FORT SCOTT — The Bourbon County Commission voted 3-2 Monday night to hire a local human resources provider for one year. Commissioners Samuel Tran and Mika Milburn-Kee voted no; Tran objected that the proposals should have gone through a formal selection process. Earlier in the meeting, a state official told commissioners the county fell short of the state’s appraisal compliance standard, and four Public Works employees spoke in support of Public Works Director Kenny Allen.

Chairman Gregg Motley presided, with Commissioners Joe Allen, David Beerbower, Mika Milburn-Kee and Tran.

Agenda changes, minutes and bills

The commission agreed to interrupt public comment for a scheduled call with the state, then resume comments. Beerbower asked to postpone the executive session on sheriff’s office personnel until next week and struck the backhoe bids from old business. Tran added Range Road under new business, and Motley added the treasurer’s quarterly reports. The board approved the agenda as amended and the minutes of the Oct. 5 and Oct. 9 meetings.

Beerbower corrected the first accounts payable batch, listed in the packet at $334,783.98, to $428,742.99, saying the total had not finished adding up. The second batch was $259,024.30. Tran pointed to county credit card charges of $69.75 at Holmtown and $63.74 at Nu Grille, plus a Hampton Inn charge of about $129. “I don’t think that’s right that people are buying stuff if they’re in town,” he said. The board approved accounts payable with those three charges pulled. When the board came back from a recess later in the meeting, Tran said, “I have an alibi, if I may.” “An alibi?” Motley asked. Tran then pointed to two back-to-back $1,219.15 items in Fund 108 as a possible double billing; Motley said it would be checked between meetings.

Employees speak for public works director

Four employees used public comment to back Public Works Director Kenny Allen. Tanner Odell said he had heard allegations that his boss might be fired that night.

Odell said Allen “leads by example like a boss should.” Bobby Reed said, “From my observations, this is a witch hunt against Mr. Allen.” Reed said there is an allegation that a photo of Allen’s personal vehicle on a lift at the county barn was sent to a commissioner, and that it has been common practice for county employees to work on their own vehicles in the garage, with the understanding that it not be for personal gain or on county time. “If you’re gonna write Mr. Allen up for this, which in my opinion is wrong, you better do a deep dive and a better investigation than the last one,” Reed said, adding that he has worked on his own vehicle there. He called it “a witch hunt by one or two commissioners…I would think there are a lot bigger items to solve than continually messing with the employees.”

Kyle Schnickel said employees have seen their insurance go up, pay cuts and no raises. Clay Campbell questioned the investigation by the county’s HR contractor, Cohen. Campbell said he was told 12 current employees were interviewed and seven former employees were called, and that he understood nine or 10 of the questions were about Allen’s job performance and only one about the allegation.

State: county out of appraisal compliance

Mike Dallman of the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Property Valuation Division held the call state law requires with any county found out of substantial compliance. Bourbon County scored 63.1 of 100 points; 75 is needed.

Most of the shortfall was in the statistics. The median ratio for residential property, which compares appraised values with sale prices, was 77.7%, below the 90% to 110% standard, and the commercial median was 66.5%. Residential uniformity passed, meaning that the county had appraised residential property at a similar percentage of their actual selling price. Commercial uniformity did not, meaning commercial properties were appraised at very different percentages of their selling price.

The county earned 21.1 of 50 statistical points for the accuracy of the assessments, but did significantly better on the procedural part of the assessment gaining 47 of 50 procedural points. However, they then lost 5 points for two missteps. The market trend notice was not published at least 10 days before change-of-value notices were mailed. There was also inconsistent coding for 162/163 component codes and on web soil survey data submitted after the state’s deadline. Dallman said both of those are easy fixes on the procedural side of things.

The study used 112 residential and 19 commercial sales from 2025. Dallman said the number of people in the county who appeal their valuation is probably low “because, I mean, I hate to say it, the values are low.” Whether to raise values is up to the commission and the appraiser, he said, adding that there seemed to be a little more interest from the Statehouse this year in counties out of compliance, though he did not know what, if anything, would come of it. Milburn-Kee asked how the state picks and validates the sales it uses; Dallman said the state does its own sales validation, the county can appeal individual sales, and counties may submit a market trend if they also apply it in their own analysis. He praised the county’s new appraiser, Danielle, and said the state gives a new appraiser a year to get settled on non-statutory procedures, though statutory deadlines still apply.

Executive sessions

The commission met for 10 minutes in executive session on insurance matters with Christy Mitchell, Don Doherty and Jeremy Bowman of the county’s insurance services firm and returned with no action. Doherty said the firm would keep looking at options and bring them back.

Tran then moved two executive sessions on the duty performance of non-elected personnel, 15 and 20 minutes, with the five commissioners only. After the first, on Tran’s motion, the board authorized Motley to sign a payroll change document reflecting “the consensus that the five of us came to in executive session.” The second ended with no action.

Transfer station backhoe

Diane Ballou of the transfer station asked where the backhoe stood. Beerbower said he struck it because it had been voted down five times at the last meeting, and it was up to those who voted against it to decide what equipment the station gets. “I’m here to say we need something,” Ballou said, describing the current machine as worn out. “I shouldn’t have to come up here and beg for something to work with.”

Motley said that because of the tight budget he wants to “survive until January” with repairs, then buy a machine whose first payment would come in January 2028. He said Ben Hart of Baker Tilly, the county’s financial consultant, is building equipment depreciation and replacement schedules for every department at no extra cost. Tran said departments need written replacement and maintenance plans: “You can’t run a county by reacting.” Ballou said the need predated Public Works Director Allen. Beerbower noted that a backhoe purchase was approved in July and then reversed, and that the department then brought five bids as directed. He said the transfer station had a $96,000 profit or carryover in 2025, that a new backhoe was priced at $120,000, and that in his view the current machine’s frame is broken and puts workers at risk.

Ballou said the station’s rates are well below other facilities’ and could go up for out-of-county customers without losing business. Motley asked her to recommend how much out-of-county rates could rise, and said he would favor that; Milburn-Kee said she would not vote for an increase on in-county customers right now. On holiday hours, Beerbower said he will never vote to open on holidays and that Saturdays need two workers. Ballou said the station is down to two workers, herself and one other, after a third quit; that worker’s last day is Friday.

Holiday meetings, payroll software, Verizon

The board approved the treasurer’s quarterly reports. It revised Resolution 21-26 so that a meeting falling on a county holiday moves to the next business day and, at Beerbower’s request, struck Section 3A, which called for alternating regular meetings with work sessions.

On a motion by Milburn-Kee, the board approved a $1,200 software license so the county’s Pay Entry payroll system can import into its CIC accounting software. Motley said the county has had “issues for 10 months now of incorrect accounting entries” and that the last four payrolls had not been entered; Milburn-Kee said Laura Krom, the commission’s executive assistant, had since been breaking those payrolls down by department for the accounts payable clerk. The fix will not correct past entries, Motley said, and he favors moving payroll back to CIC later, without rushing it: “I think we need to do this. And take our time on the transition back to CIC. I think we need to go back to CIC, but we need to take out time, do it right, and not have the disruptions that we had last time.”

The motion passed, though Beerbower asked for another week to review it and voted against.

The problem dates to the county’s move of payroll from CIC to the outside service Pay Entry in late 2025. CIC’s payroll posted directly to the county’s books; Pay Entry does not, so the County Clerk’s office has had to enter payroll into the ledger by hand from reports. Krom, hired in December to run Pay Entry, prepares those reports under a February resolution. Former County Clerk Susan Walker told commissioners Aug. 10, shortly before her resignation took effect, that the county had had eight months of payroll problems where the PayEntry reports that needed to be entered into CIC were incomplete, miscoded, and contained incorrect deductions. She recommended Baker Tilly take over the payroll ledger entries. Motley said Monday that fixing the backlog is not in Baker Tilly’s contract and the firm would charge extra for it.

The board also authorized Motley to sign a new one-year Verizon contract after Beerbower suggested seeking proposals from other carriers first. Beerbower voted against the contract. On Beerbower’s motion, each elected official and department head, or a designee, will get administrative rights on the county’s Verizon account; Beerbower said the sheriff’s office has been unable to get two phones it needs. The board continued TEC remote support at $60 per device per year for the phone system’s voicemail computer and the computer that live-streams meetings.

Conservation district gets $5,000 more

Deb Lusk, treasurer of the Bourbon County Conservation District, said the district’s budget line was approved at $20,000 of the $40,000 it requested. She said an additional $5,000 from the county would let the district draw a two-to-one Kansas Water Fund match that she put at an additional $50,000 for local farmers’ conservation work, such as fencing ponds. On Motley’s motion, the board added $5,000. Vice President Ronnie Brown, who said he has been involved with the district for nearly 40 years, spoke about road and streambank erosion, cedar trees and the district’s youth programs.

Road complaints

Tran said constituents report potholes on Range Road between the Devon bridge and 145th and a broken guardrail on the south side of the bridge, and that he gets no feedback from Public Works on road reports. He also mentioned a Valley Road report, and Milburn-Kee raised complaints about signs hidden by trees at a Little Osage bridge. Joe Allen and Motley said they had not been receiving the road-report emails from the county website, which they concluded was because the county is now in 5 districts, and they have not been added. On Beerbower’s motion, the board set Public Works Director updates for the first and third Mondays of each month.

HR hire

The county received three responses to its request for proposals for human resources services. Milburn-Kee said she had found HR support available at no added cost through the county’s insurer, KCAMP, and Beerbower suggested reviewing that next week.

Joe Allen then moved to hire Millie Lipscomb as the county’s HR provider for one year, saying employees had told him they “wanted to see a face” in HR. Motley seconded. No price was stated in the meeting, and part of the motion’s wording, about her insurance, was unclear. Reference letters in the agenda packet describe Lipscomb as the HR lead at Niece Products of Kansas since 2021.

Tran objected. “HR has to be impartial,” he said, arguing that a local person may know employees and that the proposals should have been compared in a private source selection rather than discussed in public, to avoid a protest. He said one of the three responses did not meet the work statement. Beerbower and Tran then traded accusations of making assumptions before Motley stopped the exchange.

Motley said many local employers have local HR staff. “This is about spending money in Bourbon County with a qualified person, a person that will be visible, a lot more visible than any outside company,” he said. He said the current provider is good but “doesn’t have the trust of the employees.” Beerbower said he wants an individual rather than a company handling HR, and that the current clerk’s HR experience combined with the insurer’s free resources was the other option he would consider. The motion passed 3-2. Tran (“Vehemently, no”) and Milburn-Kee voted against it.

Meetings move to City Hall

Because early voting began Monday and election workers use the commission room, the board voted to hold its Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 meetings at Fort Scott City Hall, with one vote against. Beerbower said he had arranged it with the city and was told the meetings could be streamed to YouTube from there, though he said he would double-check after commissioners raised questions about logging in to the stream.

The commission tabled the asbestos report until its next meeting and did not reach well testing or the benefit contribution review. Joe Allen said the county’s auction went live on GovDeals Monday and ends next Monday.

Commission comments

Beerbower said the building being set up for court operations goes live Wednesday, but heavy rain caused a leak and a ceiling cave-in in one room. ServiceMaster is finishing the cleanup, and a tarp for the roof will cost $6,500, he said; with ServiceMaster’s bill still to come, the project will go over budget.

Milburn-Kee shared enlarged photos constituents sent her, including one she said appears to show a personal vehicle on a county lift. Tran cited K.S.A. 21-5803 and said using county property for personal use is a misdemeanor.

Milburn-Kee also congratulated the winning HR bidder. She said she hoped Lipscomb’s other work, writing columns for the Bourbon County Monitor, would not cross into the county HR job.

Tran said his objections were not personal, then accused Motley, Joe Allen and Beerbower, who had voted together on the hire, of settling their votes outside public meetings. “Clearly the decision was already made by the three of you before you came to the table,” he said. “Can I prove it? No. But your action speaks louder than words.” He added, “We’re supposed to be one voice, and you three voted together offline. You did it before, and you did it again tonight.”

Motley replied, “My commissioner’s comment is that everything Commissioner Tran just said is wrong,” and the meeting adjourned.

FORT SCOTT — The Bourbon County Commission adopted its 2027 budget Monday night with 5% built in for an employee pay increase, after a push for much larger raises went nowhere and a motion to set raises aside until 2027 died without a second. Later in the meeting, a proposal to raise transfer-station rates for the first time in the station’s 10 years died without a second.

Chairman Gregg Motley presided, with Commissioners Joe Allen, David Beerbower, Mika Milburn-Kee and Samuel Tran, budget consultant Matt Lawn and County Clerk Ann Clarkson. The county’s recording of the meeting begins as the board returned from its first executive session at about 5:54 p.m. Coming out of that session, the commission voted to give Tran authority to ask Dr. Cohen of HR Solutions On Call, the county’s human resources contractor, to come handle personnel matters in person. It then went back into a 20-minute executive session to consult County Counselor Bob Johnson and an attorney for the county’s insurance carrier, both by phone, about pending litigation, and returned with no action.

Budget adopted at 56.678 mills

Lawn said his latest version brought the 2026 estimates closer to the budgeted amounts, which increases the carryover reserves in the general, employee benefit, and road and bridge funds. He also gave commissioners a sheet showing what raises of 5% up to 15% would cost. Milburn-Kee said the larger raises would take more than three and a half mills, and Lawn said they would deplete most of the county’s carryover reserves. “I still think your best plan to go forward is to do a real wage study and build a step system off that,” Lawn said.

Beerbower proposed a 15% raise for employees who are not directors or elected officials, which he estimated at about $500,000. He would pay for it with the roughly $200,000-plus difference between the revenue-neutral rate and the adopted rate plus cuts to each department’s commodities budget, and would put the remaining FEMA money and the Jayhawk Wind PILOT revenue into the general fund as a cash reserve. Milburn-Kee noted that commodities include fuel, which is already rising.

“The guy that comes to work every day and hasn’t seen a raise in 10 years, that’s the guy I’m talking about,” Beerbower said. “And it’s really easy to see. All you got to do is look at the payroll.”

Tran said the county still has no plan for who should be paid what. A pay study that human resources was supposed to produce this year never arrived, he said, and “if we didn’t follow up on them, that’s on us.” Beerbower said HR had promised him the study in 60 days back in March.

Motley agreed with Tran that the county needs “a program, not a no raises for three years and 15%” — one that rewards effort and performance and fits the market for each job. “Let’s do it right. Let’s just wait on big raises or anything like that until we can get this done correctly.” He said Standard & Poor’s has criticized the county for inconsistent pay changes and equipment reserves. Tran pointed to another issue on his radar: “Somewhere in this whole thing, we’ve got to come up with $22.5 million. We haven’t even talked about that.”

Allen said he has supported 5% from the beginning. “I think 5% is reasonable. It’s not excessive. And I think these employees deserve that 5%.”

Tran then moved to table all pay-raises until 2027, when he hoped the county would have a plan for step increases and employee benefits. The motion died for lack of a second.

Lawn said the budget as written keeps the 56.678-mill total and includes 5% for pay and 20% for rising insurance costs. Milburn-Kee objected that the budget has only four expenditure line items; Lawn said most operating funds are set up that way, which he called time consuming and “very problematic.” Milburn-Kee moved to adopt the budget as written, not to exceed 56.678 mills. It passed on a voice vote, with Beerbower voting no. Lawn said he would have it submitted by the end of the day Wednesday, the state’s Sept. 30 deadline.

Grant, fund transfer and other business

Emergency Manager Lou Howard asked the board to approve the Emergency Management Performance Grant application, a 50-50 federal and county cost share that can pay for salary, office supplies, technology, planning and required exercises. Commissioners authorized Motley to sign it. Howard said she will bring back the county’s Emergency Operations Plan once it is finished.

On behalf of Public Works Director Kenny Allen, the board approved moving $325,000 from the Road and Bridge Sales Tax Fund to the Road and Bridge Fund to cover payroll. Milburn-Kee asked that the record show the money was for work done on hard-surface roads.

The commission also approved $1,750 for the  indigent cremation of William Watson, to be paid through accounts payable from the general fund.

Milburn-Kee invited representatives from Murphy Tractor to the table and thanked them for a detailed report on training and calibration work done for the county, which she said, citing figures Murphy gave her, helped raise the county crusher’s output from 400 tons a day to 3,600. “When we purchase this expensive equipment, the value isn’t just in the machinery,” she said. “The value is in our relationships with the vendors that are providing us those services as well.” Roland Hammond, Murphy Tractor’s regional product support manager, told commissioners that going forward, the company will communicate better before, during and after repairs. Motley suggested Hammond meet with Public Works Director Kenny Allen, the county’s main point of contact; Hammond said the two had not met.

In other action, the board:

• approved having TEC reorder the county’s phone prompts at no charge, to correct the problem of too many overflow calls going to the clerk’s office;
• approved sending Allen County a memorandum of understanding on the shared county appraiser, under which Bourbon County would pay its share of the appraiser’s health insurance monthly rather than yearly; Milburn-Kee said the shared insurance a big savings for the county;
• gave Bourbon County Clay the board’s blessing to enter an ornament representing the county in the Kansas Association of Counties’ governor’s tree competition.

Purchasing policy goes back for input; no action on insurance

The draft purchasing policy calls for price comparisons under $2,500, three quotes from $2,500 to $9,999, three written quotes from $10,000 to $24,999, and a formal bid or request for proposals at $25,000 and up. Beerbower said those thresholds are too low, noting that a patrol car tops $55,000 and a dump truck $180,000. He suggested thresholds he said similar counties use: department authority up to $10,000, three documented quotes from $10,000 to $50,000, formal competitive quotes from $50,000 to $100,000, and a request for proposals with board approval above that, which he said lines up with a Kansas legislative move to raise county construction thresholds from $25,000 to $100,000. He also recommended using state contracts that let counties buy at the state’s bid price. Clarkson said most employees’ purchase cards have a $1,000 limit, and that at the sheriff’s office everyone carries one. Tran said department heads may need higher limits but not every cardholder should have them: “If you give them the limit, they’ll take it. I’m not saying everybody, but I’m saying somebody will sometimes.” Motley will send the versions of the policy to department heads and elected officials for their feedback.

Updating the purchasing policy of the county is intended to meet the goals of consistency and transparency, according to Milburn-Kee and Beerbower.

Milburn-Kee’s proposal to move to a flat county contribution toward employee health insurance, with a $2-an-hour premium payment for employees who have insurance elsewhere and decline county coverage, drew questions from Beerbower about workers’ compensation and KPERS. Motley said he has received “some pretty vitriolic replies” from elected officials and department heads who fear losing employees who came for the benefits if Milburn-Kee’s proposal is implemented. “We have single moms, people like that, that would lose a lot of money,” he said. Milburn-Kee said 64 employees are on employee-only coverage and 18 on employee-plus plans. No action was taken.

Beerbower said a contractor will look at the work for the courthouse move Wednesday, Sept. 30, and that an inspection is set for Tuesday.

Records-request fees

The commission adopted a resolution setting copy fees of 50 cents a page for Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) requests and assigning each county office responsibility for its own records rather than routing every request through the clerk’s office. Before the vote, commissioners Joe Allen and Beerbower discussed leaving the decision about fees for fulfilling requests to each elected officials’ offices, giving the Sheriff’s Office as an example of a county entity that sets its own fee schedule for records requests. “I think y’all need to take some time reading the statute,” Milburn-Kee said.

County Clerk Annie Clarkson reminded the commission that adding signed documents to the published agenda is a step towards the transparency needed to reduce the number of KORA requested records. She mentioned that some people don’t like to retrieve their own documents, “But, KORA request also says if they’re already available to the public, then we’re not required to fill that KORA request.”

Motley said Bob Johnson, the commission’s attorney, told him Allen County received three records requests last year, and that Bourbon County is “getting a lot of frivolous” ones. Tran agreed: “It’s KORA lawfare. They’ll file it just to do lawfare against whatever it is that they don’t like. And that’s fine. That’s their right to do that. But it is bogging down the mechanism.” Clarkson pointed out that Allen County charges more to fulfill requests than Bourbon County does.

Beerbower moved to adopt the resolution, and it passed on a voice vote, with Joe Allen voting no.

Transfer station: rates, hours and a profit-and-loss question

Beerbower answered concerns raised at earlier meetings by Kevin “Skitch” Allen, owner of Skitch’s Hauling & Excavation, who uses the transfer station. Allen had asked for the station to open for four hours on minor holidays because “the trash doesn’t stop.” Beerbower said the station has only three trained employees and already leaves one person alone on Saturdays, which he called a safety and liability problem. He said they could re-asses after the landfill is fully staffed. Kevin Allen pushed back saying that the landfill has historically been open on minor holidays until about a year ago when that service stopped. Allen also suggested opening the scales at 7 a.m. instead of 8, since the scale operator arrives at 7; Beerbower said the early staff are preparing the site for the day. Allen then suggested that some of the work done at the beginning of the day could be done at a later time.

Allen also asked how the county knows the station is breaking even before it raises rates. “How do you know you’re breaking even is my question,” he said. Beerbower said the transfer station is a service “not designed to make a profit,” that he could find no year in its 10 years of operation when it went over budget, and that its rates have not gone up since it opened while its costs have. Motley read the station’s results from the county audit: a $96,000 gain in 2025, a $3,000 loss in 2024, and gains of $68,000 in 2023 and $22,000 in 2022. He cautioned that government cash-basis accounting leaves out equipment depreciation. “That’s apples and oranges to the typical business, but it’s been within budget, and it’s operated well,” Motley said.

Allen and Beerbower also disagreed over the station’s backhoes and over Allen’s suggestion to buy a pressure washer, which Beerbower said would need a pad with environmental drainage to meet state rules. Beerbower said he would check with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Beerbower then moved to raise rates effective Jan. 1, 2027: in-county construction and demolition waste from $35 to $40 a ton, in-county trash from $40 to $46, out-of-county construction and demolition from $40 to $51, and out-of-county trash from $50 to $56. He said the station handles about 12,925 tons a year, bringing in about $520,000, and that comparable facilities commonly charge $57 to $60 a ton for trash. The motion also included a 15% raise for the station’s four employees and restricted reserves of $35,000 a year for equipment and facilities, $15,000 for closure and post-closure costs and $15,000 for operating carryover. It died for lack of a second.

Backhoe bids were held until next week while Public Works confirms that the Foley quotes are still current. Future agenda items include the backhoe bids, possibly employee IT training once Stronghold sends its information, responses to the county’s request for proposals for human resources services, which Joe Allen said number three or four so far, and an update on the courthouse asbestos work and the court’s move.

FORT SCOTT — The Bourbon County Commission appointed a new county appraiser it will share with Allen County, pushed adoption of the 2027 budget to its final possible week, and heard a longtime county employee tell commissioners that “you’re so far behind, you think you’re in first” on county employee wages at its regular meeting Monday night.

Commissioner Joe Allen presided as vice chairman; Commissioner Gregg Motley was absent. The commission amended its agenda at the start of the meeting to add the budget discussion, the courthouse relocation proposal and a second accounts payable list. Commissioners David Beerbower, Mika Milburn-Kee and Samuel Tran also took part, along with budget consultant Matt Lawn and County Clerk Ann Clarkson. The county’s livestream broke in the middle of public comments and resumed as a second recording (part 1, part 2); the two recordings run about two hours and 20 minutes in all.

Public comment: handouts, wages and the transfer station

Clint Walker, who said he has attended commission meetings for a decade, complained that handouts distributed at the table reach “only select people” and said that was why he did not speak at the Sept. 14 revenue-neutral-rate hearing: “I didn’t have documents to review to make an intelligent decision or conversation.” He tied that to the county’s volume of open-records requests, picking up a remark he said he had heard the chairman make on the radio. “We have the highest number of KORA requests. The reason we have the highest number of KORA requests is because we’re not getting the information coming out here,” he said. “The worst thing you can do is withhold information” (part 1, 7:09). Milburn-Kee said the new “executed documents for record” item on the agenda, posted on the county’s digital public agenda calendar, is meant to answer that by sharing the online access point in the published agenda.

Bob Reed, who introduced himself as a longtime Bourbon County employee, taxpayer and property owner, said he was speaking “as a voice for the employees” and asked the commission to act on wages immediately (part 1, 9:06). He said the county has given an across-the-board raise “about every six to eight years,” and that benefits once offered in lieu of raises: no-cost insurance for single employees, free dumping, extra holidays and longevity bonuses, have all been lost in the past year except the holidays. A single employee now pays $135 a month for insurance and an employee with a spouse $400, he said, “on a $16 to $19 wage.”

“Us employees get told every year we can’t afford raises. However, we can afford the three P’s,” Reed said. “What are the three P’s? Pet  political projects.” “At Public Works alone, the director would have to cut back $73,000 a year to give his employee a dollar raise,” he said, adding that studies he did as a department head reached the same conclusion as everyone else’s: “You’re so far behind, you think you’re in first.” He asked for raises across the board and a step-increase system, and said the incentive being discussed for employees who decline county insurance would penalize those who take a benefit “that historically has been provided” by other employers. When told his 3 minutes to speak were up, he concluded with the exhortation, “Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

Kevin “Skitch” Allen, who owns Skitch’s Hauling & Excavation and hauls to the county transfer station, returned to ask whether the commission had a response to the transfer-station suggestions he made in the Sept. 14 meeting: foam-filled tires and air conditioning for the backhoe, and half-day openings on some holidays (part 2, 0:40). Joe Allen said the board had not met since and the items were not on the agenda. Tran said one commissioner’s opinion “doesn’t mean much when you need a consensus of at least the majority,” and that the request belonged on an agenda rather than in public comment if action is what’s wanted. “I just think that any citizen deserves an answer, eventually,” Kevin Allen said. Beerbower said he would put the items on a future agenda, and did so at the end of the meeting, along with a transfer-station rate discussion.

A new appraiser, shared with Allen County

After a five-minute executive session on appraiser employment, the commission authorized Milburn-Kee to continue onboarding. Later in the meeting it adopted Resolution 30-26 appointing Danielle Louk, a Kansas Registered Mass Appraiser, as Bourbon County Appraiser effective Sept. 21 for the unexpired term ending June 30, 2029 (part 2, 1:11:41). The resolution, included in the agenda packet, authorizes a memorandum of understanding with Allen County for shared appraiser services, with Louk’s compensation and benefits administered under that agreement. Milburn-Kee moved, Beerbower seconded, and the resolution passed with no opposition. The resolution repeals Resolution 20-25. Milburn-Kee asked to put the Allen County MOU on next week’s agenda.

The office had been vacant since former appraiser Matt Quick’s resignation took effect Aug. 18. Commissioners interviewed candidates at a special meeting Sept. 14.

Budget: adoption next Monday, and a fight over road money and raises

Lawn told the board the budget must be adopted by Sept. 30, which leaves only next Monday’s meeting (part 2, 10:50). Milburn-Kee asked that Road and Bridge’s 2026 spending estimate be lowered to the amount originally adopted, a difference Lawn put at about $240,000, with the corresponding mills moved to the employee benefit fund or the general fund rather than left to Road and Bridge spending authority.

Tran said the last thing he remembered the full commission agreeing on was to put the growth in assessed valuation into the general fund. “I just want to know when and where did we change our mind on this,” he said. Milburn-Kee said nobody had directed a change: Lawn had projected what the department would overspend in 2026 and carried that forward. Beerbower said he did not remember the board discussing the benefit-fund idea at the table. “Did we vote?” he asked. “No,” Tran said. “We never voted because we weren’t voting at the time. It was just a consensus.” Milburn-Kee added: “To be fair for Matt, we’re throwing him all over the place because we haven’t voted on a single thing” (part 2, 37:42).

“There’s five of us and five different ideas,” Tran told Lawn. “Any marching orders that you get should come from the table. It should always come from the table where there’s a consensus.”

Lawn said the proposed budget includes a 5% wage increase across all departments. Beerbower said he would like it higher. “5% is not much, not considering where we’ve been and how long it’s been to get here,” he said, adding that he had run his own numbers for a 15% increase at Public Works and, with benefits, arrived at about $120,000 because the department has fallen from 38 employees to about 31. Tran put a 15% increase on the department’s projected $1,406,633 in wages at $210,994. Milburn-Kee pressed Lawn on where the money for a 5% raise comes from if the valuation growth is being set aside unencumbered; Lawn said it comes from all revenue sources, including sales tax transfers and fund balance, and that he budgets “holistically at total revenue versus total expenditure” rather than matching each increase to a revenue line (part 2, 28:33).

Milburn-Kee said her larger fear is spending authority built on one-time revenue: the FEMA reimbursement, about $412,000 of which is being transferred into Road and Bridge this year, and a carryover balance Lawn projects will grow from about $130,000 to about $621,000. “We learn to operate at this capacity, and then we have to…” she said. Tran put the consequence plainly: “We can spend that money this year, but if you don’t refund that money or get more money in next year, you’re going to raise the mill.” Beerbower argued the opposite risk: “You keep running everything flat [pay rate] and everything else around you keeps going up. Four years from now, you’re going to be way down here and you’re going to have to have an enormous raise.” Lawn called that “valid, absolute valid criticism” and said next year’s budget “will have to look different than this one” if one-time money is used for operations. He agreed to bring four scenarios by Wednesday, moving the disputed authority to an equipment reserve, to the general fund, or splitting it. Lawn also urged the board to create a step program for wages and positions and to take “a stronger role in approving expenditures,” since budget authority is not blanket permission to spend.

Tran asked Clarkson whether $60,500 budgeted for an election employee would stay in elections; she said it would.

Asbestos inspection Sept. 29, and who may attend

Beerbower said Apex Environmental and Otis Elevator will both be at the courthouse at 9 a.m. Sept. 29; Apex will inspect the elevator first to allow the Otis people to begin their work, then either the third-floor jury room or the basement, and will also look at the building at 108 W. Second St. (part 2, 49:22). The commission authorized signing the Apex agreement, whose proposal in the agenda packet lists $2,475 for the inspection and report and an estimated $1,050 for 30 samples at $35 each. The board capped the work at $5,000 on Sept. 2.

Beerbower said he planned to bring maintenance staff and “one citizen advisor that asked if he could come,” Michael Hoyt. Milburn-Kee moved that attendance be limited to employees, the elected official and the contractors; Tran seconded. Beerbower objected: “If there’s not a problem for us as individuals to go down there in all transparency, why wouldn’t it be all right?” Tran said the asbestos issue “has been known in this building for a while” and “became a controversy because somebody took it and broadcast it all over the news prior to coming to the board with the results,” and said the county does not let the public help at the transfer station either for liability reasons. The motion passed with Beerbower voting against (part 2, 52:37).

Temporary courtrooms at 108 W. Second

Beerbower presented a budget proposal for moving court operations to three temporary virtual courtrooms at 108 W. Second St. while the courthouse elevator is modernized, estimated at $28,540, mostly for computers and cameras, plus a reception counter, carpet tiles over the worn lobby carpet and cleaning (part 2, 57:58). Joe Allen asked whether IT equipment already stored in the courthouse could be used instead of buying new. On Tran’s motion, seconded by Joe Allen, the commission authorized Beerbower to issue the request for proposals and carry out the project on a not-to-exceed budget, with regular status updates and receipts. Tran stated the cap as $28,540.

Joe Allen reported that the county’s equipment auction through GovDeals is grouped into eight lots and should be listed within a week or two.

Purchasing policy, insurance and KORA fees held for next week

Milburn-Kee introduced a draft purchasing policy, modeled largely on the City of Fort Scott’s and citing state statutes, saying the county’s large-ticket purchases “have drawn a following and a little bit of attention because large vendors are not getting a chance at serving the county” (part 2, 1:14:11). The agenda packet includes a Sept. 9 letter from Travis Clinesmith of Murphy Tractor & Equipment Co. saying the company was never invited to compete for a Caterpillar motor grader financed at about $54,000 a year for eight years, an excavator at about $34,000 a year, or a proposed backhoe. Joe Allen offered a simpler policy requiring bids at purchase amounts of $10,000 or more. Beerbower also mentioned the idea of creating a policy manual for the county, which would include purchasing policies. Discussion was set for next week.

Milburn-Kee’s employee insurance proposal would set the county contribution at $1,100 a month for every employee who takes county coverage and pay $2 an hour in premium pay to employees who show they are covered elsewhere (part 2, 1:19:54). The written proposal says about 18 employees now receive up to $1,700 a month toward insurance while about 64 receive $925, and estimates the premium pay for about 35 employees at $145,600 a year. Milburn-Kee said that the county’s insurance agent is not in favor of paying employees who don’t take the insurance option, as they may be choosing not to insure at all. She didn’t think that would be the case. Joe Allen said he wanted to hear from employees; Beerbower asked for more time, and Milburn-Kee said Motley should see it as well. No action was taken.

The commission adopted Resolution 31-26 reassigning storage space: the clerk gives Pod H to the sheriff for evidence and moves to Pod B, formerly used by 911, and the old kitchen goes to Emergency Management. They also discussed moving a variety of IT equipment that is scattered in three different places in the courthouse to the server room so it can be secured and gone through at a future date. Allen asked about giving the Register of Deeds some of the space that will be freed up by moving the equipment. Milburn said that could be brought up at a future meeting after the move is accomplished.

County Clerk Anne Clarkson and Milburn-Kee presented a draft open-records resolution that would make each department responsible for its own records requests instead of routing them through the clerk; the board tabled it to update the fee schedule after Clarkson said copies should be 50 cents rather than 25 and that another county clerk she had spoken with charges $30 an hour for the work of answering a KORA request.

Housing pitch draws skepticism

A representative of KC Crown Inc. asked for a resolution of support for a Kansas Housing Investor Tax Credit application for up to 100 homes, built as duplexes, in four phases on 15 acres behind the K C Mart south of Fort Scott, saying the state requires a county resolution and the deadline is around Oct. 1 (part 2, 1:40:24). He said units would rent for about $800, the investment would be about $2.5 million for each of four phases (the written scope in the packet says $2.5 million “expected the first year”), and if no sewer connection is available the project would use a one-acre lagoon. Al Niece, speaking from the audience, said no sewer line had been approved by the city and urged “a hell of a lot more research” before the county commits. “There’s no free lunch out there,” he said, referring to past issues the county and city had both had with approving projects funded by “people we don’t know,” that left the government entities holding the bag. Tran said the tax-credit program is run by a nongovernmental organization. He and Beerbower asked that County Counselor Bob Johnson review the request, and Allen said he wanted Motley’s take on it as well; the board tabled it to next week. In closing comments Tran said that while they want good, affordable house in the county, he calculated that 100 buildings of 6,000 square feet each would nearly fill the acreage before roads or infrastructure. “Until I see some more information, this does not bode well for me,” he said.

“My sincere apologies”

In commission comments, Beerbower read a statement about “the heated discussions and debates” viewers have seen in county commission meetings. Healthy debate is essential, he said, but too often discussion “becomes centered on criticisms rather than suggestions.” He apologized “to this board and to the citizens of our community” for an exchange at last week’s meeting, saying it stemmed from a dispute more than a year old and “a public meeting is not the appropriate venue for such a confrontation” (part 2, 1:54:05). Tran thanked Anne Clarkson, appointed County Clerk Sept. 1, and Milburn-Kee for their work in getting the new clerk and the clerk’s office up to speed. Clarkson then thanks Jennifer Hawkins, County Treasurer for her help as well.

The commission approved accounts payable of $581,360.08 and $110,758.06 and the minutes of both Sept. 14 meetings. Next week’s agenda will include the budget, the purchasing policy, the insurance proposal, the KORA resolution, KC Crown, the appraiser MOU, transfer-station equipment and rates, and two emergency-management items.

FORT SCOTT — The Bourbon County Commission voted unanimously Monday night to levy a property tax rate above the revenue-neutral rate, and in the same meeting committed $116,500 to write the county’s first comprehensive plan and zoning code, a document aimed squarely at wind farms, solar fields, battery storage and data centers.

The commission will levy a total of 56.678 mills for 2027. The revenue-neutral rate calculated by the county clerk — the rate that would raise the same amount of money from existing property as last year — is 54.661 mills. The difference is 2.017 mills, which budget consultant Matt Lawn of Baker Tilly put at roughly $294,000 (video, 5:01).

The levy is not an increase over the current year. It is the same 56.678 mills the county is levying now, and down from 59.900 mills in 2025. Kansas law requires a public hearing and a recorded vote whenever a county intends to levy above the revenue-neutral rate, even when the rate itself does not change, because rising property valuations would otherwise raise more money at the same rate. The county’s assessed valuation rose to $143,767,695 for 2027 from $138,681,091 the year before, a gain of about 3.7%. Applied at the unchanged rate, that growth alone brings in roughly $288,000 — very nearly the whole difference between the two rates.

Deputy County Clerk Michael Hoyt was the only person to question the numbers at the hearing. He asked why the published notice showed a total assessed valuation of zero for 2026 (video, 7:32). Lawn said there was an error in the spreadsheet and that he was correcting it; the figure was given in the room as $138,681,091. Hoyt also questioned an increase in the law enforcement fund, where Lawn acknowledged the published figures were wrong, and Chairman Gregg Motley told him that belonged in the budget discussion rather than the rate hearing.

After Motley read the resolution, the roll was called and all five commissioners voted yes: Joe Allen, David Beerbower, Mika Milburn-Kee, Motley and Samuel Tran (video, 13:03).

The 2027 budget itself was not adopted. Motley asked the commission whether it wanted to vote that night or hold the matter open, and the commission chose to hold it open (video, 20:33). Lawn said the county has until Oct. 1 and could adopt on Sept. 21st or 28th. Milburn-Kee said she wanted time with the comparison documents he had prepared, which the commission had received that evening.

Lawn walked the commission through the fund-by-fund changes behind the flat total: a reduction of about half a mill in the general fund, a 2.313-mill increase in the employee benefit fund covering a 5% rise in benefits and health insurance estimated at 18% to 20% higher, and decreases in law enforcement and road and bridge. Smaller movements included a 0.02-mill cut for noxious weeds, a 0.03-mill increase for emergency medical services and about a tenth of a mill more for elections. He had reduced the road and bridge levy by 1.134 mills, he said, because the county will not be able to transfer the full amount of federal disaster reimbursement money he had originally planned because part of it was already committed to pay other costs. Total law enforcement spending still rises, from $2.584 million to $2.851 million.

There were no comments or questions from the public on the budget in the meeting.

A comprehensive plan built around wind, solar and data centers

Commissioner Samuel Tran brought the comprehensive plan back to the table, saying that after Lawn’s budget work the money was there (video, 1:05:11). He then read a resolution approving a planning services agreement with Confluence Inc. for a comprehensive plan and zoning code regulations.

The agreement is for a total fee of $116,500, which includes reimbursable expenses of no more than $5,000. The county will pay $36,000 from the 2026 general fund and the remaining $80,500 from the 2027 general fund, subject to appropriation. The work is split into four phases, the largest being $68,000 for drafting the plan and the zoning code.

The resolution ties the work directly to Resolution 24-26, the temporary moratorium the commission adopted on large-scale power generation, crypto mining, data centers and waste disposal operations. The zoning code, the resolution says, is anticipated to address “utility scale wind and solar energy systems, battery energy storage systems, data centers” and other areas identified as the plan is developed.

Motley said he had understood the plan would be paid for by solar payments and asked whether that was any closer. Beerbower said that was why they had asked Lawn to find the money in the general fund instead. “That was a stretch asking the solar companies to put up money before it was… I mean, it doesn’t start until… It’s on a timeline,” he said (video, 1:12:35).

Motley also asked how the county would enforce the rules once they exist. Tran said enforcement cannot begin until there is zoning, and that the commission would get updates as the process ran so future commissioners could work out who enforces it. Milburn-Kee said she had brought the board numbers a few months ago on what enforcement had cost a neighboring county.

The resolution passed unanimously on a voice vote, and the commission then voted to authorize the chairman to sign the contract (video, 1:14:10).

Earlier in the meeting, resident Kyle Parks had used public comment to urge the commission to fund it. “I think this county commission is going to be remembered for a lot of things,” he said, “and I think one of them ought to be that you guys are the ones that passed the comprehensive plan and zoning.” (video, 24:24).

Appraiser hire authorized after a day of interviews

The commission spent the afternoon in a special meeting interviewing candidates for county appraiser, entirely in executive session. Monday night it took the action in the open, as Milburn-Kee had told the public that afternoon it would.

After a 15-minute closed session on non-elected personnel, the commission returned with action and voted to authorize Milburn-Kee to contact human resources and give authority to hire “appraiser A or B, considering their responses” (video, 45:05). The candidates were not named in open session.

Tran later said that the candidates the commission was looking were all familiar with zoning and came from counties that have it.

A second closed session, 10 minutes with county counselor Bob Johnson on pending litigation, returned with no action.

Burn ban lifted

Commissioner Joe Allen moved to lift the countywide burn ban, saying he had spoken with fire chiefs and emergency management and that the county had received upwards of five to six inches of rain over the past few days. It passed (video, 1:14:47).

A long argument over who gets to talk, and for how long

The sharpest part of the meeting came under an agenda item titled citizen involvement, sponsored by Milburn-Kee and brought by Kevin “Skitch” Allen, owner of Skitch’s Hauling & Excavation — “just a local trash hauler,” as he described himself — who was joined by Clayton Miller. It ran for roughly half an hour and picked up where the previous week’s public works work session left off.

Allen read a prepared statement for about 10 minutes. He traced the dispute to a request he and Miller made months ago to open the transfer station for half a day on minor holidays at double pay for the landfill employees, which he said never got an answer. Shortly afterward, he said, Public Works called Miller to collect his dumpster, and a week later called Allen to collect two portable toilets that had been at the site for years. “We felt as if it was either weird timing or possibly retaliation,” he said (video, 1:15:57).

He said one commissioner stopped taking his calls, and quoted him as having said publicly, “there’s 13,997 people that I will answer calls to, but you ain’t one of them.” He said that when the purchase of a new backhoe was put on hold pending a look at the finances, the same commissioner proposed substantial raises at the transfer station, including one plan under which a commercial driver with less than two years’ tenure would go from $17 to $30 an hour and out-earn the supervisor. Asked directly whether that was true, Allen said, the commissioner told him he would not answer.

Allen asked the commission to study a three-year profit-and-loss statement before raising dump fees at all, to hold local rates where they are and put any increase on out-of-county customers, who he said do not pay county property or sales tax. He also argued the county does not need a new backhoe: for under $20,000, he said, it could foam-fill the tires on the one it has for less than $5,000, repair the air conditioning in both machines and buy a $6,000 hot-water pressure washer. “Their equipment is filthy. They can’t see out of that stuff,” he said (video, 1:27:09).

He then turned to the three-minute limit on public comment. He said he had been reading fast to fit inside it the week before and had to be told to stop before he was finished. “It made me sick. I don’t like that,” he said, asking the commission to consider raising the limit to five or eight minutes (video, 1:31:42).

Beerbower answered by reading the county’s own meeting rules back. Resolution 21-26, he said, reserves a portion of each meeting for public comment limited to three minutes per speaker, and draws no distinction between a regular meeting, a work session, or a special meeting (video, 1:35:47).

Allen had called each commissioner individually before that work session last week to ask whether it would be an open back-and-forth, and said all three told him it would. Beerbower said that put them in a position of making a unilateral decision, and that nothing in any of the county’s meeting resolutions provides for open discussion at all. “So when they said that, they gave you a non-binding agreement that they’re not legally bound to do,” he said.

Beerbower also said he had been in error the week before when he called the work session his own. The floor had been yielded to him because it was his presentation, he said, but under Robert’s Rules of Order the chairman keeps control of the meeting.

It then turned personal. Beerbower said Allen had accused him of cronyism. Allen said he had never used the word. “You referred to me… basically said that I was giving a friend of mine that went on vacation with me, that I was giving him a $13 an hour raise,” Beerbower said, adding that the wage plan was a proposal for the board to work out and that he has no authority to give anyone a raise on his own (video, 1:40:00).

Beerbower said he had told Allen he did not owe him an apology until Allen apologized to him. He referrenced to an issue dating back to 2025 when Allen and others attended a commission meeting and protested separating the landfill from public works, which was part of Beerbower’s plan to make changes to both departments. The protest was based on information circulated in an email which Beerbower said he had nothing to do with. Beerbower said that as a county commissioner, there is no law obliging him to speak to anyone he doesn’t want to.

Allen said he had already made his apology. “I do not appreciate the accusations. I don’t think Clayton does either,” he said.

Johnson, the county counselor, interrupted to say the exchange was “probably more of a conversation for the two of you to have outside of a meeting. This is more personal.” Motley agreed it was not commission business. Beerbower’s answer was that “it became commission business when it happened in the commission” (video, 1:44:20).

“I’m just glad everybody at home got to see it,” said Kevin Allen as he left the table.

Also before the commission

Care to Share. Board members Cory Bryars and Teresa Davenport gave a semi-annual update. The all-volunteer group historically puts about $8,000 a month, or $100,000 a year, back into the community for people fighting cancer; that is up about 50% this year, Bryars said, and the group is now spending more than $12,000 a month. “We haven’t had to turn anyone down,” Davenport said, “and it’s because of the community support we get from Lynn, Bourbon and Crawford Counties that we’re able to help everybody that asks us. And I just want to thank the communities that we are serving that your money is being well spent and we just really appreciate it.”

Care to Share’s big fundraiser, the fifth annual Fort Fest, is Sept. 25 and 26 at Riverfront Park, and a benefit trap shoot follows Oct. 10.

Sheriff’s radio project. Under Sheriff Kevin Davidson appeared in place of the sheriff and patched in Darla Hout of Lexipol’s grant-finder team by phone. Hout said Lexipol has worked with the sheriff’s office for about 10 years and helped it secure nearly $500,000, but that this year has been unusually hard: the change of federal administration, last year’s government shutdown and a review of every federal grant program have left grants delayed or not opening at all. She said she needs a cost estimate for the full radio project, and that she and Sheriff Martin are still approaching grant programs. “It’s a hurry up and wait type of game,” she said. “You’re lucky to find two or three grants that are available and a good fit to fund any given project.”

Regional planning. Motley reported that two Community Development Block Grants are pending through the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission for Bronson’s water treatment upgrade, one covering the bulk of the cost and one the matching funds, an investment he put at about $3 million in western Bourbon County. On 46 acres south of Fort Scott, he said, Equity Bank appears likely to prevail on its lien.

Fence viewing. Johnson advised that a fence-viewing request the commission had received was really a livestock and negligence dispute rather than a boundary question, and so falls outside what the statute is for. He noted he has represented counties for 29 years and Bourbon County is the only one that has ever brought him a fence viewing.

Human resources. Joe Allen brought a request for proposals for human resources services and the commission voted to issue it, after agreeing to leave the deadline at Oct. 7 to allow time for publication.

The commission approved the agenda as amended and minutes for Aug. 31, Sept. 2 and Sept. 9, had no accounts payable to approve, and postponed an item on a KC Crown Inc. project in Fort Scott for a week. It adjourned at about 7:25 p.m. Future agenda topics include a purchasing policy, an update from Joe Allen on the county auction, the county’s contribution toward employee insurance, a reorganization of the phone system so fewer calls land in the clerk’s office, and a Kansas Open Records Act policy.

FORT SCOTT — Bourbon County Clerk Susan Walker announced her resignation at Monday night’s county commission meeting, closing 24 years of public service with a statement that moved from a routine election recap into a direct, sustained rebuke of the commission chairman.

Walker said her last day will be Aug. 31. She told commissioners the decision was made about a month ago, when she accepted another job, and that she and her staff stayed on to see the primary election through. Her staff will transfer out of the clerk’s office to another elected official’s office at the end of this week, she said, and Deputy Clerk Michael Hoyt will run the office until the Republican Party appoints a replacement. Hoyt served as clerk for the remainder of Monday’s meeting.

“For 24 years, I’ve had the honor and the burden of serving this community,” Walker said. “Today, I’m before you with a heavy heart but a clear conscience to announce that I will be stepping down from my position as county clerk effective 8-31.” (video, 1:03:53)

A direct address to the chairman

The sharpest portion of Walker’s statement was aimed at Chairman Samuel Tran, whom she addressed directly. (video, 1:07:35)

“Chairman, I’m addressing you directly because your behavior toward me has crossed every reasonable line,” she said. “You ignore me, you speak to me with open disrespect, and you make sexist comments that demean my position and my work. On top of that, you make underhanded public statements designed to make people think I’m doing something criminal when I am not.”

Walker said she had left her office “in order, in balance with the treasurer,” and said it was unfortunate she had to say so at all “because of the attempts for past and current elected officials to try to set me up for a crime, one I did not commit.” She characterized the situation as reflecting “incompetent leadership and a misunderstanding of how processes work.”

She also said that “two of you on this commission wanted to break me and ruin my reputation,” adding: “My response is, thank you for freeing me.”

Walker said the political climate of recent years had taken a toll on her and her staff, and that no public office “is worth the destruction of one’s peace and well-being.”

A warning about payroll and the county’s finances

Immediately before announcing her resignation, Walker delivered a detailed warning about county payroll. (video, 1:02:16)

Over the past eight months, she said, “each payroll cycle has produced issues that the treasurer and I have reported to the full commission. Yet the concerns have been consistently overlooked.” Reconciling items continue to accumulate, she said, and she would forward the details to each commissioner, to Baker Tilly and to the county’s auditor.

Without timely reconciliation and monthly benefit billings, Walker said, “many employees may either fail to receive funds in their HSA accounts or may need refunds for incorrect deductions.” She called the KPERS variances “extremely concerning,” warning that inaccurate wage reporting “can affect employees’ retirement records and contributions, creating long-term consequences.”

She recommended Baker Tilly handle all general-ledger interest entries for payroll going forward.

Walker, who said she was hired in 2021 to address financial deficiencies that had led to repeated failed audits, said county audits had been clean since 2022, but that a violation occurred in 2025 when the commission failed to pass an amended budget. Speaking, she said, as a citizen, she warned that “the future of Bourbon County rests in the hands of the current commission. If better fiscal decisions are not made, if discipline and foresight are not applied, the county will face serious trouble in the near future.”

Election recap and reported incidents

Before the resignation, Walker gave an extended account of the Aug. 4 primary. Every poll worker completed two hours of training, she said — more than in the past — and the county produced new role-specific guides because its training materials had not been updated in more than a decade.

She said she had requested the county to purchase updated poll pads capable of printing a check-in receipt showing the correct ballot style, party and precinct. The county currently relies on color-coded paper slips that a worker must match by hand, a process complicated this year by 90 different ballot styles in the primary. The general election will have about 30.

This is the first year that incident reports have been instituted at the election office. Four incident reports were filed by supervising judges, Walker said:

• One during early voting, resolved on site.
• Two at Community Christian Church, where voters were mistakenly issued ballots from a precinct other than their own.
• One in the Uniontown precinct, where the number of voters checked in did not match the number of ballots cast. Walker attributed that to poll pad problems and said a voter likely cast a ballot without receiving voter credit — “there is no way for us to go back and audit that.” She encouraged anyone who voted in Uniontown to check their voter history.

Voters issued the wrong ballot can request a replacement and spoil the first, Walker noted, but only before casting it. She said the incidents amounted to 99.999 percent accuracy against ballots cast, and thanked poll workers — many elderly or retired, working 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for less than $200 — “for their continued service in the process, and hope they continue to volunteer despite the ridicule this year.”

S&P reviewing the county’s credit rating

Commissioner Gregg Motley reported on a conference call with S&P reviewing Bourbon County’s credit rating, saying low reserves, lack of a long-term plan, and the county’s recent non-clean audit triggered the review and that a downgrade is possible.

Commissioner Samuel Tran agreed that the county needs a plan for equipment maintenance and replacement. “We are so reactionary that it’s troubling,” he said of the way the county has handled the need to repair and replace items.

Commission recalls $179,000 backhoe purchase

Commissioners voted 4-1 — Commissioner David Beerbower dissenting — to recall a previously approved purchase of a new $179,000 Caterpillar backhoe for the transfer station and to direct Public Works to seek certified used alternatives. A separate motion by Beerbower to have the chairman sign the purchase contract died for lack of a second. (video, 2:04:53)

Chairman Tran reopened a purchase the board had already approved. “My question is real simple,” he said. “Why do we need to buy another backhoe and why does it have to be $179,000?”

Beerbower defended it: “One’s a loaner, and the other one has been worn down, and we’re going to just continue to pay nickel and dime on maintenance on it.” He then read the statement supporting the commission’s original motion to purchase a new backhoe.

Tran said he had spent ten minutes looking at Caterpillar’s own certified pre-owned listings online. “There are certified Caterpillar backhoes, … same size and everything,” he said. “They’re way under $179,000 with only like 200 hours, 400 hours. Why can’t we do something like that?” Later, as the debate wore on, he added: “While we’re sitting here talking, Fargo, North Dakota, $125,000, 242 hours.” He also asked how many local farmers or ranchers would buy new at the $179,000 price rather than “something used that’s good.”

Beerbower’s objection was procedural. “Point of order. We have already voted for this piece of equipment,” he said. “We had an opportunity that night that they presented two purchases of backhoe, used one on a new one. We voted. And there was plenty of opportunity then to say, well, hey, I would like to table it for a week.” He returned to it later: “We’re in the third week of purchasing the piece of equipment that we approved two weeks ago.”

Diane Ballou, who operates the equipment at the transfer station, told commissioners the dispute had outrun what she asked for. “All I was asking for was something to do my job with,” she said. “As far as being brand new, I don’t care what I have as long as I have something to work with that doesn’t break down every other day or that I have to sweat to death all day because I don’t have an air conditioner.”

Tran said the price, not the need, was the problem. “It looked great when it sat at the table and we talked about it, but when you start digging through the onion layers, I’m like, dude, we are spending 179 grand and it only works in one place,” he said. “At the very beginning, hey, here’s a shiny new object. Let’s go buy it. Oh, everybody, including me, we’re on board. … So sometimes the shiny things do distract us.”

Commissioner Joe Allen, who voted for the original purchase, said he had deferred to staff: “I was one that voted yes for it for $179,000 backhoe with limited knowledge of what they do because I trust them. That’s their job. That’s what we’ve hired them for.”

Beerbower pressed on what would replace it, and how. “So we’re recalling it to be able to have them seek another one, but we don’t know how we’re going to pay for it,” he said. Commissioner Gregg Motley, who said he voted against the purchase the first time, put it against the county’s finances. The original purchase agreement would have accrued interest through the first year’s deferred payment period. “I think we need to get them the equipment they need, but we need to do it in a more cost-effective way and in a way that we’re not paying a year’s worth of interest in order to carry it into the next budget year” — adding, “we don’t have reserves.”

A fight over who supervises courthouse maintenance

Beerbower asked the board to establish a position for a courthouse maintenance supervisor who reports directly to the commission, moving oversight away from the commission’s part-time executive assistant. The purpose, he said, was to “create a clear supervisory structure for the courthouse maintenance operation” and “provide direct accountability to the Board of County Commissioners.” (video, 2:50:40)

Allen’s first concern was the people already doing the work. “You already have two employees in that position, right? One and a half,” he said. “You’re opening this up to everybody in the county. Say somebody comes in, what do you do with your half or your one?” He pressed the point: “What do I do with that employee that’s been here, that’s been hired? I mean, I’m not going to throw him to the wind.”

Tran said the idea had merit but was premature. “I think it’s an idea that needs to be broached. I totally understand that,” he said. “I think we’re a little bit early. I think we need to take a look at the budget, make sure the budget’s finalized so we have the money.”

The exchange turned on how the present arrangement was decided in the first place. Beerbower said he did not recall the board approving it: “I don’t remember ever approving or ever hearing of that position getting the supervisor until it was already done.” He said the job description surfaced only afterward — “I’ve never seen that job description until after it was questioned, and then all of a sudden the job description shows up.”

Tran said it was settled during hiring, on the HR consultant’s advice: “I remember talking about it, and Dr. Cohen recommended that our executive assistant be the supervisor.” Commissioner Mika Milburn Kee said a record exists: “It’s been forwarded to you and the lawyer. … I went back and found it when all this started, the email.” Beerbower was unsatisfied — “So right now it’s just hearsay” — and asked her to produce it: “Show me. I’m being transparent here. If it’s in there and I did that, then by all means.”

Tran moved twice to control the room, at one point saying he would “gavel this time around because I see where this is going,” adding, “We’re going to have one person speak at a time.” Later: “You guys voted me to be chair. I need to be the chair.”

Beerbower eventually set the history aside. “For sake of argument, I’ll agree 100% right now that that’s what happened,” he said. “What I’m saying is that I now see that it was wrong. I now see that that position can’t manage that position and that the turmoil and stuff that is being faced daily in this courthouse, that we’re in need of a change.”

Tran pushed on pay, saying the duties as written described a job worth far more than an entry-level wage. Beerbower said his proposal addressed it: the hire would start at entry-level pay, then move to supervisor-level pay after a 90-day introductory period. Tran was unconvinced: “You’re asking this person to come in and run the building, David.”

Tran also raised nepotism, asking whether the candidate could “be related or tied to a sitting commissioner” and saying “there are people who are related that tried to get into the courthouse. … Nepotism is a thing in this county.” Beerbower responded: “We’re going to cut out the commissioners to be in charge of courthouse maintenance supervisor because we’re afraid that they might be related to somebody. That’s what you just said.”

Beerbower pulled the motion back — “I’m going to pull it back this week, and I’ll resubmit it” — while rejecting the argument for waiting: “But to say that we’re going to wait until after budget season, that’s what we said last year. We said last year we’re going to … after budget season … we’re going to do all these great things to … try to move Bourbon County forward and to put things in perspective and we haven’t done a thing.”

Tran pushed back saying that Beerbower was blaming himself and the rest of the commission for not doing their jobs and it would be advisable to take into account “all the drama” they’ve had to go through this year.

Also at the meeting

Sheriff Bill Martin asked to use jail inmate housing revenue to buy 12 replacement computers needed for KCJIS Windows 10/11 compliance by October, with quotes of roughly $14,465 from Stronghold and $14,544 from Advantage of Iola. Commissioners approved 5-0, leaving the vendor choice to the sheriff.

The Sheriff also suggested that the commission get an update from Stronghold on the project they’ve been doing for the county and determine where to obtain IT services going forward. Beerbower and Tran both said it had been some time since they received an update from Stronghold.

Commissioners heard opposition to a proposal to enroll county-owned land next to Oak Grove Cemetery — the old landfill site — in the state’s walk-in hunting program. Cemetery caretaker Phillip Pavey objected in person and the adjacent Cronemeyer family objected by letter, both citing existing trespassing problems. Justin Herbert of Kansas Wildlife and Parks described the one-year agreement, expected low usage, and signage plans.

Beerbower and Herbert both mentioned that when a parcel of land is enrolled in walk-in hunting, illegal usage drops off because the hunters that follow the rules are often quick to report those that break them. They want to be able to keep using the land for hunting without the disruptions of poachers.

“I would ask that we keep an open mind, we try it for a year, and Wildlife and Parks will do whatever we can to mitigate any concerns that come up to the best of our ability. And, I mean, I just ask that we give it a try and keep an open mind and go from there,” said Herbert.

He also mentioned that there should be new game wardens in the county this fall.

Commissioner Mika Milburn Kee raised long-overdue KDHE groundwater testing obligations at the closed landfill and won a motion authorizing her to draft a proposal directing Public Works to conduct the testing with KDHE present and to update deed covenants and restrictions.

EMS Director Hulsey presented ambulance rate comparisons with Allen, Anderson, Crawford and Neosho counties. Tran asked for a Medicare-versus-private-insurance breakdown, collection rates from Omni, and transfer and staffing-hour data.

Matt Lawn of Baker Tilly, the outside firm advising the county on its 2027 budget, reviewed the remaining budget timeline, adding a work session for Wednesday, Aug. 19 at 5:30 p.m., in addition to the regular August Monday meetings, with a public hearing expected Sept. 14, to be publicized by Sept. 4.

A work session was set for Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 5:30 p.m. with court personnel to discuss temporarily relocating court operations during the courthouse elevator modernization.

The county commission also received the current appraiser’s resignation. They discussed how to fill the position, including sharing appraisers with other counties. Milburn-Kee agreed to reach out and collect the needed information.

A 12-month extension of Dr. Cohen’s HR services contract, at $4,300 a month or about $51,600 a year, was tabled until next week after commissioners asked to review the document.

The commission approved accounts payable of $323,572.46 and, earlier in the meeting, entered a 15-minute executive session under KSA 75-4319(b)(1) on a non-elected personnel matter, returning without action.