FORT SCOTT — Commissioner David Beerbower laid out his plan to raise Bourbon County Transfer Station rates and public works wages at a work session Wednesday night, and said he will bring motions on it to the commission’s next meeting Monday. The session, held after the commission’s regular meeting that evening, opened with a dispute over its format, turned into a running argument between Beerbower and Commissioner Mika Milburn-Kee over what the county can afford, and ran about an hour and a quarter.
Beerbower had asked for the session. He said the public would get three minutes each at the start and the discussion after that would stay among the commissioners. “It’s not the chairman’s work session. It’s my work session,” he said when Milburn-Kee said she understood it would be an open dialogue (video, 3:16). Kevin “Skitch” Allen, a trash hauler, said Chairman Gregg Motley had told him he did not need to be on the agenda. Motley was absent due to dental work. Commissioners David Beerbower, Joe Allen, Milburn-Kee and Samuel Tran took part.
Commissioner Joe Allen proposed going through the presentation first and then letting people respond, “so we keep the meeting going civilly,” and the session went on. Beerbower said the format was a response to the Aug. 31 meeting, where Skitch Allen had questioned him during public comment: “We have smartasses that make personal comments rather than talk about the subject and the details of the plan” (video, 4:11). Before leaving for another engagement, Allen offered Beerbower “an opportunity to apologize for calling somebody a proud smartass.” Beerbower declined: “I think apologies come both directions there, buddy. I’m not going to be apologizing to you” (video, 26:09).
No rate increase since 2016
Beerbower said the transfer station has not raised its tipping fees since it opened in 2016, apart from a three-cent-a-pound increase on tires in 2021, and that fees tracking inflation would be about 30% higher today (video, 12:13).
He offered three scenarios. The first raises transfer station wages about $3 to $4 an hour and fees about $7 a ton; the second, $4 to $11 an hour and $10.49 a ton; the third, $13 to $14 an hour and $14.38 a ton (video, 16:53). Out-of-county customers currently pay $40 a ton for construction and demolition debris against $35 for county residents, and Beerbower said the difference can be set however the commission chooses. Landfill supervisor Diane Ballou handed out rate sheets of her own (video, 28:54).
Deputy County Clerk Michael Hoyt asked whether higher rates would mean more trash dumped along county roads; Beerbower said the county held rates flat from 2016 to 2021 over the same worry and that “every county has it” (video, 32:57).
Skitch Allen said haulers have argued for years that out-of-county loads should pay $10 a ton more than local ones, not $5, and that county residents will feel any gate increase in their trash bills. “They come over here because it is cheap,” he said (video, 21:14).
Wages, taxes and the poverty line
The sharpest exchanges were over what county workers should be paid. Milburn-Kee interrupted Beerbower’s wage benchmarks with a point of order to ask whether they came from other counties or private industry, and whether he would compare against counties alone. “I could leave that up to you if you want to. I mean, it’s your question,” he said. “But this is your thing,” she answered (video, 14:57).
She returned to it after the public works numbers, asking whether he had checked employers in town. “McDonald’s, 15,” Beerbower said. “Mr. Beerbower, that’s enough,” Milburn-Kee said. The new company coming to Fort Scott, she said she was told, will start between $17 and $20 an hour. “We have to be realistic about the people that are paying into the taxes here in Bourbon County,” she said. “We’re not going to kick the taxpayers in the teeth” (video, 40:06).
Beerbower said he compared equipment operators with equipment operators and CDL drivers with CDL drivers, not factory work: “If you want to compare it apples to oranges, then go ahead.” County employees pay the same taxes as everyone else, he said, and the federal poverty level works out to about $15 an hour: “We got guys that are making 93 cents more than that.” When Milburn-Kee said private businesses cannot set their own rates the way the county can, Beerbower said he did not understand her point. “Okay, you’ll figure it out. I’m sure you will,” she said (video, 43:25), and listed what county jobs carry beyond the wage: insurance, 14 holidays, 14 vacation days and 12 sick days.
Beerbower said the number of public works employees has fallen since January because the county trains people and loses them. “I want guys that graduate high school that can’t afford to go to college but can come to Bourbon County, look at Bourbon County and say, where am I going to get a job here?” he said, and find the answer at public works (video, 45:06). “That’s not what’s happened over the last 10 years.”
“Bring the counter to the table”
The plan leans on the county’s FEMA storm reimbursement, roughly $605,000. Milburn-Kee said raises of $5 to $10 an hour are not realistic with the mills the county has, and that $5 an hour for the 38 public works employees alone comes to about $410,000 a year. “I want you to have the opportunity to earn my vote, but I have to understand what you’re saying,” she said (video, 51:24). Beerbower said the transfer station is fee-funded, and that on the public works side the money comes from lower turnover, less retraining, an equipment reserve that cuts repair bills and doing fewer miles of road better.
The two went around it several times. “This happens just about every time,” Beerbower said. “If you got a counter to it, bring the counter to the table” (video, 51:58). “So you don’t want me to talk about your plan and ask questions about your plan?” Milburn-Kee asked. “You haven’t successfully laid out a plan that doesn’t lead to the raising of taxes.” “Look at what I put in this paperwork and show me where I raise taxes,” Beerbower said (video, 53:51). “Are your numbers correct, sir?” she asked. “Yeah,” he said.
When Beerbower said the sheriff had given his staff raises last year from within his own budget, Milburn-Kee cut in: “Sir, that is not correct. He was down a person. He gave raises with that person’s salary through the rest of that year.” The budget had to go up the next year, she said (video, 61:00). Beerbower’s answer to the criticism came a few minutes later: “If you don’t believe that my plan shows merit, then get your own plan and show where it doesn’t work” (video, 65:57). His FEMA option would put $175,000 into a workforce fund and $125,000 into an equipment reserve.
Tran asked about the money itself. The commission was told last week that about $300,000 of the reimbursement has to go back to a fund it was borrowed from; Tran said he had heard much of the storm repair was paid from the general fund and had never been shown records. “If that is true, please bring the receipts,” he said (video, 66:28). Beerbower said the treasurer told the commission Aug. 31 that about $300,000 came out of the bridge fund, and that he had since heard it was a reserve fund that need not be repaid.
A step schedule, and the ditches
Commissioner Joe Allen, who also serves as USD 234’s transportation director, brought the district’s step salary schedule and suggested the county adopt something like it: columns for qualifications, rows for years of service, a 25-cent step each year that rises to 35 cents after 10 years. The district hires a bus driver with a Class B license and no experience at $15.60 an hour, he said (video, 70:08). Tran said the county still needs written job descriptions and a Kansas-only salary survey before it sets any. “Without those two documents, we’re winging it,” he said (video, 74:40).
Milburn-Kee closed with current problems: ditches filling in, water running down roads, bridge signs hidden in the grass. She said a resident who called public works was told to call a county commissioner instead. “If you guys find that acceptable, fine. I don’t,” she said, and offered to support hiring outside help, even local residents on 1099s, to catch up on mowing (video, 75:57). Beerbower asked why the mowing was not being done and answered that the county is down to one or two mowers kept running with parts from each other because no commission has funded an equipment reserve. “The grass grows the same height every year,” Milburn-Kee said. “Right, and it’s been taken care of every year until you don’t have mowers,” Beerbower said. “The answer lies in giving them the tools they need, not the criticism because the job’s not getting done” (video, 78:16).
The commission’s next meeting is Monday, Sept. 14. Under the county’s published notice, that is also its public hearing on exceeding the revenue-neutral rate for the 2027 budget, at 5:30 p.m. at 210 S. National Ave.