November 23, 2021 Tuesday at 9 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with Lynne, Jim, Clifton, the County Counselor and the County Clerk.
Also present for the meeting were, (some were present for a portion of the meeting, some were present for the entire meeting) Anne Dare, Clint Walker, Rob Herrington, Deb Martin, Sarah Klassen and Jason Silvers
Clifton made a motion to approve the minutes from November 9th, November 12th, and November 16th. Jim seconded, all approved
Clifton made a motion to approve resolution 29-21 to cancel checks more than two years old. Jim seconded, all approved.
Eric Bailey reported two permits that are complete. First is Melvin Macfarlane at 1048 240th street and the second one is Stuart Houston 600 feet north of 267th and Xavier. He said that on 265th and Zinc, Commissioner Beth and Commissioner Oharah were contacted by a citizen about a crossroad tube and a little bit of ditching that was completed this week.
Clifton said that it was actually the head of the township for Missouri and he did call back and said thank you and looks great.
Eric reported that he had a meeting with Trans Systems in KDOT last week in regard to our bridge load ratings. It’s a five-year program that KDOT has contracted with Trans Systems; they inspected 28 bridges this year and all 28 met the minimum standards for the load rating so there are no signs or anything that need to be changed.
Eric said that there were a couple of road issue reports that he received this last week; one was from Ronald Ware in regard to Yale Road. Eric said he has tried contacting this individual multiple times, he had made comment in his issue that the patches have failed, but they looked at the road and all the patches are still holding, and everything looks good. He said he thought that this might have been an old email from when we milled it up before and it just sent. The second issue is from Dennis Frye, there is definitely some undermining and that they will get it called in. Eric said he looked at it yesterday and it’s for a long manner, it’s on the outlet side all the way under and it’s eroded underneath so we’ll put some riff raff in there and flow will fill in underneath it get it brought back up to standards. On the inlet side, one of the wing walls is completely washed out around it so we got to get some shot rock put in there.
Jim asked how the deck looked and Eric responded that the deck looks good.
Eric also said that there were some guard rails that needed repairs at 85th & Osage, those as well as a few others have been taken care of and repaired. Eric gave a Windmill update and said that he had the first post construction meeting with Jeff Spangler, they are following the road use agreement and they’re starting on the reclamation and returning back to original condition.
Eric asked if there is any way to get an updated budget report.
Susan responded no, she said that vouchers still need approved for November but through that the reports would be accurate through October. Susan said that there are some very specific reports she wants to talk about that need run for that. Susan said that she would get more involved and that hopefully the reporting in 2022 will be better.
Eric reported that the bean permits are still moving along, we get one step forward and then we find out there’s another permit that we’ve got to apply for, but we are in the process now of building the pad while we’re waiting on final permits and still working with the city property. He said he hoped to have some information to present today on that but they received some more information that. Justin and Eric have had conversations on the topic and it is looking really well but they just want to make sure we dot all our I’s and across all our T’s before we bring a recommendation to you and we just got to make sure the dollar amount on our parts good for everybody.
Justin said no due to liability issues he would not recommend them.
Patty Love gave an update on corrective actions for the audit. She said they are moving ahead and right now Rhonda is finishing up September balancing and reconciling, she’s got it down to $27,000 which is down from several hundred thousand dollars before. She said that they are really busy in the office and have several things going on. The quarterly report it’s almost ready to go in the paper, she said that wants to talk to Susan a little bit about it because she has some concerns on the September distribution. Something went wrong in the computer and CIC and I herself have gone over it and tried to figure it out but they don’t know what number it took it times, but on the the motor vehicle and the RV both of them are times different and there’s no constant there. It’s a lot like they’re doubled or they’re one and a half times, it’s almost like they said they figured somewhere in the process when it was running.
Susan asked how that is going to affect the other entities.
Patty said that what happened was that it overdrew the accounts on motor vehicle and RV. She said that she has talked to Terry about it and to CIC and what they decided to do is go back through, reverse the motor vehicle distribution and run it correctly to get our numbers. She said that they couldn’t go back to each entity and say we need this money back, that they felt like would be a bigger mess. They decided we run it back through their accounts so that overdrew some of their accounts our accounts are right now. They’re going to be running in a negative and then when the next distribution is done, it’ll adjust itself. That’s why the October distribution was very detailed and very rough because we had to go back and figure out what it should have been. Patty said that she sent out something showing how much they’re still in the hole and what she wants to do before the end of the year to try to clean it up and to try to get them up to where they’re positive or almost all positive, is run an extra motor vehicle distribution in December and clean that up and hopefully that’ll take care of it. Patty said that she and CIC went through days and days trying to find a combination that could have happened. She also said that she has had some problems with her computer because she wasn’t up to windows 10 at the time, now she is but is still having some problems with my computer. She said that Jimmy is a whiz and he has helped us so much, he’s there johnny on the spot, you pick up the phone call him he’s over there he’s fixing it, she said that she has nothing but good to say about him. Patty said she would have the quarterly report by the end of the month.
Susan said that the quarterly report is required by not only Patty but it’s required by the clerk’s office and it’s also required by the commission. She said that there’s one report that we probably ought to just do and it is a cash report and then that does everybody’s. It gets the expenditures, it gets the revenue, and it gets the cash.
Patty said that she is okay with that she just didn’t want to jump in and do that until we had the distribution thing and everything all figured out. She said we’re still under the wire but real close. Also Patty said that the state has updated their motor vehicle system which has put her office into another mess, they can’t do any scanning or anything so we’ve got scanning stacking up in there because they haven’t got that straightened out. Once again jimmy helped and did a good job of making that pretty smooth and everything to go over to the new system.
Susan said that the biggest concern is making sure that we don’t have any audit violations this year because we have been put on notice after our audit, so hopefully maybe she can sit down with Patty to go through things. She said that another concern is getting everything, all the vouchers updated in the system so that she can do some projections for year ends.
Patty said that she thinks they are getting really close. Rhonda’s going through the deposits every day and working on getting that caught up. She said that they have come miles and miles on that.
Susan asked the process after the clerk’s office does payroll or an accounts payable,
when do you reconcile those on the back? When do you voucher those, when you approve this, because they sit out there for a long time before they get approved?
Patty said that they get approved the day that we get that day balanced and that they had a problem with that and has been behind on that. She said that they are getting there and we’re getting really close on being caught up on that. She said that they are so short-handed and have bodies in there now and they’re doing a great job learning but one month, two months, at that stage employees are honestly more work than help a lot of times. They’re waiting on the customer but there’s so much behind the scenes that has to be done and corrected and fixed and so on. The motor vehicle from the state has to be reconciled with the state and everything downloaded and going through there smooth, if there’s sometimes a small mistake on there it can
take days to figure out and that puts that all behind and we can’t reconcile.
Susan asked if she could spend multiple hours in her office with her if that would help?
Patty said that she was welcome to. She said that she is open for suggestions or anything to help, she wants it to run smooth, it’s not fun you know because she has been doing the daily reconciliations and doing all that but with the distribution problem and trying to do distribution and work on everything else plus there are tax statements.
Susan asked if the tax statements had gone out yet.
Patty said they are at the printer but are not done yet. She said that they had a spot in line but were moved to the back of the line due to a delay in process and her not receiving the tax rolls until later than anticipated. She said the mortgage companies have their statements because those are mailed in house.
Jim said that a few months ago he had brought up his concern with the school resource office (SRO) position in the USD 234 system. He said he has been working as a citizen with the Mayor and a school board member. He said that they requested that Chief Shelton apply for a grant and it was turned down for 2022 but they can reapply. I come to the commission at this time and like for us to move forward as a shared services with the City of Fort Scott as well USD 234. We only have one SRO in Fort Scott for four schools and I think we can do better than that and do a better job
protecting our kids. I’m talking as a grandpa now as well as a commissioner; I think two SRO’s will improve our system in Fort Scott USD 234. We would be allowing one officer to have two schools each, like the Uniontown officer, they have two schools out there. The Mayor and one school board member have requested that we come forward and share for 2022. Our share would be $20,000.
Lynne asked what the school is going to come up with.
Jim said the school as well as the City of Fort Scott would put in $20,000 each.
Lynne stated that would be a grand total of $60,000 and our share would be $20,000. He asked if that had been prorated as far as the number of days that they are in school and are we paying for holidays, vacations and vehicles.
Lynne said they are paying the current SRO $16,000 and they are using him over half the time. He recommends that they do a study to see what the actual cost would be to hire another SRO.
Jim said that is fine but whatever the cost is he would like to move forward and work with the city and school board to protect the kids.
Susan said that the application that was just done for the SRO breaks it down by how many school days that would get you, she said that she can bring that to you at the next meeting.
Lynne said that he would also like to see how we handle all the vacations and holidays, is that on the cities and counties? All the vehicles, taxes and insurance is that some of the counties or cities and is that prorated.
Susan said that what you look at is the number of days in school. There’s a school calendar, it tells you actual school days, student contact is what they call it, and so that’s what we use as our basis.
Lynne asked Susan if they could get those figures broken down.
Susan said that she would do that, and they could talk about it again next week.
Clifton said he just wanted to clarify that the current SRO in Fort Scott is a Fort Scott police office and the SRO at Uniontown is a Bourbon County Sheriff’s Deputy.
Anne Dare gave a presentation to explain the how the National Heritage Areas are connected to the 30 by 30 plan.
Justin reported that he has spoken with the sheriff, and they have worked out a date of January 13, 2022 for first tax sale. He said that he will talk to Lora Holdridge and Patty Love and have a list as the time comes closer. The documents are with the courts and are being processed now. He said that he worked on the weekend and last night so hopefully they will have those done. They can redeem to the last second of the sale so that list isn’t finalized until the actual sale starts. We’ll have that list and then we’re hopefully going to do another two sales in 2022. He said that he does want to commend the land bank, they had a meeting two weeks ago and at that meeting they have decided to take the properties that do not sell in the in the tax sale.
Justin said that he wanted to clarify that the specials that are on those properties will be included in the sale. So, the sale number will be special, so let’s just $9,000 and if it doesn’t sell for $9,001, they’ll go to the land bank. That’s going to be a real benefit for the economic development director and also for the City of Fort Scott. We’ll be getting there soon then we’ll have a list ready for the general public in the coming weeks so they can review that. We’ll have pictures of the properties to sell on the day of the sale.
Lynne asked approximately how many partials do we have right now?
Just said that it’ll be well over 50 and it does include Hidden Valley property as well but that they are not a large portion. He said that there will be another tax sale and a majority of those properties will be Hidden Valley. He said that they have discussed other options but the way that Hidden Valley operated with its association bylaws and fees due on every parcel, there is not a good option to deal with that situation. He said that he talked to Patty last week and they will be starting the collection process on the 2017 taxes; we’ll finish up 16 in 2022 and then we’ll have probably a
big sell for the 17 at the at the end of the 2022 year and we’ll just keep progressing through the years.
Ben Cole presented information about a company called govdeals.com that they use to sell forfeitures cars but they also do property tax sales as well. He said that they are based out of Alabama, but they have an office in Kansas City, as well. He said that they take care of all the advertising and they put it on their site and it goes nationwide. They get a lot of investors that will invest in these small rural communities. Ben said that he would be happy to work with anybody to get them
in contact with them. He said that they collect their fees on top of the sale price so you get the sale price ace and the buyer pays the fees on top of that.
Justin said it would be something to look into, but we should still probably bid it out.
Justin said that he needs to talk about an agreed order of stipulation on a building, he said that he needs permission to sign. They have reached an agreement with the Value Merchandise Building on stipulated values for 2020 and 2021 or $4.88 million and the original values were in the low 5 million range and so our experts came in and did an evaluation and this is the agreed stipulated value. Justin said he just needs permission to approve the agreed order of stipulation. He said that he has been working closely with Mr. Quick and this is a good resolution. It is set up for a formal hearing in January, but we’ve reached this agreement prior to that hearing.
Clifton made a motion to allow County Councilor Meeks to sign the agreed upon stipulation between the county and Value Merchandise. Jim seconded, all approved.
Justin said that he needed three executive sessions. The first one he needs an executive session for attorney-client privilege, it’s contractual mostly; it’s a contract issue. He said that he would need five minutes. He said that the second would be for personnel for seven minutes and the third is for acquisition of property for probably ten minutes.
Clifton made a motion to go into an executive session under K.S.A. 75-4319(b)(2) for consultation with attorney for the public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship for contractual issues for seven minutes and will include Justin Meeks, and the three commissioners. They will return to the commission room at 9:52 am. Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to resume normal session at 9:52 am with no action, Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to go into executive session under K.S.A 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personal matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy, it is for job performance, job function, and job title. It will include the three commissioners, Susan Bancroft, and Justin Meeks and they will return at 10:03 am. Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to resume normal session at 10:03 am with no action. Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to go into executive session under K.S.A 75-4319(b)(6) for the preliminary discussion of the acquisition of real property for 10 minutes and will include the three commissioners, Justin Meeks, Susan Bancroft, Eric Bailey, and Rob Harrington and they will return at 10:14 am. Jim seconded and all approved.
Clifton made a motion to resume normal session at 10:14 am with action, Lynne seconded, all approved.
Clifton made a motion to allow Susan Bancroft to negotiate and discuss with the city on acquisition of approximately 13 acres south of our landfill that would become part of our landfill, Jim seconded, all approved.
Susan said that what’s before you is all the charges and how they’re coded for our EMS. Clifton had called last week there was some concerns with the ambulance billing service and what Medicaid paid for and what was left remaining on the bill.
Clifton said that apparently what Medicare considers customary and insurance companies consider customary charges we’re actually charging more than that.
Which is our right to do but in my opinion we’re a not-for-profit organization we should be writing that over and above off for our constituents. We should be collecting the insurance bills which is what most health care systems do.
Jim agreed with Clifton.
Susan said that she could work with Omni to see what has been billed in the past and what needs to be a write off.
Clifton made a motion to allow Susan Bancroft to discuss with Omni our billing practices when it comes to our ambulance services and to set that policy to customary charges, Jim seconded, all approved.
Jim asked if Susan monitors the rent that comes in from the Medical Building and if they are paying on time.
Susan said she does and the only one that she has a bit of trouble with getting bills from Mercy which is Ascension. Apparently, how their contract was set up that Mercy has to make that payment so we’ve been having trouble with that one. She said that she would follow up and see where they are on that one but everyone else has
been paying on time.
Jim asked how long the college contract was for.
Susan said it is done and they are moved out.
Susan reported that she attended a work session the other day for APRA funding. She said some of the internal controls and sub-recipients, so like our rural water districts would be sub-recipients, and her and Justin are going to have some work that needs to be done on creating some policies and how we’re going to handle those funds going to them, and what’s required of them to send information back to us. She said that she will be working on that over the next month so we will not be releasing any money until those are in place. She said that she just wanted to let them know in case they get a phone call. She said that we’ve got some very specific things that we need to do as an organization before we release anything to a sub-recipient.
There were no public comments.
Elected officials’ comments:
Sheriff Bill Martin said that next Tuesday the 30th is when the contractors will be here before you in regard to the HVAC system at the jail, it’s been published, certified letters have been turned in or mailed out some of those, certified letters have been signed for and have been returned to me. So, at 10 o’clock next Tuesday I set aside the bids to be opened and decisions be made as to what to do with the HVAC system.
Clifton asked if anybody knows what the warranty on the building is?
Bill said he is unaware the county has ever even signed for the building after if was completed saying that it met their standards.
Discussion was held regarding the building and the contractors and if they should have to fix it since it is a newer building and has never worked.
Susan asked for Bill or Bobby to get her a list of anything that needs fixed so she can contact to architect and contractor and see what needs done to rectify the situation.
There were no commissioners’ comments.
Motion to adjourn, seconded, all approved.
Meeting adjourned at 10:38 am.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman
(ss) Jim Harris, Commissioner
Clifton Beth, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Ashley Shelton, Bourbon County Deputy Clerk
November 30, 2021, Approved Date