We will call to order the sewer county board of county commissioners the regular meeting. Please
stand for the pledge of allegiance.
pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states. States of america,
one nation under god, indivisible, and with liberty and justice
for all.
jason tombs representing the liberal ministerial alliance. Let us pray.
heavenly father, it is your gracious will that your children on earth live together in
harmony and peace, especially at this time of the year as we look forward to christ coming
defeat the plans of all who would stir up violence and strife, destroy the weapons of those
who delight in war and bloodshed and according to your holy will end all conflicts
in our world. Teach us to examine our hearts that we may recognize our own
inclination toward envy, malice, hatred, and enmity. Help us by
your word and spirit to search our hearts and to root out the evil that would lead us to
strife and discord. Lord jesus, as you once shared in our human toil
and thus, hello the work of our hands. Bless and prosper. Those who maintain the industries
and service sectors of our land. Give them a right regard for their labors
and grant them the just rewards for their work. Almighty god, be a strength
and source of hope for the children and our families, and especially our community
when they stray. Protect them from all danger and grant them your abiding presence.
guide them by your word into paths of wisdom and righteousness. For your name's sake
almighty god, you have promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in your son's beloved name.
mercifully, incline your ears to us as we have now, now made known
our prayers and supplications to you. And grant the those things that we have asked according
to your holy will we may receive to meet our needs and bring glory to you
alone through jesus christ, our son, our lord who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit
one god now and forever. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, thank
you. Okay, is there any citizen
comments?
my name's rick madden, uh, resident of liberal lifetime.
uh, I I wanna start off by reading
the deal so I don't get off track. So
here I go. I think we can agree that the data
has presented to this board has been , which is
brought into question how you've been operating county business
in the county. Commissioners mission statement is a list of
14 core values that the commission operates by
five of those core values, which I think you have felt miserably.
one, integrity, honesty, trustworthiness.
two, stewardship and fiscal responsibility.
three, operate with transparency. Four, accountability
and five, credibility ability.
with that, I'd like to talk about accountability. First,
we'll start with the health department. It was stated that
the bonuses did not come from grant money later to be retracted
and said the grant money when you were finished, it was
from the grant money with the department head giving herself and others
bonuses for four years. Let's not forget
for another grant for $38,000, which se county's
matching part was for over $600,000 signed by one
commissioner. The question I have, do you not
question the rationale of what was going on?
I'm sure every county personnel would like a bonus like that.
so with that being said, it appears the commissioner rewards behavior like that
instead of firing people for their abuse.
second, let's talk about the county administrator. I don't
know what all her job entails, but let's assume one of her functions is
to supply factual information to the commissioners.
she has made comments to the commission that were not true,
not so where's the information coming from department heads or
somewhere else? Again, there is no accountability.
third, a commissioner stated it is not the responsibility
to do research on issues, but to be advised by the county
administrator. How can you make an informed decision
with only one person's advice? Remember,
you get a salary and a benefits package in the range of about
$50,000 a year. You would think they would be enough incentive
to do a little research on your own, but the commission
repeatedly misinformed the public about several issues that
the county is facing. First with the mill, increase
to the budget, having commissioner sign off on grants
without board approval, and the auditor for
the county stated that the benefit benefits package was unsustainable,
but I know the county would not think of cutting any of these benefits.
here's another problem that the county has. Four years ago it had a $7 million
surplus and it appears that will be cut down to 80,000
by the year 2026. Now is
that is not fiscally responsibility.
there needs to be a change and it needs to happen now
and call for accountability. That is done by
firing people who abuse the system. Department heads to commissioners
who should resign personally, I think a cfo
would help with the problems the county is facing and maybe
a purchasing agent to help stop the overspending of tax dollars.
just a quick thought is how many credit cards has a county issued
to employees? In closing,
I think a commissioner should have at least some experience in experience
in having ran a business instead of being voted in on a popularity
contest. Lastly, you should be embarrassed to be in public for
all the failures under your watch. If you want an honest look
at some issues and don't want to research 'em for yourself, please call
carol huston. She might be willing to assist you. Thank you.
okay, we'll move to item number one. Approval of the agenda.
yeah, more assuming comments. Yeah. Is there any more citizen comments? Sorry.
okay, being done. We'll move to item number one. Approval of the agenda.
I amend the agenda again and now 13 a is budget.
make a motion to approve what commissioners. I do need to add an item to
the agenda. Addendum to resolution number 20 25 17
and 20 25 18. So
we can make 13 a budget. 13 b 4 20 24.
yeah, do it on the four. Do it sooner. Yeah, fine.
four a, oh, it's got resolution, resolution 2025
dash, I'm sorry, 17 and
18. 17 and 2025 dash 18.
I'll make a motion to add those three items to the agenda.
you're making 13 a the budget or you? Yeah. Okay.
is there a second? Second, yep. There's a motion
by commissioner helm to add item 13 a,
budget, and then item four a and b,
resolution 20, 25, 17, and 18 and a second by commissioner
stanton show of right answer approval five and oh.
I'd make a motion to approve the agenda as amended.
second motion by commissioner hill to approve the amended agenda.
second by commissioner stanton, show of righthand for approval.
provide the note. Move to item number two, consent agenda.
so second, there's a motion by commissioner abbott to approve the consent
agenda is granted. And a second by commissioner fuller, show
of righthand for approval.
five and oh,
new employees, none that are present.
okay, move to item number four,
resolution 2025 is angela, not, um, april.
angela. Everybody knows that she's a new hr person. Yeah, she was introduced at
the last meeting. Oh, I was in florida. I'm sorry. My bad. That's okay. Okay, move to
item number four, resolution 2025 dash 19. Execution of deed
on fire department. Sorry, buddy. Uh, good evening commissioners.
so the board of county commissioners will need to hold a public hearing this
evening regarding the agreement with the city of liberal for them to purchase
seward county's interest in the fire station located at one 10
west 15th street in liberal. The board of county commissioners
will then consider execution of resolution 2025 dash
19 authorizing the sell of the property, termination
of the memorandum of understanding with the city of liberal and execution
of the deed. On november 30th, 2025,
seward county published notice of seward county's intent to sell
the interest in real property. This property is located at one 10
west 15th street, liberal kansas. The city of liberal seeks
to be the sole occupant of the fire station and to purchase seward county's
interest. In the same, the city offered the county $500,000
for their interest in this property. Notice was provided that
a public hearing would be held this evening at 5:30 pm giving
the public an opportunity to comment on the offer to purchase and related
matters on the fire station located at one 10 west 15th street.
so now, uh, chairman carr, if you would open up for the public hearing.
yes. We'll close the regular session to open the public hearing.
it is here by given to the public pursuant to seward county
resolution 2006 10, that the board of county commissioner
of seward county herein board has received a negotiated offer
from the city of liberal kansas purchase seward county interest. And the
following, describe rural property for the sum of 500,000.
I guess it started the wrong page here. Sorry.
a resolution authorizing sale of certain surplus property and termination
of me memorandum of understanding with the city
of liberal kansas, whereas s county kansas received an offer from
the city of liberal kansas for the sale of its interest in the following rural
property were the sum of 500,000 attractive ground
out of the no half of northeast quarter, northeast quarter of section
32, township 34 range 33,
described by meets and bounds as follows, to what? Beginning at
a point 560 feet west at the northeast corner of said northeast
quarter fence west on the north boundary line of said
quarter distance of 222 feet, more or less to point
directly north of extended west line at light city park as it now
exists. Fence south on eight extended west line
of said park a distance of 347 feet fence
east parallel to the north boundary line of said quarter
distance of 220 feet, more or less, fence north a distance of 347
feet to the place of beginning it being the intention to convey that
track or area lying immediately west of the track,
heretofore conveyed by cm light and wife to ug
black and north of the city park to the extended west line
thereof. And whereas seward county kansas pub
published notification of the sale and allowed public participation
at a public hearing and whereas the board of county commissioners determined
that the above row property was surplus property and was authorized
sale of the interest and real property for the sum of 500,000,
whereas it is necessary to sign a contract. Quick claim deed and closing
documents associated with sale chairman carr, if you would open it up to see if there's
any public comment, public comments. Yeah. Right. And at this time we'll open it up to public
comments.
okay, being done. We'll close the public hearing now. You
can go on now
where it is necessary to sign a contract with claim deed and closing documents
associated with the sale now therefore be it resolved by the governing body
of sur county, kansas as follows, sale of property the
contract, quick claim deed and notice of right of first refusal presented
to the board of county commissioners is hereby approved and the chairman
is authorized to sign the same along with such documents that are necessary
and work to facilitate and close the cell of the above describe surplus
real property to the city of liberal kansas. Further upon closing of
the contract, the chairman is authorized to sign a termination of memorandum
of understanding of that certain memorandum of understanding with
the city of liberal dated january 25, 2, 2017
in all amendments and supplements thereto, along with the notice of right
of first refusal, use of the sale proceed. All funds
received from the city of liberal for the sale of the county's interest in the above-referenced
property shall be used for remodeling and adding onto the building located
at one 20 east 18th street, liberal, kansas
6 7 9 0 1. Any remaining amounts left should be used
to pay off the lease purchase obligation on the building located at
one 20 east 18th street, liberal, kansas effective
date. This resolution is effective upon passage and publication
in official use payment.
so commissioners, it is the recommendation of staff that you adopt resolution
20 25 19 to accept the negotiated offer
along with authorizing execution of a contract and a deed.
so moved. Second. There's motion by commissioner abbott to prove that
to adopt the resolution. 2025 dash 19
and second by commissioner fuller show of right hands for approval.
five and oh
um, commissioners at your work session, um, held before
the meeting today, you had asked, um, fire chief barkley
to come forward, um, to see if he could, um, gather any pricing
for you as to what it would cost for, um, architecture
engineering plans for the remodel of, um, the
18th street fire station and I do believe he has a report.
good evening commissioners. Andrew barkley, sir, county fire chief this afternoon I reached
out to our architect at gmcn and spoke
to, uh, an assistant desiree there and she has,
uh, verbally told me $40,000 for them to
come in, do all the plans, engineering plans, mechanical, plumbing,
et cetera, and, uh, put a bid packet together and then
assist with the, uh, oversight of the construction moving forward,
if you will. I, if you wish, I will get that in writing tomorrow and we'll start
making those things move forward.
I move that we give, uh, chief barkley the go ahead to work with
the architects at gmcn. I second it.
okay, there's motion by commissioner abbott to approve
the fire chief to go ahead and move with gmnc,
the gmc in actually get that backwards all the time.
architects. And there was a second by commissioner fuller show
of right hands for approval. You want to comment? I think that we should put a dollar amount
on it, a maximum amount before we proceed
with just he just said 40,000.
2020. He said 40,000. 40,000 commissioner.
okay. Add that part as part of the, yeah.
okay. Okay. Any other questions?
show right hands for approval. Okay,
thank you commissioners. Thank you. Chief barkley.
item four a resolution 2025 dash
17 oh,
where are you going? Sorry, . I forgot the oven. Four a
commissioners. I come before you this evening to add an addendum to resolution
number 20 25 17 as well as resolution
number 20 25 18. We will need to vote
on these separately. The addendum to the resolution number 20 25 17
was regarding exceeding the revenue neutral rate on september 15th, 2025.
the seward county board of county commissioners passed resolution number 2025
dash 17 to approve exceeding the revenue neutral rate.
whereas though an inadvertent clerical oversight in several
places, the resolution reflected tax year 2026, it
should have been 2025. The board of county commissioners desires
to clarify that resolution 2025 dash 17 was
intended and should reflect that its decision to exceed the revenue
neutral rate applied to the current tax year at issue, which should
have been identified as 2025.
the vote for you this evening set forth on this addendum does not change
any commissioner's vote on the underlining decision to exceed
the revenue neutral rate. Which vote is set forth on the original
resolution on 20 25 17, but reflects
that the commissioner understood and intended to be voting on
a decision to exceed the revenue neutral rate for tax year 2025
and not 2026. And that resolution 2025
dash 17 should reflect that. Um,
this is the same thing for resolution number 20 25 18.
um, this one is for the kansas rural fire district. Can we do
them separately? Yes, we do need to do them separately. That's what I had asked, but
I just wanted you to know I wasn't gonna read each separate one unless you wanted
me to. I think you should. Okay. So it after vote
on 2017. Okay, please. Okay.
you have those addendums in front of you? I vote yes on addendum
to resolution number 20 25 17.
commissioner helm? No. Commissioner carr?
yes. Commissioner fuller? Yes. Mr. Stanton? No.
and I have a question. When would you ,
uh, would you like to address that for us?
yeah, I'm here. Um, I worked with, uh, april on this afternoon.
uh, she had sent draft me. I didn't get a chance to review 'em until middle
of the afternoon, so I got 'em turned around, but it was within,
uh, it was after, it was after three o'clock this afternoon before I got turned around.
I'm just noticing that their resolutions commissioner free date mike mics.
I'm just noticing that these resolutions predate the fire resolution we
just voted on and sequentially numbered.
they're they're prior. It's because they're an addendum. They're
an addendum to the original solution numbers. Yes. Yes. But
they were prepared today, is that correct? Yes.
this is after the well, I'll let legal counsel handle
that if anything else needs to be said.
so do you want me to read? Yeah. Read resolution 20 motion
honor anybody? They all voted but there was no motion. There needs to
be a motion. Right. There was no motion made. Right. I move that we receive addendum
to resolution number 2025 dash 17. I second.
okay. There's motion by commissioner and I'm still a yes. Second by commissioner fuller
show of right hands for approval. Then we take the vote. Okay.
I just said I'm still a yes. Okay. Steve
still? No. Oh. Steve helm? No. Uh,
still? Yes. Commissioner stanton? No. Speaking to the microphone. Not so they can hear
you. So, addendum
to resolution number 2025 dash 17 addendum to
resolution number 20 25 17 of seward county, kansas. We're on
18. We're oh, I thought she wanted me to read it after it was approved.
you don't, so you don't need me to read it. Okay. All
right. I make a motion that we approve that
thenum no, she's gonna read it first.
yes. Yes. Okay. Addendum to
resolution number 2025 dash 18. Addendum to resolution number
2025 dash 18 of seward county, kansas rule fire
district regarding exceeding the revenue neutral rate. Whereas
on september 15th, 2025, the seward county board
of county commissioners passed resolution 2025 dash 18
to approve exceeding the revenue neutral rate. Whereas through an
inadvertent clerical oversight in several places, the resolution reflects
tax year 2026 and whereas the board
of county commissioners desires to clarify that resolution 2025
dash 18 was intended and should reflect that its
decision to exceed the revenue neutral rate applied to the current tax
year at issue, which should have been identified as 2025.
now therefore be it resolved by the seward county board of county commissioners
resolution number 20 25 18 was intended. And this
addendum shall clarify that the intent and belief
of the board of county commissioners in voting to exceed the revenue neutral
rate concerned the current tax year, which should be reflected
as tax year 2025, accordingly each reference
to tax year 2026 in resolution 2025
dash 18 should be read as tax year 2025.
the vote set forth below on this addendum does not
change any commissioner's vote on the underlying decision to exceed
revenue neutral rate, which vote is set forth on the original
resolution 2025 dash 18, but reflects that
the commissioner understood in attended to be voting on a decision
to exceed the revenue neutral rate for tax year 2025
and not 2026, and that the resolution 20 25 18
should reflect that the addendum shall be attached to resolution 20 25 18
upon its adoption and shall remain in effect until future action is
taken by the seward county board of county commissioners adopted
this 15th day of december, 2025. I move
that we adopt addendum to resolution number 2025 dash 18
sutherland abbott. Yes. What is there a second. Second.
okay. There was a motion by commissioner abbott and a second by commissioner
fuller. Yes. Steve
helm? No. Commissioner carr. Yes.
commissioner fuller. Yes. Commissioner stanton? No.
can I ask a question? , we approved this budget for rule
fire, so how do you not approve the r and r? Now?
just a question. Thank you so
much, commissioner abbott. You're welcome. I
just had a question. Yeah, I we move on. I thought it was all understood as well, but
okay. Item number five, kirk and michael update.
and as you guys are coming, thank you so much for the gifts on a lighter note and
the chocolate. Does anybody need some chocolate in here today? No. Okay, good. We have some chocolate
here that we can share. Pull it out. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.
um, steve lenahan, kirk and michael. Um,
so today we drove road several
roads, but uh, we drove road p we understand that, uh, there may
be some complaints about it being a little rough, uh, after the,
uh, base one application. Um, and that's because it's not
finished. Uh, I got talking with mark today and,
uh, they believe that they'll be able to, uh, finish that road, uh,
possibly this week. So, um, hopefully any complaints on on
the road will be, um, no longer.
so what what'll happen is they'll just, um,
it's, it, it did set up a little faster than, than what, uh, their previous application
was, which was that perm zyme, uh, application. So, uh, when they
used that base one, it did set up a little faster. So it, it is a little rougher than what
it should have been, but it's still not done. And so what they're gonna do is they're gonna wet it,
verify it, and then apply the, uh, surface application,
uh, with, with the base one as it's, as it's designed to do.
so again, hopefully that'll be, um, much smoother going
forward. Uh, also understand that, um, mark is
working with his operators to cut in the ditches, um, on some
of the rural roads, um, uh, to where they have, uh,
the ditch and have a 26 foot road. We did drive some of those, some
of them are 24 foot wide, some are 26, some are, uh, 22
foot wide. Uh, but ideally we'll have a 28 foot
road with more or less a one foot shoulder, and that one foot
will have, um, a small windrow for maintaining the,
the crown as as needed. So, um,
uh, along with that, we are working on an entrance policy
that will reference some typical sections that
will, uh, have, uh, that 28 foot
wide road going forward so that there's no, um,
question on size of road, how the ditch interacts, how the entrance,
uh, going forward interacts, uh, with, with the county roads.
um, it'll also help, uh,
with, with that entrance policy, it will also help with developers that
want to come in, in such as wind farms, where they're gonna install
several different, uh, uh, entrances. Uh, they'll,
they'll need to design it. Uh, they'll need to construct it to our, our desire,
our, our design. So, uh, once we get that entrance policy
ready to go, uh, it will need to come, uh, forward
to, to the commission here. So, um, also
along with that entrance policy, uh, I guess there is some question, um,
as to who, who should pay for that, uh, entrance? Should
it, who should construct it? Um, per the kansas
statutes and what will be, uh, integrated
into that entrance policy per kansas statute 68 dash 5 43.
um, whenever any property owner shall request an additional culvert or new
entrance on a county road, the culvert or new entrance
may be installed by the county engineer and the cost charged to
the property owner. So essentially that's just saying that, that all that cost to
build, that, the, the culvert, the entrance, the surface,
all that needs to go onto the, uh, property owner. Now
they could request for the county to build it. It just, um,
gotta have a, uh, policy in place to be able to enforce
a, a cost onto the that property owner.
I do have a question. I had, um, um, a citizen concern about
apparently the county doesn't know how to dig ditches and we're messing up the
roads. Can you address that as it, you have to be certified to dig a ditch and understand
the, the, the, um, the dimensions of that is,
is designed not to irritate people or just to tear up the roads because
you have nothing better to do, but safety is always a factor.
uh, yeah, absolutely. So, uh, we, we did go over that today.
um, so my understanding is, um, the
road bridge guys were, uh, were trained, got got some,
uh, paid training, uh, a little while back on how to properly,
uh, build ditches and, um, still
kind of struggling with, uh, the old way of doing things
and then the, the, the newer way of doing things. So mark's working with his guys,
um, to, to do that. So we went on a couple roads that were done very well,
and then a couple roads that, uh, you know, the windrow was, you know,
way too high and it just, um, needs some,
some work. So he's, he's continuing to, continuing to
work with his, his staff because he was very con he was an older gentleman, he was very concerned
that the work wasn't being done properly and he was, I guess if
you're getting used to riding on the road wrong for so long,
and then when it's corrected, it's like it's not right. So, so yeah.
and hopefully, you know, with, with the typical
sections that, that we're hoping to implement, that'll
also show that we want, um, 28 foot road
with more or less a 26 foot drive length and then,
uh, drive width and then, uh, that windrow should not
be a foot off the ground. It should only be an inch or two , and then that
helps to, uh, bring it in and, and form that, that
crown so he knows exactly what to do. All the operators, uh,
I believe know exactly what to do. It's just how, how they're doing it,
just they need to work on getting it, getting it right. Thank
you for sharing that. Yeah, they did some practice out on tucker road.
the reason I know, 'cause I went to the retirement party there last week, but they were telling me
about it. So they trained out on tucker road, just west
of the trailer parks yep. And how to cut the ditches and crown. So if you want
to see what they're doing, go out there and look at it because it's pretty impressive
the way they smoothed off the outside. Yeah. So inside, yeah.
yeah. Uh, we drove that stretch as well. Um, and
yeah, ideally that, that ditch actually extends all the way out to
that right away instead of a small little, uh, ditch along the
side. Um, so we did receive compliments
on tucker road, specifically fred bloom called to
share his, um, he said he knows that we don't get thanked
very often or recognized for what we do, and he wanted to share that.
well, and I would just add for commissioner fuller, the gentleman that spoke, that
was before any of our guys that had their ditch training, so hopefully now
they've kind of had a little practice. One thing just for administration to
consider, um, with the culverts, uh, I have been
talked to by several people out in the rural parts who had installed their
own culverts years ago. Some of those have been collapsed by the county
mowing the ditches. And so that should probably a situation where
there would need to be some discussion about who's actually gonna, are we gonna reclaim
those? Are we gonna replace them? Who's gonna pay for that?
so, um, the, to put in
the entrance, the statute, it's an existing entrance where yeah. Right,
right. The, the owner had put their own culvert in, that was then collapsed
by county mowing. Yeah. So going forward, the county
does maintain that because they have to be able to maintain the ditch. So they, they
maintain that culvert. So they've got a, so that that is, um,
yes, the owner, uh, needs to pay for the
construction of the entrance themselves, but going forward the county maintains that.
and, and that's purely so that, uh, the
county makes sure that we've got, uh, flow through the oh, no, I agree. Yeah,
I'm just saying we may have situations where we need to work out who's gonna deal with
something that's been collapsed mm-hmm . And that's maybe something
mark needs to be in on deciding. Yeah.
anything else? Okay, good.
um, just moving on, uh, h triple r, uh, high risk
rural roads, uh, the culver extensions on the sent cutoff, um,
originally we were, uh, looking at doing that work, uh,
or letting that work in in march. Um,
have had some issues with, uh, uh, there are four
property owners. Uh, two of them are under contract for sale, so that's really
complicated, the appraisal, um, and, and
the right of way acquisitions. Um, we
do have an appraiser who, um, has,
has come forward, said, uh, his fee would be, you know, $11,000
and would not be able to get to it until towards the end of february. Uh, so
we're trying to get an, an estimate of just compensation,
uh, otherwise, 'cause like, like I said, some of those, uh, properties are for
sale or, or, or under contract. I think, uh, one of them
is gonna be closing, I believe this week. The other one may be as much as six
months down the road because it's a 10 31 exchange. Uh, if we
would to were to know what that sale price is, then I,
we think that that might be good enough for an appraisal. Uh, I mean, 'cause
that's the real value is who's gonna pay, who's paying for it, right. So
we're working on that. Um, try to, trying to get, get that all
buttoned up so that we can, uh, actually let that work in
in may.
um, fiscal year, 28
h triple r applications, they are open and, uh, open till
december 31st. Uh, we are gonna work on submitting an application
for, uh, uh, all new signs,
uh, east, uh, sorry, west of west, west side of the
county. Basically everything west of 83. Uh, and that
would be, uh, what's called systemic uh,
modifications. And that is paid for a hundred percent by k
kdot if, uh, we were to win that, that,
uh, grant. So we are gonna file an application for that.
uh, we'll see if we can, um, get that,
uh, application approved. So that, that's all
I had. Any questions? Any questions for
steve? Thank you so much for all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you.
move to item number six, tax sale update.
evening commissioners, mary rose county treasurer
over few staff.
so we had the tax sale, that was friday, december 12th, 2025.
we had, um, 28 parcels that were up on the tax sale. Um, two were
removed, therefore we did su successfully sell 26 outta
that tax sale. We had 62 registered, uh, qualified buyers
and 43 of them showed up. And, um,
I'd like to say thank you to the public because we did, uh, receive all of our bidding
paddles back for the next sale that will be hopefully going on in january.
um, with that, uh, we did have a total of 656,000,
um, taxes due out of those parcels, and we did have 457,000
in proceeds. Um, and we will be holding those proceeds at least for
14 days, uh, make sure everything clears and then we will be transferring them
over to the county treasurer. I do ask tonight that,
um, to have a vote for a specific fund or um,
a tax sell proceed, this is where all of the money would go
into, um, for a tax sale and that would be held. Um,
the account, we do know the account number has been generated, um,
due to some confusion prior to the, uh, tax sale. Um,
I, I do need a vote to make sure when I receive those funds from the sheriff sheriff's office, the, that
I can deposit these in those funds, um, moving forward in proceedings
with all tax sales. So I will need a vote to, um,
create that fund, uh, and to deposit those funds in.
the other thing moving forward is, um,
we are in full tax mode in the treasurer's office.
and so on wednesday, december 10th, I did get an update from c glendale
astrom about that tax sell. Um, they are waiting on
me to, um, get the final accounting for the parcels that's going into that tax
sale. Um, due to, I have not got them that
information as of date, but that does not mean it is not coming. It's just
I've been really busy and playing catch up from last week. We did have court proceedings,
um, in the district court and so I did have a lot of traffic and need to address a lot of
my constituents on that. So I have been extremely busy with that
and the tax sale and other issues going on with, um, taking in
the, um, collections of taxes.
so as far as um, collections of the cbk, we are still in collections with
that. Um, they are still proceeding forward as far as, um, doing court
dates for people. Um, the phone call I got today was the other, um, proceedings
will start wednesday and thursday of next week. They are sending those over for judgments as well.
so that is with, um, the collections on personal property. So
we are moving forward with that. Any questions about the tax sale?
okay, so I just do need a vote to um, create that fund for,
how'd you do those funds before though? On tax sales? So I
was not treasurer at that point in time. I do not know how they did that. I do believe at
that point in time that maybe sheriff handled that and then it went through district court. We're handling this
a little bit different because we are contracted out through clinda astrom
who, um, is um, this particular funding has mirrored
that. And so with that being said, the instructions of how we proceed forward
with the funding, um, was given to me. So I think prior to that it was
through the sheriff and they handled those proceeds and then wrote the county treasurer check
and then they put that money toward the taxes. But you've collected some, there
was is out of the 50 or 60 parcels only 26,
right? 26 were sold to, were remove removed and right. They only put in the next tax redeemed.
so where did that money go to? So, um, that went on
the tax books, the, um, delinquent county redemption delinquent taxes
and then distributed out. Um, uh, nathan is in
contact about some of the stuff that was redeemed, um, through district court and those funds.
but the county's portion, like
for the budget, the county's portion of the delinquent taxes
that have been collected. So any tax that's collected in my office
is then distributed out to the entities at distribution time the
five times of the year. So if I receive those delinquent taxes in
march, they're gonna be distributed out in may.
is that what you're asking? It doesn't go in a holding
fund. Like it goes in the delinquent. So you've been collecting
for a few months now. For what? For
personal property, for people coming in are paying up their personal property, delinquent
personal property and about half or more of the
last tax sale, those properties are redeem prior to
the tax sale. And those are going into funds specifically for,
um, delinquent taxes.
and then those funds are then distributed out at the time of distribution.
so the seward county distribution mm-hmm . Where's that money going
to go to? It goes to the
general fund. When it's distributed, it's a je it's done internally
and it goes to the funds and then the clerk's office puts all of those funds, the money in those funds
entry. What do you, I guess I don't understand the question.
the funds that the county go, the funds that the money, the money that the county gets from
distribution is done internally. It's done through a je, which is a voucher,
and those funds are put into those, that money is put into those funds.
that is, is that what that's where I'm, yeah. So, so I brought
this up, right? I brought this up before. I will just make the motion rather than arguing
about it, that the se county portion of any delinquent
taxes from the tax sale just held last week
or the cbk or the clinda osterman, that this,
this county's portion, whether it be fees, interest or taxes,
would be deposited into a,
you know, for lack of a better word, the lan repayment fund
account. So it goes into, they each have
a different fund for each one. Like 6 89 is current tax, 6 94
is delinquent. All of those fund, all of that money goes in those funds
and then at distribution it pulls it from how much each entity is supposed to get from that.
mary, correct me if I'm wrong, but it, those
funds are levied. So even when we collect on a delinquent tax,
those funds are levied and that's how you're gonna do the distribution. So I don't
know that we can deviate from saying that all of that money needs
to go towards the r kalin. Those
taxes are set at budget time and those levies are set. And so when she makes
a distribution, that's where that money has to go on the tax
distribution. And if they're delinquent taxes, it's gonna show
on their, um, check what year it was paid for and it's automatically
gonna pull that over to those delinquent from that delinquent fund.
I have a motion
a second. I just need you to, can, can we get a legal opinion? Can we do
this forest? Is this something we can do?
in other words, could we create the fund steve is talking about and put the delinquent
taxes in there? That seems to be the question. Can we actually do that ear market
for the, for the r kaylin fund? Just earmark it. Don't have a
special fund. What
or either way he on there. Is there attorney forest or you on there?
yeah, on okay. You ask your question. So
turn it up so we can hear him. Scott, the delinquent, the,
the county's portion, not the entire amount, the county's portion
of the previous tax foreclosure sale,
previous personal property collections through cbk and
the upcoming or current clinda osterman
real estate taxes, those collections, my motion
was to put that into the, uh, repayment fund for
our kalen rather than just in the general budget
or,
and the que and I guess I, I don't know what the, when you say
repayment fund, is that a, is that an official fund within our budget or is that
simply, are you using the term fund legally or just generically that
we want to set it aside for that purpose? Earmark it.
we have a line item in the general fund
that is listed as money set aside
for it. It just says, um, protested tax.
I don't believe that. Or it, it could say
r kaylin, but it's within the general fund. It's not
a separate fund. It's a line item within the general fund.
and then what then what's the question for me? So the question,
I believe that commissioner do that well, I believe the
question from commissioner helm is the county's portion
of the delinquent tax. So not all taxing entities but the county's portion
of the delinquent tax. He would, he is
making a motion that the money that we collect on the county's portion
of the delinquent tax, can it be set aside in that
specific line item for repayment to the r kalin,
um, ethanol pending case
or does it have to be well, that, that was his question,
correct. Did I say that right? Yes. You're not seeking
to amend the budget, you're just saying you want to make sure that money gets set aside and
not spent on something else. Correct. And then so I just need to
mention that we have budget hearings and we publish the budget
to collect tax on certain statutory authorities.
and so when she's collecting the tax, that portion has to go into
each one of those. Same with the city school, every taxing entity.
so you can't levy tax for one reason and put it over here for some other reason
and change the budget or do a transfer within your budget,
I would imagine to do that. But in collecting taxes,
you can't just change mid-year where you're gonna put that money that you're collecting.
I do know that for a fact. And it's mainly, well, if I understand the question right,
the the motion isn't to affect the money that's going to go to cities or
school districts around the taxing entities. That money would be distributed
to those entities. The question is, what about the tax revenue that's
left over? That would be the county yes, correct. Correct.
the county's portion only. So you, that will,
it would go back, I think into the general fund and you decide how to spend
it. Or if your, if the motion and the approval is to not spend it, then you
would just decide that that money is not spent. If, if I understand
it this, was there a budget item? What? Did the budget contemplate money coming
in from the sale? No, no, no, no.
and did you don't have a revenue item there that that already accounts for what we
expected to get from the sale? No. Correct.
and I guess this account is a line item within the general fund?
that is correct. It is a line item within the general fund.
the, if the, I think the ultimate question would be can you just,
can you just set that money aside, the county's portion again, that's all we're talking about, is
the, is the portion of those proceeds that, that the county will
keep at the end of the day after everything else is distributed to the other taxing entities,
can you simply set that aside and make sure it doesn't get spent and you can decide what
you want to spend it on later. Your, your goal would be to spend it on the, the settlement.
um, when, when or not settlement, the resolution of that. When,
when there's ultimately a division. I don't see a problem with doing that. You're
just deciding not to spend revenue to found money. Right.
so forest, the only other thing that I wanna point out too is part of that distribution
goes to roll fire district and part of that distribution
goes to a mill levy that's set for road and bridge. And to me,
we're talking about two different things, but actually it's been combined
into one, there's a difference between the delinquent taxes collected and
the tax sale money collected. Correct. Delinquent taxes have to go to
wherever they were levied for. Period. Tax
sale money is a whole different subject. Well, s
so on the tax sale money, some of this money will go toward the
taxes due on those parcels. And so, um, when
the distribution is done for this tax sale, 'cause I'll have to do it separate.
I'll have to do a separate distribution for this. I'll just withdraw
my motion and spend the money however you want to. And we'll, about the arcade later,
and I was just gonna say whenever I do the distribution, it'll,
it'll just say on there, county has this amount and is
delinquent for this amount. And then when that, when that goes into, um,
the, I guess goes over to the clerk's off when I do the, I call it a voucher
because it's done internally the money, but it'll tell us how much that money is
and then I guess from there you could move it to a fund that you wish to
put that money into to allocate it for whichever you want to.
we would know at that point in time it is delinquent because anything after 2024
is delinquent. Um, so it is possible to know the figure, it
is possible to put it into a fund, but you're going to have to
put it where, where we're supposed to go and then move it to where you want
it to go. Does that make sense?
so as stacia was saying, we'll do it, would do have to do a transfer? It would have to
be as far as I know, I think we need to research. Yeah,
but you're saying that the delinquent taxes that are collected, correct.
or on the tax cell correct. Delinquent taxes. Yes, they are. They go towards
that property. That property is in taxed in oh oh two mm-hmm . Which is
sma city. So everybody lives in business city pays
cemetery and everything else. So that money goes to those entities based
on their budgets and their levy set for that year. Correct. Yeah, it'll
be a separate, I mean it'll be a separate distribution to do the tax sale. Um,
but I, I mean 'cause I don't know, I don't know
the total ins and outs as far as, you know, what we're gonna
have the ending dollar for the county. I don't know that until we process everything
and we're still, you know, counsel and I are still in discussion with that. But
steve, it is possible to move the proceeds once it's levied out,
correct? Once it's levied out. Yes
sir. I would think that that is plausible
and that is why, um, what I understand from clinda, latrom is why
they would prefer to have a totally separate fund for tax proceeds, especially for
this, because of the steps that's gonna have to be taken to
do the, the distribution and all the payouts and stuff.
any other questions for mary? Still waiting on motion. I'm still waiting on
a motion to create the tax, um, sale proceeds fund.
I make a motion. Why is that
necessary? I just don't understand why is it necessary? Um,
let me see if I have that email.
it says that it allows them to surrogate and track all redemption feess and tell proceeds
in one place occasionally, um, that they collect the funds and they hold
them into the general account and that they would earmark on the tax foreclosure and
they would suggest that that not happen in this circumstance. They ask that
treasurers try to, um, make special funds or special
checking accounts. What do you want the
fund called? It's the fund is called tax sale proceeds
and all tax sale proceeds will go to that fund. That is
correct. Is this something
new? It is new for me and I think new for the county, like
I said. 'cause we we're at that point in time, we're in collection of the tax sales.
um, this is kind of the final step of where to put the money at. Um,
so we are trying to move forward doing
this every year and to do it every year I need to have a funds
put in there. So sheriff and I and district court under um, agreements
of what those funds are and they're allocated and go to the appropriated. Um,
have you reached out to other county treasurers and see what their procedure was? The clin
elast, um, has several county, um, and surrounding, actually they have like
17 in our 27 area southwest. And that is their recommendation
in handling that. And smaller counties had created separate
checking accounts. I don't feel like that that's a need to have a separate checking account.
I feel like the need is to have a separate fund. Well I would make a motion that we
create a tax seal proceeds fund or account as may be necessary
for the clerk with all proceeds from tax sales to depo be
deposited to said account. I would second that
if you would amend that no funds would be spent out of that account.
uh, I will add that amendment that funds will not be spent from the account. I don't think
they could be.
okay. I'll withdraw my second.
well we just added your modification. I thought you said no. No, he he added
I added it. He added it. Okay. So is your second back
? I'll take my second back then I'll make the second . Okay,
we'll cater. There's motion by commissioner stan second by commissioner.
helm should have right hands for approval.
okay. Three two
. Okay. And I do want to just let everybody know 'cause it seems to
be some confusion, um, how the statements, the tax
statements went out, um, that I did send out two
emails to you guys. Commissioners. One dated 1113 of 2025
and one dated 1125. 2025. It seems that there's
some, um, not truthful stuff going out in the community. Um,
we never stopped not working on statements or tax roll
for 20 25, 20 26. And I did send that email out
on, um, on october 31st. The
clerk's office did give us those tax rolls from that moment on. We, um,
did start printing on the tax rolls, which is we,
um, printed, we bind and we put 'em in the basement november 3rd and november 4th
from there, no, on wednesday, november 5th we started, um,
printing state assess 1620 and personal property. Um,
those went out, um, november 5th. From that we actually
went out, um, we started on gas and oil. We had 12,000 statements on
gas and 2000, 2,700 on oil from that. We
started doing that on november 17th and the 18th
we did get those printed and we finally got those mailed out.
now the real estate there was, we did have some software programs. We also
had several other things that happened. The software program was only on real estate
and that was the way it was printing. We were waiting on
a workaround from cic. We did do a workaround
and print started printing those off. Um, november 19th
through the 21st. From there we worked
saturday and sunday we were gonna work on sunday. We worked saturday the 22nd on getting those
real estate taxes out on sunday. We were gonna work, but
we had a severe storm and it was lightning and raining. So we did call off
on the 23rd. From there,
we um, did go and we did, uh, put those in the mail on
the 23rd, 24th, right before thanksgiving because
we had to finish up on the 20 that monday, which was the 24th.
I you have my days right? Yeah. So we mailed them on the 25th. We did take those
to, we took the real estate to mead and because of the
fact that we had a 24 hour turnaround, that's what we were told.
um, and so the other ones did go through the city,
um, postal service here in liberal. I want to let
the public know that none of those were thrown away. None of those were not printed
off. We printed off and stuffed every single one of those. We
also mailed those out and we did not do that to,
um, make sure that people would come in our office to fill out voter forms. So all of it went
out per statute. It had to be postmarked by december 15th. And from
there we did do that. Why was, uh, not included on the
statements that you could pay 'em online? Nowhere on there. Does it say
that? And you can, I don't, I don't know why it's not on there. Some of that has
to do with the fact there's not enough room to put everything
on there. Um, some treasures have gone to print it on the envelopes.
some treasures have gone to put sticky stuff on the envelopes. Um, it
just, it's not on there and it's not just our county that uses that software program.
so with that being said, we did start accepting payment on the first.
all of the postage that was done through the post office, um,
has to be verified and therefore they scanned that. And
so when the real estate went out and I took the 20,000,
um, parcel, the pieces of of mail to the post office, they have
to verify that and they have to email or give us a, a
like a scan bar back saying, we verified this is how many pieces of mail we got.
so I want the public to know that that is, um, the, the, um, the truth
behind that. We did have some, a little bit of issues, but it was on real estate
and we did have a workaround normally, um, we always get
'em out before thanksgiving, so we didn't do anything that was outta the unordinary
to do that. Is there any questions about that?
so what was the issue with the worker? So on the real estate, they
were printing, it was double printing. Um, the,
uh, legal, it was double printing the, um, what was taxed
on there. And so normally what would happen is you would download it to
pdf and then you would save it and then start printing from there. Because due
the printers and stuff, we could only do 2000 at a time and then let the printers cool down.
so the workaround was don't pdf it, you have to go in, pull
up the software and tell it, let it completely load, and then you have to go
from what page you wanna print to what page you wanna print. And that was the workaround. And
so the pdf was not able to be used on the real estate
and that was the way that they said it would stop from printing the double lines
of the mill levy and the, the legal, just everything that was
in the middle of the real estate. It was a double lining it.
so what, what, what, what is the purpose of the blue sheet and the memo that you put on
the on for people paying their taxes and protests under
something that's in litigation right now? I I don't understand who gave you the, what gives
you the authority to do that? Okay, so I'm glad you brought that up.
so whenever the tax year started,
we had, um, discussion within the community about the payment under protest.
this is our payment under protest application. Normally we do these on white paper
this year because we found out that the, um, constituents
of s county, um, were going to be doing illegal mill levy, which
I had never heard of before. I decided that we needed to get our
I's dotted and our t's crossed. Okay, so I'm gonna get there
just one moment. You said I decided who
said who? You you just said I decided who's over you. What,
who, who do you I decided what you just said. I decided
to, I was, I decided to call board of tax appeals.
so we decided that we were gonna use two different forms. This is where
I was going with that. We decided that to use the yellow one, which
goes to the county appraisers and then the blue one was gonna
go to the county treasure. We wanted to see what kind of paper we
had in stock so we didn't have to charge any more money to the taxpayer.
talking to the accounting appraiser, I said, are you okay with
blue being the illegal melody levy and yellow being the valuation?
and she said, I think that would be perfect. So then I called board of tax appeals
and I said, I need to know all of the ins and outs, what I need to do because
the county treasurer is in charge of this part. The illegal
mill levy up on that discussion, I asked them
about this. Who's decided? It said illegal mill
levy. That's, that's my word too. It says it on there. But who made that?
who decided that it was, that you can make that claim. It's a state, it's a
state form. Any taxpayer can file that form. It's on
boda. Right, right or wrong. They can file it. It's not what we're asking. That's not so, okay.
I misunderstood. Okay. So, so decided. It's already an illegal,
it hasn't even been decided by boda, whether it, so I don't, I'm
abiding to what the constituents are asking for. They asked for the illegal
vy. My office is, is for resources. So
I printed this off, put it on the webpage. Everything
else I didn't know it was, I called boda. I've talked to them.
when I was talking to them, I asked them if
I noticed. We went through the whole sheet, one line for line what,
how to fill it out, what I needed to do. They told me that
the um form had to be notarized.
I said, is it a conflict of interest that my office, notarizes or
anybody of the county notarizes it? They said, absolutely not. I said, is
it a conflict of interest if my office helps fill this out? And they said, absolutely not,
because you also do the payment under protest. I said, okay. So we
got through that. Then after that, I started having people come in and
I asked them. Then I said, I have people coming in that has,
has stuff that they wanna put on there. I said, what is it that I need to
do? And I said, would you accept a label? And she said,
yes, we would accept a label. I said, may I send it to you and you look over it and tell me
if that's acceptable. Now I am in contact with boda
every single day this week. So five days out of the week, I am am in contact with
correspondence or a phone call with them. There is nowhere on this,
this label that it has the opinion of the treasurer nor the opinion
or recommendation of the county treasurer or the county.
my office is simply re giving them resources. The dis the
comment was made if the
taxpayer paid for this. I can't even believe
that that was even a comment or a question. Because the taxpayer pays
for all of this, all of the resources, everything that is done here
is done with all of this. Whether it be evaluation or an illegal
melody. And it's a service that we provide.
I'm sorry, were just asking, I'm sorry. We decided it was illegal. That, that word,
because this had, did you talk while you were talking to voter? Five days a week.
are they aware that we are in litigation right now? Yes. And so, and they, and
you're saying to me that they approved you putting labels on things and
allowing the citizen, no, I'm not putting them. The citizen is at their discretion to
put this or put that on their own words. If they choose to do that,
then that's up to them. This is not saying you need to put
it on there. This is not saying, let me give this to you and tell you what it says.
this is just saying it's there if you would like to use it or if you would like to
use the verbiage, because I don't know what's all going out there, but here's what I have.
but you're not discouraging it. It's almost as if you're insinuating. How
do you know I'm not discouraging it, provide it for 'em. I'm being asked questions about it.
that is not true. I have told them that if they choose not to fill
out the illegal mill levy, that illegal.
that's what it says on it. What's the title of the form? Just so everybody understands that. Where
did you get the statement that you are putting on the label for everybody
to put it on there. 'cause they don't have to if they
choose to. Not to. She said where did you get that statement
from? It was a statement that was given. Who?
who? Who gave, who asked you? The constituents did. Who's
the constituents? The people that vote me in
my office is in charge of making sure that they have all the resources available.
by no means is this a persuasion. By no means is that,
but it is. If they wish to use this, they may. Yes. You're
testing it. So here you go. I mean, to me, if they needed to ask for it, they should
ask for it. And they have that opportunity. They have
that opportunity. The board of tax
appeals. I understood. How is that any different than filling
out this p form? I understand that forms aren't
even being filled out. Allowed. County appraiser, they are
being filled out. We've had several. These are being filled out.
they're not filled out. They're not completing the form in its
entirety. They're just signing their name and turning it into her. She has no idea what they're, so
we have have, we have copies of these that are taken and we also have the stuff that has to be given to
them before we give this to the county appraiser. These are being filled
out, these are being filled out. They're being filled out in my office per statute
and they are being sent to the appropriate person. I have not had
any complaints, nor have I had anything that said what we were doing
was wrong. It would be no different than me giving them
a pen to fill out the form
or the paper to do it. Well it was brought
to us today by said constituents who were concerned about
the form. Are you gonna tell us who those people are? No. 'cause you guys aren't willing to tell yours either.
so, oh, you guys now? Mm-hmm . Okay, let's move on. Um,
I think ahead. Let's move on. Oh gosh.
so that's where we're at with that. Any other questions?
okay, that is it. Thank you. Move to item number seven
and we need to bring this back from the table. Sir, is there a motion to bring it off
the table? Bring what off the table. The property casualty. Uh, move to revisit
the item we tabled at the last commission meeting involving, um,
property and casualty and workman's comp. Okay,
all second. Okay. There's a motion by commissioner stanton, second
by commissioner out show of right hands for approval. What are we doing? Revisiting
the insurance again. Okay, five and oh,
I need a drink. I need
a drink of water. I don't drink y'all. I'm so sorry. 'cause I always say no to alcohol, but this
is just, it's just so intense right now. I apologize. I'm so outta order.
just pray for me. Thank you, ms.
april. Lord have mercy.
thank you so much. You're very welcome.
commissioners. We held a work session earlier today. I end
response to the item being tabled. I did not have additional questions from commissioners
regarding questions that they wanted to ask. There were questions that
staff reviewed this week. I did have the opportunity to visit with k work and
kc camp while at kac this week to get some answers to
the questions. Uh, we went over,
um, those today. You do have representatives here from iron
insurance partners and do you also have a k work representative
in the audience? I don't think anybody from k
oh honor, we do not have a kc camp representative,
but, uh, the gentleman has been answering questions by, ken
has been answering questions by text today. If you had anything else
that you needed to ask this evening. Um, so I will turn this item over
to the commissioners. Did
we cover all the questions this afternoon? I couldn't hear everything. Uh,
I think there's probably a couple. If k work,
we could ask you a couple questions.
I, how you doing, steven? Good. I
think one of the questions was that possibly key work didn't use a mod
rate, a pardon me? A mod rate. I I think we mod
um, did you use it in your bid? Uh, I, I think we
used what you provided on, on, on what we had
on the mod reading. We find the form for you guys to be able to
obtain our mod reading. Right. Um, from, but as far as it being
included in the bid that it's right there on the back. I think, I think it was okay. One point, it was
six, so there was, or 1.45. Sorry. Okay. Yeah, it's
printed on the back of the form with the itemization of the bid. I got their new one. That's
okay. It's on the back of this page april
and it's on there.
yeah, I believe it was.
okay. Mm-hmm .
is there any other questions that we had? Okay.
okay, good. Thank you. Commissioners.
so I got a question for iron horse. We have turned in a list
of vehicles to go to liability only
if there's a certain year of value. Correct? We turned it in
and we never got, I guess it was never
inserted or approved or the, the way, the
way I understand it may be, uh, well you had a conversation earlier this week,
katie taylor with iron insurance. So what you are referring to, I believe
is at last year's renewal, you requested that any vehicles below
a certain value that's correct. Were to be removed. Those were removed.
so that has been completed at last meeting. There was some question as to
some, um, equipment that you wanted reviewed. We have removed that as well,
but only from that date that we were instructed to do so. Okay. Okay.
I thought we decided that some of the vehicles, the older vehicles had not been, well,
I believe there may have been an additional two to three vehicles that were also
removed at that time that we reviewed the equipment because they did go over everything. There just weren't
a lot of vehicles to remove at that point. Okay.
alright.
is there any other questions that we had?
any other questions? I know we discussed the rental
coverage with about kkm. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm happy
to answer any questions if commissioners have additional questions.
I know they had a question about if a, um, a, a piece of equipment is
disabled or destroyed and, um, if it need to, if the county
would have to, um, rent that, um, piece of equipment until something
is found on somewhere. Mm-hmm .
who covers that cost and is, I know we cover the cost, but is it reimbursed and up
to how much? So k camp's answer
to brock when he had that discussion with them was that they
would work on that with us to see that specifically in a policy.
I don't know that we saw that, um, specifically in a
policy. And I don't katie or are you guys able to answer that on
behalf of iron insurance? I don't.
there can be in certain policies, coverage for, uh,
providing rental, uh, in the event something, uh, comes,
uh, inoperable. So I mean that is an available, uh,
coverage in, in most particular policies. So is that something that you
normally see or nor normally write business for and is there a dollar amount?
um, because the, the compactor I think was $20,000 a day. Yeah.
what is the, the, the dollar limit and is there a cap on it? So it, there, there
can be a cap and, and that is what we have. We would have to decide what we would want that
limit to be. Uh, there's no standardized limit. We can buy as, we
can buy up to a certain amount or buy down to a certain amount. That would be a discussion
item that you'd wanna have as we go through the process of, of determining how important
that coverage is, what the cost of that coverage is, and then what you think you would need in the
event. So currently it is not included in the policy. I
I don't have the policy in front of me, uh, todd. But, uh, typically we, we would see
coverage, uh, in the event of a claim, uh, providing some coverage for,
uh, replacing equipment in a temporary basis. So,
so there's that. Um, like I'm just thinking about my own personal,
um, insurance. If someone runs into me or whatever, and I
pay my deductible, that impacts my premium. This in two, will this impact
the premium amount? Well, I will tell you that, so you, if you talk about
a rental coverage on your vehicle, right? You have to opt in for that coverage to have rental and towing
and those kind of things. And yes, it would have an impact on the premium. So when you add coverage,
you're going to, you're going to potentially add to the cost of the insurance
now, albeit marginal because the likelihood of some of those types of things happening may
be smaller than than others. And so it's, uh, it's gonna be relative to the
exposure.
jeff, you have a question on non-insured, steve, non-insured
drivers. So the unin,
uninsured motorist, that's just for medical, correct? So
uninsured motorists or underinsured motorists sometimes this is called is, is designed
to pick up not only medical, but also physical, physical damage. So like
on your personal policy as an example, you have uninsured underinsured. So
if the uninsured or underinsured doesn't have enough coverage to repair your vehicle
or give you something of like, kind and quality, that will pay for that as well. It
will also affect if you have, uh, issues, medical issues of, of medical
payment. So now in the state of kansas, pip coverage is the, the first dollar
coverage that pays in the event of medical needs.
there's a limit on that. There, there is like, uh, like the limit,
uh, for pip coverage in the state of kansas. 27.5 is the most you can buy. Yeah. Mm-hmm
.
anything else for me? I'm good. Thank
you.
you want him deal? You want him to deal with these separately? Yeah, it'll
be two separate. It'll be the workman's comp and then casualty.
so
put it out the commissioners. I mean
there was some motion out there.
well, if no one else is speaking, I will make a motion that we accept
the policy offered by k work, uh, covered by their cover
letter dated november 19th, 2025.
that is for the workman's comp. Okay.
is there a second?
I'll second it so we can vote on it. Okay.
any other discussion?
I, I just like to add from our discussion today that this
is a pool and that um, if it doesn't work, it's
not as easy to withdraw out of the pool and go back to what we had. I
just want that you to be very mindful of that. Um,
it's good that we can save money, but sometimes saving money means spending more money than
you anticipated. That's all I wanna say about that. Well, there's no guarantee that
your current carrier will renew you next year either.
I call okay.
show a right answer for approval
passes. We'll go with k. Work for work's comp. Mm-hmm .
property casualty. Three, two. Liability.
the two women didn't vote for it, the two women did not vote
for it. Have there been any modifications to the original k camp proposal or is
it as written? As written?
I will make a motion that we accept the policy proposed by k camp,
um, apparently unmodified as covered
by their cover letter dated november 19th, 2025.
I will second it again so we can vote on it
any further discussion.
okay. Two a right answers approval.
okay. Nose.
wow. Okay. Is there any other
motions out there? I
we accept 2026 property
casual liability proposal from
fire I second
motion by commissioner abbott to set the iron horse proposal.
it's just iron. Just iron? Okay. I don't know where to
get the horse. I want to say horse too . So I think it's oil fields. So it's,
it goes together for the 2026 property casualty
and liability. Show that there's a second. Are there
a second by me? Mm-hmm . Are there concerns about the cost we're incurring here?
I mean, the discussion we had prior to bringing the other company in to
make a bid was concern over the cost. And we're somewhere
approaching double, I
mean, workman's comp. Wait, I mean, we're already in a, a budget mess. That's just
beyond belief.
I mean, I also worry about coverage too. Well, we have 80, 85
counties, 105 counties in kansas. Five of the self insure,
85 of the remaining a hundred are using this group.
and there have been I think some minor issues here and there, but
nothing substantive.
it's a huge amount of money. I mean somewhere over two
mills.
and, and, and I would just point out that that's the two mills we're gonna have to find somewhere.
come january I gained .
well, I wasn't finished speaking so maybe you could give it 30 seconds.
um,
that's funny also, I assume well good for you.
you were just downloaded. Just go your way. You don't get to
any other discussion. Okay. Show a right answer
to approval. Three email.
okay. Thank you.
item number eight, cip approved mower.
wow.
good evening. Commissioners. Um, back when we did our budget
in 2025, I was approved to,
uh, to pick up a mower. A 72 inch cut.
I got three bids. Uh, the first one was
with apds and sublet. And it's a
72 inch and it's a 2026. And they, we
have a, uh, a bad boy maverick that we bought back
in 2018 and it's seven years old. And,
uh, they gave offered us 2000 for a trade-in on
that, which made it 9,000 710 0 8.
we looked online and got a quote from bad boy mowers of
salina and there's come to $13,049.
and then we went to keating tractor. They had a 2025 john
deere 72 inch cut, no trade in.
it was used, it had one hour on it. Warranty was
36 months, or 12 one 1,200
hours. And it was quoted at 1,700
and I mean 17,000. And then with the 10% government
discount, it come to 15,300. And, uh,
up here when we did the bad boy with sublet, I'm sorry, they,
uh, it was warranty on the engine three years and warranty on the mower for
two years. And, um,
if you guys to prove this, my choice would be the bad
boy and sublet
I move that we received out of the cip account approved,
um, recommendation for the a pd from
sublet in the amount of $9,710 and 8 cents
for the event center for the 72 inch cut mower
that was budgeted in 2025 cipa
second to come outta county fund 3 3 0 dash 0 0 5 4 8 0.
I second that. So did we get rid
of a couple mowers? Do what? Yes, we did. We got rid of those on our,
uh, auction that we had. And then we have two other mowers
and they are a, um, a cadet and a hustler
and they were purchased in 2 20 20 and 2022.
and those are 60 inch inch cuts. And we wanted to go a 72
this way we can use it around the rodeo area, the grandstand area back in that
area, which we have a lot of mowing. And then we have the pastures on
the west and then of the west of the event center. We do that. And then
we have those pastures out there around behind k state and all that.
so we just figured that a 72 inch cut would help us get the work done just
a little bit quicker. So this will result
in three working mowers. Do
what steve? This will result this, this purchase will give you
three. That's all the, all the mowers you have is three working mowers? Yes. Mm-hmm
. No junk mowers sitting around or? Well,
we do have a grasshopper that we've been working on trying to get it to run.
some days it runs, some days it don't, but we're still working on it, so.
okay. I didn't wanna say uncle yet. ,
does anybody have experience with this brand? I don't. Yeah. Bad boy. Yeah,
I know a couple people that have them. She come for
bad boy, bad boy. They're
made kansas, aren't they? Uh, I don't know where they're made that, but I know a couple people
that do that been reliable.
so you're gonna get it rid at the grasshopper if you get this one then if we have another
auction. No. If you get, if you get this more, you're gonna auction that grasshopper
off there. Yes. If we do. Yeah. While it's running. The grasshopper
is, I'm, I mean that's really oat, but we
sort of liked it real well, so we thought we'd work on it a little bit, but it's
a little rough riding, driving mowing sounding. So
there's a motion by commissioner abbott. Is there a second by question? Mm-hmm .
any further discussion? Okay. Show of right hands for approval.
okay. Thank you ms. Linda, do you want, are you good? I'm sorry.
huh? I was saying thank you. You have oh, I was, thank you too. I appreciate that.
and I don't know if I'll see you guys again, but you all have a merry christmas. Okay.
merry christmas to you as well. Thank you. Item number nine, grant acceptance.
andrew barkley.
good evening commissioners. Andrew bark, lucer county fire chief, come before you this
evening requesting permission to accept a grant
from the anderson corporation foundation. Um, they're involved in
some grain facilities here in se county. Um,
in the amount of $6,000, the money is to be
used. Basically, they'll, they'll award us it's $3,000
grant. They're gonna give us 6,000 'cause they've identified two
locations in ser county that we protect. And that money will be used for grain
bin rescue equipment. And the there are stipulations to
the grant. They will tell us where we go purchase that stuff. And
so I just need your permission to allow me to
accept it when it arrives and purchase where they
identify I need to purchase. I move that we accept the $6,000
grant from the andersons and appreciate it very much and thank them.
I second. It won't cost any more than 6,000.
no. Commissioner, just, just ask. And skyland
elevator is the one that correct? They're the ones that facilitated this
grant. Okay.
okay. There was a motion by commissioner abbott to accept the grant of $6,000
accept by commissioner fuller. Mm-hmm . Show of righthand for approval, I
believe. Thank you commissioners. Thank you. Chief barkley.
item number 10, sewer county fights addiction fund grid. Kayla
jenko.
you brought . Hi. Good, good evening commissioners. Kayla jenko with some on
basin community corrections. Chelsea draw state juvenile corrections and prevention
services and we invited school resource officer
kevin ano commissioners. We wanted to
give you an update on what we've been doing with the grant funds that we received from the opiate funds.
um, just a small rundown, I did attach it to the memo.
we did purchase 14 a ed units for the seward county sheriff's department to put into their
units. Um, we also purchased the, uh, fatal
vision equipment for the school resource officers to use in the school districts.
and the officer will explain to you a little bit more about that is very
interesting and in depth of what was it's utilized for, for the juvenile.
and we purchased some prevention posters and stuff for the youth to be placed in the school
districts as well, for information to, um, get
their knowledge up to speed of what the narcotics and stuff can
do to them. So then we also purchased two thermo scientific
true narcan handheld devices for the sierra county sheriff's department to have in their units
if they needed that out in the field. And then we also provide, uh, purchased some drug
testing supplies for the youth, um,
myself along with the school resource officers at liberal police department.
um, we now do monthly staff meetings. And with
the fatal vision, they've been keeping us up to date of the different
times that they've used it with the school, with the youth in the schools. And I thought
it would be pretty interesting to have kevin talk about it and,
um, let you guys know if, how well it's going.
so the equipment is pretty interesting. Uh, 1993, a man named michael aguilar.
uh, I believe he was living in wisconsin at the time. He came home from a business meeting
after work and, uh, arrived at home. Uh, just to find
out that five minutes before he came home, his five-year-old son david,
uh, had almost been struck by a drunk neighbor that had veered
off from the road, uh, missed his son david, but actually hit his,
uh, his friend that he was playing with in, in, in the yard, tyler, and hospitalized him
for a week. Uh, this impacted michael greatly. And so, uh, three years later
in 1996, he started a company called in a corp limited. Uh, that's
where the fatal vision products come from. So it's about next year it'll be about
30 years of development on this, uh, technology. Um, we've seen,
just like with anything else, uh, proper education in our communities can
make a difference. It's not the end all be all, no product is. Um, but
you know, we see the fire departments making great education efforts in the
schools and therefore over the last 50 years, that has contributed
to zero deaths for fire related incidents for students
in the school buildings. I wish that was the same, unfortunately for school
shootings and other things, but that's what we're working on. So, um, we've begun
educating the kids in school. We, we show them the statistics and
that's about what we can do. We give them, uh, examples of even local
tragedies that we've had. Uh, in the early 2000 tens, kansas was averaging about
a hundred dui fatalities a year. It is a problem even in our state
and even in our, in our county, in our city. And so this kind of education
will help these kids, uh, give second thought, uh,
to getting behind the wheel of a vehicle while impaired. Uh,
we've seen over the last years now it's not just alcohol related
duis, we're seeing that 50% of the duis, uh, that are
happening are a mixture of alcohol and a bunch of other substances
that, um, unfortunately people are abusing. And so, uh, with this type of
education that we're bringing to the schools, we did, we rolled out our first
demonstration for the cadets who're actually meeting right now. Every monday night they meet
at the ag building. And so we had a group about 50 cadets that we got to
do a live demonstration for. And they were our test subjects for, uh,
the educational materials. And so we're gonna start rolling them out, uh, at the beginning
of this next year, uh, for the middle schools and the high school and, uh,
wherever else we can. Thank you. Appreciate your work. Thank you.
are there any questions in regards to the opiate funds? We still have
a balances of $29,512 and 29 cents in this account.
I do have a question. Um, are we, um, is there anything that you can
do in reference to vaping, um, getting information
on that? 'cause the kids are finding really smart ways to camouflage,
um, and it's really detrimental to them and they, they think it's cool, but they, they they're really killing themselves,
correct? Absolutely. Um, so we did purchase some posters and stuff and I'll
let chelsea talk about that. Um, as of right now, the only prevention that we've
done as far as vaping and, and are you talking specifically nicotine vaping?
um, because we also have thc vaping that is kevin
can talk about that is very prevalent in our schools as well.
um, as of right now, I just have the posters. However, I am more than willing
to look into any additional prevention ma matters that I
can to try to address that. Um, I know that
once the youth receive the charges and they are placed on supervision with us
at j caps, we do have different programs, but that's once they've already received charges
and this whole effort was to try to be on a preventative level mm-hmm
. Um, so I am more than willing to look into any other,
um, preventative options as far as vaping specifically. Um,
I can't guarantee that there will be as much on
nicotine. There will probably be more on the thc just based off
of what we've seen. But I can still definitely look into it and pursue that.
I know that, um, there are containers for,
to disregard, um, discard drugs and, um,
containers. Um, for, um, you go to the library, you
can just throw your library book in there. I, I would think something really cool
and informative and just kind of help the children think and skip the vape
and just, you know, anonymously discard it and, and
just help them to continue to educate. They have so much of their
future ahead of them. And this is just another thing that seems to be really
cool, but it's deadly. So I'm just thinking it's something as,
um, I know, um, barbara bush, I'm dating myself, say, just
say no, but just something that will just help them think and
have a place where those things can be discarded. Whether it's all, I don't know whether the school
district would allow it to be on campus or, um, somewhere in the library
where it's, you know, something to kinda get that out of their hands. 'cause they know
how to hide stuff. You know, you have to all remember us, we were all teenagers. We did
stuff that, and when you say don't do something, it just, it's enticing to them. You
know.
any other questions? Thank you so much for all that you do. Thank you. And spending those funds
wisely to educate and protect our community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
move to item number 11, security camera system admin building. Clayton
hoover.
good evening commissioners. Clayton hoover with the it department.
earlier this year we had, uh, proposed a
quote for some security camera upgrades and some access control as
well as the panic buttons from ada. And it was, uh,
quite a bit pricey. Mm-hmm . So, uh, we kind of scrapped that
and just kind of went back to the drawing board. And I know, um,
simon has put a lot of work into doing a lot of the research. He kind of took the lead on
this, but, uh, what we have for you on
the security camera system, just for the admin building, um,
since this is the oldest camera system, basically we have, it's,
I've been here 14 years and it was here when I got here. So , the admin building
security cameras, have a lot of age on 'em. And we have right now
I think four cameras that are, that are down. Um,
so the, uh, quote we've got was for
a unified camera, camera system. So it's going to be,
uh, basically the same hardware as what the, the
tta project was, uh, quoting out as
far as the cameras go. Uh, I know a
couple of commissioners had set in on, on some of the ada
demonstrations and, uh, a lot of the portal, a lot of the app and
the camera, the hardware is just basically the same thing, just
kind of rebranded, uh, for ada. So what, uh,
what we're proposing is to replace a security camera system here
with an nvr system. What they, what ada had was also a cloud-based
unit, and then that's where the licensing fees came in and that's where it got kind of
expensive. Um, but the, the camera
system that we're looking at here, this unify, we can have
our own nvr system on site store, everything here. So it'd
just be a one-time purchase. So it wouldn't be any licensing fees or anything going forward.
and, and we could also, uh, handle the installation
in house too. So that would save quite a bit of, quite a bit of money.
so the system that we've got, uh, cdw came in the cheapest
now that was for the, for eight cameras and it's an access control
starter kit, which would, uh, uh, get us going on the access
control for maintenance, the way they use on their door system
door lock systems. Um, the nvr and n seven
hard drives that would, uh, fill the nvr total
cost on that. Uh, coming in from cdw it $4,875
and 75 cents. Um, when I
was putting this agenda, this packet together to go on the agenda,
I did get a call from, uh, our treasurer's office
stating that they had a, uh, customer in there that lived across the street to
the east, or yeah, to the east of us, and wanted to know if we could look at our cameras
to see he had something stolen from his property. So I, uh,
we did check the, the camera system and I don't know in your
packet, I think there is a surveillance, one
document that I put in there shows the, the camera that
we were looking at for that east parking. And anyway, it's,
you, you can't see anything at night. It was a light . There's nothing there,
uhuh. Uh,
so the system, like I said, is, is 14 years old. Some of those cameras aren't
working and the ones that are, are so grainy and pixelated that you, you can't
make anything out. So it's, it's been
due to be replaced for some time now and I think this is a much more economical
way of doing it rather than the cloud-based, uh, ada system.
it would, uh, be a lot better, a lot, lot cheaper
and good quality, good quality equipment. How many cameras are
currently in here? We have not 18 cameras currently in
our system right now. And we can phase these out. Like I said, this would be
for eight cameras. And then I think the specs
in there showed that as right around $250 a camera.
so next year I'd like to go ahead and, and phase out the rest of those cameras
in the old system and get everything off of that system by early
next year. And I'd like to add a few more. Um,
like I said, 18 is what we currently have and we have some dead spots that we could definitely
fill out some places that need, need some attention. So, uh,
the system that there, that we're quoting right here will handle
up to 24 4k cameras. Uh, it would
handle, what was the other, the seven hard drives will handle
the additional. So it'd just be a matter of buying additional correct. Cameras
only? Correct. No licenses? No,
there wouldn't be any licensing. It'd just be the one time purchase of the hardware. Okay.
and we could implement that into the, the mvr system. What's your anticipated
lifespan on these cameras? I'm going to say at least eight to 10 years.
uh, like I said, they're the same hardware as ada was, uh, quoting
and they, they gave a 10 year warranty on theirs. So I I see no reason why
are these, what are these warranted for? You know what, I do not know
if I've got that on there.
do you know if there was a warranty on those? Simon?
I am not seeing anything on that.
I don't seeing anything there, but that, that's what I can we just verify that before you actually went ahead
with the purchase that there is a reasonable warranty? Sure, yeah.
I'd make a motion that we purchased the eight cameras
access control starter kit nvr
and seven hard drives at a cost of $4,875
and 75 cents to come out of from
cdw dash g, uh, to
come out with a technology pending verification of the warranty.
second. Okay, there's a motion by commissioner him and second
by commissioner stanton show right hands for approval. Five vote.
alright, thank you commers. Thank you.
item number 12, work comp update.
good evening commissioners. I will pass out the work comp update to you. Please
note, um, because it does go back to 2022,
um, there is a front and back, um, to the sheet. I know
that, uh, commissioner helm had asked me to look
into some of the information across the top. Um,
inc means incurred. Um,
and then of course the paid, total paid claim, paid medical.
and, um, if we have other questions on,
uh, what the further titles are, please let me know and I will obtain that information
for you.
that's okay. It's been a long day. Thank you.
and I apologize, I usually have these highlighted for you. So you know, the ones that
are, um, only opened and I did not
get that done before this evening. But, but you can see the column where
it says, um, status, the c is foreclosed, the o is for
opened. Is there a reduction in the open cases since the
last time we looked at this or is it still the same? I believe it's still
the same. And then of course we unfortunately have
some added since your last report that's no longer fitting on one page.
okay, we'll move to item number 13. Escrow agreement. Reimbursement
of remaining balance. Cheers.
good evening commissioners. Um, in may of 2017,
seward county entered into an agreement with, um, pinnacle public finance.
it was in relation to your 360 energy
engineer project, um, that where services were done in several
of the different locations within the county. And it was to be an
energy project at that time. An escrow account was set up with
the bank of new york mellon trust company. We do have
a balance that's sitting in that escrow fund in the amount of $23,590
and 73 cents to be reimbursed to seward county.
I'm requesting approval to sign the joint letter of direction
and for you to authorize mary rose seward county treasurer to provide
wiring instructions, uh, for those funds to be released.
um, I've included that information in
your packet. I will need mary to, uh, provide me
with the wiring instructions to go along with said form.
does that terminate this agreement? And is that the end of any
funds that are in there? Do we know this? This will reimburse
the escrow funds that are in there. We still do have payments outstanding
in your budget for, um, the completion of that project. I'll second.
there's a motion by commissioner abbott, a seconded by commissioner fuller
show of right hands for approval where
they wanna deposit it. Yes, I was go, you can use it
to do additional payoff, um, or to apply towards
the payoff of the, I think it needs to apply to the payoff that mm-hmm
. Yeah, there's, there's no hope of ever getting money back.
it was a wasted $3 million. But anyway,
show of right hands for approval up.
don't disagree.
okay. Item 13 a and we're still off on the budget.
um, you know, it's, we're nearing last meeting of the year
would be my guess. That's a special meeting. So we're coming
into the new year. Uh, we promised the taxpayers,
I thought that we would review
what, no matter what the voter ruling is, that we would review the budget
and propose cuts to, to, to get our budget back to a reasonable amount.
um, I I think we need to hold to that as quick as we
can at the first year. We need to meet and get
these going. We, you know, we had, we mean the
energy deals, you know, we're stuck with that. Wasn't this commission, it
was 15 year agreement. I know there was some work done,
it was done under the pretense of it wouldn't cost anything,
$3 million flushed. So I think we need,
you know, we need to, we need to start some of the things we need to start for
sure at the first of the year, you know, our cuts. We need to look
at any, any non-profit. You know, I think we talked about that any non-profit
we're um, we hold that off till at least after
the, we, we get the voter ruling, see where we're at. Um,
you know, like credit cards. Quit buying clothing, you know,
I know sheriff's department has uniforms, fire department has uniforms,
but other than that, there's no need to be buying clothing.
um, just a pet peeve of mine. No candy, no pop,
no ice cream.
that's just my idea. So
we need to look at travel and we have spent
in one department, I know one trip, I think last month or month
before had to be around 3,500 to $4,000
or more. So I think we need, you know, we need
to be, if we're gonna be conservative, we need to act like it, you know,
it's not a blank check from the taxpayer. So
steve, if I challenge you to take the lead on that, I've got it. I've done it.
okay. Well instead of talking you follow through and do it. I'm tired. Plan awake
at night wondering how people are gonna pay their high taxes.
so, okay. We'll move to item 14. Executive
session. I was gonna say something if I could. Okay. Alright. Um,
uh, I think it was two weeks ago, might've been four weeks ago, there was discussion about were
we going to bring salary increases and raises before the
commission? Um, it is correct. We would have to modify resolution
2020 dash oh two in order to do that.
so if that's something we're going to consider, then we should probably look at what parts of that
resolution need to be modified. I mean, I would,
we could modify make a, we could put it on the next agenda with
a yes or no, like we normally get with the resolutions either
yes or no. And is that something we need to have for look at and
probably draft something, draft, I
don't know how you would do a new resolution or make a modification to
this one, but have him draft whatever's necessary.
does, does is for, does april know what you're looking for? And I can just work with april
to put that together. It's resolution 2020 stroke oh two,
that would just need modification so that at least for a certain period of
time, I don't know what that would be. That, uh, salary increases or raises
of any, any nature would need to come before the full commission due to budgetary
constraints.
that was it, scott. Okay. And I don't know if that, just
a thought if that can include other elected officials or not.
do we have any say so? Or
you can discuss that that would be, uh, forest, I,
I'm not comfortable answering that question as it regards to elected officials.
I don't know if you're able to offer any advice on that this evening or if that would
be something that we would need to get back to them on. Well,
I don't, I don't know what the original resolution said, so I guess I want to take a look at that
before I could offer an opinion on what we can do. And generally speaking, if you're talking about
increasing, um, you, you have the
authority to do that and you talk about decreasing, you start getting into issues of
ensuring that the, that each elected official, that their
budget is adequately funded, including compensation. But I, I'd rather look
at the, I'd rather look at the, uh, that's the resolution that
you're referring to amending before I offer any further opinion.
sounds good. I will send that tomorrow. Thank you.
okay.
any other, okay, we move to item 14,
executive session personnel.
hello? 20 minutes.
have a five minute break. Hmm? Yes. Yeah. What my, take
a little break please. Okay, lets take a break first. Well,
I can just, we can make our time. Okay. I, I moved
to recess into executive session for a consultation. Um,
no personnel. I'm sorry, wrong one. I move to recess
into executive session for discussion of personnel
matters of non-elected personnel under ksa 75 dash 43 19
b 1, 4 20 minutes to include the commission and
april warden. And that's it for attorney and forest
and forest roads attorney, uh, to reconvene in the
commission chambers at 7 53 7 58 58.
we'll take a five minute recess and then go into executive session. Okay.
uh, the discussion will be personnel match. Is there a second?
second. Okay. Motion by commissioner m. Second by commissioner abbott
sho of right answer biden
session. Please go sheriff forward on the call. We're back. Please call
sheriff ford. I moved to recess into executive session for discussion
of personal matters. You don't well, stephanie, we're in, we're in,
we're in the meeting. I moved to recess into executive
session for discussion of personnel matters of non-elected personnel
under ksa 75 43 19 b one for
15 minutes to include the commission in april. Warden to re
reconvene in the commission chambers at 8:14 pm
the subject matter of the discussion will be personnel matters.
okay. Is there a second, second show of right answer
approval.
okay, no action taken. Um,
so I moved to recess into executive session for consultation with our
attorney, which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship under
ksa 75 43 19 b2 for five minutes
to include the commission in april, warden and forest roads,
um, to reconvene in the commission chambers at 8 21.
the subject matter discussion will be, um, and brock
and I need brock speak. Oh, and brock also
brock finer. And the subject matter will be,
um, pending litigation. I'm sorry, pending litigation pending
legal. Got a second, second,
second. Show of right hands. Five minutes and half.
is he on there? Yes. All right. Got you back for us.
okay. We'll move to item 15. That's all here. Okay. Administration
comments, commissioners. Um, I sent you a friday report,
um, or a weekly update. Unfortunately, I was gone to kac last week,
so that report did not come to you until the weekend. Um, I did
share with you, I was at the kansas association of counties. There were a lot of good breakout sessions
that I was able to attend as well as was able to meet with kirk
and michael k work, k camp cic,
and other vendors that the county, uh, utilizes as well as
association group where we, um, shared
a lot of the same issues that our county is facing that other counties are facing. And
then we also had breakout sessions by population. Um,
but anyway, I feel like I listed all of that in my notes, um, for you to
review if you have any further questions. Um, on that, the legislative
policy for kac did pass, um,
unanimously by all the voting counties. Um, there are 102
counties of the 105 that are all a part of the kansas association
of counties. Um, I have nothing. I have nothing further
this evening. Okay, we'll
move. Sorry. I do, um, I've had, as some commissioners
ask me. Um, we are having monthly department head meetings and we do have
our next one this thursday at noon. Okay.
move to commission comments. Okay. Todd, do
you have anything? Uh, I
was gonna say something. Mr. Madden.
okay. Mr. M what? Do you have any
comments mr. Stephanie? Yeah, I'll come to her. Oh, you started with
todd, right? Yep. Not gonna go. Getting all jumbled up. You gonna mix us all?
no, I don't have any comments other than, you know,
merry christmas and happy new year. It doesn't even seem like weather wise,
it seemed like it's spring or fall, so sooner
or later we're gonna have to have to pay up. So that's all.
okay, move to commissioner fuller.
december 15th, 2025 to seward
county administrator. April warden, seward county board of commissioners,
county commissioners. Subject letter of resignation.
dear april warden and members of the board, I am deeply grateful
for the opportunity to serve the county. This journey has marked, been marked
by both accomplishments and challenges and throughout it all, I've sought to serve
with integrity, diligence, and a genuine heart for
the people. I believe every season of service is guided
by purpose and I am thankful for what god has allowed me
to accomplish together, allowed us to accomplish together.
I sincerely thank those who supported me, those prayed for me
and entrusted me with this responsibility. These pa the three, the past
three years have strengthened my faith, refined my leadership,
and deepened my commitment to public service. I am beginning a new chapter
in my life. Accordingly, I hereby tender my resignation
as county commissioner from district two. Effective immediately
I will remain in liberal for a few additional days to
complete necessary personnel paperwork. I trust the appropriate process
will res result in the appointment of a capable individual
who will continue to serve the community well for the remainder of the term.
it has been an honor to serve alongside my fellow commissioners and
the dedicated county employees. I pray for god's continued wisdom,
unity, and favor over this board and over seward county. I wish you
all a merry christmas and a happy new year. Nobody has seen this
for fear of it being leaked, so I read it for myself. I will submit this
copy to april. Thank you all so much for trusting me to serve you. And I do
apologize for the display that you witnessed tonight. It reminded me of dome
of domestic violence, which my mother killed herself when I was 12 years old, so
it triggered something in me. So I do apologize for that, but it's
been a joy serving you all. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner scott.
commissioner carr, district three. I'll tender my
resignation first thing in the morning and 16th.
so the community wants the election recall. I'll give
it to you mr. Stanton. So you've been working hard on it, so I'll
leave it at that
september 15th. Who had ever dreamed that this community would've
acted like it did? Just because they didn't agree with the three
of us votes. We had been ridiculed, mocked,
cartoons drawn about us. It's pretty pathetic when the
three of us in that aspect were givers to this
community. As of three 10,
I signed a grant back in 23. Who'd have dreamed that one
signature on something that had happened for years before
would cause me to be recalled. This was my second recall
in the last few weeks, my family's been put up with b******t.
my in-laws 80 years plus has been called
out in public. And enough is enough. I've served with
three of the best people that I could ever think of with scott. Thank you
for sny. Thank you. And whatever this community says about april,
she has one of the most giving professional people that
I've ever known. And it makes me sick for people to
try to damage any of our reputations. We've all served with integrity
and honesty, and no one has done anything that has been
anything but legal. I wanna apologize
to the, uh, all the employees of this county you
guys serve with at utmost, uh,
professionalism. You guys all know your jobs well and
it saddens me that I feel like I'm disappointing you by not being able
to help seward county grow. I wanna
challenge you two, mr. Helm and mr. Stanton.
um, mr. Stanton, I'm glad to see you finally quit drawing mileage
money against the county since you claim to be
this god-fearing, uh, man that is so conservative. And steve,
I challenge you to step up into the role of leadership. You think it's been so easy?
I hope that you're the new, uh, county chair and you sign something and every
time you sign something, you think about the potential that you can get recalled.
I wish mr. Madden would be here. He speaks on behalf of the rest of the
county that I feel like only has half truths and does not know
the full story of what it means to sit up here and to know
everything that we know, that we've taken the upper hand and not spoke out
into the community. I wanna thank mr. Jose lara, your community's
dear member. Uh, mayor. I wanna thank mr. Hatcher and ms. Huddleston.
those are the three that signed the petition to recall me. I wish the
gop who I served for years in the leadership
position, that they can find someone that serves with as much as
integrity as we have as they have to fill these positions.
mr. What I wish you luck on your llcs on the
tax, uh, sale next month. Hope I didn't leave
anything out. I do
apologize again to the employees of this county. You guys deserve better.
you are good employees in april. Again, I am so sorry. This has all
had to happen to you with all your dedication. Merry christmas
to everyone. And may god bless this county and all you employees.
is there any suggestion cards? I will have my letter effective
in the morning also. Oh,
you ta you texting that already. Guys are letting her know.
um, fors recorded at all. If
you're with us still. Um,
I just know that, um, the letters of resignation will have
to go to the governor. You can, you resigned effective
tonight, but they'll go to the governor and you need to carbon copy the, um,
sorry. The dop, the chairman of the republican committee.
um, for the community. This means that no business on behalf of the
county can be conducted because we do not have a quorum.
um,
what about the employees and their pay? Yeah, I,
uh, forest, there's lots of questions right now
about the employees and pay. We have a payroll that
comes out monday or was supposed to come out monday. You just signed.
okay. So we're good for yeah, we signed two weeks. Good.
we already signed and the opia has two weeks before the next commission meeting.
you guys are good. You'll not leave you on control like that.
um,
what is the seward county policy on a quorum? How many is it four by
resolution? By resolution? Mm-hmm .
oh, gop has
their work cut out for 'em. However, I'm sure that they've been discussing that,
so oh yeah, they they've already been.
is there any suggestion cards? I'm sorry. How does,
if you guys wanna stick around, we can talk about that after
the meeting. Um, we can't, they cannot. No. Well, I mean
we only have two acting commissioners now, but, well, I didn't mean the, the commission,
um, forest. I'm sorry. There's so many questions. Do we just,
uh, run business as usual until it comes to a commission
meeting where we have to have I'm, I'm sorry. I'm only getting a
piece of that. I heard my name but I couldn't hear anything else. Sorry.
I assume all departments will remain open. We will run business
as usual. Um,
I have authorities as the county administrator under statute
and job description, but there are certain things that,
um, I will not possibly be able to
do and I do not have a chairman to report to at
this time. Uh, we do have vice chair steve helm who will step into that
role. We just don't have a quorum of commissioners
to take any action. I
personally want to thank the commissioners for their dedication. And I know that,
uh, takes a lot to sit in your
positions and to have, to make the decisions that you had to make and
in spite of what some
citizens think and what the media thinks. Um,
because I do feel like the community has been misled from
many perspectives. Um, just because there's
a lot that happens in government to make it run. I feel like we've
tried to be more transparent than ever and it,
it unfortunately didn't help. Um, and to mr. Madden,
um, who got up here tonight and, um, said the things that he
said until they sat in your chairs, they, they don't know the decisions
that you have to make and what you're forced to face. And
also, um, as a county administrator, I never,
um, make decisions alone. I value the expertise
of our department heads and always factor in
what they have to say to a particular, um, topic as well as
the many resources that the county has that we focus on. So it's
unfortunate that individuals get blamed for being the only
source of information, but it's called a lack of education. Um,
and, uh, I think we've lost three
good people in our community that gave a lot, um,
and had the best interest of the community at heart. And I'm sorry for the criticism,
um, that you've taken and for the belittling of,
and the endurance that your families have had to put up with as well. And thank
you for your leadership. April, I want to say, and to the community that's
listening, my family and I made this decision a year ago. There was a
surprise for the, uh, I, I was floored and shocked,
but um, when I went to florida for my nephew's wedding and our
40th first anniversary, we secured a property in florida. So
I'm not hiding anything. So I did not know about these other two, and I do apologize
for that. And I'm sure april can reach out to some, um, folks
and make sure we need, have the decision makers that we need. We have other elected officials
in here, uh, that's elected officials. Hopefully they can commandeer
them and get the business of the county moving forward.
thank you.
is there a motion? Nope.
yeah. Citizen comments until tomorrow. I
didn't resign until tomorrow. Oh, you two can do, they
can still do things. Is there a motion? So they're not resigning until tomorrow. Motion by commissioner rabbitt,
second by commissioner hill show of right answer approval. April. Before they
do that, I resigned today. Is there other business that needs to take
care of you have the bi burden of midnight oil so that you have a quorum. That's
what I thought. I didn't know why it was in, that's why I handed it to
you. No, I thought I thought was good. Are you sure?
yeah. I mean, there's, I think I can approve.
hey, there's.