BOURBON COUNTY COMMISSION

March 9, 2026 Meeting Agenda

Commissioner Samuel Tran passed around the stacks of checks he, as chairman, is supposed to sign for review by the other members of the commission. He said that is how he intends to do county business as long as he is chair. The commissioners all approved the checks they reviews and the Accounts Payable in the amount of $437,772.71.

Public Comments

Nick Graham from Uniontown said he felt compelled to speak by information gathered from Facebook regarding accusations of waste, fraud, and abuse made by the commission. A private citizen posted two letters from the commission to the attorney general’s office detailing these accusations.

Graham said the commission should immediately vote to put out an RFP for an independent forensic audit of payroll to be conducted by a vetted firm with no previous connections to the county to head off accusations of bias. The report should be made available to the public. The public should also be informed whether or not the attorney general or the county attorney has found any of the accusations to be actionable for prosecution as soon as the commission is notified. The cost of the audit may be significant, but compared to the loss of public trust if it is not done, it is a cost worth incurring.

Graham also warned from his own experience that citizens who are passionate and willing to speak out need to be cautious about posting anything  to social media on behalf of any political figures that those figures aren’t willing to post themselves.

Kyle Parks came to show his support the commissioners, especially those who had been serving longest. He believes they should be paid. Tran ran for office saying he would not be “one of the good old boys,” and Parks is grateful that he has not been.

He also said of those who attend commission meetings but only have negative things to say about the commission, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Respect and courtesy are still needed.

“I think that’s ridiculous,” he said of citizens demanding resignations and recalls because of their disagreements with the commission.

“I think our commissioners are … trying to do their best for Bourbon County and it is much appreciated,” he concluded to applause from the gallery.

Dan Doherty from district 5 asked if the citizens remembered the challenge of getting the commission to five commissioners rather than three and how hard the worked to accomplish it. Concerning the call by some for certain county commissioners to resign or for a recall, he likened it to “calling for us to suffer from a shortage of commissioners for our county” with no way to know if the replacements will be any better than those in office now.

“It takes us in a backward direction,” he said. Complaints are counter-productive. He called the conflict within the county “relatively minor administrative friction points,” that happen in all kinds of organizations. He encouraged the commissioners not to get caught up in that game but to keep doing what they are doing and keep moving forward. More applause followed his comments.

Mike Wonderly: Commented on the attacks on commissioners Milburn, Tran, and Beerbower. He said that they are making decisions in open, unlike previous commissions. All three of them were voted in by healthy margins.

Wonderly was disappointed at the hypocracy of those who attacked the commission last week. He pointed out that jumping on Tran for his “feelings” comment, but letting Register of Deeds Lora Holdridge call Beerbower names in an open meeting without reprimand is a double standard.

“I may not agree with every decision these commissioners make, but they were elected to ask and deal with tough issues. I just think we should let them do the job the voters elected them to do,” he concluded to further applause.

Department Updates
Sewer – Matt Quick, County Appraiser

There is no training required for codes enforcers in the appraisers office at this time. The current codes officer has done online training.

Tran confirmed that the code requires a county permit for those who update their septic systems. New septic installs give a drawing of the system to the county to file.

Tran also asked what keeps people from modifying their systems without getting a county permit.

“We have no way of policing that,” answered Quick.

NRP – Matt Quick

Quick gave a brief explanation of Neighborhood Revitalization Program tax rebates. The rebate is is determined by the property’s value increase based on what improvements are made. The checks were problematic this year due to problems with CIC (the county’s accounting software). Quick has to go back through all 242 NRP’s in Bourbon County and recalculate them to make sure they are accurate.

“This is an across the state issue for whoever has CIC,” said County Clerk Susan Walker.

“We appreciate everybody’s patience with this,” said County Treasurer Jennifer Hawkins. She said her office is double-checking what’s already been checked to make sure everyone receives the correct amount.

Appraisal update – Matt Quick

Appraisal values are locked in for 2025, but for 2026 there’s still time for changes. The appraised value went up $45 million in total across the county, with the majority of homes seeing approximately a 7% increase in valuation.

County Clerk Updates — Susan Walker

Candidate filings are due June 1. July 14 is the deadline to register to vote or update voter registrations in order to vote in the primary. A full calendar will be available once the county gets more information from the secretary of state.

The county has been through a KPRS (Kansas Public Employees Retirement System) audit of the entire employee pool for 2024 and 2025.

There were minimal errors totaling 0.009%. Walker praised her employees for their work on payroll. “My payroll clerk did a really good job,” said Walker.

Old Business
Salary Resolution – Beerbower

This annual resolutions requires review by the Kansas Board of County Commissioners. Commissioner David Beerbower took responsibility for the tardiness of getting the resolution handled.

While the previous commission, which put forward the proposition of moving the county from three to five commissioners said that there would be no salary increase, that was not the language in the question on the ballot when it passed.

Beerbower said that while he was in favor of going to five commissioners, he cautioned those whose only concern was cost to vote against it.

“I’m not in it for the money. I didn’t do it for the money. But I do agree that we should get paid,” he said.

Beerbower acknowledged that he is the only remaining member of the board of commissioners which said they would accept a reduction in pay. He stood by his original promise and said he would take a 40% cut, from $21,416 to $12,849.

Commissioner Joe Allen spoke first, saying that he didn’t know the position was even paid when he offered to take the job. His question was what will happen to the money that would not be spent on commissioner salaries if they vote the reduction in.

Beerbower said that there’s a pay increase schedule in the works for county employees but it won’t be ready for 60 days. He suggested creating an employee salary reserve fund inside the general fund to begin the pay raises.

“If its going to be moved somewhere, I want it to go to the employees,” said Allen.

Commissioner Mika Milburn proposed another resolution. She invited Beerbower to take on changing the salaries of some county officials back to what they had been in 2024, since he voted against the salary resolution that gave big increases in the 2025 salary resolution.

Beerbower said that those officials have had a whole year at the new salary level and it wouldn’t be good to change it back.

Milburn said she doesn’t want the position of county commissioner to be undervalued either and handed out a salary resolution for a different amount than Beerbower proposed.

Several members of the audience said they think the commissioners should be paid.

Sheriff Bill Martin spoke to the commission. “Shouldn’t this be a work session with the elected officials,” before being brought to a vote, he asked.

“As the sheriff, I carry the biggest liability of the county,” said Martin in argument against the pay reduction that one of options proposed for him.

“I can guarantee you: this is not right,” said Martin.

Allen asked the purpose of the chart Milburn had distributed, which shows a what a 40% reduction in pay would look like for various elected officials.

Beerbower explained that when the county went from three to 5 commissioners, the overwhelming majority of voters didn’t want to pay more for more commissioners. He took the combined salary of the three commissioners and divided it by five to arrive at the amount in his proposed salary resolution.

Beerbower first resolution only reduced the commissioners salary. He also offered a resolution that keeps their pay at $21,000.

Milburn presented a resolution with no one getting a pay cut and one where most of the departments take a cut, including the commissioners.

Tran said he considers the proposed salary resolutions “political gamesmanship.”

“I don’t want to make a decision that affects somebody after,” said Tran. He also pointed out that a pay raise wouldn’t go into affect until 2026.

“I think it should be status quo,” said Tran.

Michael Hoyt pointed out that the commission discussed the commissioners salaries during budget time.

Milburn moved to adopt a salary resolution leaving things as they are, “And if a commissioner wants to donate theirs back, they should do that.” Beerbower seconded.

Tran read the resolution aloud.

Commissioner Gregg Motley said that he remembered being told by Michael Hoyt that the plan was to divide the salary of three among the five before the county moved to a five-district commission.

Allen said he can see it both ways and is worried about getting good people to replace current commissioners in the future if the pay is cut too much.

The motion died; Tran and Milburn voting for, Beerbower, Allen, and Motley voting against.

Allen moved to table it for a week. Motion carried.

Forensic Audit – Gregg Motley

Motley moved to create an RFP (Request for Proposal) to look for an independent auditor to do a forensic audit on any transaction that the commissioners choose. He moved that longest tenured commissioner Beerbower and shortest tenured commissioner Allen work on the RFP.

Beerbower seconded it. Tran said he already had an RFP and didn’t want it given to Beerbower and Allen. His RFP was created by Baker Tilly. Motley said that the RFP needs to be created by an independent accountant if the resulting forensic audit is to be credible.

“This is about the community being comfortable with what’s going on in the courthouse,” said Motley. “I think the whole process needs to be independent all the way along.”

Motley said that he wants the “transaction that was blatantly public audited.” He also said that other commissioners can add what they want to have audited to the RFP.

Allen said he is ready to “move past it,” and if this is the next step then he’s for it.

“I don’t need to discuss it. I already know what I’m going to vote,” said Milburn, refusing to comment further.

Tran asked that they include categories of: cash receipts and disbursements, concerns raised through internal review whistleblower allegations, procurement and vendor payment abnormalities, grant compliances and allowability concerns, payroll and time-keeping irregularities, in what the audit covers.

Tran said he’s been working on it for a while.”I would like to take this and roll with it.”

Martin offered to find a law-enforcement officer from another county to be the point of contact for the auditor.

Motley amended his motion to include the Sheriff’s idea.

Milburn asked to table it for a week. Motley refused to pull his motion.

Motion carried: Motley, Allen, and Tran voting for, Beerbower and Milburn voting against.

New Business

Resolution 51-25, 06-22, 48-25 discussion – Joe Allen

Resolution 48-25 refers to the use of courthouse space. County Treasurer Jennifer Hawkins asked who had removed the use of key cards in the hall her office is on. There were multiple employees throughout the courthouse that couldn’t access her office space. Tran said no one authorized the change. When he had called Stronghold about it, they said it was working and then he heard back for county employees that it was working.

Clerk Susan Walker said they were told it was because of resolution 48-25 that access was restricted. Milburn said that no one had authorization to make a change like that.

Walker also requested an audit log of that day. Tran said that was reasonable.

He reminded everyone in the county that security and computer problems should be immediately referred to Stronghold.

Beerbower asked for a list of who has access so they can have a meeting with the elected officials.

“If we’re going to restrict it, then who are we restricting and why?” he asked.

51-25 and 06-22

These resolutions are regarding vacation and sick days. Allen said employees are finding that some of their days are missing, despite the resolution passed by the commission that they carry over their sick days from 2025.

“How do they get their time back?” asked Allen.

Tran said that they should do an executive session with the time keeper. He agreed with Terry from EMS, who  said that employees should be notified when there are changes to their time.

Sixth judicial request: Picnic Area

Asked for permission to put a picnic area in behind their building.

Motley moved to allow it. Motion carried.

Culverts for 1152 Unity Road, Mapleton and 1130 Eagle Road, Ft. Scott

Approved.

Commissioner Comments

Motley thanked Rural Water District No. 2 for working to resolve the fire hydrant issue for those at Lake Fort Scott.

Allen thanked the Treasurer’s Office for helping him with a complicated question regarding his tag.