[0:06] We will call to order the sewer county board of county commissioners the regular meeting. Please

[0:10] stand for the pledge of allegiance.

[0:15] pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states. States of america,

[0:22] one nation under god, indivisible, and with liberty and justice

[0:26] for all.

[0:32] jason tombs representing the liberal ministerial alliance. Let us pray.

[0:37] heavenly father, it is your gracious will that your children on earth live together in

[0:41] harmony and peace, especially at this time of the year as we look forward to christ coming

[0:45] defeat the plans of all who would stir up violence and strife, destroy the weapons of those

[0:49] who delight in war and bloodshed and according to your holy will end all conflicts

[0:53] in our world. Teach us to examine our hearts that we may recognize our own

[0:58] inclination toward envy, malice, hatred, and enmity. Help us by

[1:02] your word and spirit to search our hearts and to root out the evil that would lead us to

[1:06] strife and discord. Lord jesus, as you once shared in our human toil

[1:10] and thus, hello the work of our hands. Bless and prosper. Those who maintain the industries

[1:15] and service sectors of our land. Give them a right regard for their labors

[1:19] and grant them the just rewards for their work. Almighty god, be a strength

[1:23] and source of hope for the children and our families, and especially our community

[1:27] when they stray. Protect them from all danger and grant them your abiding presence.

[1:32] guide them by your word into paths of wisdom and righteousness. For your name's sake

[1:37] almighty god, you have promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in your son's beloved name.

[1:41] mercifully, incline your ears to us as we have now, now made known

[1:45] our prayers and supplications to you. And grant the those things that we have asked according

[1:50] to your holy will we may receive to meet our needs and bring glory to you

[1:54] alone through jesus christ, our son, our lord who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit

[1:58] one god now and forever. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, thank

[2:02] you. Okay, is there any citizen

[2:07] comments?

[2:19] my name's rick madden, uh, resident of liberal lifetime.

[2:24] uh, I I wanna start off by reading

[2:28] the deal so I don't get off track. So

[2:32] here I go. I think we can agree that the data

[2:37] has presented to this board has been , which is

[2:41] brought into question how you've been operating county business

[2:45] in the county. Commissioners mission statement is a list of

[2:49] 14 core values that the commission operates by

[2:54] five of those core values, which I think you have felt miserably.

[2:59] one, integrity, honesty, trustworthiness.

[3:04] two, stewardship and fiscal responsibility.

[3:09] three, operate with transparency. Four, accountability

[3:15] and five, credibility ability.

[3:19] with that, I'd like to talk about accountability. First,

[3:23] we'll start with the health department. It was stated that

[3:27] the bonuses did not come from grant money later to be retracted

[3:32] and said the grant money when you were finished, it was

[3:36] from the grant money with the department head giving herself and others

[3:40] bonuses for four years. Let's not forget

[3:45] for another grant for $38,000, which se county's

[3:49] matching part was for over $600,000 signed by one

[3:53] commissioner. The question I have, do you not

[3:57] question the rationale of what was going on?

[4:02] I'm sure every county personnel would like a bonus like that.

[4:06] so with that being said, it appears the commissioner rewards behavior like that

[4:11] instead of firing people for their abuse.

[4:15] second, let's talk about the county administrator. I don't

[4:19] know what all her job entails, but let's assume one of her functions is

[4:23] to supply factual information to the commissioners.

[4:28] she has made comments to the commission that were not true,

[4:32] not so where's the information coming from department heads or

[4:36] somewhere else? Again, there is no accountability.

[4:42] third, a commissioner stated it is not the responsibility

[4:46] to do research on issues, but to be advised by the county

[4:50] administrator. How can you make an informed decision

[4:54] with only one person's advice? Remember,

[4:59] you get a salary and a benefits package in the range of about

[5:03] $50,000 a year. You would think they would be enough incentive

[5:08] to do a little research on your own, but the commission

[5:13] repeatedly misinformed the public about several issues that

[5:17] the county is facing. First with the mill, increase

[5:22] to the budget, having commissioner sign off on grants

[5:27] without board approval, and the auditor for

[5:31] the county stated that the benefit benefits package was unsustainable,

[5:36] but I know the county would not think of cutting any of these benefits.

[5:41] here's another problem that the county has. Four years ago it had a $7 million

[5:46] surplus and it appears that will be cut down to 80,000

[5:50] by the year 2026. Now is

[5:54] that is not fiscally responsibility.

[5:58] there needs to be a change and it needs to happen now

[6:04] and call for accountability. That is done by

[6:08] firing people who abuse the system. Department heads to commissioners

[6:13] who should resign personally, I think a cfo

[6:17] would help with the problems the county is facing and maybe

[6:22] a purchasing agent to help stop the overspending of tax dollars.

[6:27] just a quick thought is how many credit cards has a county issued

[6:31] to employees? In closing,

[6:35] I think a commissioner should have at least some experience in experience

[6:40] in having ran a business instead of being voted in on a popularity

[6:44] contest. Lastly, you should be embarrassed to be in public for

[6:48] all the failures under your watch. If you want an honest look

[6:52] at some issues and don't want to research 'em for yourself, please call

[6:56] carol huston. She might be willing to assist you. Thank you.

[7:04] okay, we'll move to item number one. Approval of the agenda.

[7:08] yeah, more assuming comments. Yeah. Is there any more citizen comments? Sorry.

[7:15] okay, being done. We'll move to item number one. Approval of the agenda.

[7:20] I amend the agenda again and now 13 a is budget.

[7:27] make a motion to approve what commissioners. I do need to add an item to

[7:31] the agenda. Addendum to resolution number 20 25 17

[7:36] and 20 25 18. So

[7:41] we can make 13 a budget. 13 b 4 20 24.

[7:51] yeah, do it on the four. Do it sooner. Yeah, fine.

[7:58] four a, oh, it's got resolution, resolution 2025

[8:03] dash, I'm sorry, 17 and

[8:07] 18. 17 and 2025 dash 18.

[8:11] I'll make a motion to add those three items to the agenda.

[8:17] you're making 13 a the budget or you? Yeah. Okay.

[8:23] is there a second? Second, yep. There's a motion

[8:27] by commissioner helm to add item 13 a,

[8:31] budget, and then item four a and b,

[8:35] resolution 20, 25, 17, and 18 and a second by commissioner

[8:39] stanton show of right answer approval five and oh.

[8:45] I'd make a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

[8:49] second motion by commissioner hill to approve the amended agenda.

[8:53] second by commissioner stanton, show of righthand for approval.

[8:58] provide the note. Move to item number two, consent agenda.

[9:03] so second, there's a motion by commissioner abbott to approve the consent

[9:07] agenda is granted. And a second by commissioner fuller, show

[9:11] of righthand for approval.

[9:16] five and oh,

[9:21] new employees, none that are present.

[9:25] okay, move to item number four,

[9:30] resolution 2025 is angela, not, um, april.

[9:36] angela. Everybody knows that she's a new hr person. Yeah, she was introduced at

[9:41] the last meeting. Oh, I was in florida. I'm sorry. My bad. That's okay. Okay, move to

[9:45] item number four, resolution 2025 dash 19. Execution of deed

[9:49] on fire department. Sorry, buddy. Uh, good evening commissioners.

[9:53] so the board of county commissioners will need to hold a public hearing this

[9:57] evening regarding the agreement with the city of liberal for them to purchase

[10:02] seward county's interest in the fire station located at one 10

[10:06] west 15th street in liberal. The board of county commissioners

[10:10] will then consider execution of resolution 2025 dash

[10:14] 19 authorizing the sell of the property, termination

[10:19] of the memorandum of understanding with the city of liberal and execution

[10:23] of the deed. On november 30th, 2025,

[10:28] seward county published notice of seward county's intent to sell

[10:32] the interest in real property. This property is located at one 10

[10:36] west 15th street, liberal kansas. The city of liberal seeks

[10:41] to be the sole occupant of the fire station and to purchase seward county's

[10:45] interest. In the same, the city offered the county $500,000

[10:49] for their interest in this property. Notice was provided that

[10:54] a public hearing would be held this evening at 5:30 pm giving

[10:58] the public an opportunity to comment on the offer to purchase and related

[11:02] matters on the fire station located at one 10 west 15th street.

[11:07] so now, uh, chairman carr, if you would open up for the public hearing.

[11:13] yes. We'll close the regular session to open the public hearing.

[11:25] it is here by given to the public pursuant to seward county

[11:29] resolution 2006 10, that the board of county commissioner

[11:33] of seward county herein board has received a negotiated offer

[11:38] from the city of liberal kansas purchase seward county interest. And the

[11:42] following, describe rural property for the sum of 500,000.

[11:49] I guess it started the wrong page here. Sorry.

[11:54] a resolution authorizing sale of certain surplus property and termination

[11:58] of me memorandum of understanding with the city

[12:02] of liberal kansas, whereas s county kansas received an offer from

[12:06] the city of liberal kansas for the sale of its interest in the following rural

[12:10] property were the sum of 500,000 attractive ground

[12:15] out of the no half of northeast quarter, northeast quarter of section

[12:19] 32, township 34 range 33,

[12:24] described by meets and bounds as follows, to what? Beginning at

[12:28] a point 560 feet west at the northeast corner of said northeast

[12:32] quarter fence west on the north boundary line of said

[12:36] quarter distance of 222 feet, more or less to point

[12:41] directly north of extended west line at light city park as it now

[12:45] exists. Fence south on eight extended west line

[12:49] of said park a distance of 347 feet fence

[12:53] east parallel to the north boundary line of said quarter

[12:58] distance of 220 feet, more or less, fence north a distance of 347

[13:02] feet to the place of beginning it being the intention to convey that

[13:07] track or area lying immediately west of the track,

[13:11] heretofore conveyed by cm light and wife to ug

[13:15] black and north of the city park to the extended west line

[13:19] thereof. And whereas seward county kansas pub

[13:23] published notification of the sale and allowed public participation

[13:28] at a public hearing and whereas the board of county commissioners determined

[13:32] that the above row property was surplus property and was authorized

[13:36] sale of the interest and real property for the sum of 500,000,

[13:41] whereas it is necessary to sign a contract. Quick claim deed and closing

[13:46] documents associated with sale chairman carr, if you would open it up to see if there's

[13:50] any public comment, public comments. Yeah. Right. And at this time we'll open it up to public

[13:55] comments.

[14:05] okay, being done. We'll close the public hearing now. You

[14:09] can go on now

[14:14] where it is necessary to sign a contract with claim deed and closing documents

[14:18] associated with the sale now therefore be it resolved by the governing body

[14:22] of sur county, kansas as follows, sale of property the

[14:26] contract, quick claim deed and notice of right of first refusal presented

[14:30] to the board of county commissioners is hereby approved and the chairman

[14:35] is authorized to sign the same along with such documents that are necessary

[14:39] and work to facilitate and close the cell of the above describe surplus

[14:43] real property to the city of liberal kansas. Further upon closing of

[14:47] the contract, the chairman is authorized to sign a termination of memorandum

[14:52] of understanding of that certain memorandum of understanding with

[14:56] the city of liberal dated january 25, 2, 2017

[15:01] in all amendments and supplements thereto, along with the notice of right

[15:06] of first refusal, use of the sale proceed. All funds

[15:10] received from the city of liberal for the sale of the county's interest in the above-referenced

[15:15] property shall be used for remodeling and adding onto the building located

[15:19] at one 20 east 18th street, liberal, kansas

[15:23] 6 7 9 0 1. Any remaining amounts left should be used

[15:28] to pay off the lease purchase obligation on the building located at

[15:32] one 20 east 18th street, liberal, kansas effective

[15:36] date. This resolution is effective upon passage and publication

[15:40] in official use payment.

[15:50] so commissioners, it is the recommendation of staff that you adopt resolution

[15:54] 20 25 19 to accept the negotiated offer

[15:58] along with authorizing execution of a contract and a deed.

[16:05] so moved. Second. There's motion by commissioner abbott to prove that

[16:10] to adopt the resolution. 2025 dash 19

[16:14] and second by commissioner fuller show of right hands for approval.

[16:19] five and oh

[16:23] um, commissioners at your work session, um, held before

[16:27] the meeting today, you had asked, um, fire chief barkley

[16:32] to come forward, um, to see if he could, um, gather any pricing

[16:36] for you as to what it would cost for, um, architecture

[16:41] engineering plans for the remodel of, um, the

[16:45] 18th street fire station and I do believe he has a report.

[16:59] good evening commissioners. Andrew barkley, sir, county fire chief this afternoon I reached

[17:03] out to our architect at gmcn and spoke

[17:08] to, uh, an assistant desiree there and she has,

[17:12] uh, verbally told me $40,000 for them to

[17:17] come in, do all the plans, engineering plans, mechanical, plumbing,

[17:21] et cetera, and, uh, put a bid packet together and then

[17:26] assist with the, uh, oversight of the construction moving forward,

[17:31] if you will. I, if you wish, I will get that in writing tomorrow and we'll start

[17:35] making those things move forward.

[17:40] I move that we give, uh, chief barkley the go ahead to work with

[17:44] the architects at gmcn. I second it.

[17:49] okay, there's motion by commissioner abbott to approve

[17:53] the fire chief to go ahead and move with gmnc,

[17:57] the gmc in actually get that backwards all the time.

[18:02] architects. And there was a second by commissioner fuller show

[18:06] of right hands for approval. You want to comment? I think that we should put a dollar amount

[18:10] on it, a maximum amount before we proceed

[18:14] with just he just said 40,000.

[18:19] 2020. He said 40,000. 40,000 commissioner.

[18:25] okay. Add that part as part of the, yeah.

[18:30] okay. Okay. Any other questions?

[18:35] show right hands for approval. Okay,

[18:40] thank you commissioners. Thank you. Chief barkley.

[18:46] item four a resolution 2025 dash

[18:50] 17 oh,

[18:55] where are you going? Sorry, . I forgot the oven. Four a

[19:04] commissioners. I come before you this evening to add an addendum to resolution

[19:08] number 20 25 17 as well as resolution

[19:13] number 20 25 18. We will need to vote

[19:17] on these separately. The addendum to the resolution number 20 25 17

[19:23] was regarding exceeding the revenue neutral rate on september 15th, 2025.

[19:29] the seward county board of county commissioners passed resolution number 2025

[19:33] dash 17 to approve exceeding the revenue neutral rate.

[19:38] whereas though an inadvertent clerical oversight in several

[19:42] places, the resolution reflected tax year 2026, it

[19:46] should have been 2025. The board of county commissioners desires

[19:51] to clarify that resolution 2025 dash 17 was

[19:55] intended and should reflect that its decision to exceed the revenue

[19:59] neutral rate applied to the current tax year at issue, which should

[20:03] have been identified as 2025.

[20:07] the vote for you this evening set forth on this addendum does not change

[20:11] any commissioner's vote on the underlining decision to exceed

[20:16] the revenue neutral rate. Which vote is set forth on the original

[20:20] resolution on 20 25 17, but reflects

[20:24] that the commissioner understood and intended to be voting on

[20:28] a decision to exceed the revenue neutral rate for tax year 2025

[20:33] and not 2026. And that resolution 2025

[20:37] dash 17 should reflect that. Um,

[20:42] this is the same thing for resolution number 20 25 18.

[20:47] um, this one is for the kansas rural fire district. Can we do

[20:51] them separately? Yes, we do need to do them separately. That's what I had asked, but

[20:55] I just wanted you to know I wasn't gonna read each separate one unless you wanted

[20:59] me to. I think you should. Okay. So it after vote

[21:05] on 2017. Okay, please. Okay.

[21:09] you have those addendums in front of you? I vote yes on addendum

[21:14] to resolution number 20 25 17.

[21:18] commissioner helm? No. Commissioner carr?

[21:22] yes. Commissioner fuller? Yes. Mr. Stanton? No.

[21:31] and I have a question. When would you ,

[21:35] uh, would you like to address that for us?

[21:40] yeah, I'm here. Um, I worked with, uh, april on this afternoon.

[21:45] uh, she had sent draft me. I didn't get a chance to review 'em until middle

[21:49] of the afternoon, so I got 'em turned around, but it was within,

[21:53] uh, it was after, it was after three o'clock this afternoon before I got turned around.

[21:57] I'm just noticing that their resolutions commissioner free date mike mics.

[22:02] I'm just noticing that these resolutions predate the fire resolution we

[22:06] just voted on and sequentially numbered.

[22:10] they're they're prior. It's because they're an addendum. They're

[22:15] an addendum to the original solution numbers. Yes. Yes. But

[22:19] they were prepared today, is that correct? Yes.

[22:24] this is after the well, I'll let legal counsel handle

[22:28] that if anything else needs to be said.

[22:35] so do you want me to read? Yeah. Read resolution 20 motion

[22:39] honor anybody? They all voted but there was no motion. There needs to

[22:43] be a motion. Right. There was no motion made. Right. I move that we receive addendum

[22:48] to resolution number 2025 dash 17. I second.

[22:52] okay. There's motion by commissioner and I'm still a yes. Second by commissioner fuller

[22:56] show of right hands for approval. Then we take the vote. Okay.

[23:01] I just said I'm still a yes. Okay. Steve

[23:06] still? No. Oh. Steve helm? No. Uh,

[23:10] still? Yes. Commissioner stanton? No. Speaking to the microphone. Not so they can hear

[23:15] you. So, addendum

[23:19] to resolution number 2025 dash 17 addendum to

[23:24] resolution number 20 25 17 of seward county, kansas. We're on

[23:28] 18. We're oh, I thought she wanted me to read it after it was approved.

[23:32] you don't, so you don't need me to read it. Okay. All

[23:36] right. I make a motion that we approve that

[23:40] thenum no, she's gonna read it first.

[23:46] yes. Yes. Okay. Addendum to

[23:50] resolution number 2025 dash 18. Addendum to resolution number

[23:55] 2025 dash 18 of seward county, kansas rule fire

[23:59] district regarding exceeding the revenue neutral rate. Whereas

[24:03] on september 15th, 2025, the seward county board

[24:07] of county commissioners passed resolution 2025 dash 18

[24:12] to approve exceeding the revenue neutral rate. Whereas through an

[24:16] inadvertent clerical oversight in several places, the resolution reflects

[24:20] tax year 2026 and whereas the board

[24:24] of county commissioners desires to clarify that resolution 2025

[24:29] dash 18 was intended and should reflect that its

[24:33] decision to exceed the revenue neutral rate applied to the current tax

[24:37] year at issue, which should have been identified as 2025.

[24:42] now therefore be it resolved by the seward county board of county commissioners

[24:47] resolution number 20 25 18 was intended. And this

[24:51] addendum shall clarify that the intent and belief

[24:55] of the board of county commissioners in voting to exceed the revenue neutral

[24:59] rate concerned the current tax year, which should be reflected

[25:03] as tax year 2025, accordingly each reference

[25:07] to tax year 2026 in resolution 2025

[25:11] dash 18 should be read as tax year 2025.

[25:16] the vote set forth below on this addendum does not

[25:20] change any commissioner's vote on the underlying decision to exceed

[25:24] revenue neutral rate, which vote is set forth on the original

[25:29] resolution 2025 dash 18, but reflects that

[25:33] the commissioner understood in attended to be voting on a decision

[25:37] to exceed the revenue neutral rate for tax year 2025

[25:41] and not 2026, and that the resolution 20 25 18

[25:46] should reflect that the addendum shall be attached to resolution 20 25 18

[25:52] upon its adoption and shall remain in effect until future action is

[25:56] taken by the seward county board of county commissioners adopted

[26:00] this 15th day of december, 2025. I move

[26:04] that we adopt addendum to resolution number 2025 dash 18

[26:09] sutherland abbott. Yes. What is there a second. Second.

[26:13] okay. There was a motion by commissioner abbott and a second by commissioner

[26:17] fuller. Yes. Steve

[26:21] helm? No. Commissioner carr. Yes.

[26:26] commissioner fuller. Yes. Commissioner stanton? No.

[26:30] can I ask a question? , we approved this budget for rule

[26:34] fire, so how do you not approve the r and r? Now?

[26:39] just a question. Thank you so

[26:44] much, commissioner abbott. You're welcome. I

[26:48] just had a question. Yeah, I we move on. I thought it was all understood as well, but

[26:54] okay. Item number five, kirk and michael update.

[26:59] and as you guys are coming, thank you so much for the gifts on a lighter note and

[27:03] the chocolate. Does anybody need some chocolate in here today? No. Okay, good. We have some chocolate

[27:07] here that we can share. Pull it out. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.

[27:13] um, steve lenahan, kirk and michael. Um,

[27:17] so today we drove road several

[27:21] roads, but uh, we drove road p we understand that, uh, there may

[27:25] be some complaints about it being a little rough, uh, after the,

[27:30] uh, base one application. Um, and that's because it's not

[27:34] finished. Uh, I got talking with mark today and,

[27:38] uh, they believe that they'll be able to, uh, finish that road, uh,

[27:43] possibly this week. So, um, hopefully any complaints on on

[27:47] the road will be, um, no longer.

[27:52] so what what'll happen is they'll just, um,

[27:56] it's, it, it did set up a little faster than, than what, uh, their previous application

[28:01] was, which was that perm zyme, uh, application. So, uh, when they

[28:05] used that base one, it did set up a little faster. So it, it is a little rougher than what

[28:09] it should have been, but it's still not done. And so what they're gonna do is they're gonna wet it,

[28:13] verify it, and then apply the, uh, surface application,

[28:17] uh, with, with the base one as it's, as it's designed to do.

[28:22] so again, hopefully that'll be, um, much smoother going

[28:26] forward. Uh, also understand that, um, mark is

[28:30] working with his operators to cut in the ditches, um, on some

[28:34] of the rural roads, um, uh, to where they have, uh,

[28:39] the ditch and have a 26 foot road. We did drive some of those, some

[28:43] of them are 24 foot wide, some are 26, some are, uh, 22

[28:48] foot wide. Uh, but ideally we'll have a 28 foot

[28:52] road with more or less a one foot shoulder, and that one foot

[28:56] will have, um, a small windrow for maintaining the,

[29:00] the crown as as needed. So, um,

[29:04] uh, along with that, we are working on an entrance policy

[29:08] that will reference some typical sections that

[29:13] will, uh, have, uh, that 28 foot

[29:17] wide road going forward so that there's no, um,

[29:22] question on size of road, how the ditch interacts, how the entrance,

[29:26] uh, going forward interacts, uh, with, with the county roads.

[29:32] um, it'll also help, uh,

[29:37] with, with that entrance policy, it will also help with developers that

[29:41] want to come in, in such as wind farms, where they're gonna install

[29:45] several different, uh, uh, entrances. Uh, they'll,

[29:49] they'll need to design it. Uh, they'll need to construct it to our, our desire,

[29:54] our, our design. So, uh, once we get that entrance policy

[29:58] ready to go, uh, it will need to come, uh, forward

[30:03] to, to the commission here. So, um, also

[30:07] along with that entrance policy, uh, I guess there is some question, um,

[30:12] as to who, who should pay for that, uh, entrance? Should

[30:16] it, who should construct it? Um, per the kansas

[30:20] statutes and what will be, uh, integrated

[30:24] into that entrance policy per kansas statute 68 dash 5 43.

[30:30] um, whenever any property owner shall request an additional culvert or new

[30:34] entrance on a county road, the culvert or new entrance

[30:38] may be installed by the county engineer and the cost charged to

[30:42] the property owner. So essentially that's just saying that, that all that cost to

[30:46] build, that, the, the culvert, the entrance, the surface,

[30:50] all that needs to go onto the, uh, property owner. Now

[30:55] they could request for the county to build it. It just, um,

[30:59] gotta have a, uh, policy in place to be able to enforce

[31:03] a, a cost onto the that property owner.

[31:08] I do have a question. I had, um, um, a citizen concern about

[31:12] apparently the county doesn't know how to dig ditches and we're messing up the

[31:16] roads. Can you address that as it, you have to be certified to dig a ditch and understand

[31:21] the, the, the, um, the dimensions of that is,

[31:25] is designed not to irritate people or just to tear up the roads because

[31:29] you have nothing better to do, but safety is always a factor.

[31:33] uh, yeah, absolutely. So, uh, we, we did go over that today.

[31:38] um, so my understanding is, um, the

[31:42] road bridge guys were, uh, were trained, got got some,

[31:46] uh, paid training, uh, a little while back on how to properly,

[31:50] uh, build ditches and, um, still

[31:54] kind of struggling with, uh, the old way of doing things

[31:59] and then the, the, the newer way of doing things. So mark's working with his guys,

[32:03] um, to, to do that. So we went on a couple roads that were done very well,

[32:08] and then a couple roads that, uh, you know, the windrow was, you know,

[32:12] way too high and it just, um, needs some,

[32:16] some work. So he's, he's continuing to, continuing to

[32:20] work with his, his staff because he was very con he was an older gentleman, he was very concerned

[32:25] that the work wasn't being done properly and he was, I guess if

[32:29] you're getting used to riding on the road wrong for so long,

[32:33] and then when it's corrected, it's like it's not right. So, so yeah.

[32:37] and hopefully, you know, with, with the typical

[32:41] sections that, that we're hoping to implement, that'll

[32:46] also show that we want, um, 28 foot road

[32:50] with more or less a 26 foot drive length and then,

[32:54] uh, drive width and then, uh, that windrow should not

[32:58] be a foot off the ground. It should only be an inch or two , and then that

[33:02] helps to, uh, bring it in and, and form that, that

[33:06] crown so he knows exactly what to do. All the operators, uh,

[33:10] I believe know exactly what to do. It's just how, how they're doing it,

[33:15] just they need to work on getting it, getting it right. Thank

[33:19] you for sharing that. Yeah, they did some practice out on tucker road.

[33:23] the reason I know, 'cause I went to the retirement party there last week, but they were telling me

[33:27] about it. So they trained out on tucker road, just west

[33:31] of the trailer parks yep. And how to cut the ditches and crown. So if you want

[33:36] to see what they're doing, go out there and look at it because it's pretty impressive

[33:40] the way they smoothed off the outside. Yeah. So inside, yeah.

[33:44] yeah. Uh, we drove that stretch as well. Um, and

[33:48] yeah, ideally that, that ditch actually extends all the way out to

[33:52] that right away instead of a small little, uh, ditch along the

[33:57] side. Um, so we did receive compliments

[34:01] on tucker road, specifically fred bloom called to

[34:05] share his, um, he said he knows that we don't get thanked

[34:10] very often or recognized for what we do, and he wanted to share that.

[34:14] well, and I would just add for commissioner fuller, the gentleman that spoke, that

[34:19] was before any of our guys that had their ditch training, so hopefully now

[34:23] they've kind of had a little practice. One thing just for administration to

[34:27] consider, um, with the culverts, uh, I have been

[34:31] talked to by several people out in the rural parts who had installed their

[34:35] own culverts years ago. Some of those have been collapsed by the county

[34:40] mowing the ditches. And so that should probably a situation where

[34:44] there would need to be some discussion about who's actually gonna, are we gonna reclaim

[34:49] those? Are we gonna replace them? Who's gonna pay for that?

[34:53] so, um, the, to put in

[34:57] the entrance, the statute, it's an existing entrance where yeah. Right,

[35:01] right. The, the owner had put their own culvert in, that was then collapsed

[35:06] by county mowing. Yeah. So going forward, the county

[35:10] does maintain that because they have to be able to maintain the ditch. So they, they

[35:14] maintain that culvert. So they've got a, so that that is, um,

[35:18] yes, the owner, uh, needs to pay for the

[35:23] construction of the entrance themselves, but going forward the county maintains that.

[35:27] and, and that's purely so that, uh, the

[35:31] county makes sure that we've got, uh, flow through the oh, no, I agree. Yeah,

[35:35] I'm just saying we may have situations where we need to work out who's gonna deal with

[35:40] something that's been collapsed mm-hmm . And that's maybe something

[35:44] mark needs to be in on deciding. Yeah.

[35:50] anything else? Okay, good.

[35:55] um, just moving on, uh, h triple r, uh, high risk

[35:59] rural roads, uh, the culver extensions on the sent cutoff, um,

[36:04] originally we were, uh, looking at doing that work, uh,

[36:08] or letting that work in in march. Um,

[36:12] have had some issues with, uh, uh, there are four

[36:17] property owners. Uh, two of them are under contract for sale, so that's really

[36:21] complicated, the appraisal, um, and, and

[36:25] the right of way acquisitions. Um, we

[36:29] do have an appraiser who, um, has,

[36:34] has come forward, said, uh, his fee would be, you know, $11,000

[36:39] and would not be able to get to it until towards the end of february. Uh, so

[36:43] we're trying to get an, an estimate of just compensation,

[36:47] uh, otherwise, 'cause like, like I said, some of those, uh, properties are for

[36:51] sale or, or, or under contract. I think, uh, one of them

[36:56] is gonna be closing, I believe this week. The other one may be as much as six

[37:00] months down the road because it's a 10 31 exchange. Uh, if we

[37:04] would to were to know what that sale price is, then I,

[37:09] we think that that might be good enough for an appraisal. Uh, I mean, 'cause

[37:13] that's the real value is who's gonna pay, who's paying for it, right. So

[37:17] we're working on that. Um, try to, trying to get, get that all

[37:21] buttoned up so that we can, uh, actually let that work in

[37:26] in may.

[37:30] um, fiscal year, 28

[37:34] h triple r applications, they are open and, uh, open till

[37:38] december 31st. Uh, we are gonna work on submitting an application

[37:43] for, uh, uh, all new signs,

[37:47] uh, east, uh, sorry, west of west, west side of the

[37:51] county. Basically everything west of 83. Uh, and that

[37:55] would be, uh, what's called systemic uh,

[38:00] modifications. And that is paid for a hundred percent by k

[38:04] kdot if, uh, we were to win that, that,

[38:08] uh, grant. So we are gonna file an application for that.

[38:12] uh, we'll see if we can, um, get that,

[38:16] uh, application approved. So that, that's all

[38:21] I had. Any questions? Any questions for

[38:25] steve? Thank you so much for all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you.

[38:31] move to item number six, tax sale update.

[38:45] evening commissioners, mary rose county treasurer

[38:49] over few staff.

[39:07] so we had the tax sale, that was friday, december 12th, 2025.

[39:12] we had, um, 28 parcels that were up on the tax sale. Um, two were

[39:16] removed, therefore we did su successfully sell 26 outta

[39:20] that tax sale. We had 62 registered, uh, qualified buyers

[39:25] and 43 of them showed up. And, um,

[39:29] I'd like to say thank you to the public because we did, uh, receive all of our bidding

[39:33] paddles back for the next sale that will be hopefully going on in january.

[39:38] um, with that, uh, we did have a total of 656,000,

[39:43] um, taxes due out of those parcels, and we did have 457,000

[39:47] in proceeds. Um, and we will be holding those proceeds at least for

[39:51] 14 days, uh, make sure everything clears and then we will be transferring them

[39:55] over to the county treasurer. I do ask tonight that,

[40:01] um, to have a vote for a specific fund or um,

[40:05] a tax sell proceed, this is where all of the money would go

[40:09] into, um, for a tax sale and that would be held. Um,

[40:13] the account, we do know the account number has been generated, um,

[40:18] due to some confusion prior to the, uh, tax sale. Um,

[40:22] I, I do need a vote to make sure when I receive those funds from the sheriff sheriff's office, the, that

[40:26] I can deposit these in those funds, um, moving forward in proceedings

[40:30] with all tax sales. So I will need a vote to, um,

[40:34] create that fund, uh, and to deposit those funds in.

[40:39] the other thing moving forward is, um,

[40:44] we are in full tax mode in the treasurer's office.

[40:48] and so on wednesday, december 10th, I did get an update from c glendale

[40:52] astrom about that tax sell. Um, they are waiting on

[40:56] me to, um, get the final accounting for the parcels that's going into that tax

[41:00] sale. Um, due to, I have not got them that

[41:04] information as of date, but that does not mean it is not coming. It's just

[41:08] I've been really busy and playing catch up from last week. We did have court proceedings,

[41:13] um, in the district court and so I did have a lot of traffic and need to address a lot of

[41:17] my constituents on that. So I have been extremely busy with that

[41:21] and the tax sale and other issues going on with, um, taking in

[41:25] the, um, collections of taxes.

[41:30] so as far as um, collections of the cbk, we are still in collections with

[41:34] that. Um, they are still proceeding forward as far as, um, doing court

[41:38] dates for people. Um, the phone call I got today was the other, um, proceedings

[41:43] will start wednesday and thursday of next week. They are sending those over for judgments as well.

[41:47] so that is with, um, the collections on personal property. So

[41:51] we are moving forward with that. Any questions about the tax sale?

[42:09] okay, so I just do need a vote to um, create that fund for,

[42:14] how'd you do those funds before though? On tax sales? So I

[42:18] was not treasurer at that point in time. I do not know how they did that. I do believe at

[42:22] that point in time that maybe sheriff handled that and then it went through district court. We're handling this

[42:26] a little bit different because we are contracted out through clinda astrom

[42:30] who, um, is um, this particular funding has mirrored

[42:35] that. And so with that being said, the instructions of how we proceed forward

[42:39] with the funding, um, was given to me. So I think prior to that it was

[42:43] through the sheriff and they handled those proceeds and then wrote the county treasurer check

[42:47] and then they put that money toward the taxes. But you've collected some, there

[42:51] was is out of the 50 or 60 parcels only 26,

[42:57] right? 26 were sold to, were remove removed and right. They only put in the next tax redeemed.

[43:02] so where did that money go to? So, um, that went on

[43:06] the tax books, the, um, delinquent county redemption delinquent taxes

[43:11] and then distributed out. Um, uh, nathan is in

[43:15] contact about some of the stuff that was redeemed, um, through district court and those funds.

[43:19] but the county's portion, like

[43:23] for the budget, the county's portion of the delinquent taxes

[43:27] that have been collected. So any tax that's collected in my office

[43:32] is then distributed out to the entities at distribution time the

[43:36] five times of the year. So if I receive those delinquent taxes in

[43:40] march, they're gonna be distributed out in may.

[43:45] is that what you're asking? It doesn't go in a holding

[43:49] fund. Like it goes in the delinquent. So you've been collecting

[43:55] for a few months now. For what? For

[43:59] personal property, for people coming in are paying up their personal property, delinquent

[44:04] personal property and about half or more of the

[44:08] last tax sale, those properties are redeem prior to

[44:13] the tax sale. And those are going into funds specifically for,

[44:17] um, delinquent taxes.

[44:23] and then those funds are then distributed out at the time of distribution.

[44:28] so the seward county distribution mm-hmm . Where's that money going

[44:32] to go to? It goes to the

[44:36] general fund. When it's distributed, it's a je it's done internally

[44:41] and it goes to the funds and then the clerk's office puts all of those funds, the money in those funds

[44:49] entry. What do you, I guess I don't understand the question.

[44:53] the funds that the county go, the funds that the money, the money that the county gets from

[44:58] distribution is done internally. It's done through a je, which is a voucher,

[45:02] and those funds are put into those, that money is put into those funds.

[45:06] that is, is that what that's where I'm, yeah. So, so I brought

[45:10] this up, right? I brought this up before. I will just make the motion rather than arguing

[45:15] about it, that the se county portion of any delinquent

[45:20] taxes from the tax sale just held last week

[45:24] or the cbk or the clinda osterman, that this,

[45:28] this county's portion, whether it be fees, interest or taxes,

[45:33] would be deposited into a,

[45:37] you know, for lack of a better word, the lan repayment fund

[45:41] account. So it goes into, they each have

[45:45] a different fund for each one. Like 6 89 is current tax, 6 94

[45:50] is delinquent. All of those fund, all of that money goes in those funds

[45:54] and then at distribution it pulls it from how much each entity is supposed to get from that.

[46:02] mary, correct me if I'm wrong, but it, those

[46:06] funds are levied. So even when we collect on a delinquent tax,

[46:12] those funds are levied and that's how you're gonna do the distribution. So I don't

[46:16] know that we can deviate from saying that all of that money needs

[46:20] to go towards the r kalin. Those

[46:24] taxes are set at budget time and those levies are set. And so when she makes

[46:28] a distribution, that's where that money has to go on the tax

[46:33] distribution. And if they're delinquent taxes, it's gonna show

[46:37] on their, um, check what year it was paid for and it's automatically

[46:41] gonna pull that over to those delinquent from that delinquent fund.

[46:50] I have a motion

[46:54] a second. I just need you to, can, can we get a legal opinion? Can we do

[46:59] this forest? Is this something we can do?

[47:06] in other words, could we create the fund steve is talking about and put the delinquent

[47:10] taxes in there? That seems to be the question. Can we actually do that ear market

[47:14] for the, for the r kaylin fund? Just earmark it. Don't have a

[47:18] special fund. What

[47:22] or either way he on there. Is there attorney forest or you on there?

[47:28] yeah, on okay. You ask your question. So

[47:33] turn it up so we can hear him. Scott, the delinquent, the,

[47:37] the county's portion, not the entire amount, the county's portion

[47:42] of the previous tax foreclosure sale,

[47:47] previous personal property collections through cbk and

[47:53] the upcoming or current clinda osterman

[47:57] real estate taxes, those collections, my motion

[48:01] was to put that into the, uh, repayment fund for

[48:05] our kalen rather than just in the general budget

[48:10] or,

[48:15] and the que and I guess I, I don't know what the, when you say

[48:19] repayment fund, is that a, is that an official fund within our budget or is that

[48:23] simply, are you using the term fund legally or just generically that

[48:27] we want to set it aside for that purpose? Earmark it.

[48:32] we have a line item in the general fund

[48:36] that is listed as money set aside

[48:41] for it. It just says, um, protested tax.

[48:45] I don't believe that. Or it, it could say

[48:49] r kaylin, but it's within the general fund. It's not

[48:53] a separate fund. It's a line item within the general fund.

[48:59] and then what then what's the question for me? So the question,

[49:03] I believe that commissioner do that well, I believe the

[49:07] question from commissioner helm is the county's portion

[49:12] of the delinquent tax. So not all taxing entities but the county's portion

[49:16] of the delinquent tax. He would, he is

[49:20] making a motion that the money that we collect on the county's portion

[49:24] of the delinquent tax, can it be set aside in that

[49:28] specific line item for repayment to the r kalin,

[49:33] um, ethanol pending case

[49:37] or does it have to be well, that, that was his question,

[49:42] correct. Did I say that right? Yes. You're not seeking

[49:46] to amend the budget, you're just saying you want to make sure that money gets set aside and

[49:51] not spent on something else. Correct. And then so I just need to

[49:56] mention that we have budget hearings and we publish the budget

[50:01] to collect tax on certain statutory authorities.

[50:06] and so when she's collecting the tax, that portion has to go into

[50:10] each one of those. Same with the city school, every taxing entity.

[50:14] so you can't levy tax for one reason and put it over here for some other reason

[50:20] and change the budget or do a transfer within your budget,

[50:24] I would imagine to do that. But in collecting taxes,

[50:28] you can't just change mid-year where you're gonna put that money that you're collecting.

[50:33] I do know that for a fact. And it's mainly, well, if I understand the question right,

[50:37] the the motion isn't to affect the money that's going to go to cities or

[50:42] school districts around the taxing entities. That money would be distributed

[50:46] to those entities. The question is, what about the tax revenue that's

[50:51] left over? That would be the county yes, correct. Correct.

[50:55] the county's portion only. So you, that will,

[50:59] it would go back, I think into the general fund and you decide how to spend

[51:03] it. Or if your, if the motion and the approval is to not spend it, then you

[51:07] would just decide that that money is not spent. If, if I understand

[51:11] it this, was there a budget item? What? Did the budget contemplate money coming

[51:16] in from the sale? No, no, no, no.

[51:20] and did you don't have a revenue item there that that already accounts for what we

[51:25] expected to get from the sale? No. Correct.

[51:31] and I guess this account is a line item within the general fund?

[51:37] that is correct. It is a line item within the general fund.

[51:47] the, if the, I think the ultimate question would be can you just,

[51:51] can you just set that money aside, the county's portion again, that's all we're talking about, is

[51:55] the, is the portion of those proceeds that, that the county will

[51:59] keep at the end of the day after everything else is distributed to the other taxing entities,

[52:04] can you simply set that aside and make sure it doesn't get spent and you can decide what

[52:08] you want to spend it on later. Your, your goal would be to spend it on the, the settlement.

[52:13] um, when, when or not settlement, the resolution of that. When,

[52:17] when there's ultimately a division. I don't see a problem with doing that. You're

[52:22] just deciding not to spend revenue to found money. Right.

[52:26] so forest, the only other thing that I wanna point out too is part of that distribution

[52:30] goes to roll fire district and part of that distribution

[52:34] goes to a mill levy that's set for road and bridge. And to me,

[52:38] we're talking about two different things, but actually it's been combined

[52:42] into one, there's a difference between the delinquent taxes collected and

[52:46] the tax sale money collected. Correct. Delinquent taxes have to go to

[52:51] wherever they were levied for. Period. Tax

[52:55] sale money is a whole different subject. Well, s

[52:59] so on the tax sale money, some of this money will go toward the

[53:03] taxes due on those parcels. And so, um, when

[53:08] the distribution is done for this tax sale, 'cause I'll have to do it separate.

[53:12] I'll have to do a separate distribution for this. I'll just withdraw

[53:16] my motion and spend the money however you want to. And we'll, about the arcade later,

[53:20] and I was just gonna say whenever I do the distribution, it'll,

[53:24] it'll just say on there, county has this amount and is

[53:28] delinquent for this amount. And then when that, when that goes into, um,

[53:33] the, I guess goes over to the clerk's off when I do the, I call it a voucher

[53:37] because it's done internally the money, but it'll tell us how much that money is

[53:41] and then I guess from there you could move it to a fund that you wish to

[53:45] put that money into to allocate it for whichever you want to.

[53:50] we would know at that point in time it is delinquent because anything after 2024

[53:54] is delinquent. Um, so it is possible to know the figure, it

[53:58] is possible to put it into a fund, but you're going to have to

[54:02] put it where, where we're supposed to go and then move it to where you want

[54:07] it to go. Does that make sense?

[54:11] so as stacia was saying, we'll do it, would do have to do a transfer? It would have to

[54:15] be as far as I know, I think we need to research. Yeah,

[54:19] but you're saying that the delinquent taxes that are collected, correct.

[54:23] or on the tax cell correct. Delinquent taxes. Yes, they are. They go towards

[54:27] that property. That property is in taxed in oh oh two mm-hmm . Which is

[54:31] sma city. So everybody lives in business city pays

[54:36] cemetery and everything else. So that money goes to those entities based

[54:40] on their budgets and their levy set for that year. Correct. Yeah, it'll

[54:44] be a separate, I mean it'll be a separate distribution to do the tax sale. Um,

[54:50] but I, I mean 'cause I don't know, I don't know

[54:55] the total ins and outs as far as, you know, what we're gonna

[54:59] have the ending dollar for the county. I don't know that until we process everything

[55:04] and we're still, you know, counsel and I are still in discussion with that. But

[55:08] steve, it is possible to move the proceeds once it's levied out,

[55:12] correct? Once it's levied out. Yes

[55:16] sir. I would think that that is plausible

[55:24] and that is why, um, what I understand from clinda, latrom is why

[55:28] they would prefer to have a totally separate fund for tax proceeds, especially for

[55:33] this, because of the steps that's gonna have to be taken to

[55:37] do the, the distribution and all the payouts and stuff.

[55:53] any other questions for mary? Still waiting on motion. I'm still waiting on

[55:57] a motion to create the tax, um, sale proceeds fund.

[56:05] I make a motion. Why is that

[56:09] necessary? I just don't understand why is it necessary? Um,

[56:13] let me see if I have that email.

[56:25] it says that it allows them to surrogate and track all redemption feess and tell proceeds

[56:29] in one place occasionally, um, that they collect the funds and they hold

[56:34] them into the general account and that they would earmark on the tax foreclosure and

[56:38] they would suggest that that not happen in this circumstance. They ask that

[56:42] treasurers try to, um, make special funds or special

[56:46] checking accounts. What do you want the

[56:50] fund called? It's the fund is called tax sale proceeds

[56:56] and all tax sale proceeds will go to that fund. That is

[57:00] correct. Is this something

[57:04] new? It is new for me and I think new for the county, like

[57:08] I said. 'cause we we're at that point in time, we're in collection of the tax sales.

[57:13] um, this is kind of the final step of where to put the money at. Um,

[57:18] so we are trying to move forward doing

[57:22] this every year and to do it every year I need to have a funds

[57:26] put in there. So sheriff and I and district court under um, agreements

[57:30] of what those funds are and they're allocated and go to the appropriated. Um,

[57:35] have you reached out to other county treasurers and see what their procedure was? The clin

[57:39] elast, um, has several county, um, and surrounding, actually they have like

[57:43] 17 in our 27 area southwest. And that is their recommendation

[57:48] in handling that. And smaller counties had created separate

[57:52] checking accounts. I don't feel like that that's a need to have a separate checking account.

[57:57] I feel like the need is to have a separate fund. Well I would make a motion that we

[58:01] create a tax seal proceeds fund or account as may be necessary

[58:05] for the clerk with all proceeds from tax sales to depo be

[58:09] deposited to said account. I would second that

[58:13] if you would amend that no funds would be spent out of that account.

[58:19] uh, I will add that amendment that funds will not be spent from the account. I don't think

[58:23] they could be.

[58:28] okay. I'll withdraw my second.

[58:34] well we just added your modification. I thought you said no. No, he he added

[58:38] I added it. He added it. Okay. So is your second back

[58:43] ? I'll take my second back then I'll make the second . Okay,

[58:47] we'll cater. There's motion by commissioner stan second by commissioner.

[58:52] helm should have right hands for approval.

[58:56] okay. Three two

[59:03] . Okay. And I do want to just let everybody know 'cause it seems to

[59:07] be some confusion, um, how the statements, the tax

[59:11] statements went out, um, that I did send out two

[59:15] emails to you guys. Commissioners. One dated 1113 of 2025

[59:19] and one dated 1125. 2025. It seems that there's

[59:23] some, um, not truthful stuff going out in the community. Um,

[59:28] we never stopped not working on statements or tax roll

[59:32] for 20 25, 20 26. And I did send that email out

[59:36] on, um, on october 31st. The

[59:40] clerk's office did give us those tax rolls from that moment on. We, um,

[59:45] did start printing on the tax rolls, which is we,

[59:49] um, printed, we bind and we put 'em in the basement november 3rd and november 4th

[59:54] from there, no, on wednesday, november 5th we started, um,

[59:58] printing state assess 1620 and personal property. Um,

[1:00:02] those went out, um, november 5th. From that we actually

[1:00:06] went out, um, we started on gas and oil. We had 12,000 statements on

[1:00:11] gas and 2000, 2,700 on oil from that. We

[1:00:15] started doing that on november 17th and the 18th

[1:00:19] we did get those printed and we finally got those mailed out.

[1:00:23] now the real estate there was, we did have some software programs. We also

[1:00:28] had several other things that happened. The software program was only on real estate

[1:00:32] and that was the way it was printing. We were waiting on

[1:00:36] a workaround from cic. We did do a workaround

[1:00:41] and print started printing those off. Um, november 19th

[1:00:45] through the 21st. From there we worked

[1:00:49] saturday and sunday we were gonna work on sunday. We worked saturday the 22nd on getting those

[1:00:53] real estate taxes out on sunday. We were gonna work, but

[1:00:58] we had a severe storm and it was lightning and raining. So we did call off

[1:01:02] on the 23rd. From there,

[1:01:08] we um, did go and we did, uh, put those in the mail on

[1:01:12] the 23rd, 24th, right before thanksgiving because

[1:01:16] we had to finish up on the 20 that monday, which was the 24th.

[1:01:21] I you have my days right? Yeah. So we mailed them on the 25th. We did take those

[1:01:25] to, we took the real estate to mead and because of the

[1:01:29] fact that we had a 24 hour turnaround, that's what we were told.

[1:01:33] um, and so the other ones did go through the city,

[1:01:38] um, postal service here in liberal. I want to let

[1:01:42] the public know that none of those were thrown away. None of those were not printed

[1:01:47] off. We printed off and stuffed every single one of those. We

[1:01:51] also mailed those out and we did not do that to,

[1:01:55] um, make sure that people would come in our office to fill out voter forms. So all of it went

[1:01:59] out per statute. It had to be postmarked by december 15th. And from

[1:02:03] there we did do that. Why was, uh, not included on the

[1:02:07] statements that you could pay 'em online? Nowhere on there. Does it say

[1:02:12] that? And you can, I don't, I don't know why it's not on there. Some of that has

[1:02:16] to do with the fact there's not enough room to put everything

[1:02:20] on there. Um, some treasures have gone to print it on the envelopes.

[1:02:24] some treasures have gone to put sticky stuff on the envelopes. Um, it

[1:02:29] just, it's not on there and it's not just our county that uses that software program.

[1:02:34] so with that being said, we did start accepting payment on the first.

[1:02:39] all of the postage that was done through the post office, um,

[1:02:43] has to be verified and therefore they scanned that. And

[1:02:47] so when the real estate went out and I took the 20,000,

[1:02:52] um, parcel, the pieces of of mail to the post office, they have

[1:02:56] to verify that and they have to email or give us a, a

[1:03:00] like a scan bar back saying, we verified this is how many pieces of mail we got.

[1:03:04] so I want the public to know that that is, um, the, the, um, the truth

[1:03:08] behind that. We did have some, a little bit of issues, but it was on real estate

[1:03:13] and we did have a workaround normally, um, we always get

[1:03:17] 'em out before thanksgiving, so we didn't do anything that was outta the unordinary

[1:03:22] to do that. Is there any questions about that?

[1:03:27] so what was the issue with the worker? So on the real estate, they

[1:03:31] were printing, it was double printing. Um, the,

[1:03:35] uh, legal, it was double printing the, um, what was taxed

[1:03:39] on there. And so normally what would happen is you would download it to

[1:03:44] pdf and then you would save it and then start printing from there. Because due

[1:03:48] the printers and stuff, we could only do 2000 at a time and then let the printers cool down.

[1:03:53] so the workaround was don't pdf it, you have to go in, pull

[1:03:57] up the software and tell it, let it completely load, and then you have to go

[1:04:01] from what page you wanna print to what page you wanna print. And that was the workaround. And

[1:04:05] so the pdf was not able to be used on the real estate

[1:04:12] and that was the way that they said it would stop from printing the double lines

[1:04:17] of the mill levy and the, the legal, just everything that was

[1:04:21] in the middle of the real estate. It was a double lining it.

[1:04:28] so what, what, what, what is the purpose of the blue sheet and the memo that you put on

[1:04:32] the on for people paying their taxes and protests under

[1:04:37] something that's in litigation right now? I I don't understand who gave you the, what gives

[1:04:41] you the authority to do that? Okay, so I'm glad you brought that up.

[1:04:49] so whenever the tax year started,

[1:04:53] we had, um, discussion within the community about the payment under protest.

[1:04:58] this is our payment under protest application. Normally we do these on white paper

[1:05:02] this year because we found out that the, um, constituents

[1:05:07] of s county, um, were going to be doing illegal mill levy, which

[1:05:11] I had never heard of before. I decided that we needed to get our

[1:05:15] I's dotted and our t's crossed. Okay, so I'm gonna get there

[1:05:19] just one moment. You said I decided who

[1:05:24] said who? You you just said I decided who's over you. What,

[1:05:28] who, who do you I decided what you just said. I decided

[1:05:32] to, I was, I decided to call board of tax appeals.

[1:05:37] so we decided that we were gonna use two different forms. This is where

[1:05:41] I was going with that. We decided that to use the yellow one, which

[1:05:45] goes to the county appraisers and then the blue one was gonna

[1:05:49] go to the county treasure. We wanted to see what kind of paper we

[1:05:54] had in stock so we didn't have to charge any more money to the taxpayer.

[1:05:59] talking to the accounting appraiser, I said, are you okay with

[1:06:03] blue being the illegal melody levy and yellow being the valuation?

[1:06:07] and she said, I think that would be perfect. So then I called board of tax appeals

[1:06:12] and I said, I need to know all of the ins and outs, what I need to do because

[1:06:16] the county treasurer is in charge of this part. The illegal

[1:06:20] mill levy up on that discussion, I asked them

[1:06:24] about this. Who's decided? It said illegal mill

[1:06:28] levy. That's, that's my word too. It says it on there. But who made that?

[1:06:33] who decided that it was, that you can make that claim. It's a state, it's a

[1:06:37] state form. Any taxpayer can file that form. It's on

[1:06:41] boda. Right, right or wrong. They can file it. It's not what we're asking. That's not so, okay.

[1:06:45] I misunderstood. Okay. So, so decided. It's already an illegal,

[1:06:49] it hasn't even been decided by boda, whether it, so I don't, I'm

[1:06:54] abiding to what the constituents are asking for. They asked for the illegal

[1:06:58] vy. My office is, is for resources. So

[1:07:03] I printed this off, put it on the webpage. Everything

[1:07:07] else I didn't know it was, I called boda. I've talked to them.

[1:07:12] when I was talking to them, I asked them if

[1:07:16] I noticed. We went through the whole sheet, one line for line what,

[1:07:20] how to fill it out, what I needed to do. They told me that

[1:07:24] the um form had to be notarized.

[1:07:28] I said, is it a conflict of interest that my office, notarizes or

[1:07:33] anybody of the county notarizes it? They said, absolutely not. I said, is

[1:07:37] it a conflict of interest if my office helps fill this out? And they said, absolutely not,

[1:07:41] because you also do the payment under protest. I said, okay. So we

[1:07:45] got through that. Then after that, I started having people come in and

[1:07:49] I asked them. Then I said, I have people coming in that has,

[1:07:55] has stuff that they wanna put on there. I said, what is it that I need to

[1:07:59] do? And I said, would you accept a label? And she said,

[1:08:03] yes, we would accept a label. I said, may I send it to you and you look over it and tell me

[1:08:07] if that's acceptable. Now I am in contact with boda

[1:08:11] every single day this week. So five days out of the week, I am am in contact with

[1:08:15] correspondence or a phone call with them. There is nowhere on this,

[1:08:20] this label that it has the opinion of the treasurer nor the opinion

[1:08:24] or recommendation of the county treasurer or the county.

[1:08:29] my office is simply re giving them resources. The dis the

[1:08:33] comment was made if the

[1:08:38] taxpayer paid for this. I can't even believe

[1:08:42] that that was even a comment or a question. Because the taxpayer pays

[1:08:46] for all of this, all of the resources, everything that is done here

[1:08:50] is done with all of this. Whether it be evaluation or an illegal

[1:08:54] melody. And it's a service that we provide.

[1:08:59] I'm sorry, were just asking, I'm sorry. We decided it was illegal. That, that word,

[1:09:03] because this had, did you talk while you were talking to voter? Five days a week.

[1:09:07] are they aware that we are in litigation right now? Yes. And so, and they, and

[1:09:11] you're saying to me that they approved you putting labels on things and

[1:09:15] allowing the citizen, no, I'm not putting them. The citizen is at their discretion to

[1:09:20] put this or put that on their own words. If they choose to do that,

[1:09:24] then that's up to them. This is not saying you need to put

[1:09:28] it on there. This is not saying, let me give this to you and tell you what it says.

[1:09:32] this is just saying it's there if you would like to use it or if you would like to

[1:09:36] use the verbiage, because I don't know what's all going out there, but here's what I have.

[1:09:40] but you're not discouraging it. It's almost as if you're insinuating. How

[1:09:45] do you know I'm not discouraging it, provide it for 'em. I'm being asked questions about it.

[1:09:49] that is not true. I have told them that if they choose not to fill

[1:09:53] out the illegal mill levy, that illegal.

[1:09:58] that's what it says on it. What's the title of the form? Just so everybody understands that. Where

[1:10:02] did you get the statement that you are putting on the label for everybody

[1:10:06] to put it on there. 'cause they don't have to if they

[1:10:10] choose to. Not to. She said where did you get that statement

[1:10:14] from? It was a statement that was given. Who?

[1:10:19] who? Who gave, who asked you? The constituents did. Who's

[1:10:23] the constituents? The people that vote me in

[1:10:30] my office is in charge of making sure that they have all the resources available.

[1:10:35] by no means is this a persuasion. By no means is that,

[1:10:39] but it is. If they wish to use this, they may. Yes. You're

[1:10:43] testing it. So here you go. I mean, to me, if they needed to ask for it, they should

[1:10:47] ask for it. And they have that opportunity. They have

[1:10:51] that opportunity. The board of tax

[1:10:55] appeals. I understood. How is that any different than filling

[1:11:00] out this p form? I understand that forms aren't

[1:11:04] even being filled out. Allowed. County appraiser, they are

[1:11:08] being filled out. We've had several. These are being filled out.

[1:11:14] they're not filled out. They're not completing the form in its

[1:11:18] entirety. They're just signing their name and turning it into her. She has no idea what they're, so

[1:11:22] we have have, we have copies of these that are taken and we also have the stuff that has to be given to

[1:11:27] them before we give this to the county appraiser. These are being filled

[1:11:31] out, these are being filled out. They're being filled out in my office per statute

[1:11:35] and they are being sent to the appropriate person. I have not had

[1:11:39] any complaints, nor have I had anything that said what we were doing

[1:11:44] was wrong. It would be no different than me giving them

[1:11:48] a pen to fill out the form

[1:11:52] or the paper to do it. Well it was brought

[1:11:56] to us today by said constituents who were concerned about

[1:12:01] the form. Are you gonna tell us who those people are? No. 'cause you guys aren't willing to tell yours either.

[1:12:05] so, oh, you guys now? Mm-hmm . Okay, let's move on. Um,

[1:12:09] I think ahead. Let's move on. Oh gosh.

[1:12:13] so that's where we're at with that. Any other questions?

[1:12:23] okay, that is it. Thank you. Move to item number seven

[1:12:27] and we need to bring this back from the table. Sir, is there a motion to bring it off

[1:12:31] the table? Bring what off the table. The property casualty. Uh, move to revisit

[1:12:35] the item we tabled at the last commission meeting involving, um,

[1:12:40] property and casualty and workman's comp. Okay,

[1:12:44] all second. Okay. There's a motion by commissioner stanton, second

[1:12:49] by commissioner out show of right hands for approval. What are we doing? Revisiting

[1:12:53] the insurance again. Okay, five and oh,

[1:13:02] I need a drink. I need

[1:13:06] a drink of water. I don't drink y'all. I'm so sorry. 'cause I always say no to alcohol, but this

[1:13:10] is just, it's just so intense right now. I apologize. I'm so outta order.

[1:13:14] just pray for me. Thank you, ms.

[1:13:19] april. Lord have mercy.

[1:13:24] thank you so much. You're very welcome.

[1:13:31] commissioners. We held a work session earlier today. I end

[1:13:35] response to the item being tabled. I did not have additional questions from commissioners

[1:13:40] regarding questions that they wanted to ask. There were questions that

[1:13:44] staff reviewed this week. I did have the opportunity to visit with k work and

[1:13:48] kc camp while at kac this week to get some answers to

[1:13:52] the questions. Uh, we went over,

[1:13:56] um, those today. You do have representatives here from iron

[1:14:00] insurance partners and do you also have a k work representative

[1:14:05] in the audience? I don't think anybody from k

[1:14:09] oh honor, we do not have a kc camp representative,

[1:14:13] but, uh, the gentleman has been answering questions by, ken

[1:14:17] has been answering questions by text today. If you had anything else

[1:14:22] that you needed to ask this evening. Um, so I will turn this item over

[1:14:26] to the commissioners. Did

[1:14:30] we cover all the questions this afternoon? I couldn't hear everything. Uh,

[1:14:35] I think there's probably a couple. If k work,

[1:14:39] we could ask you a couple questions.

[1:14:47] I, how you doing, steven? Good. I

[1:14:51] think one of the questions was that possibly key work didn't use a mod

[1:14:55] rate, a pardon me? A mod rate. I I think we mod

[1:15:00] um, did you use it in your bid? Uh, I, I think we

[1:15:04] used what you provided on, on, on what we had

[1:15:10] on the mod reading. We find the form for you guys to be able to

[1:15:14] obtain our mod reading. Right. Um, from, but as far as it being

[1:15:19] included in the bid that it's right there on the back. I think, I think it was okay. One point, it was

[1:15:23] six, so there was, or 1.45. Sorry. Okay. Yeah, it's

[1:15:27] printed on the back of the form with the itemization of the bid. I got their new one. That's

[1:15:31] okay. It's on the back of this page april

[1:15:43] and it's on there.

[1:15:49] yeah, I believe it was.

[1:15:54] okay. Mm-hmm .

[1:16:32] is there any other questions that we had? Okay.

[1:16:40] okay, good. Thank you. Commissioners.

[1:16:47] so I got a question for iron horse. We have turned in a list

[1:16:52] of vehicles to go to liability only

[1:16:57] if there's a certain year of value. Correct? We turned it in

[1:17:01] and we never got, I guess it was never

[1:17:06] inserted or approved or the, the way, the

[1:17:10] way I understand it may be, uh, well you had a conversation earlier this week,

[1:17:15] katie taylor with iron insurance. So what you are referring to, I believe

[1:17:19] is at last year's renewal, you requested that any vehicles below

[1:17:23] a certain value that's correct. Were to be removed. Those were removed.

[1:17:28] so that has been completed at last meeting. There was some question as to

[1:17:32] some, um, equipment that you wanted reviewed. We have removed that as well,

[1:17:36] but only from that date that we were instructed to do so. Okay. Okay.

[1:17:42] I thought we decided that some of the vehicles, the older vehicles had not been, well,

[1:17:46] I believe there may have been an additional two to three vehicles that were also

[1:17:50] removed at that time that we reviewed the equipment because they did go over everything. There just weren't

[1:17:54] a lot of vehicles to remove at that point. Okay.

[1:17:59] alright.

[1:18:03] is there any other questions that we had?

[1:18:23] any other questions? I know we discussed the rental

[1:18:28] coverage with about kkm. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm happy

[1:18:32] to answer any questions if commissioners have additional questions.

[1:18:42] I know they had a question about if a, um, a, a piece of equipment is

[1:18:46] disabled or destroyed and, um, if it need to, if the county

[1:18:51] would have to, um, rent that, um, piece of equipment until something

[1:18:55] is found on somewhere. Mm-hmm .

[1:18:59] who covers that cost and is, I know we cover the cost, but is it reimbursed and up

[1:19:03] to how much? So k camp's answer

[1:19:07] to brock when he had that discussion with them was that they

[1:19:12] would work on that with us to see that specifically in a policy.

[1:19:16] I don't know that we saw that, um, specifically in a

[1:19:20] policy. And I don't katie or are you guys able to answer that on

[1:19:24] behalf of iron insurance? I don't.

[1:19:31] there can be in certain policies, coverage for, uh,

[1:19:35] providing rental, uh, in the event something, uh, comes,

[1:19:40] uh, inoperable. So I mean that is an available, uh,

[1:19:44] coverage in, in most particular policies. So is that something that you

[1:19:48] normally see or nor normally write business for and is there a dollar amount?

[1:19:52] um, because the, the compactor I think was $20,000 a day. Yeah.

[1:19:57] what is the, the, the dollar limit and is there a cap on it? So it, there, there

[1:20:01] can be a cap and, and that is what we have. We would have to decide what we would want that

[1:20:05] limit to be. Uh, there's no standardized limit. We can buy as, we

[1:20:09] can buy up to a certain amount or buy down to a certain amount. That would be a discussion

[1:20:13] item that you'd wanna have as we go through the process of, of determining how important

[1:20:17] that coverage is, what the cost of that coverage is, and then what you think you would need in the

[1:20:21] event. So currently it is not included in the policy. I

[1:20:25] I don't have the policy in front of me, uh, todd. But, uh, typically we, we would see

[1:20:30] coverage, uh, in the event of a claim, uh, providing some coverage for,

[1:20:34] uh, replacing equipment in a temporary basis. So,

[1:20:38] so there's that. Um, like I'm just thinking about my own personal,

[1:20:43] um, insurance. If someone runs into me or whatever, and I

[1:20:47] pay my deductible, that impacts my premium. This in two, will this impact

[1:20:51] the premium amount? Well, I will tell you that, so you, if you talk about

[1:20:55] a rental coverage on your vehicle, right? You have to opt in for that coverage to have rental and towing

[1:21:00] and those kind of things. And yes, it would have an impact on the premium. So when you add coverage,

[1:21:04] you're going to, you're going to potentially add to the cost of the insurance

[1:21:08] now, albeit marginal because the likelihood of some of those types of things happening may

[1:21:13] be smaller than than others. And so it's, uh, it's gonna be relative to the

[1:21:17] exposure.

[1:21:21] jeff, you have a question on non-insured, steve, non-insured

[1:21:26] drivers. So the unin,

[1:21:30] uninsured motorist, that's just for medical, correct? So

[1:21:34] uninsured motorists or underinsured motorists sometimes this is called is, is designed

[1:21:38] to pick up not only medical, but also physical, physical damage. So like

[1:21:42] on your personal policy as an example, you have uninsured underinsured. So

[1:21:46] if the uninsured or underinsured doesn't have enough coverage to repair your vehicle

[1:21:51] or give you something of like, kind and quality, that will pay for that as well. It

[1:21:55] will also affect if you have, uh, issues, medical issues of, of medical

[1:21:59] payment. So now in the state of kansas, pip coverage is the, the first dollar

[1:22:03] coverage that pays in the event of medical needs.

[1:22:11] there's a limit on that. There, there is like, uh, like the limit,

[1:22:15] uh, for pip coverage in the state of kansas. 27.5 is the most you can buy. Yeah. Mm-hmm

[1:22:19] .

[1:22:25] anything else for me? I'm good. Thank

[1:22:30] you.

[1:22:36] you want him deal? You want him to deal with these separately? Yeah, it'll

[1:22:41] be two separate. It'll be the workman's comp and then casualty.

[1:22:45] so

[1:22:54] put it out the commissioners. I mean

[1:22:58] there was some motion out there.

[1:23:17] well, if no one else is speaking, I will make a motion that we accept

[1:23:21] the policy offered by k work, uh, covered by their cover

[1:23:26] letter dated november 19th, 2025.

[1:23:32] that is for the workman's comp. Okay.

[1:23:51] is there a second?

[1:23:56] I'll second it so we can vote on it. Okay.

[1:24:02] any other discussion?

[1:24:08] I, I just like to add from our discussion today that this

[1:24:12] is a pool and that um, if it doesn't work, it's

[1:24:16] not as easy to withdraw out of the pool and go back to what we had. I

[1:24:20] just want that you to be very mindful of that. Um,

[1:24:25] it's good that we can save money, but sometimes saving money means spending more money than

[1:24:29] you anticipated. That's all I wanna say about that. Well, there's no guarantee that

[1:24:33] your current carrier will renew you next year either.

[1:24:38] I call okay.

[1:24:42] show a right answer for approval

[1:24:48] passes. We'll go with k. Work for work's comp. Mm-hmm .

[1:24:56] property casualty. Three, two. Liability.

[1:25:02] the two women didn't vote for it, the two women did not vote

[1:25:06] for it. Have there been any modifications to the original k camp proposal or is

[1:25:10] it as written? As written?

[1:25:26] I will make a motion that we accept the policy proposed by k camp,

[1:25:30] um, apparently unmodified as covered

[1:25:34] by their cover letter dated november 19th, 2025.

[1:25:52] I will second it again so we can vote on it

[1:25:56] any further discussion.

[1:26:12] okay. Two a right answers approval.

[1:26:25] okay. Nose.

[1:26:29] wow. Okay. Is there any other

[1:26:34] motions out there? I

[1:26:46] we accept 2026 property

[1:26:50] casual liability proposal from

[1:26:57] fire I second

[1:27:01] motion by commissioner abbott to set the iron horse proposal.

[1:27:07] it's just iron. Just iron? Okay. I don't know where to

[1:27:11] get the horse. I want to say horse too . So I think it's oil fields. So it's,

[1:27:15] it goes together for the 2026 property casualty

[1:27:19] and liability. Show that there's a second. Are there

[1:27:23] a second by me? Mm-hmm . Are there concerns about the cost we're incurring here?

[1:27:30] I mean, the discussion we had prior to bringing the other company in to

[1:27:34] make a bid was concern over the cost. And we're somewhere

[1:27:39] approaching double, I

[1:27:43] mean, workman's comp. Wait, I mean, we're already in a, a budget mess. That's just

[1:27:47] beyond belief.

[1:28:00] I mean, I also worry about coverage too. Well, we have 80, 85

[1:28:05] counties, 105 counties in kansas. Five of the self insure,

[1:28:09] 85 of the remaining a hundred are using this group.

[1:28:13] and there have been I think some minor issues here and there, but

[1:28:17] nothing substantive.

[1:28:21] it's a huge amount of money. I mean somewhere over two

[1:28:26] mills.

[1:28:31] and, and, and I would just point out that that's the two mills we're gonna have to find somewhere.

[1:28:35] come january I gained .

[1:28:40] well, I wasn't finished speaking so maybe you could give it 30 seconds.

[1:28:45] um,

[1:28:49] that's funny also, I assume well good for you.

[1:28:53] you were just downloaded. Just go your way. You don't get to

[1:29:08] any other discussion. Okay. Show a right answer

[1:29:12] to approval. Three email.

[1:29:19] okay. Thank you.

[1:29:24] item number eight, cip approved mower.

[1:29:36] wow.

[1:29:48] good evening. Commissioners. Um, back when we did our budget

[1:29:52] in 2025, I was approved to,

[1:29:56] uh, to pick up a mower. A 72 inch cut.

[1:30:01] I got three bids. Uh, the first one was

[1:30:05] with apds and sublet. And it's a

[1:30:09] 72 inch and it's a 2026. And they, we

[1:30:13] have a, uh, a bad boy maverick that we bought back

[1:30:17] in 2018 and it's seven years old. And,

[1:30:21] uh, they gave offered us 2000 for a trade-in on

[1:30:25] that, which made it 9,000 710 0 8.

[1:30:32] we looked online and got a quote from bad boy mowers of

[1:30:36] salina and there's come to $13,049.

[1:30:42] and then we went to keating tractor. They had a 2025 john

[1:30:46] deere 72 inch cut, no trade in.

[1:30:50] it was used, it had one hour on it. Warranty was

[1:30:54] 36 months, or 12 one 1,200

[1:30:58] hours. And it was quoted at 1,700

[1:31:05] and I mean 17,000. And then with the 10% government

[1:31:09] discount, it come to 15,300. And, uh,

[1:31:14] up here when we did the bad boy with sublet, I'm sorry, they,

[1:31:18] uh, it was warranty on the engine three years and warranty on the mower for

[1:31:22] two years. And, um,

[1:31:26] if you guys to prove this, my choice would be the bad

[1:31:31] boy and sublet

[1:31:35] I move that we received out of the cip account approved,

[1:31:40] um, recommendation for the a pd from

[1:31:44] sublet in the amount of $9,710 and 8 cents

[1:31:48] for the event center for the 72 inch cut mower

[1:31:53] that was budgeted in 2025 cipa

[1:31:58] second to come outta county fund 3 3 0 dash 0 0 5 4 8 0.

[1:32:04] I second that. So did we get rid

[1:32:09] of a couple mowers? Do what? Yes, we did. We got rid of those on our,

[1:32:13] uh, auction that we had. And then we have two other mowers

[1:32:17] and they are a, um, a cadet and a hustler

[1:32:21] and they were purchased in 2 20 20 and 2022.

[1:32:26] and those are 60 inch inch cuts. And we wanted to go a 72

[1:32:31] this way we can use it around the rodeo area, the grandstand area back in that

[1:32:35] area, which we have a lot of mowing. And then we have the pastures on

[1:32:39] the west and then of the west of the event center. We do that. And then

[1:32:43] we have those pastures out there around behind k state and all that.

[1:32:47] so we just figured that a 72 inch cut would help us get the work done just

[1:32:51] a little bit quicker. So this will result

[1:32:55] in three working mowers. Do

[1:32:59] what steve? This will result this, this purchase will give you

[1:33:04] three. That's all the, all the mowers you have is three working mowers? Yes. Mm-hmm

[1:33:08] . No junk mowers sitting around or? Well,

[1:33:12] we do have a grasshopper that we've been working on trying to get it to run.

[1:33:17] some days it runs, some days it don't, but we're still working on it, so.

[1:33:22] okay. I didn't wanna say uncle yet. ,

[1:33:30] does anybody have experience with this brand? I don't. Yeah. Bad boy. Yeah,

[1:33:34] I know a couple people that have them. She come for

[1:33:38] bad boy, bad boy. They're

[1:33:42] made kansas, aren't they? Uh, I don't know where they're made that, but I know a couple people

[1:33:46] that do that been reliable.

[1:33:51] so you're gonna get it rid at the grasshopper if you get this one then if we have another

[1:33:56] auction. No. If you get, if you get this more, you're gonna auction that grasshopper

[1:34:00] off there. Yes. If we do. Yeah. While it's running. The grasshopper

[1:34:04] is, I'm, I mean that's really oat, but we

[1:34:08] sort of liked it real well, so we thought we'd work on it a little bit, but it's

[1:34:12] a little rough riding, driving mowing sounding. So

[1:34:18] there's a motion by commissioner abbott. Is there a second by question? Mm-hmm .

[1:34:24] any further discussion? Okay. Show of right hands for approval.

[1:34:29] okay. Thank you ms. Linda, do you want, are you good? I'm sorry.

[1:34:33] huh? I was saying thank you. You have oh, I was, thank you too. I appreciate that.

[1:34:38] and I don't know if I'll see you guys again, but you all have a merry christmas. Okay.

[1:34:42] merry christmas to you as well. Thank you. Item number nine, grant acceptance.

[1:34:47] andrew barkley.

[1:34:58] good evening commissioners. Andrew bark, lucer county fire chief, come before you this

[1:35:03] evening requesting permission to accept a grant

[1:35:07] from the anderson corporation foundation. Um, they're involved in

[1:35:11] some grain facilities here in se county. Um,

[1:35:15] in the amount of $6,000, the money is to be

[1:35:20] used. Basically, they'll, they'll award us it's $3,000

[1:35:24] grant. They're gonna give us 6,000 'cause they've identified two

[1:35:28] locations in ser county that we protect. And that money will be used for grain

[1:35:32] bin rescue equipment. And the there are stipulations to

[1:35:36] the grant. They will tell us where we go purchase that stuff. And

[1:35:40] so I just need your permission to allow me to

[1:35:44] accept it when it arrives and purchase where they

[1:35:49] identify I need to purchase. I move that we accept the $6,000

[1:35:53] grant from the andersons and appreciate it very much and thank them.

[1:35:57] I second. It won't cost any more than 6,000.

[1:36:03] no. Commissioner, just, just ask. And skyland

[1:36:08] elevator is the one that correct? They're the ones that facilitated this

[1:36:12] grant. Okay.

[1:36:18] okay. There was a motion by commissioner abbott to accept the grant of $6,000

[1:36:22] accept by commissioner fuller. Mm-hmm . Show of righthand for approval, I

[1:36:26] believe. Thank you commissioners. Thank you. Chief barkley.

[1:36:31] item number 10, sewer county fights addiction fund grid. Kayla

[1:36:35] jenko.

[1:36:42] you brought . Hi. Good, good evening commissioners. Kayla jenko with some on

[1:36:46] basin community corrections. Chelsea draw state juvenile corrections and prevention

[1:36:51] services and we invited school resource officer

[1:36:56] kevin ano commissioners. We wanted to

[1:37:00] give you an update on what we've been doing with the grant funds that we received from the opiate funds.

[1:37:05] um, just a small rundown, I did attach it to the memo.

[1:37:09] we did purchase 14 a ed units for the seward county sheriff's department to put into their

[1:37:13] units. Um, we also purchased the, uh, fatal

[1:37:17] vision equipment for the school resource officers to use in the school districts.

[1:37:21] and the officer will explain to you a little bit more about that is very

[1:37:26] interesting and in depth of what was it's utilized for, for the juvenile.

[1:37:30] and we purchased some prevention posters and stuff for the youth to be placed in the school

[1:37:35] districts as well, for information to, um, get

[1:37:39] their knowledge up to speed of what the narcotics and stuff can

[1:37:43] do to them. So then we also purchased two thermo scientific

[1:37:47] true narcan handheld devices for the sierra county sheriff's department to have in their units

[1:37:51] if they needed that out in the field. And then we also provide, uh, purchased some drug

[1:37:56] testing supplies for the youth, um,

[1:38:01] myself along with the school resource officers at liberal police department.

[1:38:05] um, we now do monthly staff meetings. And with

[1:38:09] the fatal vision, they've been keeping us up to date of the different

[1:38:14] times that they've used it with the school, with the youth in the schools. And I thought

[1:38:18] it would be pretty interesting to have kevin talk about it and,

[1:38:23] um, let you guys know if, how well it's going.

[1:38:28] so the equipment is pretty interesting. Uh, 1993, a man named michael aguilar.

[1:38:34] uh, I believe he was living in wisconsin at the time. He came home from a business meeting

[1:38:38] after work and, uh, arrived at home. Uh, just to find

[1:38:42] out that five minutes before he came home, his five-year-old son david,

[1:38:46] uh, had almost been struck by a drunk neighbor that had veered

[1:38:50] off from the road, uh, missed his son david, but actually hit his,

[1:38:54] uh, his friend that he was playing with in, in, in the yard, tyler, and hospitalized him

[1:38:59] for a week. Uh, this impacted michael greatly. And so, uh, three years later

[1:39:03] in 1996, he started a company called in a corp limited. Uh, that's

[1:39:07] where the fatal vision products come from. So it's about next year it'll be about

[1:39:11] 30 years of development on this, uh, technology. Um, we've seen,

[1:39:15] just like with anything else, uh, proper education in our communities can

[1:39:19] make a difference. It's not the end all be all, no product is. Um, but

[1:39:24] you know, we see the fire departments making great education efforts in the

[1:39:28] schools and therefore over the last 50 years, that has contributed

[1:39:32] to zero deaths for fire related incidents for students

[1:39:36] in the school buildings. I wish that was the same, unfortunately for school

[1:39:40] shootings and other things, but that's what we're working on. So, um, we've begun

[1:39:45] educating the kids in school. We, we show them the statistics and

[1:39:49] that's about what we can do. We give them, uh, examples of even local

[1:39:54] tragedies that we've had. Uh, in the early 2000 tens, kansas was averaging about

[1:39:58] a hundred dui fatalities a year. It is a problem even in our state

[1:40:02] and even in our, in our county, in our city. And so this kind of education

[1:40:07] will help these kids, uh, give second thought, uh,

[1:40:11] to getting behind the wheel of a vehicle while impaired. Uh,

[1:40:15] we've seen over the last years now it's not just alcohol related

[1:40:19] duis, we're seeing that 50% of the duis, uh, that are

[1:40:23] happening are a mixture of alcohol and a bunch of other substances

[1:40:28] that, um, unfortunately people are abusing. And so, uh, with this type of

[1:40:32] education that we're bringing to the schools, we did, we rolled out our first

[1:40:36] demonstration for the cadets who're actually meeting right now. Every monday night they meet

[1:40:40] at the ag building. And so we had a group about 50 cadets that we got to

[1:40:44] do a live demonstration for. And they were our test subjects for, uh,

[1:40:48] the educational materials. And so we're gonna start rolling them out, uh, at the beginning

[1:40:53] of this next year, uh, for the middle schools and the high school and, uh,

[1:40:57] wherever else we can. Thank you. Appreciate your work. Thank you.

[1:41:03] are there any questions in regards to the opiate funds? We still have

[1:41:07] a balances of $29,512 and 29 cents in this account.

[1:41:11] I do have a question. Um, are we, um, is there anything that you can

[1:41:15] do in reference to vaping, um, getting information

[1:41:19] on that? 'cause the kids are finding really smart ways to camouflage,

[1:41:24] um, and it's really detrimental to them and they, they think it's cool, but they, they they're really killing themselves,

[1:41:28] correct? Absolutely. Um, so we did purchase some posters and stuff and I'll

[1:41:33] let chelsea talk about that. Um, as of right now, the only prevention that we've

[1:41:37] done as far as vaping and, and are you talking specifically nicotine vaping?

[1:41:41] um, because we also have thc vaping that is kevin

[1:41:45] can talk about that is very prevalent in our schools as well.

[1:41:49] um, as of right now, I just have the posters. However, I am more than willing

[1:41:53] to look into any additional prevention ma matters that I

[1:41:58] can to try to address that. Um, I know that

[1:42:02] once the youth receive the charges and they are placed on supervision with us

[1:42:06] at j caps, we do have different programs, but that's once they've already received charges

[1:42:11] and this whole effort was to try to be on a preventative level mm-hmm

[1:42:15] . Um, so I am more than willing to look into any other,

[1:42:19] um, preventative options as far as vaping specifically. Um,

[1:42:24] I can't guarantee that there will be as much on

[1:42:28] nicotine. There will probably be more on the thc just based off

[1:42:32] of what we've seen. But I can still definitely look into it and pursue that.

[1:42:37] I know that, um, there are containers for,

[1:42:41] to disregard, um, discard drugs and, um,

[1:42:45] containers. Um, for, um, you go to the library, you

[1:42:49] can just throw your library book in there. I, I would think something really cool

[1:42:53] and informative and just kind of help the children think and skip the vape

[1:42:58] and just, you know, anonymously discard it and, and

[1:43:02] just help them to continue to educate. They have so much of their

[1:43:06] future ahead of them. And this is just another thing that seems to be really

[1:43:10] cool, but it's deadly. So I'm just thinking it's something as,

[1:43:14] um, I know, um, barbara bush, I'm dating myself, say, just

[1:43:18] say no, but just something that will just help them think and

[1:43:22] have a place where those things can be discarded. Whether it's all, I don't know whether the school

[1:43:27] district would allow it to be on campus or, um, somewhere in the library

[1:43:31] where it's, you know, something to kinda get that out of their hands. 'cause they know

[1:43:35] how to hide stuff. You know, you have to all remember us, we were all teenagers. We did

[1:43:39] stuff that, and when you say don't do something, it just, it's enticing to them. You

[1:43:43] know.

[1:43:49] any other questions? Thank you so much for all that you do. Thank you. And spending those funds

[1:43:53] wisely to educate and protect our community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:44:00] move to item number 11, security camera system admin building. Clayton

[1:44:05] hoover.

[1:44:13] good evening commissioners. Clayton hoover with the it department.

[1:44:18] earlier this year we had, uh, proposed a

[1:44:23] quote for some security camera upgrades and some access control as

[1:44:27] well as the panic buttons from ada. And it was, uh,

[1:44:31] quite a bit pricey. Mm-hmm . So, uh, we kind of scrapped that

[1:44:35] and just kind of went back to the drawing board. And I know, um,

[1:44:39] simon has put a lot of work into doing a lot of the research. He kind of took the lead on

[1:44:43] this, but, uh, what we have for you on

[1:44:47] the security camera system, just for the admin building, um,

[1:44:52] since this is the oldest camera system, basically we have, it's,

[1:44:56] I've been here 14 years and it was here when I got here. So , the admin building

[1:45:00] security cameras, have a lot of age on 'em. And we have right now

[1:45:05] I think four cameras that are, that are down. Um,

[1:45:10] so the, uh, quote we've got was for

[1:45:14] a unified camera, camera system. So it's going to be,

[1:45:19] uh, basically the same hardware as what the, the

[1:45:23] tta project was, uh, quoting out as

[1:45:27] far as the cameras go. Uh, I know a

[1:45:31] couple of commissioners had set in on, on some of the ada

[1:45:35] demonstrations and, uh, a lot of the portal, a lot of the app and

[1:45:39] the camera, the hardware is just basically the same thing, just

[1:45:44] kind of rebranded, uh, for ada. So what, uh,

[1:45:48] what we're proposing is to replace a security camera system here

[1:45:52] with an nvr system. What they, what ada had was also a cloud-based

[1:45:56] unit, and then that's where the licensing fees came in and that's where it got kind of

[1:46:00] expensive. Um, but the, the camera

[1:46:04] system that we're looking at here, this unify, we can have

[1:46:09] our own nvr system on site store, everything here. So it'd

[1:46:13] just be a one-time purchase. So it wouldn't be any licensing fees or anything going forward.

[1:46:17] and, and we could also, uh, handle the installation

[1:46:22] in house too. So that would save quite a bit of, quite a bit of money.

[1:46:27] so the system that we've got, uh, cdw came in the cheapest

[1:46:31] now that was for the, for eight cameras and it's an access control

[1:46:36] starter kit, which would, uh, uh, get us going on the access

[1:46:40] control for maintenance, the way they use on their door system

[1:46:44] door lock systems. Um, the nvr and n seven

[1:46:48] hard drives that would, uh, fill the nvr total

[1:46:52] cost on that. Uh, coming in from cdw it $4,875

[1:46:58] and 75 cents. Um, when I

[1:47:02] was putting this agenda, this packet together to go on the agenda,

[1:47:06] I did get a call from, uh, our treasurer's office

[1:47:10] stating that they had a, uh, customer in there that lived across the street to

[1:47:14] the east, or yeah, to the east of us, and wanted to know if we could look at our cameras

[1:47:19] to see he had something stolen from his property. So I, uh,

[1:47:24] we did check the, the camera system and I don't know in your

[1:47:28] packet, I think there is a surveillance, one

[1:47:33] document that I put in there shows the, the camera that

[1:47:37] we were looking at for that east parking. And anyway, it's,

[1:47:41] you, you can't see anything at night. It was a light . There's nothing there,

[1:47:45] uhuh. Uh,

[1:47:49] so the system, like I said, is, is 14 years old. Some of those cameras aren't

[1:47:54] working and the ones that are, are so grainy and pixelated that you, you can't

[1:47:58] make anything out. So it's, it's been

[1:48:02] due to be replaced for some time now and I think this is a much more economical

[1:48:06] way of doing it rather than the cloud-based, uh, ada system.

[1:48:10] it would, uh, be a lot better, a lot, lot cheaper

[1:48:15] and good quality, good quality equipment. How many cameras are

[1:48:19] currently in here? We have not 18 cameras currently in

[1:48:23] our system right now. And we can phase these out. Like I said, this would be

[1:48:27] for eight cameras. And then I think the specs

[1:48:31] in there showed that as right around $250 a camera.

[1:48:36] so next year I'd like to go ahead and, and phase out the rest of those cameras

[1:48:40] in the old system and get everything off of that system by early

[1:48:44] next year. And I'd like to add a few more. Um,

[1:48:48] like I said, 18 is what we currently have and we have some dead spots that we could definitely

[1:48:53] fill out some places that need, need some attention. So, uh,

[1:48:57] the system that there, that we're quoting right here will handle

[1:49:01] up to 24 4k cameras. Uh, it would

[1:49:05] handle, what was the other, the seven hard drives will handle

[1:49:09] the additional. So it'd just be a matter of buying additional correct. Cameras

[1:49:13] only? Correct. No licenses? No,

[1:49:17] there wouldn't be any licensing. It'd just be the one time purchase of the hardware. Okay.

[1:49:21] and we could implement that into the, the mvr system. What's your anticipated

[1:49:26] lifespan on these cameras? I'm going to say at least eight to 10 years.

[1:49:30] uh, like I said, they're the same hardware as ada was, uh, quoting

[1:49:34] and they, they gave a 10 year warranty on theirs. So I I see no reason why

[1:49:39] are these, what are these warranted for? You know what, I do not know

[1:49:43] if I've got that on there.

[1:49:49] do you know if there was a warranty on those? Simon?

[1:50:04] I am not seeing anything on that.

[1:50:25] I don't seeing anything there, but that, that's what I can we just verify that before you actually went ahead

[1:50:29] with the purchase that there is a reasonable warranty? Sure, yeah.

[1:50:39] I'd make a motion that we purchased the eight cameras

[1:50:44] access control starter kit nvr

[1:50:48] and seven hard drives at a cost of $4,875

[1:50:54] and 75 cents to come out of from

[1:50:58] cdw dash g, uh, to

[1:51:02] come out with a technology pending verification of the warranty.

[1:51:08] second. Okay, there's a motion by commissioner him and second

[1:51:12] by commissioner stanton show right hands for approval. Five vote.

[1:51:16] alright, thank you commers. Thank you.

[1:51:20] item number 12, work comp update.

[1:51:37] good evening commissioners. I will pass out the work comp update to you. Please

[1:51:41] note, um, because it does go back to 2022,

[1:51:46] um, there is a front and back, um, to the sheet. I know

[1:51:50] that, uh, commissioner helm had asked me to look

[1:51:54] into some of the information across the top. Um,

[1:51:58] inc means incurred. Um,

[1:52:02] and then of course the paid, total paid claim, paid medical.

[1:52:07] and, um, if we have other questions on,

[1:52:12] uh, what the further titles are, please let me know and I will obtain that information

[1:52:16] for you.

[1:52:27] that's okay. It's been a long day. Thank you.

[1:52:58] and I apologize, I usually have these highlighted for you. So you know, the ones that

[1:53:03] are, um, only opened and I did not

[1:53:07] get that done before this evening. But, but you can see the column where

[1:53:11] it says, um, status, the c is foreclosed, the o is for

[1:53:15] opened. Is there a reduction in the open cases since the

[1:53:19] last time we looked at this or is it still the same? I believe it's still

[1:53:23] the same. And then of course we unfortunately have

[1:53:27] some added since your last report that's no longer fitting on one page.

[1:53:42] okay, we'll move to item number 13. Escrow agreement. Reimbursement

[1:53:47] of remaining balance. Cheers.

[1:53:57] good evening commissioners. Um, in may of 2017,

[1:54:02] seward county entered into an agreement with, um, pinnacle public finance.

[1:54:07] it was in relation to your 360 energy

[1:54:11] engineer project, um, that where services were done in several

[1:54:15] of the different locations within the county. And it was to be an

[1:54:19] energy project at that time. An escrow account was set up with

[1:54:23] the bank of new york mellon trust company. We do have

[1:54:28] a balance that's sitting in that escrow fund in the amount of $23,590

[1:54:34] and 73 cents to be reimbursed to seward county.

[1:54:39] I'm requesting approval to sign the joint letter of direction

[1:54:43] and for you to authorize mary rose seward county treasurer to provide

[1:54:47] wiring instructions, uh, for those funds to be released.

[1:54:52] um, I've included that information in

[1:54:57] your packet. I will need mary to, uh, provide me

[1:55:01] with the wiring instructions to go along with said form.

[1:55:11] does that terminate this agreement? And is that the end of any

[1:55:15] funds that are in there? Do we know this? This will reimburse

[1:55:19] the escrow funds that are in there. We still do have payments outstanding

[1:55:23] in your budget for, um, the completion of that project. I'll second.

[1:55:29] there's a motion by commissioner abbott, a seconded by commissioner fuller

[1:55:33] show of right hands for approval where

[1:55:38] they wanna deposit it. Yes, I was go, you can use it

[1:55:42] to do additional payoff, um, or to apply towards

[1:55:46] the payoff of the, I think it needs to apply to the payoff that mm-hmm

[1:55:50] . Yeah, there's, there's no hope of ever getting money back.

[1:55:54] it was a wasted $3 million. But anyway,

[1:56:01] show of right hands for approval up.

[1:56:05] don't disagree.

[1:56:11] okay. Item 13 a and we're still off on the budget.

[1:56:15] um, you know, it's, we're nearing last meeting of the year

[1:56:20] would be my guess. That's a special meeting. So we're coming

[1:56:24] into the new year. Uh, we promised the taxpayers,

[1:56:28] I thought that we would review

[1:56:33] what, no matter what the voter ruling is, that we would review the budget

[1:56:37] and propose cuts to, to, to get our budget back to a reasonable amount.

[1:56:42] um, I I think we need to hold to that as quick as we

[1:56:47] can at the first year. We need to meet and get

[1:56:51] these going. We, you know, we had, we mean the

[1:56:55] energy deals, you know, we're stuck with that. Wasn't this commission, it

[1:56:59] was 15 year agreement. I know there was some work done,

[1:57:03] it was done under the pretense of it wouldn't cost anything,

[1:57:08] $3 million flushed. So I think we need,

[1:57:12] you know, we need to, we need to start some of the things we need to start for

[1:57:17] sure at the first of the year, you know, our cuts. We need to look

[1:57:21] at any, any non-profit. You know, I think we talked about that any non-profit

[1:57:25] we're um, we hold that off till at least after

[1:57:29] the, we, we get the voter ruling, see where we're at. Um,

[1:57:34] you know, like credit cards. Quit buying clothing, you know,

[1:57:39] I know sheriff's department has uniforms, fire department has uniforms,

[1:57:43] but other than that, there's no need to be buying clothing.

[1:57:48] um, just a pet peeve of mine. No candy, no pop,

[1:57:53] no ice cream.

[1:57:57] that's just my idea. So

[1:58:02] we need to look at travel and we have spent

[1:58:07] in one department, I know one trip, I think last month or month

[1:58:11] before had to be around 3,500 to $4,000

[1:58:15] or more. So I think we need, you know, we need

[1:58:20] to be, if we're gonna be conservative, we need to act like it, you know,

[1:58:24] it's not a blank check from the taxpayer. So

[1:58:30] steve, if I challenge you to take the lead on that, I've got it. I've done it.

[1:58:34] okay. Well instead of talking you follow through and do it. I'm tired. Plan awake

[1:58:39] at night wondering how people are gonna pay their high taxes.

[1:58:43] so, okay. We'll move to item 14. Executive

[1:58:47] session. I was gonna say something if I could. Okay. Alright. Um,

[1:58:52] uh, I think it was two weeks ago, might've been four weeks ago, there was discussion about were

[1:58:56] we going to bring salary increases and raises before the

[1:59:00] commission? Um, it is correct. We would have to modify resolution

[1:59:04] 2020 dash oh two in order to do that.

[1:59:11] so if that's something we're going to consider, then we should probably look at what parts of that

[1:59:16] resolution need to be modified. I mean, I would,

[1:59:21] we could modify make a, we could put it on the next agenda with

[1:59:25] a yes or no, like we normally get with the resolutions either

[1:59:29] yes or no. And is that something we need to have for look at and

[1:59:34] probably draft something, draft, I

[1:59:38] don't know how you would do a new resolution or make a modification to

[1:59:43] this one, but have him draft whatever's necessary.

[1:59:52] does, does is for, does april know what you're looking for? And I can just work with april

[1:59:56] to put that together. It's resolution 2020 stroke oh two,

[2:00:01] that would just need modification so that at least for a certain period of

[2:00:05] time, I don't know what that would be. That, uh, salary increases or raises

[2:00:09] of any, any nature would need to come before the full commission due to budgetary

[2:00:14] constraints.

[2:00:25] that was it, scott. Okay. And I don't know if that, just

[2:00:30] a thought if that can include other elected officials or not.

[2:00:35] do we have any say so? Or

[2:00:39] you can discuss that that would be, uh, forest, I,

[2:00:43] I'm not comfortable answering that question as it regards to elected officials.

[2:00:48] I don't know if you're able to offer any advice on that this evening or if that would

[2:00:52] be something that we would need to get back to them on. Well,

[2:00:56] I don't, I don't know what the original resolution said, so I guess I want to take a look at that

[2:01:00] before I could offer an opinion on what we can do. And generally speaking, if you're talking about

[2:01:05] increasing, um, you, you have the

[2:01:10] authority to do that and you talk about decreasing, you start getting into issues of

[2:01:14] ensuring that the, that each elected official, that their

[2:01:18] budget is adequately funded, including compensation. But I, I'd rather look

[2:01:22] at the, I'd rather look at the, uh, that's the resolution that

[2:01:26] you're referring to amending before I offer any further opinion.

[2:01:32] sounds good. I will send that tomorrow. Thank you.

[2:01:36] okay.

[2:01:41] any other, okay, we move to item 14,

[2:01:45] executive session personnel.

[2:01:49] hello? 20 minutes.

[2:01:54] have a five minute break. Hmm? Yes. Yeah. What my, take

[2:01:59] a little break please. Okay, lets take a break first. Well,

[2:02:03] I can just, we can make our time. Okay. I, I moved

[2:02:07] to recess into executive session for a consultation. Um,

[2:02:13] no personnel. I'm sorry, wrong one. I move to recess

[2:02:17] into executive session for discussion of personnel

[2:02:22] matters of non-elected personnel under ksa 75 dash 43 19

[2:02:27] b 1, 4 20 minutes to include the commission and

[2:02:34] april warden. And that's it for attorney and forest

[2:02:38] and forest roads attorney, uh, to reconvene in the

[2:02:42] commission chambers at 7 53 7 58 58.

[2:02:52] we'll take a five minute recess and then go into executive session. Okay.

[2:02:57] uh, the discussion will be personnel match. Is there a second?

[2:03:01] second. Okay. Motion by commissioner m. Second by commissioner abbott

[2:03:05] sho of right answer biden

[2:03:16] session. Please go sheriff forward on the call. We're back. Please call

[2:03:20] sheriff ford. I moved to recess into executive session for discussion

[2:03:24] of personal matters. You don't well, stephanie, we're in, we're in,

[2:03:28] we're in the meeting. I moved to recess into executive

[2:03:32] session for discussion of personnel matters of non-elected personnel

[2:03:37] under ksa 75 43 19 b one for

[2:03:41] 15 minutes to include the commission in april. Warden to re

[2:03:45] reconvene in the commission chambers at 8:14 pm

[2:03:52] the subject matter of the discussion will be personnel matters.

[2:03:56] okay. Is there a second, second show of right answer

[2:04:01] approval.

[2:04:13] okay, no action taken. Um,

[2:04:19] so I moved to recess into executive session for consultation with our

[2:04:24] attorney, which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship under

[2:04:28] ksa 75 43 19 b2 for five minutes

[2:04:32] to include the commission in april, warden and forest roads,

[2:04:37] um, to reconvene in the commission chambers at 8 21.

[2:04:43] the subject matter discussion will be, um, and brock

[2:04:47] and I need brock speak. Oh, and brock also

[2:04:52] brock finer. And the subject matter will be,

[2:04:58] um, pending litigation. I'm sorry, pending litigation pending

[2:05:02] legal. Got a second, second,

[2:05:06] second. Show of right hands. Five minutes and half.

[2:05:12] is he on there? Yes. All right. Got you back for us.

[2:05:23] okay. We'll move to item 15. That's all here. Okay. Administration

[2:05:27] comments, commissioners. Um, I sent you a friday report,

[2:05:32] um, or a weekly update. Unfortunately, I was gone to kac last week,

[2:05:36] so that report did not come to you until the weekend. Um, I did

[2:05:40] share with you, I was at the kansas association of counties. There were a lot of good breakout sessions

[2:05:45] that I was able to attend as well as was able to meet with kirk

[2:05:49] and michael k work, k camp cic,

[2:05:53] and other vendors that the county, uh, utilizes as well as

[2:05:57] association group where we, um, shared

[2:06:02] a lot of the same issues that our county is facing that other counties are facing. And

[2:06:06] then we also had breakout sessions by population. Um,

[2:06:10] but anyway, I feel like I listed all of that in my notes, um, for you to

[2:06:14] review if you have any further questions. Um, on that, the legislative

[2:06:19] policy for kac did pass, um,

[2:06:23] unanimously by all the voting counties. Um, there are 102

[2:06:29] counties of the 105 that are all a part of the kansas association

[2:06:34] of counties. Um, I have nothing. I have nothing further

[2:06:38] this evening. Okay, we'll

[2:06:42] move. Sorry. I do, um, I've had, as some commissioners

[2:06:46] ask me. Um, we are having monthly department head meetings and we do have

[2:06:50] our next one this thursday at noon. Okay.

[2:06:56] move to commission comments. Okay. Todd, do

[2:07:00] you have anything? Uh, I

[2:07:04] was gonna say something. Mr. Madden.

[2:07:08] okay. Mr. M what? Do you have any

[2:07:12] comments mr. Stephanie? Yeah, I'll come to her. Oh, you started with

[2:07:16] todd, right? Yep. Not gonna go. Getting all jumbled up. You gonna mix us all?

[2:07:21] no, I don't have any comments other than, you know,

[2:07:25] merry christmas and happy new year. It doesn't even seem like weather wise,

[2:07:29] it seemed like it's spring or fall, so sooner

[2:07:34] or later we're gonna have to have to pay up. So that's all.

[2:07:38] okay, move to commissioner fuller.

[2:07:42] december 15th, 2025 to seward

[2:07:46] county administrator. April warden, seward county board of commissioners,

[2:07:50] county commissioners. Subject letter of resignation.

[2:07:55] dear april warden and members of the board, I am deeply grateful

[2:07:59] for the opportunity to serve the county. This journey has marked, been marked

[2:08:03] by both accomplishments and challenges and throughout it all, I've sought to serve

[2:08:07] with integrity, diligence, and a genuine heart for

[2:08:12] the people. I believe every season of service is guided

[2:08:16] by purpose and I am thankful for what god has allowed me

[2:08:20] to accomplish together, allowed us to accomplish together.

[2:08:24] I sincerely thank those who supported me, those prayed for me

[2:08:28] and entrusted me with this responsibility. These pa the three, the past

[2:08:32] three years have strengthened my faith, refined my leadership,

[2:08:37] and deepened my commitment to public service. I am beginning a new chapter

[2:08:41] in my life. Accordingly, I hereby tender my resignation

[2:08:45] as county commissioner from district two. Effective immediately

[2:08:50] I will remain in liberal for a few additional days to

[2:08:54] complete necessary personnel paperwork. I trust the appropriate process

[2:08:58] will res result in the appointment of a capable individual

[2:09:02] who will continue to serve the community well for the remainder of the term.

[2:09:06] it has been an honor to serve alongside my fellow commissioners and

[2:09:11] the dedicated county employees. I pray for god's continued wisdom,

[2:09:16] unity, and favor over this board and over seward county. I wish you

[2:09:20] all a merry christmas and a happy new year. Nobody has seen this

[2:09:24] for fear of it being leaked, so I read it for myself. I will submit this

[2:09:28] copy to april. Thank you all so much for trusting me to serve you. And I do

[2:09:33] apologize for the display that you witnessed tonight. It reminded me of dome

[2:09:37] of domestic violence, which my mother killed herself when I was 12 years old, so

[2:09:41] it triggered something in me. So I do apologize for that, but it's

[2:09:45] been a joy serving you all. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner scott.

[2:09:51] commissioner carr, district three. I'll tender my

[2:09:55] resignation first thing in the morning and 16th.

[2:10:00] so the community wants the election recall. I'll give

[2:10:04] it to you mr. Stanton. So you've been working hard on it, so I'll

[2:10:08] leave it at that

[2:10:12] september 15th. Who had ever dreamed that this community would've

[2:10:16] acted like it did? Just because they didn't agree with the three

[2:10:20] of us votes. We had been ridiculed, mocked,

[2:10:25] cartoons drawn about us. It's pretty pathetic when the

[2:10:29] three of us in that aspect were givers to this

[2:10:33] community. As of three 10,

[2:10:38] I signed a grant back in 23. Who'd have dreamed that one

[2:10:42] signature on something that had happened for years before

[2:10:46] would cause me to be recalled. This was my second recall

[2:10:51] in the last few weeks, my family's been put up with b******t.

[2:10:55] my in-laws 80 years plus has been called

[2:11:00] out in public. And enough is enough. I've served with

[2:11:04] three of the best people that I could ever think of with scott. Thank you

[2:11:08] for sny. Thank you. And whatever this community says about april,

[2:11:12] she has one of the most giving professional people that

[2:11:16] I've ever known. And it makes me sick for people to

[2:11:20] try to damage any of our reputations. We've all served with integrity

[2:11:25] and honesty, and no one has done anything that has been

[2:11:29] anything but legal. I wanna apologize

[2:11:34] to the, uh, all the employees of this county you

[2:11:38] guys serve with at utmost, uh,

[2:11:42] professionalism. You guys all know your jobs well and

[2:11:47] it saddens me that I feel like I'm disappointing you by not being able

[2:11:51] to help seward county grow. I wanna

[2:11:55] challenge you two, mr. Helm and mr. Stanton.

[2:12:00] um, mr. Stanton, I'm glad to see you finally quit drawing mileage

[2:12:04] money against the county since you claim to be

[2:12:08] this god-fearing, uh, man that is so conservative. And steve,

[2:12:13] I challenge you to step up into the role of leadership. You think it's been so easy?

[2:12:18] I hope that you're the new, uh, county chair and you sign something and every

[2:12:22] time you sign something, you think about the potential that you can get recalled.

[2:12:32] I wish mr. Madden would be here. He speaks on behalf of the rest of the

[2:12:36] county that I feel like only has half truths and does not know

[2:12:40] the full story of what it means to sit up here and to know

[2:12:44] everything that we know, that we've taken the upper hand and not spoke out

[2:12:48] into the community. I wanna thank mr. Jose lara, your community's

[2:12:53] dear member. Uh, mayor. I wanna thank mr. Hatcher and ms. Huddleston.

[2:12:57] those are the three that signed the petition to recall me. I wish the

[2:13:01] gop who I served for years in the leadership

[2:13:06] position, that they can find someone that serves with as much as

[2:13:10] integrity as we have as they have to fill these positions.

[2:13:14] mr. What I wish you luck on your llcs on the

[2:13:18] tax, uh, sale next month. Hope I didn't leave

[2:13:22] anything out. I do

[2:13:26] apologize again to the employees of this county. You guys deserve better.

[2:13:31] you are good employees in april. Again, I am so sorry. This has all

[2:13:35] had to happen to you with all your dedication. Merry christmas

[2:13:39] to everyone. And may god bless this county and all you employees.

[2:13:46] is there any suggestion cards? I will have my letter effective

[2:13:50] in the morning also. Oh,

[2:13:54] you ta you texting that already. Guys are letting her know.

[2:14:00] um, fors recorded at all. If

[2:14:04] you're with us still. Um,

[2:14:11] I just know that, um, the letters of resignation will have

[2:14:15] to go to the governor. You can, you resigned effective

[2:14:19] tonight, but they'll go to the governor and you need to carbon copy the, um,

[2:14:25] sorry. The dop, the chairman of the republican committee.

[2:14:30] um, for the community. This means that no business on behalf of the

[2:14:34] county can be conducted because we do not have a quorum.

[2:14:38] um,

[2:14:44] what about the employees and their pay? Yeah, I,

[2:14:49] uh, forest, there's lots of questions right now

[2:14:53] about the employees and pay. We have a payroll that

[2:14:57] comes out monday or was supposed to come out monday. You just signed.

[2:15:02] okay. So we're good for yeah, we signed two weeks. Good.

[2:15:06] we already signed and the opia has two weeks before the next commission meeting.

[2:15:10] you guys are good. You'll not leave you on control like that.

[2:15:19] um,

[2:15:24] what is the seward county policy on a quorum? How many is it four by

[2:15:28] resolution? By resolution? Mm-hmm .

[2:15:33] oh, gop has

[2:15:37] their work cut out for 'em. However, I'm sure that they've been discussing that,

[2:15:41] so oh yeah, they they've already been.

[2:15:45] is there any suggestion cards? I'm sorry. How does,

[2:15:54] if you guys wanna stick around, we can talk about that after

[2:15:58] the meeting. Um, we can't, they cannot. No. Well, I mean

[2:16:03] we only have two acting commissioners now, but, well, I didn't mean the, the commission,

[2:16:07] um, forest. I'm sorry. There's so many questions. Do we just,

[2:16:12] uh, run business as usual until it comes to a commission

[2:16:16] meeting where we have to have I'm, I'm sorry. I'm only getting a

[2:16:21] piece of that. I heard my name but I couldn't hear anything else. Sorry.

[2:16:25] I assume all departments will remain open. We will run business

[2:16:30] as usual. Um,

[2:16:34] I have authorities as the county administrator under statute

[2:16:38] and job description, but there are certain things that,

[2:16:42] um, I will not possibly be able to

[2:16:47] do and I do not have a chairman to report to at

[2:16:51] this time. Uh, we do have vice chair steve helm who will step into that

[2:16:55] role. We just don't have a quorum of commissioners

[2:16:59] to take any action. I

[2:17:03] personally want to thank the commissioners for their dedication. And I know that,

[2:17:08] uh, takes a lot to sit in your

[2:17:12] positions and to have, to make the decisions that you had to make and

[2:17:16] in spite of what some

[2:17:21] citizens think and what the media thinks. Um,

[2:17:25] because I do feel like the community has been misled from

[2:17:29] many perspectives. Um, just because there's

[2:17:34] a lot that happens in government to make it run. I feel like we've

[2:17:38] tried to be more transparent than ever and it,

[2:17:42] it unfortunately didn't help. Um, and to mr. Madden,

[2:17:48] um, who got up here tonight and, um, said the things that he

[2:17:52] said until they sat in your chairs, they, they don't know the decisions

[2:17:56] that you have to make and what you're forced to face. And

[2:18:00] also, um, as a county administrator, I never,

[2:18:05] um, make decisions alone. I value the expertise

[2:18:09] of our department heads and always factor in

[2:18:13] what they have to say to a particular, um, topic as well as

[2:18:17] the many resources that the county has that we focus on. So it's

[2:18:22] unfortunate that individuals get blamed for being the only

[2:18:26] source of information, but it's called a lack of education. Um,

[2:18:33] and, uh, I think we've lost three

[2:18:37] good people in our community that gave a lot, um,

[2:18:41] and had the best interest of the community at heart. And I'm sorry for the criticism,

[2:18:46] um, that you've taken and for the belittling of,

[2:18:50] and the endurance that your families have had to put up with as well. And thank

[2:18:55] you for your leadership. April, I want to say, and to the community that's

[2:18:59] listening, my family and I made this decision a year ago. There was a

[2:19:03] surprise for the, uh, I, I was floored and shocked,

[2:19:07] but um, when I went to florida for my nephew's wedding and our

[2:19:11] 40th first anniversary, we secured a property in florida. So

[2:19:15] I'm not hiding anything. So I did not know about these other two, and I do apologize

[2:19:20] for that. And I'm sure april can reach out to some, um, folks

[2:19:24] and make sure we need, have the decision makers that we need. We have other elected officials

[2:19:29] in here, uh, that's elected officials. Hopefully they can commandeer

[2:19:33] them and get the business of the county moving forward.

[2:19:39] thank you.

[2:19:49] is there a motion? Nope.

[2:19:53] yeah. Citizen comments until tomorrow. I

[2:19:57] didn't resign until tomorrow. Oh, you two can do, they

[2:20:01] can still do things. Is there a motion? So they're not resigning until tomorrow. Motion by commissioner rabbitt,

[2:20:06] second by commissioner hill show of right answer approval. April. Before they

[2:20:10] do that, I resigned today. Is there other business that needs to take

[2:20:14] care of you have the bi burden of midnight oil so that you have a quorum. That's

[2:20:18] what I thought. I didn't know why it was in, that's why I handed it to

[2:20:22] you. No, I thought I thought was good. Are you sure?

[2:20:26] yeah. I mean, there's, I think I can approve.

[2:20:34] hey, there's.

Dec 15, 2025 County Commission-Regular

Agenda

Transcript