These minutes were approved on Feb. 15
February 8, 2022 Tuesday 9:00 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners and the County Clerk present.
Clint Walker, Anne Dare, Matt Crystal, Matt Quick and Shane Walker were also present for some or all of the meeting.
Clifton made a motion to approve the previous meetings minutes, Lynne seconded. All approved.
Eric Bailey asked for approval of a culvert extension at 1973 60th St, Bronson, KS. Lynne made a motion to approve. Clifton seconded. All approved.
Eric stated that from Tuesday at midnight they had three trucks running three shifts around the clock through Thursday. He thanked his crew.
Eric stated they have a truck down. The drive shaft is out.
Eric stated that they received the permit to fix the dam at Elm Creek.
Eric discussed a situation where wire got wrapped around the dozer at the landfill while working in C & D. He stated that a shield could be purchased for $18,000 and would be money ahead.
Eric requested a work session for March 15th in the afternoon in the commission room which will be open to the public.
Eric stated that the windmill project is finishing up.
Mowing & Snow Removal bids for the medical building were discussed. Tabled for 30 days.
Clifton made a motion for an executive session KSA 75-4319(b)(6) for the preliminary discussion of the acquisition of real property for 10 minutes including 3 commissioners, Susan Bancroft, Justin Meeks and Rob Harrington returning at 9:26am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to return to normal session with action at 9:26am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Lynne made a motion to allow Clifton Beth to negotiate up to $125,000 for acquisition of real property. Jim seconded. All approved.
Clifton made a motion for an executive session KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personnel matters of individual nonelected personnel to protect their privacy including Dave Bruner, Susan Bancroft, Justin Meeks and 3 commissioners for 15 minutes returning at 9:44am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to return to normal session at 9:44am with no action. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Susan Bancroft discussed the lease agreement with Ascension Via Christi for another year. Clifton made a motion to allow Chairman Harris to sign the lease extension with Ascension Via Christi. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Susan also discussed the state setoff agreement. We talked about this late in the year last year about doing something at our landfill that gives us the opportunity that if someone doesn’t pay their bill, to send them to a collection agency. Working with the state, when someone does a tax return and if they are getting anything back, they will take it out of the tax return to pay the county.
Susan also reviewed that we are getting down to the end of 2021 and closing out some of that information. Still working with the Treasurer’s to clean up some accounts there. We would like to request some transfers from some funds. Would like to request $20,000 be moved from the Appraiser’s fund over to their reserve fund. $20,000 from the election fund to the election reserve fund, and $30,000 from noxious weed to noxious weed equipment fund. $20,000 from road & bridge to special road machinery fund and $50,000 from special bridge to road & bridge special improvement. The clerk’s office would like to transfer $8,000 to the election reserve fund. $20,000 from general to computer equipment reserve. Lynne made a motion to approve the transfers as presented. Clifton seconded. All approved.
Susan stated that the overall bottom line budget is ok. However, there are a few departments where we exceeded the budget. The County Commission exceeded their budget by $9,400. The County Coroner by $7,700. The County Attorney by $10,000. And district court exceeded by $43,000. However, in 2022 for the district court we are going to reduce their budget by that amount. Some of this is just not understanding the budget law and cash basis law. In our first department head meeting we discussed this. We are looking to implement a purchase order system to help us at year end. To make sure we are expensing in the correct year. The sheriff’s budget will be exceeding by $5,000. We can show it as a budget violation or you can give me authority to move that expense to the general fund to offset it. With the sheriff’s budget we had projected a cash carryover of $124,000 and they are going to start out the year with a $69,000 deficit. So the actual cash carryover is only going to be about $60,000. They start out with a lot less money than we anticipated. That has to be made up somewhere throughout the year or you are going to continue to compound the problem. I talked with the sheriff in our first department head meeting and we made some corrections at year end so it’s a little bit worse than we had anticipated. Lynne asked if this would be the only violation we will have. Susan stated that we would also have violations from the distribution that happened where there was an overage sent to the taxing entities. There are almost 50 funds that are running in the negative and those will all be violations. There is nothing I can do about it. Clifton made a motion to move the $5,000 from the general fund to the sheriff’s budget and do an adjustment for the overage the following year. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Anne Dare asked about who does the distribution to the taxing entities? Susan stated the treasurer does. Anne asked if we have issues every year. Susan stated no. Anne asked about the other violations that were brought up during the audit. Are those being cleaned up? Susan stated that slowly they are being cleaned up. Anne stated that the meeting at the hospital was awesome. She had hoped for more details. She asked about the county giving $2,000,000 to the hospital. Clifton stated that the $2,000,000 is on top of the $800,000 that was given for the audit. Clifton stated that this information was in the initial cooperative agreement that was signed. Anne asked why the county needs to give the money? Clifton stated that he felt it was to show that the county is as committed as they are. It will be Bourbon County Community Hospital. Where is the money coming from? Clifton stated that his opinion was the Mercy donation and we have ARPA funds which totals 2.3 million. Anne asked when they are expected to pay the funds. Clifton stated we can write them a check or we can make payments.
Clint Walker stated that Allen County subsidizes their hospital $1,000,000 per year. He also stated that the Road & Bridge crew did an outstanding job putting in whistles on 95th Street and Old 54.
Lynne thanked Clifton for all the hard work with Noble Health getting the hospital up and running. Jim agreed with Lynne on all the hours Clifton put in. Clifton stated that Rob Harrington played a big role in this as well. Clifton stated that the feasibility study is not 100% complete, but they are far enough into it to know they can move forward. Anne Dare asked about any more discussion/community meetings. Clifton stated he had no idea of timeline on that.
Jim Harris stated that he’s heard comments on how short the commission meetings are. He stated that we have a very good agenda and we move forward and get things done. He welcomes the public getting involved in the meetings. We represent the citizens of Bourbon County. Justin and Susan suggested maybe having a commission meeting in one of the outlying towns in the county every 4 months or so. Jim stated he was open to that. Clifton stated that the meetings do not have to be broadcast. It is done as a courtesy. If we have a meeting out in the county it will not be broadcast. Anne stated that she appreciates the momentum that this commission has brought. I think that has caused everyone else step up to the plate. Eric is doing a phenomenal job, Ashley, bringing Susan on and the sheriff. When I attend a meeting and only have to be here for 45 minutes I feel good about the rest of my day. Jim stated that we have a good group of commissioners, Susan on board, Justin and Eric is doing a fantastic job along with our elected officials and Rob Harrington is a team member. We have a lot of good things going forward. Susan stated that she is getting great cooperation. We’ve got to change the way we are doing some things.
Jim thanked Rob Harrington and others for their work on the hospital project.
Lora Holdridge would like to get blinds for the south windows due to glare on computers. She is going to get bids for blinds. Jim said she could pay out of general fund.
At 10:16am, Clifton made a motion to adjourn. Lynne seconded. All approved.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Jim Harris, Chairman
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Commissioner
(ss) Clifton Beth, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Ashley Shelton, Bourbon County Clerk
February 15, 2022, Approved Date