January 12, 2021 Tuesday 9:00 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners, the County Counselor and the County Clerk present.
Also present were the following; (some were present for a portion of the meeting and some were present for the entire meeting, Jason Silvers with the Fort Scott Tribune, Jody Hoener, Mr. & Mrs. Clint Walker, Nancy Van Etten, Michael Hoyt, Anne Dare and Shane Walker.
Clifton made a motion to reorganize and elect Lynne Oharah as the Commissioner Chairman, Jim Harris seconded the motion and all approved.
Road & Bridge Director Eric Bailey met with the Commissioners; he said there were limbs down due to ice on the trees on January 1st, he said they are chipping and burning limbs from this storm. Jim Harris complimented Road & Bridge on the work they did on the roads in the ice/snow storm.
Eric reported they are still having issues with the hydraulic pumps on the dump trucks, he said a new pump lasted just over 3 hours. He said they had a conference call between him, Hillbilt & Tri-Star, Hillbilt rode around with the County and the truck shut down again, there is also an issue with the control box. Lynne told Eric to keep track of the amount of time spent dealing with the mechanical issues.
Eric reported that Schwab Eaton has been doing the annual bridge inspections; he said there are three bridges of concern… a bridge on 215th over the railroad tracks, a bridge at 85th & Xavier, and a bridge on Jayhawk. Eric said they are cleaning brush under the bridge at 235th & Valley and working on a sidewall at 85th & Xavier.
Eric said the motor for the rock crusher is at Berry Tractor for repairs; he said they are getting low on the rock supply. Eric said they bought coal patch by the ton to fill potholes with.
Eric reported they had three internal candidates for the Road & Bridge office manager; he said he interviewed all three and said Jennifer Hawkins was selected and will be starting on 1/19/2021.
An employee had an accident in the belly dump trailer on 1/11/2021.
At 9:20 am, Clifton made a motion to go into an executive session KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy to discuss a specific employee, the Commissioners will meet in another location and reconvene in the Commission room at 9:30, Jim seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners and Patty Love). Clifton made a motion to reconvene in open session, Jim Harris seconded and all approved, no action was taken.
At 9:31 am, Clifton made a motion to go into a 15 minute executive session for KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy to discuss an employees performance, the Commissioners will meet in another location and reconvene in the Commission room at 9:46am, Jim seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners). At 9:46, Clifton made a motion to come back into open session, Jim seconded and all approved, no action was taken.
Lynne made a motion to amend the agenda to eliminate the times stamps on the agenda, Clifton seconded and all approved.
Kendell Mason met with the Commissioners to discuss a real property relief application for a home that burnt down in March of 2020; Clifton made a motion to approve the real property relief application for M&RC rentals for a property at 306 S. Steen, Jim seconded and all approved and signed the application.
Lynne made a motion to adopt Resolution 06-21, a resolution regarding patron participation and public forums, Jim seconded and all approved and signed the resolution. Justin Meeks suggested having a time on the agenda for public comment and for County Counselor.
Lynne made a motion to adopt Resolution 05-21, a resolution naming P. K. Gugnani as the public health officer for 2021, Clifton seconded and all approved and signed the resolution.
Lynne made a motion to adopt Resolution 04-21, a resolution designating depositories and the official publication carrier, Jim seconded the motion, Clifton questioned if Landmark was the main bank and how it was selected, Lynne said yes and said it had been the main bank for several years; Lynne and Jim were in favor of the motion, Clifton was against the motion, the motion passed.
Lynne made a motion to adopt Resolution 03-21, a resolution for reimbursement of travel expenses; Clifton seconded and all approved.
Lynne made a motion to adopt Resolution 02-21, a resolution concerning the waiver of generally accepted accounting principles, Clifton seconded and all approved.
Lynne made a motion to adopt Resolution 01-21, a resolution naming the County holidays for 2021, Jim seconded and all approved.
Lynne made a motion to nominate Clifton to serve on the SEK Juvenile Detention board, Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to nominate Lynne to the SEKRPC board, Jim seconded and all approved.
Lynne made a motion to nominate Jim Harris to the Mental Health board, Jim seconded and all approved.
Jim made a motion to nominate Lynne to serve on the BEDCO board, Clifton seconded and all approved.
At 10:06 am, Clifton made a motion to go into a 10 minute executive session for KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy, to discuss pay and leave time, the Commissioners will meet in another location and reconvene in the Commission room at 10:16, Jim seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners and Kendell Mason). At 10:16, Clifton made a motion to come out of executive session and go back into open session and said there will be action, Jim seconded and all approved. Lynne made a motion to extend the Federal leave benefits for the County employees that had not used the benefits in 2020, Clifton seconded and all approved.
Register of Deeds, Lora Holdridge met with the Commissioners to give an end of year review; she said they had the best year in 3 years, (even with COVID), she said in 2020 $121,025 was deposited back into the County general fund, in 2019 $94,979 was deposited back into the County general fund and in 2018 $82,103 was deposited back into the County general fund.
Nancy Van Etten, Lake Advisory Board, met with the Commissioners; she said there is a meeting on 1/16/2021 at 9:00 am at the City Hall, she asked for an update on the inter-local agreement regarding the sewer district and asked that the Commissioners appoint someone to the lake advisory board. Justin said he had conversations with the City and hoped to have the service contract finalized by the end of February, he said there is plenty of capacity for single family homes on the lake to connect to the sewer district.
Dave Bruner and Robert Leisure met with the Commissioners to discuss EMS. Dave Bruner asked the Commissioners to approve the medical director contract with Dr. Burke; Clifton made a motion to accept the EMS medical director agreement as written, Jim seconded and all approved. Clifton moved to allow Lynne to sign the EMS service agreement, Jim seconded and all approved. Clifton made a motion to accept as written the memo of understanding, Jim seconded and all approved. Robert Leisure reported that the company was building the new EMS vehicle; he said they still had time to decide if they wanted 6 or 7 total vehicles in their EMS fleet. He reported that in 2020 there were a total of 2,321 calls – 1702 were transports and 611 were transfers. He said an average year for calls is 2,400. Justin Meeks briefly discussed the memo of understanding; he said the 2021 budget is the same as the 2020 budget, but said there may be a possible increase in 2022.
At 10:35, Lynne made a motion to go into a 15 minute executive session for KSA 75-4319(b) (4) to discuss data relating to financial affairs or trade secrets of corporations, partnerships, trusts and individual proprietorships, regarding contract issues, the Commissioners will meet in another location and reconvene in the Commission room at 10:51, Clifton seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners). At 10:51, Clifton made a motion to come back into open session, Jim seconded and all approved. No action was taken.
Lynne said the Commissioners had been working on a budget director position for the County and said Justin had put together a contract for this position. Justin said creating this contract was a joint effort between the City, himself and Susan Bancroft, he said the base pay for this part-time position is $60,000 and said this position includes benefits (which will be reimbursed back to the City of Fort Scott); Lynne said this is not an Interlocal agreement. Lynne said the County had incidents where they had to hire an outside person to do an audit of the accounts, that person recommended to do this to increase transparency and help the workings between departments. He said this person could be beneficial to have for budgeting issues, he said not having to pay an outside firm for budget issues could save $20,000. Justin said this person could help with HR issues and give support when needed. Clifton said the County is a very large organization and said this person could come in and solve some issues; he said we weren’t just dealing with gravel roads anymore. Clifton said he was tired of his taxes going up and said we had to move forward and put this organization in the 21st century, he said he was tired of status quo, he said we are a large organization that is somewhat disjointed. Jim Harris said he had concerns over this position, he said he had gotten the impression that they hadn’t involved any other elected officials during the dialog of this position and said he didn’t see a job description for this position. Jim said the elected officials needed to be brought into the conversation and make sure they are all on the same page. He questioned what the duties of this position were and asked if this meant a reduction in force. Lynne said there had been a large sum of money not moved into the correct account, Jim said they haven’t been transparent and said he wasn’t ready to make a decision on the position, he said he did support the position. Lynne said this is a one year contract. Clifton made a motion to accept the engagement letter as written, Lynne seconded and Jim abstained from the vote, motion passed.
Monica Murnan with Greenbush called the Commissioners to give a SPARK update; she said as of January 6, 2021 Bourbon County had all of the required documents submitted to the State and said the grant had been zeroed out. She said it was unknown if there would be any future grants for the County due to COVID. Monica thanked Ashley in the County Clerk’s office for all of the work she did with the grant. Greenbush will be providing the County with a flash drive with all the grant information on it; Jody Hoener questioned who at the County would receive the flash drive, Lynne suggested the new business director get the flash drive, Jody suggested giving it to an elected official, Justin said the flash drive should go to Kendell’s office.
Clifton made a motion to amend the agenda to discuss a work session, Jim seconded and all approved. Clifton said the City has requested a work session with the County on January 14th at 5:00 pm at City Hall, Clifton made a motion to allow all of the Commissioners to attend the work session, no business will be conducted, Jim seconded and all approved.
At 11:16, Clifton made a motion to go into a 20 minute executive session for KSA 75-4319(b)(3) to discuss matters relating to employer-employee negotiations whether or not in consultation with the representative(s) of the body or agency regarding the County Counselor position, the Commissioners will meet in another location and reconvene in the Commission room at 11:36 am, Jim seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners and Justin Meeks). At 11:36, Lynne made a motion to come out of executive session into open session, Clifton seconded and all approved. After the session, Justin Meeks said he had enjoyed his job the past 3 years, but said it had come with a lot of pressure when dealing with the EMS, hospital, COVID and the windfarm. He said his goal is to revert back to being the County Counselor and said he wouldn’t take on any administrative functions. He had a one year contract effective 1/12/2021 to agree to work 20 hours a week for $75/hour, he said if he works over the 20 hours he would bill $100/hour for hours over 20. Justin said his goal is to step further back and eventually work less hours. Justin said this is a one year agreement and said the Commissioners could terminate it at anytime. Clifton made a motion to accept the engagement letter and to allow Lynne to sign it, Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to amend the agenda to terminate the last scheduled executive session, Jim seconded and all approved.
The Commissioners decided to allow time on the end of each agenda to allow for public comment.
Clifton made a motion to amend the agenda for public comment for a total of up to 10 minutes (3 minutes per speaker), Jim seconded and all approved.
Anne Dare said that the public will be surprised when they see the numbers for the part time position created. Michael Hoyt said he would get Jim Harris a copy of the advisory board documents he had given to the other Commissioners and said he would like to discuss this in the future.
Clifton made a motion to discuss the election canvass date and time, Lynne seconded and all approved. Clifton made a motion that all of the Commissioners attend the canvass on January 14th, 2021 at 10:00 am in the Commission room, Jim seconded and all approved.
At 11:47, Clifton made a motion to adjourn, Jim seconded and all approved.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman
(ss) Jim Harris, Commissioner
(ss) Clifton Beth, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Kendell Mason, Bourbon County Clerk
January 19, 2021, Approved Date