Editors notes:These minutes were taken from the Bourbon County website and the date was not listed. The minutes are shown just as copied from the website.
Clifton made a motion to approve the minutes from October 12th. Jim seconded. All approved.
Eric stated there were two new permits. First one’s a utility permit for Crawkan working up in the
northeast part of the county on state
line. That’s the area that we maintain. Jim made a motion to approve the permit as submitted by Public Works Director, Eric Bailey
for utility Crawkan the northeast part of the county state line road.
Clifton seconded. All approved. The next one is for Stuart Houston
of the exact same area
267 north of Xavier. He’s needing extension so they can get their
large trucks and combines in and out of their fields. Jim made a motion to approve an extension
for Stewart Houston on 267 north of Xavier for culvert extension. Clifton seconded. All approved.
The next one is Chip Grosses on Eagle Road is completed.
The next one will be Ron Beltz
on 215 Valley Road. The next one is Susan Bancroft. It’s a new
completion. Also on that one just so you know when we got there she actually needed another one put in so we went ahead while we
were there and took care of that one.
On Jennifer Hawkins when we dug hers up the culvert was full and with our culverts we have now, before
they were 24 foot, the ones we’re using now are 26 so she didn’t need an extension. So I don’t know
do we sign off on these still or what do we want to do there since it was
just an exchange. We usually don’t sign off on an exchange.
Asphalt 125th is completed from 54 highway to about a mile past Tomahawk. We’re patching up on Yale Road and hope to have that
completed today. We finally figured out who was driving the heavy equipment on that road and tearing it up. Thank the sheriff and the Kansas highway patrol for looking into that. Jim asked if we anticipate in the next year or two reclaiming that road. We’re going to reclaim maybe this year from the lake
on the west side back to the west
and then we’ll have to decide.
Eventually something has to be done with the asphalt part. Eric stated that your best deal is going to be mill it up take it back to gravel get a good base underneath it. I believe it’s got xyz under it right now and then relay. Lynne stated that they need to go ahead and get that west side
taken care of right. Eric stated they will it’s on our radar to get done.
Landfill just give you an update with the soybeans. Plans have been sent off to KDHE. I did see some discussion last night between KDHE and Ag Engineering on
getting special permits and more permits but we are moving forward with that so just kind of give you an update where we’re at with that.
I did follow up with KDOT on the application for the bridge that we turned in and all of our paperwork has been turned in and they’ve received everything so we
we’re just waiting to hear back from
them on that. Elm Creek lake plans have been sent off plans to Kansas
Department of Agriculture. There’s a time period there once they
receive them, I think it’s like 30 days, for people to respond back
so we will be waiting to hear back from them. When the plans are here and then we can look at putting a plan together and we’ll have to work with Don George on lowering the water level and fish and
what have you. Clifton asked who is supposedly engineering the fix on this dam? Ag Engineering is the ones that went out and drilled
the holes and identified the area of concern. We’ve actually core drilled. Is that going to fix that
no way right of knowing but it’s
gotta help. Lynne stated that it is lowering the water level and
cutting the trench and re-packing that all the way through there so hopefully you know we can get down far enough that it won’t
you know because it was originally pretty shallow when it started leaking and over the years it’s just gotten deeper and deeper and you can go out when it lakes up and hear that water going through right at the edges of the lake. Eric stated that they did hit water when they core drilled it. That’s east of the dam right at the eastern where that hole might be. Jim stated th person before me did some concrete now I
first came back in 2013 I walked down through there with the current
commissioner, not anybody here, we found in a rock bluff it looked like someone had opened a fire hydrant coming out of that wall. So it’s moving pretty good. Eric stated that we’ll try it see what happens and while it’s down I think we need to fix the valve as well. Clifton stated that he thinks it needs to be dug out, packed with clay. I don’t want to see the county spend 50 000 dollars on some mickey mouse job. Eric stated they plan on going in with the big jackhammer jackhammering the rock down
to the level where they core drilled.
Having Ag Engineering oversee the
the project make sure we’re to a
suitable level that they feel we need to be and then start compacting back in compact back in with lifts it’s a little sheep’s foot type machine where we can get in there and
get a good compaction. Jim asked
are you talking about using clay or
bentonite? Eric stated clay
and we may have to put a little bentonite in with it. I’m not sure but we for sure are going to use clay and compact it in small lifts and see if we can’t get it stopped. I was approached yesterday by the city
of fort scott wanting to see if they could get 160 tons of clay from us
from our borrow pit for a project they have downtown and in return they would bring us spoils and what have you so we can put it up
there at the C&D part of our landfill to cover. They need good clay for a project they have so I said I’d have to ask. I had a conversation with Counselor Meeks last night. I don’t know if we want to ask him but
it means it was a trade. I think we were in agreeance that this was the best but we want to run it by you to see if we need approval or how we want to do that. All were in agreement. We’re ready to move forward with our computer software
program Pub Works. I feel I have
enough room in all my various
departments to pull from. This will help us with our project management, asset management. Will be able to give you guys
better reports. I didn’t know whether i needed to get approval or just move forward with it. That’s what I wanted to know. Per Lynne no discussion necessary. We’ll be offsetting the training cost with the City of Spring Hill, Kansas. They’re going to purchase this as well so when they’re training them they’ll come down and train us as well. So we’ll cut the cost there. Just kind of give you an update where we’re at on roadside mowing. We’re back trying to mow up to the
property lines throughout the county. We’ve been through everything once so now we’re trying get that done. On hauling rock, we’ve hauled to the hot spots or what I call hot spots. Now we’re
back to the 50 load rotation to each
grader operator. So that kind of gives you an idea where we’re at there and then we’re still installing
culverts. We did receive a shipment in yesterday of culverts. They were 15 inch culverts we were out. They’ve been on back order for quite a while. I’m talking two or
three months back order so we will be moving forward with working on the list of culverts and getting that
taken care of. Windmill update,
I don’t know if you’ve been out in the area or not but they have done a lot of work out there. They’ve been fighting high winds the last few days. It slowed up their topping out of the towers. All deliveries are complete so they have all components at each site. Base mid 66 of the 70 are up. Top out they have 63 of the 70 topped
out. They’ll complete the three towers today and hopefully get the last four completed this week. They have three of the six circuits energized and completing test phase for operational status. Moving
forward with that, the reclaim has begun on public road radiuses and private restoration and that will be an ongoing process. Eric stated he wanted to give kudos for the
road use agreement. That has worked out tremendous. Have had no issues whatsoever. Been very good to communicate with. Jeff Spangler has been awesome to work
with. The erections are almost complete with the towers out there so there’s just a few to go. That is all I have. Lynne stated a gentleman called him and he lives at 1384 wagon road he’s wanting to know where he is on the list on
getting his ditch cleaned out. Eric stated that he didn’t have that list in front of him. Eric asked for a name or number so he could get back with him. Jim stated thank for you rock on 20th south of Porterville. Lynne stated thanks for going out and grading range road there from 125th to 95th. Jim stated I did have a question visiting with Dustin at the football game. He told me what your plans was for overlaying chip
next year. Are you going to chase a bigger crusher or how you’re going to get all this material. We’re going to see what we can get crushed and what we can have in stock. I know we’re going to end up and be at about 24 and a half thousand tons this year that we produce. Some of that next year we’ll need those chips. We’ll need to go to the chip and seal there’s no other way about it. It has to happen next year. We’re getting ready to move down
toThomas. We started pumping
out the pit. We got to move the
overburden and then we’ll get a blast. We’re gonna see what we can
- Justin Meeks stated I need to address the commission during Eric’s time about salary schedules,
if that’s okay with the commission. It’s pertinent to Eric’s position so
I don’t need them in the agenda or anything because it deals with
the road and bridge department.
Eric and I talked last week a little bit about the salary schedule. I know there’s another
elected official that’s come to you
before and talked about the salary
schedule and how the ends of both sides of the spectrum are skewed and we need some adjustments on that. I’ve done a little bit of research on this. I’m a little worried about the fair labor standards act. You can’t have extremes. One
person’s making x another person’s
making y and there’s a difference of five or six dollars. That’s
just kind of an extreme example so there has to be some consistency.
So having the salary schedule there does have its purpose but I think that we should give the directors and elected officials ability to move that spectrum to how they say fit within their budget.
This has been a discussion that’s been going on for literally nine years now. You know even back before commissioner O’harah was a commissioner they talked about the functionality of what a director and an elected official should do with paying their people what they think fair market value is. I think as long as we stay within the legal bounds of what moving up and down is, as a schedule, I think you should be all right giving the director and giving that elected official the ability to control their own salary schedules within their department. Not to name names but you know Eric
Scott right now the market is something unprecedented. I got in a little trouble for that yesterday with another client but this is unprecedented times. It could
swing back in the pendulum could be different ten years from now or five years from now but right now we’ve got at least two people on the road and bridge that we gotta do something for their compensation or we’re going to lose them and we need those people here. And the same thing with two other elected officials. They’re worried about losing staff because of lack of pay and i think with Susan’s expertise and with Ashley’s expertise I think there’s ways that we can work the schedule to make those directors and elected officials happy with the people that they have and keeping those qualified people in our workforce. Lynne stated a couple of things that we’ve discussed with Susan on how we can move forward
with this effort. One of them was creating salary bands the other one was moving the employee benefits into their budget but still being overseen by Ashley and Susan
so they couldn’t use that money except for benefits but it gives them a total picture of what their budget actually looks like. Then when you make the bands introduction then you still have control on the flma issues. Justin stated one of the things that I experience as being a
prior elected official is we really
don’t know what the actual cost is per employee. I’ve talked to Susan and I’m taking that unemployment
benefit and actually giving that elected official and the director a real number. I think Susan was surprised that that didn’t exist here when she got here. Having those real numbers are important. Jim asked just a matter of weeks ago
you told us elected official could
give over their budget and that would be pay raises possibly
and we can’t do anything about it.
Justin stated I think there’s consequences, I agree you can’t really do anything about it but there would be consequences. They’d have to make it up in the next year’s budget. So there’d be problems. Now a director you could obviously
terminate. There’s another director that i know that has a new employee that they’d like to be able to compensate at a different rate. They were hired to do job function a and it’s turned into something more than job function a. If they have
the budget authority to do that and they can fit within the band I think that director should be able to do that. Jim stated so the scenario would be the elected official would work with Susan and she would say I’m doing these raises and what’s your opinion. This could become a mess. I think having a business director in place that can sit down
with an elected official and say can I give x y and z employee a 50 cent bump an hour and I have the budget authority to do that then by all means. As long as they know
what the fica could cost them, what the payroll deductions cost them
and they know the actual real number I think they could do that. Obviously if they’re not willing to
play within their budget then there’s
consequences. Jim asked but if
we’re two hundred thousand over budget because it’s a salary you said we’d take it next year what are we gonna do lay people off? Justin stated that you’d have to do a reduction in your budget, the general fund. At that point you could say to the elected official you
didn’t spend wisely we’re gonna cut your budget a hundred thousand
and if they decide not to go within their boundaries that’s tax dollars so they have to be really careful. Jim asked what if the elected official continued to go over budget what’s the commission supposed to do
about it? Justin stated so let’s say 10 years from now none of us are in this room the commission could obviously control of the budget. Jim stated I’m still missing what you told us we could about it they went over budget. Justin stated there’s consequences for an elected official if they go over budget. They’re going to become unelected or the
commission has control of their budget as long as it’s reasonable.
They can do their job function. What’s happening now is we have
you know the commission is getting
blamed for things that maybe are outside of their control and if that blame can be shifted to that elected
official or that director to make those decisions and they go outside of their budget there’s consequences for that. Susan stated that
my recommendations too would be you still are going to have to have bands because a job is only worth
a certain amount. You want to make sure that you’re kind of controlling that so that people
aren’t going over that top-end amount and that’s where he’s talking about the fair labor standards is making sure you’re not paying someone way more than what that job nationwide would be paid. Jim asked do you work with that individual in every case? Susan stated you would have to. You have a ceiling before you start. You create these wage bands then on the financial side, I’ve already talked with Ashley, we’re gonna have to completely redo how our accounting system works. There’ll be a lot of accounts that need to be set up so that we can move and then I’ll have to do budget amendments to allow for these extra expenses in these departments and so there’s a lot of work that has to be done to even get us to this point but I think the wage bands are the first step and then
moving the taxes and benefits back over to each department and then there’s going to have to be some training with department heads that says okay when you hire somebody you have to understand that 7.65% has to be charged for just their fica and then you have unemployment and then you have your benefits and so that’s going to have to
be stepped through with each department head so that they understand what the consequences are. Department heads what they
really ought to do is look at
experience, certification all those
different things to determine where they need to be placed within that wage band. They shouldn’t be brought in at the same rate for
no experience versus five to ten years of experience. I think that’ll
help with that but there definitely has to be a lot of planning involved when they’re doing their budgets for the next year it’s not just a straight wage. Jim asked Lora Holdridge if she had an opinion on this. Lora stated I only have one she’s been
with me almost seven years. Justin stated I’m going to ask the commissioners is to allow for Susan and Ashley to start this process and maybe have those bands in place by january 1 so that the elected officials and the directors can make those decisions for fiscal year
2022 and 23. Clifton stated I would say these bands are going to the elected official or directors the opportunity to give their employees either a 10 cent raise, a 50 cent raise, a dollar raise. It will be at their discretion. Not everyone is worth the same amount of money. Justin stated that it goes back to what the the essence of what the commission is that you set the budget and then allows the elected official and the director to
manage their budget in their infinite wisdom, what they’re hired to do or what they’re elected to do and then they can set the parameters of what the salary band is they can pay their people what they want as long as it’s in the budget. Clifton asked Bill Martin if he had an opinion on what’s being discussed. Bill stated this is something that has been discussed ever since I became sheriff. It’s always been thrown to the side. When the questions came up in regards to employees and we had an employee just in the same situation as Eric was. We need to give them two dollars more so
they could stay with us because of what they’ve done and there was a county representative that says sometimes you got to let people go.
Jim stated the he thinks since Susan has been here things have really changed. Bill stated we were up here asking the same thing six
months ago then all of a sudden today it’s a different department and now we’re making changes in the salary. Susan stated you were heard during budget and so over the last three months we’ve really been talking about this internally to try and figure out what is the best solution to this and I think what the main point is here you will have a budget that will be set and you have to stay within that budget. They’re saying is you can do whatever you want to get your people paid what you need them to pay but you still have to stay within that budget parameter. That’s the challenge that department heads are going to have is there is only an x amount of money without raising taxes and so how that’s allotted will be determined by the commission
and then within your department you’re going to have to figure out do you have to cut somewhere do you have to give that raise or is someone leaving that has been a long-term employee that maybe you can make some adjustments in the wages. It’s really going to be the department head’s responsibility to stay within the budget and determine how you give your raises to your people. Bill stated there was a comment that was made during the budget hearing and the comment came from you and the comment was you never gave the
sheriff’s department enough money to operate in the first place. Susan stated they gave you a whole bunch this year. Bill stated well because we have grown in expenses,
inflation and everything else is growing. That’s just part of operating. Lynne stated that he would entertain a motion to allow Susan to start this process.
Clifton made the motion to allow Susan to start this process allowing Susan to look into wage bands
and allowing directors and elected
officials discretion to give raises as they see fit. Jim seconded. All approved.
Eric asked for an executive session
including Ashley, Susan, Justin, myself and the three commissioners.
Justin stated if we’re going to talk about one specific employee under the fmla we might want to talk about a second one just on some job performance issues with the same department. Clifton stated I’d make a motion to go to executive session under KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personal matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy, job performance and two different employees for 10 minutes and we will return to this room at 9:49. Jim seconded. All approved. Lynne moved that we come back from Executive Session at 9:49 and resume our normal session. Jim seconded. All approved. Justin asked to clarify the last motion. I want to make the request that Susan be given the discretion to work with directors and elected officials to
change the salary schedule within their departments or their organization immediately if need be. Clifton made a motion to allow
as stated by Counselor Meeks. Jim seconded. All approved.
Lora Holdridge stated I just wanted to let you know that central publishing out of Iola whereas
the mapping that we used to get our maps from they have closed down.
The last time we got maps we got them from Farm Home and Publishers. I’ve been working with Jamie Elliott and times are different than the last time we ordered from them. We got quite a few wall maps for free but now we only get a couple of wall maps and 10 books for free. I went ahead and ordered several and because I think that one of Eric’s workers needs and he’s going to take my old one and Eric and I and Matt, after the first of the year, are going to work on the roads. See which ones they maintain, doing the level three, level two, level one so we can start working on that mapping. I
knew we needed some extra maps we’ll try to get you guys one up it’s a little bit bigger than that so we may have to just cut it around so you guys can get a current 2021 once they run the tax rolls and Shane can get them the files. It’ll be out in march so I just wanted to let you know that we’ve ordered some maps for area other area departments. I have the money in my budget to go
ahead and order that and share them with the other departments. I had the opportunity to meet with her so
I went ahead and just made the decision to go ahead and purchase some. We got some free so we went ahead and did that. That was just an update.
Clifton made a motion not to move forward with Reno-Dry at this time.
Jim seconded. All approved.
Patty Love stated what she is needing to do is per statute KSA
10-815. I’m asking for the commissioners to sign
a resolution voiding the checks
that are over two years old. This was brought up on the audit, it’s something that we need to do. Jim asked how come they’re two years old. Patty explained these are ones that people haven’t cashed. We have to void them and put them
back in the account. The total is
$3,872.88. I just need you guys to pass the resolution and sign it. I just wanted to let everybody know
that tax statements are going to
go out within the next few days.
Lynne asked for a short break.
Clifton mad a motion to pass resolution 29-21 bourbon county Kansas the following checks being over two years old are to be cancelled by authority of KSA 10-815. The amount is $3,872.88. Jim
seconded. All approved.
Susan Bancroft stated that we’re a little late on getting this done but work comp policy consideration. We actually had two different vendors bid on the work comp coverage. One was Atkins Insurance and the other one was KWORKS. It was a little bit difficult because the calculations were not the same so basically they weren’t working off the same payroll numbers. I went back through and recalculated everything and KWORKS is still your low bidder. Part of that is because their experience mod was a little bit less than Atkins but also the payroll was quite
different. Atkins still came in higher than KWORKS so my recommendation would be to
go with KWORKS. Lynne stated I would entertain a motion to continue workers comp with KWORKS. Jim made amotion to move forward with the work comp coverage and remain with KWORKS under the recommendation of finance director.
Clifton seconded. All approved.
Susan stated the next one is your general liability policy. You currently are with KCAMP and we only got one bid on it and that was from kcamp so my recommendation would be to stay with KCAMP. I will note that they offer a lot of
perks that just your regular carriers
don’t and that would be they help write policies and procedures
and they have a liability attorney that helps you through different things so they really have a good program. Jim stated I’ll make a motion for Bourbon County to
remain in general liability coverage
with KCAMP under the recommendation of finance
director Bancroft. Clifton seconded
All approved.
Susan stated the next topic is a request from rural water district number four for some of the ARPA funding. They are saying that 45% of their customers are based in Bourbon County. So they would request they are trying to put a generator in and they were asking for 45% of the total project costs to be considered for the ARPA funds. I’ll give you guys a week to kind of look through this request and then maybe we can come back at the next meeting and discuss that. That would be about thirty three thousand dollars that they’re requesting. We can bring it back to the next meeting. They do have their financial statements on the back side of this so that kind of gives you an idea what their cash balance is but that just gives you
something to work off of and we can bring it back at the next meeting so you have some time to go through it. Jim asked will you
share with us that time how much money we actually have left? Yes i can give you a recap. The other thing is on these these outside agencies requesting ARPA funds
so if they’re not an entity or department within Bourbon
County we really need to be putting
together agreements per ARPA guidelines and so for rural water district number two I’m going to get with Justin and see if we can’t put together some kind of a contract or an agreement on what the expectations are and what type of receipts and different things
that they’re going to have to provide to us. There’s just a lot of guidelines on how you should
handle it so that if you were ever
audited you have all your ducks in a
row. That’s all I have on that.
Justin Meeks stated I have had a
conversation with the powers to be at the city with the tax sale. The election cycle is over for them they’ll have new commissioners
come January. I have talked to our Economic Development director
concerning the properties located within the city limits of Fort Scott. I might come back next week and just have some conversations with maybe having taking those city properties and pulling them out and just doing the properties located within the county and have the
sale before the end of the year or
waiting until the new commission comes on and having the land bank set up properly. They’re talking about training and getting it to where it can function properly and then having the sale then. I have another 108 properties that the petitions are ready to file on top
of the ones that we’re ready to sell. I’m already ready for the next batch of petitions. Obviously I’ll give this to Patty before we file them et cetera but just so you know that i haven’t stopped working on
the actual process itself. I’m still
gearing up for another sale if we do push out until January we’d obviously have three sales in 2022.
We could have one this year and maybe still possibly have three next year but two for sure. I’m a strong advocate of the land bank. I’ve seen it work in other communities. I’ve seen the different materials that i’ve read and researched on it. It needs to happen in my humble opinion.
Obviously I have no control over
that but based off the conversation I had this week and last week we’re just waiting for the ducks to get lined up. Susan saw these numbers and she did make a comment that our collections are way up. We’re collecting back taxes it’s just a matter of opinion with regards to how the land bank helps. I think it has a positive impact not a
negative impact and that’s why
I believe that we should wait but
obviously you guys are here to give me directions so I’ll do whatever but you know patience gains all things. Susan stated from the city’s perspective next week we are taking it back to our commission to see if they will go ahead and waive all assessments. Jim stated he agreed that we should wait on land bank if we can possibly because it’s going
to be a real positive thing. Justin stated if they waive the special
assessments this time around we’d go and have the sale you know we’d publish and get ready to go and then that would mean December,
middle December, late December we’d have a sale. Obviously them waving the specials is a different conversation. We’ve been there done that. Once again we have no control over that and you know if the land bank is not ready to take those properties over with me we can have the sale this time and
then come 2022 the land bank can be set up. There are some properties within that sale that
I’d want in the land bank. I know Mr Harrington has a pretty strong opinion about not dumping things in the land bank and being a detriment but i’m not speaking on his behalf either.
Justin stated that Beth Query is going to get a survey done to carve out the additional space that we’re going to need for the new contract.
So until that survey is done we’re not going to be able to move forward on the contract and I’ll
talk to Mrs Beth and her representatives about what that square looks like. It basically is going to be a straight shot to the west and then we’ll rewrite it. Susan’s also working on the
possibility of 13 acres out at the landfill. We’re getting that survey
too so that we can take those meets and bounds and include it in the transfer of the deed.
Susan stated that Shane has been requesting for me to look into the ARPA funding for potential equipment that could be used
for public safety maybe even
EMS and so I’m doing some research on that for him. I’ll probably bring back to the next meeting of what his request
might be and so that’ll also be with the ARPA funding. I don’t think he’s here so I can’t tell you what it’s about.
After our situation with the landfill
last year we had billed out $134,000. and we’ve collected about $117, 000 of that $134,000 so Jennifer’s done a great job of being aggressive. We’ve still got about $17, 000 that’s outstanding so
i would like permission from the
commission to work with the state of Kansas. They
have a state set off program that
allows us to submit outstanding
invoices to them and they’ll still do them in the collection process and what basically happens is when
someone gets their taxes back
they take our portion from their tax
return and send it back to the state and it it is kind of hefty it’s about 20
percent that they take off the top
but they charge that back to the
person that is getting the refund
and so really we get our full amount
back. I would like to be a part of that program for landfill, the culverts and noxious weeds
because we do have some outstanding receivables there.
As far as culverts we’ve billed $23,000 this year and we have received $21 000. It’s been a good year for that and then noxious weed we have a receivable from 2018 for fifteen hundred dollars and so
I feel like we need to send them a
third and final letter and just say hey
if you don’t pay us by x amount of date we’re gonna send you to collections. It just gives us some teeth when we’re trying to recover some of these funds. Clifton asked how many notices a person receives before being sent to collections.
Susan stated we will not send them to state collections until they’ve had at least three bills sent to them. And maybe that’s what we need to do
is create some financial policies around that. We could do that I can bring that back first. The other thing with the landfill I really feel like we’ve got some businesses that go out there and they’re four or five bills behind and I do not feel like that they should be able to continue to have a charge account if they’re not going to be paying on time. Two months is probably the most that we should allow them to have on the books, but there are some that are four and five months and so you have to have something to say if you don’t pay we’re
cutting you off. Clifton stated businesses and individuals are two
different things, in my opinion. Susan stated that you’re really just talking about businesses right now.
Culverts we don’t have a problem. Those are being paid on time. Noxious weed you do have a problem. You’ve got a couple that are pretty old that need to be addressed. So i’m really just talking about these three areas right now.
Eeventually you could expand but
I don’t think you’ll need to. I think
these are your main areas. The landfill especially because it’s such a tight budget. We can’t carry those
people for very long so that would be my concern. Jim stated I would think 90 days be long enough to carry someone’s at the landfill. There needs to be an application process for somebody to have a receivables account with us. They
should have to fill out a charge account application and we get the proper information that we need from them to be able to proceed with collections. Jim made a motion that we begin the application process for new customers for charge accounts and also only allow 90 days for charge accounts. If not paid within that period, no more services. Clifton seconded. All approved. Clifton stated that he would make a motion to add the set off program to the landfill, noxious weed. Jim seconded. All approved.
Susan stated my last topic is financials. I told you that I would give you an update maybe not weekly but every other week at
least. Rhonda Dunn and I have been working together to try and balance august. I can’t say that we’ve been successful yet. We’ve got a lot of variances that we need to work through. She’s continuing to work through September and we think that maybe after September she gets through there she
might reconcile some of this. I really feel like to have a good handle on everything I
need to go back to January and start
reconciling back to January. The other thing that I have noticed in
the financial statements is
receipts have not been the last
receipts that have been vouchered
was on 10/6. Wwe are now in the middle of November and so that’s a concern as well as October and November expenses have not been entered since October. What that does for us is we’re at the point now where we need to be doing projections for the end of the year to
see if we need to be doing any budget amendments and I can’t do that when these are not in the system and so that is a huge concern. Especially if I’m needing to go back to January and start
fresh. I will say Rhonda has been great to work with. We’ve talked through some things. The clerk’s office is also off on their bank account. I think I can help them
find that it’s very small amount so
we’ll work through that. I just wanted you to be aware that
I’m going to have to make some
projections based off of not real
numbers. Clifton stated that in
my opinion I don’t know that that’s
acceptable. Lynne stated it is unacceptable. I’ve been waiting since July to see another report. We
don’t have any reports. We’re back to the same place we were last year and we can’t really have any projections of where we
think we are. Jim asked what do we need to do to fix it? Susan stated all I can do is continue to work with the treasurers department. There’s really not a whole lot on Ashley’s side. She’s done everything that
she needs to do on her side. It’s really just in the treasurers department that I need to continue to work with them. Clifton asked for an update next week.
During public comment Anne Dare asked where are we at with an HR director because it became evident this morning already that an HR director might be vital for the county. Lynne stated that we’re working through some issues with
the city. The city is still in the process of coming up with a date for the move. Jim stated I believe the agreement’s done. Susan stated it’s not been officially approved by the city or the county.
Anne’s next question was regarding land bank. Is the land bank going to
consist of the same board people? Clifton stated it’s not our problem
that’s a city thing.
Clint Walker stated I just want to make the comment that I think the road and bridge crew deserves an extra kudo. Putting that down and they work 12-hour days or better and so they all deserve a pat on the back.
During elected official comments
Bill Martin stated I just want to give you a quick update in regards to the issues at the jail and the sheriff’s office in regards the roof leaks.
It’s not actually the roof that is
leaking it’s the electrical conduit which I showed you the videos and stuff. Right now we’ve reached out to the contractors for bids. November 30th which is a Tuesday, to kind of give you a heads up that’s when the sealed bids will be open. Ii will be sending out either later
on this afternoon or first thing in the
morning certified mail to all the
contractors so they know that they have received it by certified by signing for it and also on public media and newspaper. It would also be noticed too those bids will be open in front of you guys you three
or whoever’s sitting that morning I will not have a decision I will not make any decisions because that is not in my wheelhouse to make those decisions. That is up to you because that money is not coming out of my budget. It will be coming out of whatever budget or area you request either the operation to the sales tax side of it or what but that will be opened on that day and then
you guys can make the decision as to which way you want to go. Ashley Shelton stated that she is working on the resolutions for the
holidays for the upcoming year and the county clerks have sent out an email between everyone asking who’s getting Juneteenth off. Is that something that, it’s technically a federal holiday, some counties are doing it some aren’t. June 18th it’s called Juneteenth. Allen county is going to observe. Out of counties about 50% will. Lynne asked for a week to think about it.
Jim stated during commissioner comments that Mayor Josh Jones was here, of course he had to leave for a meeting, he wanted us to move forward on discussions do we want that 13 acres that belongs to the city behind our current landfill and
he wants us to move forward
and I think Eric should be involved in this. We have to come up with some recommendations. Number one do we want that property and number two does it satisfy KDHE in the future? Does it satisfy Ag Engineering on what the possibilities have left there
and how do we want to trade this out with C&D? Eric stated I’ve had conversations with Ag Engineering. I would recommend holding on
till we get a report back from them.
They’re going to look into it to see what’s if there’s anything outstanding with the land or anything like that. They should have that report to us hopefully sooner rather than later. When we get that report I can share it
with everybody. I’ve visited with
Susan a little bit I think the city and
County’s talked about splitting the cost of that report for them to do that and then we can move forward. Jim stated we need that report
because if it’s the wrong water application it won’t work very well for us or if there was ever an oil well or contamination. Jim stated
the mayor asked me to bring it up so I did. We can move forward under your advice. Eric reiterated when I get that report I’ll bring it directly to you and we’ll move forward on that. Jim stated we’ll need a recommendation on you if we decide to move forward. Find out what the value of that property is and how do we want to trade it out at so many dollars per ton. We need your recommendation.
Lynne mentioned that November the 11th is veterans day. I it wasn’t for veterans we wouldn’t have the country we have today so let’s get out there and support our veterans
past present and future. Jim stated I agree we have to have upmost respect for veterans.
Lynne stated the other thing we
have is we have a letter we need to sign for EMS and Eric has it. Clifton stated I’ll make a motion to allow Chairman O’harah to sign. This Bourbon County Emergency
Medical Services is a
new position for it’s not a new
position it’s just a person taking
stepping into the position of EMS
Manager Service Director. Jim seconded. All approved.
Lynne stated he gave Ashley a
copy of a letter from the
transportation district. He is going to ask Ashley to type up a letter of support for the transportation
district and we can approve it next week.
Jim made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:32am. Clifton seconded. All approved.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman
(ss) Jim Harris, Commissioner
(ss) Clifton Beth, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Ashley Shelton, Bourbon County Clerk
November 23, 2021, Approved Date
