would get anywhere
else.
Jeremy and I have spent three months on this probably, and we've talked to a lot of people.
Like I said, Jeremy took a phone, he gave it to McCartney, and they took it out
on transports and he had one of his deputies go all the way around the county to all the
known hotspots and try it out and I took one with me, I went to Wichita when I went to
the conference and things and I mean the coverage seems to be great.
And any other entities that you've talked to who's using this first net?
Yeah, so when I went to the FEMA conference, the Kansas Emergency Manager's Conference,
I talked to emergency managers all over the county and there's a lot of them that are using it.
I didn't hear anything bad about it.
One question I would have, with it being so important in the sheriffs, if Ron, have you ever heard anything on the first net?
Are you kind of aware of it?
I haven't heard anything bad about it.
Okay.
I wouldn't want them to be in a position to where they're out there and first net fails.
You know, try to foresee that if we can.
That's the whole reason I involved, Jeremy.
If it's that kind of savings, I think it's well worth looking into commissioners. Any thoughts?
Do we accept the recommendation? Seconded.
I have a motion to accept the recommendation, terminate our current contract, go with FirstNet.
And Rick, or you did say that's monthly or by the year or?
It's a monthly, yes sir, it's $2,840 a month, okay, but it goes by the month so
down the road if we're not pleased with no there's no contract contract no
yearly contract or anything. Have a motion and a second call for the vote?
Yes.
Yes. Yeah. Very well. I'll get it. Any idea how long to transition? What will we need to do? Trade phones in? Yeah, we'll have to collect all the phones. That's another thing I need to mention. First net said that, because we'll keep all of our phones because we're paying them off, that we can give all those phones to them and they'll give us a credit for it, which may cover the $3,000. I have no idea how much that'll be, but they'll give us a credit for the phones that we have.
Assuming USO doesn't want them back, and I talked to her and she never mentioned it.
So however that works out, yeah, we'll have to all take our phones, turn them in,
we'll all get new phones and have to get them set up.
Good. Thank you.
Our new business, Marcy and Liv Healthy Montgomery County Court report.
Good morning, and thank you for giving us the opportunity to come
and share our work with Live Healthy Montgomery County with you today.
We want to cover three highlighted efforts, our Pathways to a Healthy Kansas Grant, our
Opioid Prevention Program, and also the Youth-Focused Substance Prevention and Engagement.
In January, Live Healthy Montgomery County was awarded a two-year pathways grant,
And this opportunity allows us to partner locally and apply for additional funding to complete impactful community projects.
Pathways takes a community-wide approach to addressing the social determinants of health.
And those are factors that shape our daily lives on where we live, work, and play.
Daily activities are impactful things
like housing, access to care, education, economic stability, and neighborhood environment.
Our efforts focus on the three main drivers or factors that impact chronic disease.
And those are tobacco prevention, access to healthcare, and access to physical activity.
And those pathways are called social and community context, neighborhood and built environment, healthcare access, education and economic stability.
I'd like to discuss just a few of the things that we're working on in the county.
and under education we're working with USD 445 Farm to School program. We're
working to develop programming and engagement around the leafy greens garden
container which is a hydroponic growing environment for vegetables and they
also have a greenhouse on site that is located on school property behind the
board office in Coffeeville. So we want to connect the students into this
learning environment and implement STEM activities to increase students' knowledge around agriculture
and where food comes from. Currently we're putting together a steering committee to get
that program rolling. Under the neighborhood and built environment pathways we're working
with Cane Valley Agape Network food pantry to develop a raised bed handicapped accessible
garden to their pantry partners. They're working on design and garden policies
right now so they can apply for funding in the fall. This will allow for healthy
fresh produce to be readily available to all their pantry neighbors. Under the
social and community context pathway I've been collaborating with Amber Dean
at the City of Coffeyville to identify a downtown placemaking project. This
This effort will focus on improving a gathering space for those who live and work in the downtown
area as well as the local community.
Moving on to our substance prevention efforts, we're trying to bring – we're excited
to bring Catch My Breath curriculum to 120 Coffeeville sixth graders next month.
It's an anti-vape program specifically designed for this age group, 11 to 14, and Emily Lewis,
our community mobilizer, is doing all the training in the schools.
Emily's done a fantastic job of engaging our junior high and high school partners
in Coffeeville, Caney, and Cherryville.
They each have a dedicated group of youth who are advocating for no vape,
and that's what we really strive towards, is to have youth leaders in the schools.
We work to offer social events for the students to participate in without drugs or alcohol, and some of those are after prom, smores get-togethers, red ribbon week, and in the summer we have family pool parties where the whole family can come out and enjoy the event and we can do some education on anti-vaping.
And sometimes we even get the parents to consider anti-vaping, so that's a good thing too.
Another thing we have coming up is some speakers from Johnny's Ambassadors.
They're coming to speak to Cherryville High School and independent schools on October 7th.
So those are a few of the things we have going on.
And then I'm going to let Lindsay Caldwell, my co-worker, tell you about the opioid prevention efforts.
Thank you for allowing us to be here today.
I just want to provide an update on how the opioid settlement funds have been used here in Montgomery County.
Last year we received funds from the city of Coffeyville and Live Healthy.
Montgomery County was tasked with ensuring funds are used effectively for prevention and education.
For awareness and education, we hosted two opioid awareness town halls, one in Coffeyville and one here in Independence.
We engaged community members, leaders, professionals for education and dialogue.
In February, I was hired to be the prevention specialist.
In my first week in this role, we – I know of two young men that we lost to overdose,
so that really underscored the urgency for this type of work.
So my first priority was to get Narcan into the hands of the public.
So we researched many distribution methods to ensure it is accessible, effective, and discreet.
Built partnerships with organizations and events for wide distribution.
We attended numerous community events where we did distribute Narcan,
Deterra bags which are a safe drug disposal system,
created informational handouts and fliers to reduce stigma and educate the public.
We promoted drug take back day and the permanent take back locations across Montgomery County.
We have installed the Tara distribution boxes around the county and are now adding Narcan boxes alongside them to increase community access year round.
Our impact so far we've reached around 85 community members directly in the town halls.
levels. The Narcan distribution we've distributed approximately 180 boxes of Narcan since February.
Each box contains two doses, potentially could potentially save 360 lives. Some overdoses
require multiple doses, so having a steady supply available in the community is critical.
Safe disposal, we've handed out hundreds of Deterra bags distributed with many now available in the public access boxes across the county.
With the addition of the Narcan boxes, ensuring life-saving tools are available to the public, not just at events.
The awareness community conversations around addiction and prevention are growing stronger and more open.
Looking ahead, we want to continue with the Narcana-Dutera distribution, plan additional
town halls, trainings, and awareness campaigns, expand promotion of safe disposal through
the drug take-by-days and permanent collection sites, monitor and restock the Narcana-Dutera
boxes.
Explore youth focus prevention programs and support for families affected by addiction.
seek sustainable funding and partnerships to build on current momentum.
And I just want to thank you again for letting us be here.
I want to reinforce that the opioid settlement funds are saving lives right here in Montgomery County.
And I just encourage commissioners and community members to join upcoming events and help spread awareness or even join our task force.
That's all we have.
We appreciate the update and knowledge.
Thank you.
Thank you for having us.
Thank you for your work.
Yes.
Emily Franks with Jared Gilmore and Phillips.
Fun stuff.
Yeah.
Everybody loves this day, right?
Emily Franks with Jared Gilmore and Phillips.
You guys all got copies of the audit.
But if anybody out there wants copies,
There are more on the podium over there.
So we'll go ahead.
There's some loose reports that are going to be in the front of the audit packet.
Just go ahead and set those aside.
We will come back to those after I'm all through.
And then we're going to just go ahead and jump to page one.
So this is the independent auditors report.
So you'll notice the first three paragraphs.
This talks about what we audited.
So we did audit the fund summary statement of regulatory basis cash receipts expenditures
and unencumbered cash balance of Montgomery County, Kansas.
As of the year ended, December 31st of 2024, as well as the related footnotes to the financial
statement.
You'll notice the second paragraph, we do issue an adverse opinion on U.S. generally
accepted accounting principles.
And that's because you as a county have elected to follow regulatory basis accounting,
which is essentially cash basis. And so you have every year at the beginning of the year,
you sign a gap waiver. So you're waiving that U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
The third paragraph down, though, is unmodified opinion on the regulatory basis of accounting.
So we do use the term clean, but that is a layman's term. So a clean opinion on the
regulatory basis of accounting.
And so then the next two paragraphs, this is the basis for our opinions.
And the bottom and then on to page two talks about the responsibilities of management over
the financial statement.
And then on page two talks about the auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial
statement.
And then bottom of the page talks about supplementary information that is included in this audit
packet.
And that has to do with there's a schedule of receipts and expenditures, which gives a little bit more information on each of the funds individually.
And there's also some budget comparisons.
And then there's some agency funds that are going to be included here as well.
Go ahead and flip to page three.
And the start of the big paragraph in the middle of the page.
This talks about the prior year's audit and where that audit can be found, the date that it was issued.
And that's because there's prior year information that's included in this packet.
But we do have to include where you can find that audit itself since it's not full financial statements for that fiscal year.
Then bottom of the page talks about reporting required by government auditing standards.
and that is because Montgomery County had to have a single audit issued for fiscal year 2024,
which means you spent more than $750,000 in federal funds for the fiscal year.
So coming for 2025, that number does increase to $1 million.
So you guys likely will still be over because of the Rural Health Initiative grant
that you're passing on to the Coffeeville Regional Medical Center.
So it's likely you're still going to be a single audit again for 2025.
We go ahead and jump to page four.
So this is a specific statement that we audit.
This is kind of just a few pages of the funds and this is just very high level.
So it shows your beginning unencumbered cash receipts expenditures that comes to your
ending unencumbered cash.
We go ahead and add back encumbrances and accounts payable to come back to
what your cash balance is in each of the funds.
So you can see on the left-hand side,
this is all the funds listed out.
There's one one line, but there is more detail
in the back that we will go over.
And if you go to page five,
actually any of these numbers,
if you look at that ending unencumbered cash balance,
if any of them are negative,
that is a cash basis violation for state statutes.
but for the one that you do have, which is negative,
which is the JJA case management is kind of,
it's on page five, kind of towards the top,
but it's a negative 23,000, that is a grant funded fund.
And so you're expecting reimbursement from that grant
in the new fiscal year.
So there is a caveat out there that says
if it's a grant fund, then it's okay to end the year
negative because you're gonna get those dollars
in the new festival year, so it's okay.
But you can see on the right-hand side of page 5,
your cash balance for the county funds,
which is like the primary government,
was $18,834,251.
And if we look at page 6, you guys do have more money.
As a county. But there's 38 million of those dollars that's dedicated towards the agency funds, which is like your distributable funds. So you collect your taxes in December, but the distributions to the taxing entities is not going to be made until January of 2025. So your cash balance is kind of inflated there at year end.
So, but that 38 million, those are all distributable funds.
So that's just something to think about when you see that 57 million is definitely not
all county funds there.
So we'll go to page seven.
This is the start of the footnotes.
So these footnote number one is going to be pretty similar amongst most of the Kansas
counties that you pick up.
But if you go ahead and flip to page nine, there's a section here that talks
about budgetary information.
And for this specific fiscal year, this is kind of in the
middle of the page, but it does list out that the county held a revenue-neutral rate hearing
for this year. And then that next paragraph down talks about budget amendments, and then
there was no budget amendments for the fiscal year of 2024. Page 10, this lists out individually
all the funds that were not budgeted they are special purpose funds but they fall under
it's possibly their grant or something but they do not have to be budgeted and so that's why
they've listed out here individually. Footnote number two this is the compliance with Kansas
statutes so when I talked about on page five how you had that fund that was negative
ending unencumbered cash this gives a little bit more information on that specific fund and
gives you the statute numbers that tell what that violation was as well as the KSA that
would cover it for not really being a violation since it is a grant funded program.
And then that next section of that paragraph talks about budget violations.
And there was a budget violation in the solid waste fund, and that's because you guys
closed out solid waste fund at the end of the year and that had not been previously budgeted
and there was no budget amendment for it. And then the last little bit on page 10 talks about
a violation for having unsecured funds at December 31st of 2024. So you as a county do fall under
the state statutes that require to have all your funds secured at a bank through FDIC insurance
or through securities pledged held by the bank in the county's name.
So if we go ahead and flip to page 11, this is going to give just a little bit more information on that violation there.
But so under that's up to the county treasure to take care of that at the time, any time it goes over a certain amount.
That is correct.
And was not done.
That's all I'm hearing you say.
So if we look at footnote number 3, the bottom paragraph on footnote number 3, it starts with deposits.
But this is, say, a year in the county's carry amount of deposits was $57,488,000, and the bank balance was $58,283,000.
Of those dollars, they were held at four separate banks.
banks.
And of the bank balance, $57,098,000 was covered by FDIC insurance.
And then $1,157,000 was collateralized with pledged securities held by the pledging financial
institution in the county's name.
And then there was $26,642,000 that was unsecured at year end, which it's not much,
but the statutes say that all the funds should be secured and a lot of times because of like the
influx of money the banks offer things like peak period coverage but this is really something that
should be monitored and the biggest reason this happened is again because of the treasure bank
accounts that are held outside of the county's accounting ledger which is also why we have
the finding and have had the finding for the last couple years.
And so that's why we strongly encourage the motor vehicle money to be incorporated in the
general ledger of the county.
But number four, this is right to use contract.
So this used to previously be the lease agreements, but now the terminology is right
to use contract and just talks about how much you guys paid as a county and then all your
future obligations.
There was an IRB that was issued, so industrial revenue bonds during the year, so that does
have to get listed out here, and that balance will remain the same until expiration of
that IRB when it is paid in full.
But at number six, this talks...
Can't we have to hold that amount of money until that's paid in reserve?
No, you don't need to hold it in reserve. It just has to be notated that it is outstanding and ultimately the county would be liable if something were to happen.
So just has to be put noted.
Define benefit pension is number six on page 12.
This just gives a little bit of information about the capers plan.
how contributions occur, and then at the bottom of that footnote, it also talks about how much the county contributed.
So there was contributions from the county in the amount of $949,822.
That's just for the fiscal year ending December 31st of 2024.
But at number seven, this is other long-term obligations from operations.
So this has to do with the net pension liability, and that information comes directly from capers.
Capers has to have an actuarial study done, and this would fall under, it's called GASB 68.
But the collective net pension liability reported by capers that belongs to the county is 8,893,000.
So if anything were to ever happen to capers, ultimately, again, that would be the county's
responsibility.
The likelihood of that happening is not very great, but we do have to disclose it because
the standards say that we do, so.
But note 7 on page 13, this talks about the vacation policy that the county has.
Just gives a little bit of detail, but then kind of towards the bottom of the page,
it does show that the estimated liability at December 31st of 2024 for the county was
$629,961 for annual leave and $191,209 for compensatory time. And that's if everybody
was to leave at December 31st. This is what the county would have to pay out. So then
the next couple paragraphs talk about other post-employment benefits, just kind of Cobra
and general things that the county would have to offer.
On page 14, this is the risk management footnote.
So this talks about how the county alleviates risk and you guys do obtain insurance policies
to cover yourselves from those potential threats out there.
And you do also have a self-funded health insurance plan and you have a stop loss
associated with it.
so we do disclose that the SOP gap amount for the policy that you're under at December 31st of 2024,
the aggregate claims would be if they were over $80,000.
And next couple paragraphs, talk about how you participate in the K work and the K camp for
your worker's comp and then your insurance through the county as a whole for that multi
multi-line pool that you participate in. But no number nine and this is just
talking about significant contingencies and this is because you do obtain some
grants. They're all federal and state funds and depending on who's in office
may depend upon the type or the amount of dollars that you get and so there's
always a potential that you could lose those funds at any given point. On page
age 15.
The footnote number 10 talks about
inter-fund transfers.
So this lists out all the funds
that you transferred from and
then to and then the statutory
authority for those transfers
as well as the amount of the
transfers.
And then subsequent events, this
is where we would disclose
anything material that's
happened since year end, which
you guys did approve the
purchase of the JJA building for $250,000 and it would just come from funds
available. There was no financing associated with that. If we go to page 16,
I guess I should pause. Is there any questions thus far? Nope. Okay. Page 16,
these are all of the budgeted funds. So you can see the left-hand side again
list the funds. Next column would be the certified budget. Third column ever, this is the adjustments
for qualifying budget credits. So any grants, any reimbursed expense, those are considered
adjustments for qualifying budget credits and those get added to what your certified budget
amount was. So you can see fourth column over, that's your total certified budget for the
fiscal year. And then the expenditures charged to current year budget, all those amounts
are going to be coming directly off of pages four and five for how much the expenses were
that were charged to the funds. And then on the right hand side, this is your variance
over under. If you have a positive number, that would be an over. So as discussed under
the compliance with state statutes, the solid waste fund that is a budget violation
there as the fund was not previously budgeted.
So if we go to page 17, this is all considered
supplementary information to the audited financial statement,
which was pages four and five.
But this does list out all of the receipts
individually by line as well as expenditures by department
and then they're categorized.
And there are prior year numbers as well as current year
numbers with comparisons to budget, and variance is over under and for the funds that actually
are budgeted.
But you can see if you flip to page 18, this is where all the expenditures on a departmental
basis would start.
And that's going to go all the way to page 22.
And then page 22 would list out like your beginning unencumbered cash, where your
general fund ended the year with unencumbered cash and I mean you can see
that for the last two years there's been the expenditures are above and beyond
what the receipts were so I know that you guys are trying to be diligent with
watching expenses but that's just something that we like to point out is
you know watch the cash balances as you go forward. Then page 23 and
And on page 24, these are both levied funds that the dollars just get paid out to so ambulance
they're getting paid out for ambulance services.
And then on page 24, that's economic development, so they would be paid out as well.
And then page 25, this is the start of the employee benefits fund.
Again, another fund that you just kind of need to watch the last couple of years
there has been some, the expenditures have exceeded the receipts.
and so just as the insurance benefits and capers rates go up, these are funds you always
got to kind of watch because you don't want them dipping too low because you want to be
ahead of how much you're going to have to pay out that next year because that first
distribution does take a little bit of time to make it to the fund itself.
And then this will continue on all the funds individually. I don't really have any
concerns about Road and Bridge or any of the grant funds themselves.
Is there any
specific funds you guys wanted to touch base on or do you want me to just go
ahead and go over all the single audit information?
I mean and if at any point
of time you guys did have any questions you can always reach out to me
too I'm always available for questions. So we'll go ahead and jump to page
94, before I jump in on all the single audit information. So 94, this is the start of the
agency funds. So these would be like your distributable funds. So you collect the tax
dollars on behalf of the cities and school districts, townships, and then go ahead and
disperse those dollars out. So these are the funds that we would like to see come
to a zero balance at some point throughout the year. And I know that that's something
that the treasurer's office is diligent upon doing and so the balance as you see here could
just be amounts that were collected right at the end of the year.
So on to page 97, there are some other agency funds kind of middle of the page.
This would be like your, the payroll clearing, there's some sewer district escrow accounts,
some sheriff's office funds, some law library funds, and then that bottom section, those
are those distributable funds.
Those will be the ones tax dollars that you collected in December, motor vehicle money
that needs to be distributed out.
So that's what those balances are there.
That makes up 38 million, 38 million 150,000 of the 38 million 658 that's there.
So if we go ahead and jump to page 98, this is a schedule of expenditures of federal awards.
So this is the start of all the single audit information.
We do issue some separate reports that supplement all this.
But this lists out, left-hand side, you can see the department of the government.
Government that the funds have come through, so U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department
of the Treasury, Department of Health Human Service, and then it just kind of goes on to
page 100. And we do list out how much was provided to sub-recipients, the receipts collected,
as well as the disbursements during the year. So total awards for the year was $5,5,745.
dollars.
And page 101, these are the separate reports that have to do specifically with the
single audit. So the first report, this has to do with the government auditing standards.
And if we were to have had any internal control issues or compliance issues, that's going to
be listed out here, which you can see at the bottom, right where it says report on
compliance with other matters, we do have a material weakness that's been identified on the schedule
of findings and question costs and that would be item number 2024-001. We'll go over that here
in a minute. And again, you can see at the bottom there, we do have to report that with regards
to government auditing standards. And then on page 102, this talks about the response to the
So there is a corrective action plan that is in here as well.
And then page 103, this is reports that have to do specifically with the uniform guidance.
So that's more along the lines with the federal awards that the county has received.
And then that's the program, there's programs that we have to test.
And so we fill out some sheets based off of the amount of money that you got and
how much each of your programs was that you spent money from.
And then we have to categorize them by different types.
And so it tells us how many programs we have to test.
And so here in just a minute, it'll show you what programs we tested.
But these federal programs, this is referring to, is the major program that we tested
for you as a county, which was the coronavirus relief money.
And that comes back to that Rural Health Initiative grant also fell under that same, we call it
a CFDA number, but it's the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number.
So with regards to the federal programs, we did not have any issues with those.
It's more on the financial statement side that we had issues.
So if we go to page 106, this is the, like, one-page summary of pretty much everything
I've talked about. So the first paragraph talks about financial statement. So we did issue an
adverse opinion on the financial statement for generally accepted accounting principles, but
then we did issue an unmodified opinion on the regulatory basis. There was one material
weakness identified, which we'll go over on the next page, and then there was no other issues.
major program did fall under U.S. Department of the Treasury and you can
see there that's the major program and then the county as a whole did not fall
under the low-risk oddity and never will. This just means we have to do low
testing if you're considered a low-risk audit. We have to do less testing if
you're a low-risk oddity. It's a little bit more work on our part when
you're not but because you guys as a county do not follow generally
accepted accounting principles, you will never fall under that low-risk oddity down there at the
very bottom of 106. On page 107, this is the finding we are referring to when I was talking
about those letters, and this all comes back down to the motor vehicle money not being
being maintained on the general ledger of the county or in any accounting system at all.
It's all just tracked through Excel.
So there's a big opportunity for error and I mean just like the $26,000 of unsecured
funds that did fall back to these motor vehicle dollars.
The hope is that the Treasurer's Office has gotten some Comtex software that those
dollars will start getting entered in there and everything will be trekked through ComTech.
As you guys transition into your new system, I'm not sure how that will all work, but that's
something that is on the project list as you guys make that transition.
We have addressed that.
Okay.
So, and then, I mean, so this just talks about the different criteria, condition,
and cause of the finding, and then what the planned corrective action plan is.
And if you look at page 108, this is the summary schedule of prior audit findings.
Again, this was also a finding last year.
And so we'll just continue until there becomes a resolution where it does get incorporated
and things are reconciled timely.
And so page 109, this is just that corrective action plan of how this is going to be
addressed self. Any questions about that? I had a question on that. A material
weakness found, but it also said that the county had material compliance in
respects. Why did we have the material weakness I guess? Why did it? Well that
That comes back to the motor vehicle money not being detained on the ledger because there's
a lot of money that flows through those.
We were trying to address it, but just didn't quite do it right.
Yeah, I mean the system, the accounting system's been purchased, but nothing's been implemented.
it. Okay. So we would like when we come for audit to see some system-generated reports
with reconciliations. And I mean, when it comes to motor vehicle, there's some spreadsheets
that we have to complete that I have a staff that spends an entire day just summarizing
all of that information to make sure that all the records tie out. So any other
question? I don't have it this time. Okay, I'll just touch space real quick on the
loose reports that are in there.
So the first report, this is communication
were required to now put in writing.
So if there was any significant audit matters that would be disclosed here,
any difficulties encountered throughout the audit process,
it would be disclosed in here, which we didn't have any issues.
But I will point out at the bottom of the page,
it's corrected and uncorrected misstatements.
So there were quite a few journal entries that we had to complete
in order to get the numbers to where you see them in this audit packet today.
So things you might have seen previously to the numbers and cash balances here today
are going to be slightly different.
But we do provide all of those journal entries for you, and they are in this packet.
It looks like this.
It's going to be the third page in your packet.
And so we list out all the entries.
We list out why we're doing the entries.
And then the hope is as you guys transition to your new accounting system that it'll be a little bit easier for you to incorporate these journal entries into your financial records.
We've had a little bit of trouble over the years and so hopefully going forward where you'll be able to get that address.
Second page in that packet just talks about if we would have had any disagreements with management.
Second paragraph down talks about management representations.
There is another letter that is included in this packet, which is the management representation
letter.
And we do provide you a copy with that, so you can review it as well.
Again, if there was any other matters that would need to be addressed, they would
also be included in this packet.
And so if you jump past the journal entries to the letter that looks like this one, there's
a date at the top, but this is the management representation letter, and it kind of talks
about, you know, what we audited, our responsibilities, your responsibilities, and we call this
the reminder letter.
This should be things that were discussed throughout the audit process.
It gives a little bit of information on as far as submitting the audit to the clearinghouse that it, you know
we'll be done in a timely manner and
Just has some other information if there was any problems
You've encountered with your grantors that that information would have been discussed with us
And so it's just kind of a boilerplate letter
But we do call it kind of a reminder letter to read through and make sure that we've accounted for everything we should
so
Any other question?
No, no, that takes time and the information that you wanted from the county, all of that
as an account, as our auditing firm, did you get everything you needed and did it work
well or is there things the county needs to look at or do differently for next year?
We did get what we needed.
I'd like to get things done sooner, but part of that is also my fault because we
took on a lot of budgets out of our office.
So we're a little bit delayed.
The hope would be to get it done earlier next year,
but I think now there is a better flow process
within the county because we came,
I think it was April when we came.
And so I think everybody was kind of in newer positions
and trying to get their feet settled.
But I mean, overall we were able to get what we need.
I would just like to get it done sooner
because this is, because you're a single audit,
it is due September 30th.
So I don't like the pressure of last minute stuff
in the last couple weeks of it.
One of my questions.
I know we seem to be later and later each year or so.
Surely I will say, we are three months earlier this year.
Oh, I understand.
Maybe two, two, is it two?
So we're getting there, but it takes time.
So especially when you're a single audit
and tracking down all the grant stuff,
that's the biggest struggle we run into.
So I think Jonathan's got a plan for that.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for your time
Mr.. Is any other questions on
the audit none on that
Could we take a
Minute recess before we
Before we ask for executive session gonna ask for a five minute recess
Drew you can stop the stream for a bit. Thank you
At this time, we're back for Marysus. At this time, too, I'd like to ask if I interrupt.
Well, Mr. Chairman, yes, I'm here. I asked Amy to come in today, and I'd like to have her come up.
Email, just not like to ever explain that to us. Email before we ask for executive
Yes, I'd like to ask County Clerk to come forward.
Yeah, it's what I've asked for.
Amy called me probably about, I suppose, 4.30 or 4.00.
So got an email and called me Friday.
And I'd like for her to explain the conversation,
of the why it was on Friday and what this is about.
So if you can, just share this and we'll start from there.
I gave you guys a little package that I made that
has the email that I sent you guys.
Would you read that?
Because it's still the public.
Yeah, let's just go down through it.
And because I asked Amy when I talked to her to be here,
so she explained all three of us at the same time
in records and everything, instead of just visiting with, you know, individual commissioners.
So, that's why I ask for a meeting here.
The email was from Amy Sandridge on Friday, September 26 at 3.46 p.m. and the subject
is revenue neutral rate.
Good afternoon all.
To comply with the Kansas Open Meetings Act, I have blind copied all county commissioners
and the county administrator on this email.
After conducting a thorough review of the process used to exceed the revenue neutral
I have confirmed that the county did not follow the necessary statutory procedures to do so.
The statutory requirements are very specific.
Therefore, in order to ensure due diligence, I contacted the team lead at the municipal services with the Kansas Department of Administration,
who reviewed both the meeting agenda and the video recording of the R&R hearing.
The feedback I received was pretty clear between quotations.
I can tell you by just looking at the meeting agenda, they did not follow the procedures
according to KSA 79, 29, 88, B-4.
The statute specifically states that the vote shall be conducted at the public hearing
at the commencement of the public hearing.
I also watched the commission meeting where they held the R&R hearing.
They did in fact, did motion to close the R&R hearing at the conclusion of the public
comment period.
It was then, after the R&R hearing had been closed, that a motion was made to
to approve or deny exceeding the revenue neutral rate
by A or an A.
The Board of Tax Appeals has ruled
that when a motion is made to close the R&R hearing
and then the vote is conducted,
then it does not meet the requirements of the statute
for the vote to take place at the public hearing.
The two key issues identified
by the team lead representative were A,
the vote to exceed the R&R took place
after the hearing was closed
and B, the motion presented
was to approve or deny exceeding the R&R
And then a vote was taken on exceeding the revenue-neutral rate.
There was no motion to adopt a resolution to exceed the revenue-neutral rate as required by law.
Furthermore, KSA 792988E states that the county clerk shall hold a governing body to the revenue-neutral rate
if all procedural requirements under subsection B are not met.
I have also consulted our County Counselor and shared the information received from the
team lead representative.
After reviewing their response, he concurred with their conclusions.
Given the above and pursuant to my responsibilities under the statute, I must inform you that
the county cannot lawfully exceed the revenue neutral rate based on how the agenda, hearing
and vote were conducted.
The procedural missteps identified make the attempt to exceed the R&R invalid based
on the clear language of the statute.
I strongly encourage consultation with legal counsel on how to best proceed.
You may also contact KSA for additional guidance.
Please let me know if you need any further documentation or assistance.
Respectfully Amy Sandridge.
I have also included a copy of all of the R&R state statutes,
and I have highlighted on the second page in the back where it says,
Because on four, a majority vote of the governing body by adoption of a resolution, which that
part we failed at doing, and then it says search vote of the governing body shall be
conducted at the public hearing.
So once the public hearing was ended, we failed to follow that part of the state statute.
I've also highlighted where it says on the third page, if the governing body of
fax and subdivision did not comply with the provisions of succession B and certifies
to the county clerk an amount of ad valorem tax to be levied that would result in tax
rate in excess of its revenue-neutral rate, the county clerk shall reduce the ad valorem
tax to be levied to the amount resulting from such taxing subdivisions revenue-neutral
rate.
I also have a copy of the agenda on new business bullet point A says open R&R hearing to
receive public comment on exceeding the R&R, then close the R&R hearing, and then
And bullet point B is where it states vote to approve or denied exceeding the R&R.
And the last thing that I included was a copy of the section of the minutes that had anything
to do with this.
And as a motion was made by Commissioner Cordray to close the R&R hearing on the
public comment, the motion was seconded by Commissioner Clubine, and then the general
meeting was open, and then the vote was taken after the R&R hearing had been closed.
According to the statute, I guess what bothered the concern and one of the concerns is that
in fact, there was no malice intended. It was kind of the way we progressed from years
before in doing it, perhaps, and not taking the vote according to your statement here
My concern was that late in the afternoon on the Friday, did you contact Jonathan?
Did you contact Kennedy Council prior to all this before going to the state?
Because it seems like we're not working together.
The clerk's not working with commission.
The clerk's not working with administration.
And if you had a point to prove, and I don't disagree, because you're legal, okay?
But it sounds like, you know, you're always looking or looking for ways to keep things disrupted.
I'll give you a chance to speak in just a minute.
So knowing this, and you're legal, and we'll have to abide by it.
But since we're going to go back to the 39, we've worked on this budget for months and months and months here, guys.
So, from what I understand from what Amy's told us here and what she discussed with me on Friday,
then I'm going to advise Jonathan, just one vote, okay?
This is district number one.
We will go to the revenue to rate.
I have to.
There's a 39.
In doing that, we're going to go back and we're going to have to have this resolved this week.
So, we're going to have to have some more meetings, guys.
So we're going to have to go back and we're going to have to pull out employee increases.
We're going to have to cut some budgets.
We may have to remove some people from their offices.
And I know this is going to bother you all.
But I've got to make this up.
And the only way I'm going to make it up, we're going to cut some wages.
We're going to cut staffs.
We're going to cut budgets on rocks and different things.
And it won't be just one department.
I have no choice but to do this.
And I'm not upset.
But I just want everybody to understand why I'm doing this
and what was brought to light.
And there's no other way to do it.
The only way we can do it, we've had a 7% increase
because over the years, and then increase, Ron, just like,
and I'm not picking on your apartment.
It's just like, I know the health insurance is covered
and the food cost cut, I don't know.
There's some things we're gonna have to go with.
So if I can't pay for it in that,
we're gonna have to cut a patrol car.
We're gonna have to cut a person.
We're gonna have to figure out
how we're gonna pay for this.
Does it just, it's not there?
And same way in the other departments, guys.
So I guess what we're gonna have to do here is
We're going to have to give a job to them and the administration and we may be some solid
days here in the next couple of days of putting together a new budget and resubmit it as the
revenue neutral rate.
We don't have to, my understanding is I wouldn't have to have a hearing.
We just have to meet the 39.
That's my question.
Can we amend?
We can't amend what we've done prior to.
No, we have to go with the 39.
Okay.
So we'll follow revenue-neutral rate, so we're going to find a way to get back to our NR.
And that's the only thing we can do.
And as expenses and insurance and things have gone up, we have to cut departments to pay for it.
That's no other way.
Can I speak?
Your turn.
I'm sorry, you feel like I have been trying to work against the county that has not been my intention.
My intention has been to follow what I've been asked to do.
I was selected just like you guys were elected to do a job and I have to follow the law.
There has been some different things that have happened over the last month.
I did try to contact Jonathan on Friday and Corey before I sent this email out.
And I did not have the time because I knew that the commission meeting was going to be today
And everything that has happened over the last month, I did not have the time to go upstairs and sit down and have a conversation with them.
And even if I had, I just want to make clear that none of this would have changed. I have to follow the law.
So regardless of how we found the mistake, we contacted the state because we wanted to make sure that everything the county clerk's office was doing was being done correctly.
So even if I had contacted Jonathan before we had contacted the state, none of this would have changed.
I have no intentions of going on against the county or the administration office.
I have worked with them. I have worked with you guys.
And I understand how you might feel, and I'm sorry you feel that way. That is not the way that I feel.
I know you're on maternity leave. I understand that part.
Had you been here, did you know that law in the beginning would just stop it right there
and done your diligence at that point or would you just let it flow?
So when did you first notify somebody that wasn't you apparently aware of it?
When did you notify?
Or when did you become aware of it if I could say that?
Because had you been sitting right here in the meeting you just said, boys, you're wrong.
I would not have.
I did not because I'm not a lawyer.
And I didn't.
How did you find that out?
How did you know that we made the decision?
Because we didn't have a resolution.
And we wanted to make sure that the resolution, if it hadn't generally the county resolution, or did you, we had the votes. So wouldn't that be at that point, guys?
I'm just asking where that's what we're trying to part of the part of the budget workbook has a resolution in it that should have been filled out and brought to you guys's meeting and you would have made a vote to adopt a resolution.
So, John, speak to that, please.
They haven't seen the resolution.
Yeah, let's figure this out, folks, because we're taking
the time to look at it.
So, you know, after the meeting, we're trying to get to, you know, what we done and what done wrong and get to the census.
This is just, this all this is, we have to have these discussions, folks, because we didn't follow proper protocol.
That's my fault. I'm taking it. But I'm not I'm not wanting to point fingers out who did what and why it happened that way. I don't know that the day if I had been here on that day I don't know that because I'm not a lawyer and I have read the statute and I I'm trying to understand it to the best of my capabilities.
This entire R&R process has only been in law since 2021.
So this is only what, 22, 23, 24.
This is only the fourth year the state has had to go through this.
And every year since the state statute came in place to do the R&R,
they have changed something.
So every year a little bit more has changed.
So I don't know that if I had been here.
And furthermore, that's not part of the county clerk
at the moment to interrupt the commissioners and say this is
This is not correct. That is not within the purview of our office. The purview of our
office is to take the minutes at the county commission meeting. But if I had been here
and I had known exactly what was happening, I would have probably said, hey guys, I think
we might be doing something wrong, but I wouldn't have had the tools in the moment to fix it.
Well, let's answer the question on the resolution you're talking about, John. Yeah,
Let's figure this one out because you're right, you know, I don't deny that.
You know what you said.
But the part you're saying about signing the resolution to time on this,
that's what I'm questioning right now.
That's what I want to know.
Now's the time to look at it.
But who have you looked at together?
Are you showing where you got it?
Yeah, it's, I don't have, I didn't bring my laptop so I can't.
The workbook won't pull it on my phone.
You need to go get it, go get it.
I can, I can actually.
Do it right here? Yeah.
There's a non-highlighted sample, but it's just a sample of what it should look like.
Right.
And very, very back of the work.
Were your tabs hidden?
No.
I've had to undenight tabs to work in this to get stuff done.
Certainly is one in here.
I don't know if they ever had.
I've been at this in this, a public fortune or anything.
We've never had that at the time. We've done that, that I know of.
That's why I'm in that something has changed lately.
You guys have said, well, from
2024 to 25.
From what I'm hearing in some major changes in the R&R
has been brought to you guys as a change between
I've since R&R has been a thing, have never exceeded it.
One of those things that I wasn't really looking intently at, because I knew the process from
other vaccine entities and how they've exceeded it,
but as far as the new changes from 24 to
25 being done in a public hearing, I did not know that that was a process.
And I know,
Mr. Chairman, what do you want to do?
Well, I mean, we're going to have to abide by the R&R.
And we're going to have to have some work sessions, decide how we're going to get the budget back down to the 39 whatever it was from the proposed 44.999 as was presented.
So we've got work to do.
Since you guys, I'm assuming you would like for me to give you any knowledge that I have about this. We haven't told October 1st to get the budget turned into the county clerk's office so that we can set the levies out and turn around and give that information to the county treasurer's office.
I understand. This is the 29th, so I said this week. I understand that part.
Since it seems like there might be some lack of knowledge on the whole process, I just wanted to let you guys know that in case you didn't know.
And if you guys need any assistance from us, we have the workbook sample from the state that I can forward on.
That's about it.
First is the deadline.
Okay.
Look at your calendars, guys.
This week, what?
Start tomorrow morning?
I'll say start tomorrow morning and go till we get or done.
Bar 8 o'clock.
What's that?
Bar 8 a.m.?
Do you think you have to be done otherwise?
Just have the work session.
Nothing has to be published at this point.
I think what would be better
would be probably
an initial work session after the meeting today and then a motion would probably need to be
made by somebody for a special meeting and when or whether that be on the first Wednesday
so that the new proposed budget at 39.999 can be formally adopted because
program is us to proceed with $44.999 and people start getting technical and saying that
we were collecting taxes $44.999 instead of $39.99. So by following the document, we reduce
the litigation on our end that we over collected rather than collected the correct amount.
So, okay, you're saying to have another one on the 1st, October 1st, that they or it has to be that it has to be on tomorrow.
They just have to be turned into DOA.
Sometimes on the 1st. So we could do that.
How about we do it like 9 a.m. on October 1st, get all the documents signed, get it out sent, then we should be good.
I think we need to meet tomorrow.
We can make it tomorrow.
We'll meet tomorrow in case we can't get it straightened out.
And then we can always have Wednesdays back up.
If we need to.
Oh, then build the filing on Wednesday.
And then finalize it Wednesday and have it.
So what do you need?
What do we need to get all this straightened out?
Right.
It's called have a meeting or hearing on.
Well, the first, a work session,
whenever you decide on what date and time,
and then we'll start the special meeting.
Wednesday, whatever time, if we're meeting at nine, getting nine on Wednesday. Okay.
Motion?
Second.
Motion and a second. Call for the vote.
Nerv either.
Yes.
You guys have any other questions for me?
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay. At this time, I'd like to request an executive session, discuss confidential information.
What do you guys start? Can I go ahead and cancel it?
Cancel it? Okay. Ron's going to cancel his executive session, so we won't need to ask
for it.
An executive session related to non-elective personnel pursuant to Kansas
Statute 754319B1 to include the Board of County Commissioners,
Assisted County Administrator, County Administrator for a period of 45 minutes.
That is a motion.
Second.
Motion and a second.
Call for the vote.
Yes.
At this time we are back from executive session with no action taken.
Missionaries,
do you have anything more you'd like to ask the rest? Or we take a recess, sign paperwork,
and then go into our work session. Other business.
Questions
for the jury?
Second.
Motion in a second.
Call for the vote.
Yes.