According to Lora Holdridge, her outburst calling a commissioner “chicken shit” on Monday, January 26th, occurred after some interactions that occurred before the commission meeting started being broadcast, as well as ongoing frustration working with the commissioners.
The agenda for the January 26th meeting shows that Lora Holdridge, Register of Deeds, was on the schedule to talk with the commissioners about space concerns under the “departmental updates” section. However, according to Holdridge, before the meeting began, Commissioner Mika Milburn told her that the commissioners would not be discussing her agenda item.
When the meeting began, Commissioner Milburn requested that Holdridge’s agenda item be removed. Commissioner Beerbower (acting as chair since Tran was absent) asked Holdridge if she wanted to discuss something that she hadn’t brought up before. Holdridge said yes and then there was the following exchange:
Holdridge: “Mika told me that as soon as dispatch got out…”
Milburn: “I did not do that…”
Beerbower: “Ok that, this is still more of the same. We are going to be reviewing all the space, so yes, we’re not going to discuss that.”
Holdridge says she then filled out a card to make a public comment. The meeting proceeded and when it was time for public comments, Beerbower read the card and said, “Is that the only one?” At this point, Holdridge went up to the table. Beerbower continued, “We do not allow public comments regarding any specific commissioner. If you are going to address the commission, you may address the commission about the board, but you can’t talk about one particular commissioner.”
Holdridge asked what statute said that. Beerbower said that he went to a class that said public comments were addressed to the commission, not to a specific commissioner. Holdridge pressed for a statue. Beerbower finally said, “Go ahead. I can’t challenge it” and gave her the floor for three minutes.
Before Holdridge could proceed, Milburn asked for a break, Beerbower called for a three-minute recess, and Milburn left the room. When she returned, she got a telephone call and stepped out again. Beerbower continued by first saying that they had this discussion with Holdridge several times and reiterated that they would be working with all the department heads to give them the space they need. He said he has had several people claim that they wanted the dispatch space.
There was some back and forth about whether any of the Register of Deeds stuff could be stored in the basement. At this point, Milburn returned, and Beerbower said the commissioners would look at everything, but not discuss it in this meeting.
Milburn then told Beerbower, “Our council has said to remove this public comment.”
Holdridge responded with, “You’re not going to remove me. I’ll just sit here and talk.”
Milburn and Beerbower voted to terminate the meeting as can be seen in this video which led to Holdridge calling them “chicken shit.” https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19RpAw2zJL/
According to Holdridge, a number of events led up to her frustrated outburst at the meeting. “I have had a problem with Mika [Milburn]. She’s the liaison of the courthouse. She locked me out of every room possible that I had my equipment in.” This equipment includes plotters that are used to make maps and blueprints for the county and also, for a fee, for the public.
Holdridge also said that one of her large plotters remains missing and she is locked out of the rooms where she would need to go search for it. Holdridge expressed concerns that Milburn is doing things outside the scope of the duties of a commissioner. She said, “[Milburn] is entering payroll information, removing payroll time and entries. They’ve got me not even starting till 2017 and I’ve been here, almost 22 years.” She said the commissioners took payroll out of the clerks office and hired someone else to do it, but “she doesn’t know what she’s doing, so this commissioner [Milburn] is coming in to help do it. She has no business doing that outside the scope of her commission duties.” Holdridge said the personnel files were taken out of the clerks office and put in an office that Commission Milburn has a key to. “She has a key to the office where all of our personnel folders are at. That’s outside of her scope of her duties as a commissioner. […] They outsourced payroll. It is a new system and this person didn’t know how to do it. […] Everything’s being screwed up on it. And, you know, we’re outsourcing our IT, we’re outsourcing HR, we’re outsourcing payroll. They said something about outsourcing budgets. They had a budget committee […] and they [the commissioners] didn’t listen to them at all.
“[Mika] kicked me out of the room that I had been working in fine with our new software company for six weeks until I hired one of the old IT persons back,” said Holdridge. She went on to explain that Shane Walker had laid off when the commissioners restructured the IT department and she hired him to do work in her department.
Holdridge went on to explain that there is a computer that used to be used for mapping that has been locked away in room 12 and all the departments are needing to rebuy about $4,000 worth of equipment and licenses now. She said that Commissioner Milburn told her that there “might be things on that computer that shouldn’t be on that computer.” Holdridge is frustrated because tech money from the Register of Deeds budget was used to buy that equipment and licenses. She had been using the computer in room 12 for 6 weeks until she rehired Shane Walker but after that, every time she would talk to HR, “they would tell me that, you know, you didn’t put yourself in a very good position because you rehired him and he has a lawsuit against the county.” Holdridge says he does not have a current lawsuit against the county, but every time she calls the outsource HR contractor about something, they would bring up the fact that she hired Mr. Walker.
Holdridge explained that she feels Commission Milburn has “called me a liar. She’s called me a thief. She called the ex-emergency manager and the ex-janitor liars and thieves. […] They locked the door of room 12, and she accused us of stealing things out of that room.”
Regarding her outburst last Monday, Holdridge said, “Most of the public doesn’t know what’s going on. Yes, I got mad and I refused to get up because they had been treating us and saying, ‘we’re going to take this away from you’ and outsourcing everything […] there was nothing wrong with the way it was. […] Everyone on the first floor gets along great. […] We help each other out. If I have extra paper and they need extra paper, you know, we share it. She [Commissioner Milburn] called it ‘back door dealings’ that we shouldn’t be doing that. We’re just trying to save the tax payer money.”
FortScott.biz reached out to Commissioner Milburn to see if she would like to be interviewed for this story. Legal counsel suggested she decline, but she did provide the following documents for context.
