FORT SCOTT — A resolution to pay $90,139.25 from the county’s jail sales tax fund for the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office to move to its own computer services failed on a 2-2 vote Monday, after Chairman Gregg Motley said he had been flooded with calls from people who believe the equipment is overpriced. The commission put the item back on next week’s agenda.

Commissioners also adopted a policy barring personal use of county vehicles, equipment and property, with no exceptions, after County Counselor Bob Johnson advised that a waiver signed by an employee would not shield the county from its own negligence.

The commission met at Fort Scott City Hall for the second straight week while early-voting equipment occupies the county commission room. Motley presided, with Commissioners Joe Allen, David Beerbower and Mika Milburn-Kee. Commissioner Samuel Tran was absent.

Sheriff’s technology bill

Beerbower read a resolution he had drafted. It acknowledges that the sheriff’s office, as an independently elected office, has moved its technology services to a provider of its own choosing, and it would authorize paying an invoice of $90,139.25 from Advantage Computer Enterprises of Iola for equipment, implementation and startup costs. The money would come from Fund 370, the county jail sales tax fund, which the resolution says can be used because the equipment serves the jail and public safety. Beerbower moved to adopt it, and the motion was seconded by Joe Allen.

A July 22 estimate from the company to the sheriff’s office, included in the meeting packet, lists an eight-month labor contract, a main server, a monitoring server and service, computers, data backup and email migration, totaling $87,715.25.

Motley said the commission should not control the sheriff’s operation or choose his vendors, but that it would be prudent to seek bids through a request for proposals.

“It’s been unanimous on calls that this is way, way overpriced,” Motley said, referring to calls he had received from Bourbon County constituents.

Beerbower said the district court already uses the same company for its computer work, that the sheriff’s advisor, Brian Murphy, has experience with it, and that the commission has no purchasing policy that requires bids. “I don’t think we should undermine their choice process,” he said. He said the company will be the sheriff’s computer provider “whether we approve this or not.”

“Would this be okay if it were $180,000 or $270,000?” Motley asked. He said he had also seen earlier payments to the company through the sheriff’s department in the county’s bills. “Just like I don’t know if $90,000 is too much, you don’t know if it’s too much either.”

Allen said he had not seen the resolution before the meeting and that it probably should have been on the agenda. Beerbower said the request itself had been raised the week before in the form of an invoice.

The motion failed on a 2-2 voice vote. Motley and Milburn-Kee voted no. Afterward, Milburn-Kee said she would have liked to read the resolution first and wants to review the jail sales tax fund balance.

“I want to look at the jail sales tax because we approved a lot of cars out of it last year,” she said, adding that money already committed from the fund means the balance that is reported is not all available.

Motley said people have told him they voted for the jail sales tax to build a jail and remodel the courthouse, not for “cars and computers,” and that was what he understood when he voted for it. Beerbower said there is more to the tax than building a jail and remodeling the courthouse, and that the county seems quick to spend that money when it is something commissioners want.

Milburn-Kee also said that, before proposing the change, Beerbower should have asked Stronghold Data, the county’s current computer contractor, how much its contract cost would drop without the sheriff’s office. Beerbower said he had never approved Stronghold as the county’s IT department and understood it was doing a project, after which the county would seek proposals. Motley said the county is under contract with Stronghold and that asking to renegotiate when it would have “35 or 40 less users” is a legitimate question. The commission then tabled the item for one week for more research.

Personal-use policy adopted

The personal-use policy, tabled a week earlier, returned with a change: Milburn-Kee removed the language that would have let the commission approve exceptions, pointing out that if the reason for the policy is to avert liability issues, there should be no exceptions by anyone, including the commissioners. “Everything here belongs to the taxpayers,” she said.

Allen said he had called KCAMP, the county’s insurance pool, about liability and whether employee waivers would cover the county, and was still waiting for an answer. Beerbower said KCAMP’s risk manager told him KCAMP prohibits personal use.

Johnson said a waiver does not cover the owner’s negligence. “When you sign a waiver, you can waive liability, but you don’t waive negligence on the part of the owner, and that’s the problem,” he said. If someone is hurt on a county lift, he said, “the county’s got the deep pockets on that deal.”

“Well, as much as I like to help employees, I just don’t think we have any choice,” Motley said.

Allen said the larger problem is morale and keeping employees. “We’ve done nothing but continue to take away,” he said, and challenged the commission to find incentives for county workers: “…my challenge to this board is going to be, ‘What can we get back? What can we start?’ You know, we need to get the morale back with our employees.”

“I’m 100% behind you, Joe,” said Motley. “We need to look for ways to support these employees in legal ways.”

Beerbower said the state’s Good Samaritan law does not give general immunity to county employees who stop to help a stranded motorist, and said he would submit a separate policy on roadside aid. His amendments changed “may not be used” to “will not be used” and struck a paragraph on reporting fringe benefits, which Motley said only restated IRS law. Milburn-Kee moved to adopt the policy as amended by Beerbower, and it passed, Allen voting against.

Reconciliation work and payroll software

Matt Lawn of Baker Tilly told the commission by phone that a team of the firm’s bank reconciliation specialists has started clearing the county’s unresolved items, which he said include payroll as well as transfers and tax payments, and is building a process to reconcile each payroll as it goes out.

“We’ll be ready for year-end close for sure, and so there shouldn’t be any delay in audit or anything else going forward,” Lawn said. He said the work is being done under the firm’s current contract for now, and a cost proposal will follow once the scope is clear.

Milburn-Kee said she had emailed the county’s auditor about the list of unresolved items, and that many of them appear to be journal entries that should be made promptly but some have not been. The auditor’s reply, included in the meeting packet, said everything on the list needs to be cleaned up before the audit and that most of it appears to be payroll-related.

The commission also approved a $780 payment to CIC, half the cost of software that links the county’s system to its PayEntry payroll service. Laura Krom said the purchase was approved two weeks ago but the invoice was missed. The remaining half is due once the county is satisfied with the work, and the software then costs $1,200 a year.

HR contract approved

The commission authorized Motley to sign a contract with Millie Lipscomb, the local HR provider it hired on a 3-2 vote Oct. 19. Johnson merged her proposal with an earlier HR contract. Milburn-Kee questioned an expense provision, and the final version adds Lipscomb’s requested words “unless directed by commission” to the section limiting her authority.

Lipscomb, on the phone, said she did not want to “take six weeks to have to come back to commission every single time to do a process improvement” once the commission has agreed on a problem to fix, such as payroll irregularities or making sure KPERS is funded correctly. The approved version of the contract addresses that issue.

Hope Outreach asks for a liaison

Joan Brown of Hope Outreach of Fort Scott, a nonprofit being formed to help homeless people find housing through existing services, asked the county for a non-voting liaison to meet with its board about once a quarter.

“What we would like from the county is not money at all. It is something that is much more precious. We would like time,” Brown said. She said the group’s last count found 16 homeless people, not counting high school students who move from couch to couch, and that the group has helped about six people find housing. Allen volunteered to serve as liaison. Milburn-Kee suggested the group look at the county’s application for opioid funds; Brown said the group cannot apply until it finishes its IRS paperwork.

Other business

• The commission approved the amended agenda, the minutes of the Oct. 26 and Oct. 27 meetings, and the week’s bills, listed on the agenda at $347,346.93. No one signed up for public comment. Motley said the bills included the receipt from the sale of 108 W. Second St., which closed the previous Friday, and thanked real estate agent Diann Tucker.
• Allen reported the county’s surplus medical and kitchen equipment sold at auction; he said he had not yet seen the final amounts. Motley said the leftover items, including sinks, toilets, light fixtures and tables, should go to the nearest transfer station.
• The commission held a 10-minute executive session on compensation of non-elected personnel, with EMS Director Teri Hulsey, and returned with no action.
• Milburn-Kee said she had received an email, and believed other commissioners had too, warning that one county department budget could run more than $70,000 over; the sender thought the cause was personnel. She said she would bring options to keep overages down, and Beerbower asked to add a discussion of money received from the sale of a property to a future agenda.
• Beerbower said his asbestos request for proposals is still in draft and he would email it for discussion next week. Milburn-Kee said she is still working on a standards of conduct policy. Motley removed an item on Room 12, and a Kansas WorkforceONE presentation was dropped because the speaker could not attend.
• Milburn-Kee shared, for information only, an unsolicited offer from ICC-IMS to assess the condition of every county road. Beerbower said a KWorks engineer he consulted had never heard of the company and that free state programs are available.
• In closing comments, Allen thanked the City of Fort Scott for lending its meeting room and repeated that the county needs to invest in its employees. Beerbower read a statement on county property and taxpayers, saying informal perks lead to “perceived favoritism and resentment.” “No single taxpayer pays anyone’s salary. Rather, all taxpayers collectively fund the services they expect government to provide,” he said.

Last week’s meeting, when the personal-use policy was first tabled and the county treasurer said seven payrolls had not been posted to the general ledger, is covered here.