These minutes were taken from the Bourbon County website.

November 12, 2021                              Friday at 2 pm

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 Eric Bailey and Susan Bancroft.

Justin advised that meeting was being held due to some activity that is happening at Beth Quarry and wanted to make sure all of the commissioners were on the same page. There are two areas to discuss, the right of first refusal and the land itself. Ms. Beth also has a request to make.

Justin said we’re talking about a seam that runs to the west of our current location so at the query basically the rock went from the east to the west and the east part of the seam is a creek that runs through, and you can’t go any farther east. You can’t go any farther north because that’s a different property line. If you go south there’s a county road so you can’t go that way, so the only way to go is to the west on this property. Before the commission either accepts or denies the right of first refusal Ms. Beth has a request for some aggregate out of that area.

Ms. Beth was contacted by phone and said she would like to request that she can take approximately 15,000 tons of her own rock to the west of the current quarry.

Justin said he was contacted by Eric Baily on Monday and asked to go to the Beth Quarry to see what had happened and to get it to abide by the contract. What Ms. Beth is requesting is we’ve run out of our current our current mapping area and so for us to take the election under the contract there’s a right of first refusal. Justin said he is assuming this commission is going to vote to enact that right of first refusal and have our query move to the west but before you accept that she’s requesting that she could take x amount out of her rock from that area.

Jim made a motion that we accept Ms. Beth’s request and extend our option to lease to the west that description that’s on the nail and allow her to pull out fifteen thousand tons. Lynne seconded the motion.

Justin said that before they move forward with discussion, he wants commissioner Beth to talk about waiver of any self-dealing.

Commissioner Beth stated ”I have no right to that land, it is owned by my mom fully and she controls it. My sister farms the ground i have no financial incentive on that property at all.”

Justin said he had some clarifying questions “commissioner you’re not you’re not in the will or any of any estate stuff you’re not going to inherit any of that land?”

Commissioner Beth answered “Correct, I am not so there’s no financial there’s no financial incentive whatsoever for me in that property.”

Justin said that he just wanted to clarify that on the record.

Commissioners Oharah and Harris Voted in favor, Commissioner Beth abstained, motion carried.

Justin said he would like to speak regarding the contract with Beth Quarry and some clarifying issues that they’ve had some difficulty with. First is section 10., which was just used as the right of first refusal. The commission has designated the first sentence or the first couple lines which are of interest for the next comment with regards to some aggregate that was in the quarry. If any minerals as distinguished from sand gravel and rock shall be found on the lease premise they shall belong to the lessor, but the lessee has the right of first refusal an option to mine them under such terms and conditions as the parties they may agree. The first writer first refusal was just done but there is another part in the royalty section that says that the leaser has a personal use for the ground. The reason why these two are important is that there was some rock that was taken from the east side of the quarry. It is yellow rock and was taken from the actual wall itself on the east side. It needs to be defined what happens with the overburden, the leftover waste, the stuff that’s laying around the field that hasn’t been touched for 20 years. How does that tie into this contract? Justin said it is tough to figure out because if someone would come in and want to take some that overburden to put on their pond dam, that is different than aggregate. If they want some of that yellow rock that is on the side of the all, how does how does that language work out within the contract? Justin said he thinks these are some of the things that need to be talked about for future. He said he was Thomas Quarry this morning and the overburden is immense, they would love to have someone come in and take that off if that is legal because we’re going to be trucking that to the to the south of that query. He said they need to figure out the language that is needed for the future so that they will not have this problem again. He said he likes to solve things for 20 years down the road and this contract didn’t help with that.

Clifton stated “I mean let’s be clear the, contract’s a joke. It was taken, it was the absolute taking advantage of a grieving widow at the time. Pathetic by the past commission and road and bridge department.”

Jim stated, “Let’s make it very clear here that I wasn’t here then.”

Clifton stated, “This was previous of everybody here.”

Jim recommended getting a new contracted for Beth Quarry.

Lynne said there is waste at all of the county quarries and if you can get rid of it why don’t we?

Jim said that you have to take into consideration the reclamation agreement we sign with the property owner which states and we will not remove that dirt.

Lynne said that a lot of them don’t get reclaimed, they are turned into lakes.

Jim agreed but said the contract was still signed stating that it wouldn’t be removed.

Justin advised that this is learning process and things change but would recommend talking with the landowners to determine what their intent for the land is in regards to the reclaiming process and the contracts.

Jim said he thinks that is a great idea right but that is something that would have to be presented to the state.

Justin said we would want to dot our I’s and cross our t’s but it changes the ideology of what happens with that overboard.

Lynne said that the next time we move over overburden we better find a permanent place for it because right now it’s going to cost us a lot of money to get some of that overburden going.

Jim said If you remember, two years ago Jeff Fisher stopped us from moving that.

Lynne agreed that he did but we also paid thirty thousand dollars to get that overburden moved and we moved it to the wrong spot.

Justin said he is not the county administrator, I’m not paid to be the county administrator. There is some legalese that we just took care of and we have one more little hiccup here that I want to make sure we bright line but the county needs a person to touch these types of things. We need somebody to be the go-to person on these so that we can centralize these types of issue.

Justin said that the reason Eric is here is if we need him to talk about what that east wall had for rock. It is very yellow, and it was there forever it hadn’t been touched and we can’t do a blast there. The Beth family would still like to use some of that, they have used some and they didn’t really understand the process with the contract. The right of first refusal was done today and there was maybe a little hiccup there too but I just know we’re working really well together and I want to keep that going. So if we can figure out a way to deal with this overburden and this stuff that we’re never going to use, I mean I’ve never seen yellow rock on the road, it turns to powder. We can’t go any farther east because there’s a creek there and that’s where allegedly that’s where this rock came from.

Jim said he believes that 100 percent but someone needed to tell him and the public that so they will get off my hind end.

Justin said he wants to clarify this for future because we learned something here, this contract was written in 2012. None of us in the room were here. If we need to we can rewrite it but i think the overburden issue is something we could clarify with all four quarry owners and see what their intent I, because Shepard especially we have a lot of overburn that we’re going to have to move to the south because the seams have some clay in them and it’s got some dirt and stuff in it so we can’t go any farther to the to the west so that overburden’s going to have to be pushed pretty far. If that person is wanting to have a have the reclamation occur or reclaim it then i think the overburden idea would be different their and Thomas especially because we’re going to have to move some dirt a really long ways away if we’re going to have that reclaimed.

Jim said the goal at Thomas Quarry was always to move it to the south border and constructive permanent berm.

Justin said that didn’t happen.

Jim said he knows it didn’t but they tried for almost three years to get that done.

Justin said that the reality is that there is a mountain right in the middle of our blast area.

Jim said a lot of it we created and some of it Mr. Thomas was involved in. He said that the county created some of it because we continued to blast and the commission of that era at the time didn’t want us moving it so we just continued.

Justin said there is absolutely zero fault here. One other thing legally that is the difference between the Beth quarry contract and the other ones is the aggregate that the family gets. I think the other queries have a certain percentage that is piled up for the family use, Shepherd gets so many tons, Thomas has to buy every ton. I don’t know, I wasn’t there in the negotiations in 2012 but we do have an inconsistency with what happens with the gravel.

Jim said that he would suggest we get Ms. Beth a new contract it’s like the rest of them. I believe him, he said that she was taken advantage of and we shouldn’t do that.

Justin said he is all for writing a new contract because it really helped him clarify some things.

Jim made a motion to allow county counselor Meeks to draw up a new contract for Ms. Sandra Beth as we move further onto the new lease property.

Clifton advised that he will abstain from it again just for the sake of argument although he doesn’t think he should have to.

Lynne seconded the motion.

Lynne said that one of the things should be discussion with the landowner to do is see if we can get nailed down what their intent is. One of the things that have been discussed is some of the overburden is built as a wall for the blast that we can’t get rid of course, by the state statutes we’ve got to keep it for reclamation which really makes not too much sense for the simple fact that most of the trash is already out of the quarry and there is going to be a hole there no way if ands or butts about it.

Justin said he wanted to go back to another issue and not just talk about the reclamation, He wants it to be really clear that at the Beth Quarry we have run out of space. Our initial contract is and this goes to Jim’s point,  it’s an open road you can almost see the query from the road but there’s a fence line that runs north to south and we’ve basically butted up to that fence line, so for us to go any farther west we have to really take that right off for some new contracting. Lynne said we’ve had discussion more than once about going west in that quarry because that was our only option prior to Jim being a commissioner.

Justin said he will talk to talk to Ms. Beth and just for the record I don’t represent or have any legal representation, she’ll have to hire an attorney to review the contract I have never done any work for her at all.

Lynne and Jim both voted in favor, Clifton abstained, motion carried.

Justin advised that that under the new contract he thinks we should probably go to some aggregate being given by a certain percentage to the to the land owner the reason I’m saying to do that instead of having them buy it for four dollars a ton is that we have a really hard time managing what’s being taken out.

Clifton said that there are no scales so it’s impossible to weigh.

Justin but if someone puts a pile in a pile in another location and that’s their pile.

Jim said you should be able to measure by the bucket.

Justin agreed, our trucks have a better guess than just letting them come in and buy it.

Lynne said that it is not cost effective to buy scales and weigh everything.

Justine agreed and said that if they have their own pile we know kind of what was dumped there we have really good control of within a couple of tons of what’s in that pile.

Jim make a motion to adjourn, Clifton seconded, all approved

Meeting adjourned at 2:18 pm

THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS

(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman

(ss) Jim Harris, Commissioner

(ss) Clifton Beth, Commissioner

ATTEST:

Ashley Shelton, Bourbon County Deputy Clerk

November 23, 2021, Approved Date

Editors notes:These minutes were taken from the Bourbon County website and the date was not listed. The minutes are shown just as copied from the website.

Clifton made a motion to approve the minutes from October 12^th.  Jim seconded.  All approved.

Eric stated there were two new permits.  First one’s a utility permit for Crawkan working up in the

northeast part of the county on state

line.  That’s the area that we maintain.  Jim made a motion to approve the permit as submitted by Public Works Director, Eric Bailey

for utility Crawkan the northeast part of the county state line road.

Clifton seconded.  All approved. The next one is for Stuart Houston

of the exact same area

267 north of Xavier.  He’s needing extension so they can get their

large trucks and combines in and out of their fields.  Jim made a motion to approve an extension

for Stewart Houston on 267 north of Xavier for culvert extension.  Clifton seconded.  All approved.

The next one is Chip Grosses on Eagle Road is completed.

The next one will be Ron Beltz

on 215 Valley Road.  The next one is Susan Bancroft.  It’s a new

completion.  Also on that one just so you know when we got there she actually needed another one put in so we went ahead while we

were there and took care of that one.

On Jennifer Hawkins when we dug hers up the culvert was full and with our culverts we have now, before

they were 24 foot, the ones we’re using now are 26 so she didn’t need an extension.  So I don’t know

do we sign off on these still or what do we want to do there since it was

just an exchange.  We usually don’t sign off on an exchange.

Asphalt 125th is completed from 54 highway to about a mile past Tomahawk.  We’re patching up on Yale Road and hope to have that

completed today. We finally figured out who was driving the heavy equipment on that road and tearing it up.  Thank the sheriff and the Kansas highway patrol for looking into that.  Jim asked if we anticipate in the next year or two reclaiming that road.  We’re going to reclaim maybe this year from the lake

on the west side back to the west

and then we’ll have to decide.

Eventually something has to be done with the asphalt part.  Eric stated that your best deal is going to be mill it up take it back to gravel get a good base underneath it.  I believe it’s got xyz under it right now and then relay.  Lynne stated that they need to go ahead and get that west side

taken care of right.  Eric stated they will it’s on our radar to get done.

Landfill just give you an update with the soybeans.  Plans have been sent off to KDHE.  I did see some discussion last night between KDHE and Ag Engineering on

getting special permits and more permits but we are moving forward with that so just kind of give you an update where we’re at with that.

I did follow up with KDOT on the application for the bridge that we turned in and all of our paperwork has been turned in and they’ve received everything so we

we’re just waiting to hear back from

them on that.  Elm Creek lake plans have been sent off plans to Kansas

Department of Agriculture.  There’s a time period there once they

receive them, I think it’s like 30 days, for people to respond back

so we will be waiting to hear back from them.  When the plans are here and then we can look at putting a plan together and we’ll have to work with Don George on lowering the water level and fish and

what have you.  Clifton asked who is supposedly engineering the fix on this dam?  Ag Engineering is the ones that went out and drilled

the holes and identified the area of concern.  We’ve actually core drilled.  Is that going to fix that

no way right of knowing but it’s

gotta help.  Lynne stated that it is lowering the water level and

cutting the trench and re-packing that all the way through there so hopefully you know we can get down far enough that it won’t

you know because it was originally pretty shallow when it started leaking and over the years it’s just gotten deeper and deeper and you can go out when it lakes up and hear that water going through right at the edges of the lake.  Eric stated that they did hit water when they core drilled it.  That’s east of the dam right at the eastern where that hole might be.  Jim stated th person before me did some concrete now I

first came back in 2013 I walked down through there with the current

commissioner, not anybody here, we found in a rock bluff it looked like someone had opened a fire hydrant coming out of that wall.  So it’s moving pretty good.  Eric stated that we’ll try it see what happens and while it’s down I think we need to fix the valve as well.  Clifton stated that he  thinks it needs to be dug out, packed with clay.  I don’t want to see the county spend 50 000 dollars on some mickey mouse job.  Eric stated they plan on going in with the big jackhammer jackhammering the rock down

to the level where they core drilled.

Having Ag Engineering oversee the

the project make sure we’re to a

suitable level that they feel we need to be and then start compacting back in compact back in with lifts it’s a little sheep’s foot type machine where we can get in there and

get a good compaction.  Jim asked

are you talking about using clay or

bentonite?  Eric stated clay

and we may have to put a little bentonite in with it.  I’m not sure but we for sure are going to use clay and compact it in small lifts and see if we can’t get it stopped.  I was approached yesterday by the city

of fort scott wanting to see if they could get 160 tons of clay from us

from our borrow pit for a project they have downtown and in return they would bring us spoils and what have you so we can put it up

there at the C&D part of our landfill to cover.  They need good clay for a project they have so I said I’d have to ask.  I had a conversation with Counselor Meeks last night.  I don’t know if we want to ask him but

it means it was a trade.  I think we were in agreeance that this was the best but we want to run it by you to see if we need approval or how we want to do that.  All were in agreement.  We’re ready to move forward with our computer software

program Pub Works.  I feel I have

enough room in all my various

departments to pull from.  This will help us with our project management, asset management.  Will be able to give you guys

better reports.  I didn’t know whether i needed to get approval or just move forward with it.  That’s what I wanted to know.  Per Lynne no discussion necessary.  We’ll be offsetting the training cost with the City of Spring Hill, Kansas.  They’re going to purchase this as well so when they’re training them they’ll come down and train us as well.  So we’ll cut the cost there. Just kind of give you an update where we’re at on roadside mowing. We’re back trying to mow up to the

property lines throughout the county.  We’ve been through everything once so now we’re trying get that done.  On hauling rock, we’ve hauled to the hot spots or what I call hot spots.  Now we’re

back to the 50 load rotation to each

grader operator.  So that kind of gives you an idea where we’re at there and then we’re still installing

culverts.  We did receive a shipment in yesterday of culverts.  They were 15 inch culverts we were out.  They’ve been on back order for quite a while.  I’m talking two or

three months back order so we will be moving forward with working on the list of culverts and getting that

taken care of.  Windmill update,

I don’t know if you’ve been out in the area or not but they have done a lot of work out there.  They’ve been fighting high winds the last few days.   It slowed up their topping out of the towers.  All deliveries are complete so they have all components at each site.  Base mid 66 of the 70 are up.  Top out they have 63 of the 70 topped

out.  They’ll complete the three towers today and hopefully get the last four completed this week.  They have three of the six circuits energized and completing test phase for operational status.  Moving

forward with that, the reclaim has begun on public road radiuses and private restoration and that will be an ongoing process.  Eric stated he wanted to give kudos for the

road use agreement. That has worked out tremendous.  Have had no issues whatsoever.  Been very good to communicate with.  Jeff Spangler has been awesome to work

with.  The erections are almost complete with the towers out there so there’s just a few to go.  That is all I have.  Lynne stated a gentleman called him and he lives at 1384 wagon road he’s wanting to know where he is on the list on

getting his ditch cleaned out.  Eric stated that he didn’t have that list in front of him.  Eric asked for  a name or number so he could get back with him.  Jim stated thank for you rock on 20^th south of Porterville.  Lynne stated thanks for going out and grading range road there from 125th to 95^th. Jim stated I did have a question visiting with Dustin at the football game.  He told me what your plans was for overlaying chip

next year.  Are you going to chase a bigger crusher or how you’re going to get all this material.  We’re going to see what we can get crushed and what we can have in stock.  I know we’re going to end up and be at about 24 and a half thousand tons this year that we produce.  Some of that next year we’ll need those chips.   We’ll need to go to the chip and seal there’s no other way about it.  It has to happen next year.  We’re getting ready to move down

toThomas.  We started pumping

out the pit.  We got to move the

overburden and then we’ll get a blast.  We’re gonna see what we can

1. Justin Meeks stated I need to address the commission during Eric’s time about salary schedules,

if that’s okay with the commission.  It’s pertinent to Eric’s position so

I don’t need them in the agenda or anything because it deals with

the road and bridge department.

Eric and I talked last week a little bit about the salary schedule.  I know there’s another

elected official that’s come to you

before and talked about the salary

schedule and how the ends of both sides of the spectrum are skewed and we need some adjustments on that.  I’ve done a little bit of research on this.  I’m a little worried about the fair labor standards act.   You can’t have extremes.  One

person’s making x another person’s

making y and there’s a difference of five or six dollars.  That’s

just kind of an extreme example so there has to be some consistency.

So having the salary schedule there does have its purpose but I think that we should give the directors and elected officials ability to move that spectrum to how they say fit within their budget.

This has been a discussion that’s been going on for literally nine years now.  You know even back before commissioner O’harah was a commissioner they talked about the functionality of what a director and an elected official should do with  paying their people what they think fair market value is. I think as long as we stay within the legal bounds of what moving up and down is, as a schedule, I think you should be all right giving the director and giving that elected official the ability to control their own salary schedules within their department.  Not to name names but you know Eric

Scott right now the market is something unprecedented.  I got in a little trouble for that yesterday with another client but this is unprecedented times. It could

swing back in the pendulum could be different ten years from now or five years from now but right now we’ve got at least two people on the road and bridge that we gotta do something for their compensation or we’re going to lose them and we need those people here.  And the same thing with two other elected officials.  They’re worried about losing staff because of lack of pay and i think with Susan’s expertise and with Ashley’s expertise I think there’s ways that we can work the schedule to make those directors and elected officials happy with the people that they have and keeping those qualified people in our workforce.  Lynne stated a couple of things that we’ve discussed with Susan on how we can move forward

with this effort.  One of them was creating salary bands the other one was moving the employee benefits into their budget but still being overseen by Ashley and Susan

so they couldn’t use that money except for benefits but it gives them a total picture of what their budget actually looks like.  Then when you make the bands introduction then you still have control on the flma issues.  Justin stated one of the things that I experience as being a

prior elected official is we really

don’t know what the actual cost is per employee. I’ve talked to Susan and I’m taking that unemployment

benefit and actually giving that elected official and the director a real number.  I think Susan was surprised that that didn’t exist here when she got here.  Having those real numbers are important.  Jim asked just a matter of weeks ago

you told us elected official could

give over their budget and that would be pay raises possibly

and we can’t do anything about it.

Justin stated I think there’s consequences, I agree you can’t really do anything about it but there would be consequences.  They’d have to make it up in the next year’s budget.  So there’d be problems.  Now a director you could obviously

terminate.  There’s another director that i know that has a new employee that they’d like to be able to compensate at a different rate.  They were hired to do job function a and it’s turned into something more than job function a.  If they have

the budget authority to do that and they can fit within the band I think that director should be able to do that.  Jim stated so the scenario would be the elected official would work with Susan and she would say I’m doing these raises and what’s your opinion.  This could become a mess.  I think having a business director in place that can sit down

with an elected official and say can I give x y and z employee a 50 cent bump an hour and I have the budget authority to do that then by all means.   As long as they know

what the fica could cost them, what the payroll deductions cost them

and they know the actual real number I think they could do that.  Obviously if they’re not willing to

play within their budget then there’s

consequences.  Jim asked but if

we’re two hundred thousand over budget because it’s a salary you said we’d take it next year what are we gonna do lay people off?  Justin stated that you’d have to do a reduction in your budget, the general fund.  At that point you could say to the elected official you

didn’t spend wisely we’re gonna cut your budget a hundred thousand

and if they decide not to go within their boundaries that’s tax dollars so they have to be really careful.  Jim asked  what if the elected official continued to go over budget what’s the commission supposed to do

about it?  Justin stated so let’s say 10 years from now none of us are in this room the commission could obviously control of the budget. Jim stated I’m still missing what you told us we could about it they went over budget.  Justin stated there’s consequences for an elected official if they go over budget.  They’re going to become unelected or the

commission has control of their budget as long as it’s reasonable.

They can do their job function.  What’s happening now is we have

you know the commission is getting

blamed for things that maybe are outside of their control and if that blame can be shifted to that elected

official or that director to make those decisions and they go outside of their budget there’s consequences for that.  Susan stated that

my recommendations too would be you still are going to have to have bands because a job is only worth

a certain amount.  You want to make sure that you’re kind of controlling that so that people

aren’t going over that top-end amount and that’s where he’s talking about the fair labor standards is making sure you’re not paying someone way more than what that job nationwide would be paid.  Jim asked do you work with that individual in every case?  Susan stated you would have to.  You have a ceiling before you start.  You create these wage bands then on the financial side, I’ve already talked with Ashley, we’re gonna have to completely redo how our accounting system works.  There’ll be a lot of accounts that need to be set up so that we can move and then I’ll have to do budget amendments to allow for these extra expenses in these departments and so there’s a lot of work that has to be done to even get us to this point but I think the wage bands are the first step and then

moving the taxes and benefits back over to each department and then there’s going to have to be some training with department heads that says okay when you hire somebody you have to understand that 7.65% has to be charged for just their fica and then you have unemployment and then you have your benefits and so that’s going to have to

be stepped through with each department head so that they understand what the consequences are.  Department heads what they

really ought to do is look at

experience, certification all those

different things to determine where they need to be placed within that wage band.  They shouldn’t be brought in at the same rate for

no experience versus five to ten years of experience.  I think that’ll

help with that but there definitely has to be a lot of planning involved when they’re doing their budgets for the next year it’s not just a straight wage.  Jim asked Lora Holdridge if she had an opinion on this. Lora stated I only have one she’s been

with me almost seven years.  Justin stated I’m going to ask the commissioners is to allow for Susan and Ashley to start this process and maybe have those bands in place by january 1 so that the elected officials and the directors can make those decisions for fiscal year

2022 and 23.  Clifton stated I would say these bands are going to the elected official or directors the opportunity to give their employees either a 10 cent raise, a 50 cent raise, a dollar raise.  It will be at their discretion.  Not everyone is worth the same amount of money.  Justin stated that it goes back to what the the essence of what the commission is that you set the budget and then allows the elected official and the director to

manage their budget in their infinite wisdom, what they’re hired to do or what they’re elected to do and then they can set the parameters of what the salary band is they can pay their people what they want as long as it’s in the budget.  Clifton asked Bill Martin if he had an opinion on what’s being discussed.  Bill stated this is something that has been discussed ever since I became sheriff.  It’s always been thrown to the side.  When the questions came up in regards to employees and we had an employee just in the same situation as Eric was.  We need to give them two dollars more so

they could stay with us because of what they’ve done and there was a county representative that says sometimes you got to let people go.

Jim stated the he thinks since Susan has been here things have really changed.  Bill stated we were  up here asking the same thing six

months ago then all of a sudden today it’s a different department and now we’re making changes in the salary.  Susan stated you were heard during budget and so over the last three months we’ve really been talking about this internally to try and figure out what is the best solution to this and I think what the main point is here you will have a budget that will be set and you have to stay within that budget.  They’re saying is you can do whatever you want to get your people paid what you need them to pay but you still have to stay within that budget parameter.  That’s the challenge that department heads are going to have is there is only an x amount of money without raising taxes and so how that’s allotted will be determined by the commission

and then within your department you’re going to have to figure out do you have to cut somewhere do you have to give that raise or is someone leaving that has been a long-term employee that maybe you can make some adjustments in the wages.  It’s really going to be the department head’s responsibility to stay within the budget and determine how you give your raises to your people.  Bill stated there was a comment that was made during the budget hearing and the comment came from you and the comment was you never gave the

sheriff’s department enough money to operate in the first place.  Susan stated they gave you a whole bunch this year.  Bill stated well because we have grown in expenses,

inflation and everything else is growing.   That’s just part of operating.  Lynne stated that he would entertain a motion to allow Susan to start this process.

Clifton made the motion to allow Susan to start this process allowing Susan to look into wage bands

and allowing directors and elected

officials discretion to give raises as they see fit.  Jim seconded.  All approved.

Eric asked for an executive session

including Ashley, Susan, Justin, myself and the three commissioners.

Justin stated if we’re going to talk about one specific employee under the fmla we might want to talk about a second one just on some job performance issues with the same department. Clifton stated I’d make a motion to go to executive session under KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personal matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy, job performance and two different employees for 10 minutes and  we will return to this room at 9:49.  Jim seconded.  All approved. Lynne moved that we come back from Executive Session at 9:49 and resume our normal session.  Jim seconded.  All approved.  Justin asked to clarify the last motion.  I want to make the request that Susan be given the discretion to work with directors and elected officials to

change the salary schedule within their departments or their organization immediately if need be.  Clifton made a motion to allow

as stated by Counselor Meeks.  Jim seconded. All approved.

Lora Holdridge stated I just wanted to let you know that central publishing out of Iola whereas

the mapping that we used to get our maps from they have closed down.

The last time we got maps we got them from Farm Home and Publishers.  I’ve been working with Jamie Elliott and times are different than the last time we ordered from them.  We got quite a few wall maps for free but now we only get a couple of wall maps and 10 books for free.  I went ahead and ordered several and because I think that one of Eric’s workers needs and he’s going to take my old one and Eric and I and Matt, after the first of the year, are going to work on the roads.  See which ones they maintain, doing the level three, level two, level one so we can start working on that mapping.  I

knew we needed some extra maps we’ll try to get you guys one up it’s a little bit bigger than that so we may have to just cut it around so you guys can get a current 2021 once they run the tax rolls and Shane can get them the files.  It’ll be out in march so I just wanted to let you know that we’ve ordered some maps for area other area departments.  I have the money in my budget to go

ahead and order that and share them with the other departments.  I had the opportunity to meet with her so

I went ahead and just made the decision to go ahead and purchase some.   We got some free so we went ahead and did that.  That was just an update.

Clifton made a motion not to move forward with Reno-Dry at this time.

Jim seconded.  All approved.

Patty Love stated what she is needing to do is per statute KSA

10-815.  I’m asking for the commissioners to sign

a resolution voiding the checks

that are over two years old.  This was brought up on the audit, it’s something that we need to do.  Jim asked how come they’re two years old.  Patty explained these are ones that people haven’t cashed.  We have to void them and put them

back in the account.  The total is

$3,872.88.  I just need you guys to pass the resolution and sign it.  I just wanted to let everybody know

that  tax statements are going to

go out within the next few days.

Lynne asked for a short break.

Clifton mad a motion to pass resolution 29-21 bourbon county Kansas the following checks being over two years old are to be cancelled by authority of KSA 10-815.  The amount is $3,872.88.  Jim

seconded. All approved.

Susan Bancroft stated that we’re a little late on getting this done but work comp policy consideration.  We actually had  two different vendors bid on the work comp coverage.  One was Atkins Insurance and the other one was KWORKS.  It was a little bit difficult because the calculations were not the same so basically they weren’t working off the same payroll numbers.  I went back through and recalculated everything and KWORKS is still your low bidder.  Part of that is because their experience mod was a little bit less than Atkins but also the payroll was quite

different.  Atkins still came in higher than KWORKS so my recommendation would be to

go with KWORKS.  Lynne stated I would entertain a motion to continue workers comp with KWORKS.   Jim made amotion to move forward with the work comp coverage and remain with KWORKS under the recommendation of finance director.

Clifton seconded.  All approved.

Susan stated the next one is your general liability policy.  You currently are with KCAMP and we only got one bid on it and that was from kcamp so my recommendation would be to stay with KCAMP.  I will note that they offer a lot of

perks that just your regular carriers

don’t and that would be they help write policies and procedures

and they have a liability attorney that helps you through different things so they really have a good program.  Jim stated I’ll make a motion for Bourbon County to

remain in general liability coverage

with KCAMP under the recommendation of finance

director Bancroft.  Clifton seconded

All approved.

Susan stated the next topic is a request from rural water district number four for some of the ARPA funding.  They are saying that 45% of their customers are based in Bourbon County.  So they would request they are trying to put a generator in and they were asking for 45% of the total project costs to be considered for the ARPA funds. I’ll give you guys a week to kind of look through this request and then maybe we can come back at the next meeting and discuss that.  That would be about thirty three thousand dollars that they’re requesting.  We can bring it back to the next meeting.  They do have their financial statements on the back side of this so that kind of gives you an idea what their cash balance is but that just gives you

something to work off of and we can bring it back at the next meeting so you have some time to go through it.  Jim asked will you

share with us that time how much money we actually have left? Yes i can give you a recap.  The other thing is on these these outside agencies requesting ARPA funds

so if they’re not an entity or department within Bourbon

County we really need to be putting

together agreements per ARPA guidelines and so for rural water district number two I’m going to get with Justin and see if we can’t put together some kind of a contract or an agreement on what the expectations are and what type of receipts and different things

that they’re going to have to provide to us.  There’s just a lot of guidelines on how you should

handle it so that if you were ever

audited you have all your ducks in a

row.   That’s all I have on that.

Justin Meeks stated I have had a

conversation with the powers to be at the city with the tax sale.  The election cycle is over for them they’ll have new commissioners

come January.  I have talked to our Economic Development director

concerning the properties located within the city limits of Fort Scott.  I might come back next week and just have some conversations with maybe having taking those city properties and pulling them out and just doing the properties located within the county and have the

sale before the end of the year or

waiting until the new commission comes on and having the land bank set up properly.  They’re talking about training and getting it to where it can function properly and then having the sale then.  I have another 108 properties that the petitions are ready to file on top

of the ones that we’re ready to sell.  I’m already ready for the next batch of petitions.  Obviously I’ll give this to Patty before we file them et cetera but just so you know that i haven’t stopped working on

the actual process itself.   I’m still

gearing up for another sale if we do push out until January we’d obviously have three sales in 2022.

We could have one this year and maybe still possibly have three next year but two for sure.  I’m a strong advocate of the land bank.  I’ve seen it work in other communities. I’ve seen the different materials that i’ve read and researched on it.  It needs to happen in my humble opinion.

Obviously I have no control over

that but based off the conversation I had this week and last week we’re just  waiting for the ducks to get lined up.  Susan saw these numbers and she did make a comment that our collections are way up.  We’re collecting back taxes it’s just a matter of opinion with regards to how the land bank helps.  I think it has a positive impact not a

negative impact and that’s why

I believe that we should wait but

obviously you guys are here to give me directions so I’ll do whatever but you know patience gains all things.  Susan stated from the city’s perspective next week we are taking it back to our commission to see if they will go ahead and waive all assessments.  Jim stated he agreed that we should wait on land bank if we can possibly because it’s going

to be a real positive thing.  Justin stated if they waive the special

assessments this time around we’d go and have the sale you know we’d publish and get ready to go and then that would mean December,

middle December, late December we’d have a sale.  Obviously them waving the specials is a different conversation.  We’ve been there done that. Once again we have no control over that and you know if the land bank is not ready to take those properties over with me we can have the sale this time and

then come 2022 the land bank can be set up.  There are some properties within that sale that

I’d want in the land bank.  I know Mr Harrington has a pretty strong opinion about not dumping things in the land bank and being a detriment but i’m not speaking on his behalf either.

Justin stated that Beth Query is going to get a survey done to carve out the additional space that we’re going to need for the new contract.

So until that survey is done we’re not going to be able to move forward on the contract and I’ll

talk to Mrs Beth and her representatives about what that square looks like.   It basically is going to be a straight shot to the west and then we’ll rewrite it.  Susan’s also working on the

possibility of 13 acres out at the landfill.  We’re getting that survey

too so that we can take those meets and bounds and include it in the transfer of the deed.

Susan stated that Shane has been requesting for me to look into the ARPA funding for potential equipment that could be used

for public safety maybe even

EMS and so I’m doing some research on that for him.  I’ll probably bring back to the next meeting of what his request

might be and so that’ll also be with the ARPA funding.  I don’t think he’s here so I can’t tell you what it’s about.

After our situation with the landfill

last year we had billed out $134,000. and we’ve collected about $117, 000 of that $134,000 so Jennifer’s done a great job of being aggressive.  We’ve still got about $17, 000 that’s outstanding so

i would like permission from the

commission to work with the state of Kansas.  They

have a state set off program that

allows us to submit outstanding

invoices to them and they’ll still do them in the collection process and what basically happens is when

someone gets their taxes back

they take our portion from their tax

return and send it back to the state and it it is kind of hefty it’s about 20

percent that they take off the top

but they charge that back to the

person that is getting the refund

and so really we get our full amount

back.  I would like to be a part of that program for landfill, the culverts and noxious weeds

because we do have some outstanding receivables there.

As far as culverts we’ve billed $23,000 this year and we have received $21 000.  It’s been a good year for that and then noxious weed we have a receivable from 2018 for fifteen hundred dollars and so

I feel like we need to send them a

third and final letter and just say hey

if you don’t pay us by x amount of date we’re gonna send you to collections.  It just gives us some teeth when we’re trying to recover some of these funds.  Clifton asked how many notices a person receives before being sent to collections.

Susan stated we will not send them to state collections until they’ve had at least three bills sent to them.  And maybe that’s what we need to do

is create some financial policies around that.  We could do that I can bring that back first.  The other thing with the landfill I really feel like we’ve got some businesses that go out there and they’re four or five bills behind and I do not feel like that they should be able to continue to have a charge account if they’re not going to be paying on time. Two months is probably the most that we should allow them to have on the books, but there are some that are four and five months and so you have to have something to say if you don’t pay we’re

cutting you off.  Clifton stated businesses and individuals are two

different things, in my opinion.  Susan stated that you’re really just talking about businesses right now.

Culverts we don’t have a problem.  Those are being paid on time.  Noxious weed you do have a problem.  You’ve got a couple that are pretty old that need to be addressed.  So i’m really just talking about these three areas right now.

Eeventually you could expand but

I don’t think you’ll need to.  I think

these are your main areas. The landfill especially because it’s such a tight budget.  We can’t carry those

people for very long so that would be my concern.  Jim stated I would think 90 days be long enough to carry someone’s at the landfill.    There needs to be an application process for somebody to have a receivables account with us.  They

should have to fill out a charge account application and we get the proper information that we need from them to be able to proceed with collections.  Jim made a motion that we begin the application process for new customers for charge accounts and also only allow 90 days for charge accounts.  If not paid within that period, no more services.  Clifton seconded.  All approved.  Clifton stated that he would make a motion to add the set off program to the landfill, noxious weed.  Jim seconded.  All approved.

Susan stated my last topic is financials.  I told you that I would give you an update maybe not weekly but every other week at

least.  Rhonda Dunn and I have been working together to try and balance august.  I can’t say that we’ve been successful yet.  We’ve got a lot of variances that we need to work through.  She’s continuing to work through September and we think that maybe after September she gets through there she

might reconcile some of this.  I really feel like to have a good handle on everything I

need to go back to January and start

reconciling back to January.  The other thing that I have noticed in

the financial statements is

receipts have not been the last

receipts that have been vouchered

was on 10/6.  Wwe are now in the middle of November and so that’s a concern as well as October and November expenses have not been entered since October.  What that does for us is we’re at the point now where we need to be doing projections for the end of the year to

see if we need to be doing any budget amendments and I can’t do that when these are not in the system and so that is a huge concern.  Especially if I’m needing to go back to January and start

fresh.  I will say Rhonda has been great to work with.  We’ve talked through some things.  The clerk’s office is also off on their bank account.  I think I can help them

find that it’s very small amount so

we’ll work through that.  I just wanted you to be aware that

I’m going to have to make some

projections based off of not real

numbers.  Clifton stated that in

my opinion I don’t know that that’s

acceptable. Lynne stated it is unacceptable.  I’ve been waiting since July to see another report.  We

don’t have any reports.  We’re back to the same place we were last year and we can’t really have any projections of where we

think we are.  Jim asked what do we need to do to fix it? Susan stated all I can do is continue to work with the treasurers department.  There’s really not a whole lot on Ashley’s side.  She’s done everything that

she needs to do on her side.  It’s really just in the treasurers department that I need to continue to work with them.  Clifton asked for an update next week.

During public comment Anne Dare asked where are we at with an HR director because it became evident this morning already that an HR director might be vital for the county.  Lynne stated that we’re working through some issues with

the city.  The city is still in the process of coming up with a date for the move.  Jim stated I believe the agreement’s done.  Susan stated it’s not been officially approved by the city or the county.

Anne’s next question was regarding land bank.  Is the land bank going to

consist of the same board people?  Clifton stated it’s not our problem

that’s a city thing.

Clint Walker stated I just want to make the comment that I think the road and bridge crew deserves an extra kudo.   Putting that down and they work 12-hour days or better and so they all deserve a pat on the back.

During elected official comments

Bill Martin stated I just want to give you a quick update in regards to the issues at the jail and the sheriff’s office in regards the roof leaks.

It’s not actually the roof that is

leaking it’s the electrical conduit which I showed you the videos and stuff.  Right now we’ve reached out to the contractors for bids.  November 30th which is a Tuesday, to kind of give you a heads up that’s when the sealed bids will be open.  Ii will be sending out either later

on this afternoon or first thing in the

morning certified mail to all the

contractors so they know that they have received it by certified by signing for it and also on public media and newspaper.  It would also be noticed too those bids will be open in front of you guys you three

or whoever’s sitting that morning I will not have a decision I will not make any decisions because that is not in my wheelhouse to make those decisions.  That is up to you because that money is not coming out of my budget.  It will be coming out of whatever budget or area you request either the operation to the sales tax side of it or what but that will be opened on that day and then

you guys can make the decision as to which way you want to go.  Ashley Shelton stated that she is working on the resolutions for the

holidays for the upcoming year and the county clerks have sent out an email between everyone asking who’s getting Juneteenth off.  Is that something that, it’s technically a federal holiday, some counties are doing it some aren’t. June 18th it’s called Juneteenth.  Allen county is going to observe. Out of counties about 50% will.  Lynne asked for a week to think about it.

Jim stated during commissioner comments that Mayor Josh Jones was here, of course he had to leave for a meeting, he wanted us to move forward on discussions do we want that 13 acres that belongs to the city behind our current landfill and

he wants us to move forward

and I think Eric should be involved in this.  We have to come up with some recommendations. Number one do we want that property and number two does it satisfy KDHE in the future?  Does it satisfy Ag Engineering on what the possibilities have left there

and how do we want to trade this out with C&D?  Eric stated I’ve had conversations with Ag Engineering. I would recommend holding on

till we get a report back from them.

They’re going to look into it to see what’s if there’s anything outstanding with the land or anything like that.  They should have that report to us hopefully sooner rather than later.  When we get that report I can share it

with everybody.  I’ve visited with

Susan a little bit I think the city and

County’s talked about splitting the cost of that report for them to do that and then we can move forward.  Jim stated we need that report

because if it’s the wrong water application it won’t work very well for us or if there was ever an oil well or contamination.  Jim stated

the mayor asked me to bring it up so I did.  We can move forward under your advice.  Eric reiterated when I get that report I’ll bring it directly to you and we’ll move forward on that. Jim stated we’ll need a recommendation on you if we decide to move forward.  Find out what the value of that property is and how do we want to trade it out at so many dollars per ton.  We need your recommendation.

Lynne mentioned that November the 11th is veterans day.   I it wasn’t for veterans we wouldn’t have the country we have today so let’s get out there and support our veterans

past present and future.  Jim stated I agree we have to have upmost respect for veterans.

Lynne stated the other thing we

have is we have a letter we need to sign for EMS and Eric has it.  Clifton stated I’ll make a motion to allow Chairman O’harah to sign. This Bourbon County Emergency

Medical Services is a

new position for it’s not a new

position it’s just a person taking

stepping into the position of EMS

Manager Service Director.  Jim seconded. All approved.

Lynne stated he gave Ashley a

copy of a letter from the

transportation district.  He is going to ask Ashley to type up a letter of support for the transportation

district and we can approve it next week.

Jim made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:32am.  Clifton seconded.  All approved.

THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS

(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman

(ss) Jim Harris, Commissioner

(ss) Clifton Beth, Commissioner

ATTEST:

Ashley Shelton, Bourbon County Clerk

November 23, 2021, Approved Date

October 12, 2021                                 Tuesday 9:00 am

The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners and the County Clerk present.

Jason Silvers, Clint Walker, Rob Harrington and Anne Dare were also present.

Jim made a motion to approve the previous meetings minutes, Clifton seconded, all approved.

Eric Bailey had a permit asking for a driveway entrance for Susan Bancroft at 2029 Maple Rd.  Jim made a motion to approve a culvert installation at 2029 Maple Rd.  Clifton seconded, all approved.

Eric presented for signature for the mini on the loan.  Clifton made a motion to have Chairman Oharah sign the loan documents.  Lynne seconded.  Jim opposed.  Eric stated the mini is working out very well for them.

Eric stated that with storms over the weekend they found some weak limbs; dead limbs that had come down.  Got those cleaned up.

Asphalt on 125^th, got half way on one lane and will do what we can this week.

Jayhawk Wind Update: high winds and rain slowed progress last week.  They have 49 of the 70 base mids erected, 33 of the 70 are topped out.  Nineteen erected in Bourbon County and 14 in Crawford County.  They plan to build two today and then cross Highway 3 tomorrow if wind and weather allow.  When they cross Highway 3 KDOT will be there as well since they’re crossing state highway.  They’ll close down at 39 and Arrowhead and be down for approximately 3 hours.  Late morning to early afternoon.  They have started reclaiming some of the roads or the turn radiuses and they are following the road use agreement.

Eric stated that we are battling the corporate world with employees.  We are starting to lose some, I can’t blame them.  I’ve had a couple go for five dollars more an hour with a $500 sign-on bonus.  Lose another for four dollars per hour and lost one for three dollars per hour.  Jim stated that they are planning to meet with department heads beginning in November.

Lynne Oharah received a call regarding Stateline and Zinc Road.   There’s a culvert that’s plugged.  I don’t know if it’s on the Missouri side or our side.  I’ll text you his number and you can call him and find out what is going on.

Eric stated that he did make a call regarding Elm Creek and that was solely based on assumptions and we are good there.  Eric also stated that they are working on Overbrook today.

David Neville presented Ron Brown from Reno-Dry.  Jim stated that David was to get with another company and compare prices.  David did contact them and stated that their part would be excavating around the foundation and making sure the water can be removed which would address the water coming in, but Mr. Brown is addressing the water that is wicking up in the stone and the other company wouldn’t address that.  Mr. Brown stated that the inventor of this process is a Hungarian Engineer that worked on it in the late 80’s and early 1990’s.  They developed this process and it’s dried out some of the biggest and oldest buildings in the world in Europe.  We were able to get the rights to this product here in the United States.  Jim asked if there was any way to measure what this system has done a year from now?  Mr. Brown stated that there is a way to measure which includes drilling into the masonry and taking samples.  Doing a coating on the outside would be a good idea as this process will keep outside wall dry as well.  The water coming up has salt which is bad for the foundation.  The price for this system is $12,356.00.  Jim asked if David had a recommendation.  David stated that Mid-Continental told him that Nevada Courthouse had done both.  They had Mid-Continental come in and do their outside piece and also have the system Mr. Brown is referring to and they are satisfied.  Lynne talked about putting it on the agenda for next week.  All agreed.  Clifton stated that he would like to make a few phone calls prior to discussion next week.  Mr. Brown stated that in 3 years the building will be dry or 80% of payment will be refunded.

Jim Harris made a motion for an executive session to discuss personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel.  The session included three commissioners, Susan Bancroft and County Counselor for 10 minutes reconvening at 9:38am.  Clifton seconded.  All approved.

Clifton made a motion to resume normal session at 9:38am.  Jim seconded.  All approved.  No action taken.

Anne Dare appeared asking if the significant deficiencies in the 2020 audit are being taken care of.  Last week you assured me that the landfill bills had all been sent but that there will still payments to be received.  During the county counselor comments Mr. Meeks reported that there had been a problem with the day-to-day operations, a billing practice concerning a landfill issue that had been resolved but need tweaking.  To be honest, I was a little concerned to hear this especially after you telling me that all the issue have been taken care of.  What assurances can you give me that this billing issue won’t happen again?  This department is under your control.  It concerns me that approximately $100,000. of the billings were not sent out until late 2020 and the county hasn’t received all payments due to the county.  It especially concerns me because departments come in every year asking for more money and yet some departments can’t seem to bill customers in a timely fashion.  It seems to me that in order for a department to run efficiently that it would be vital to know how much money they have.  Has the reconciliation of the tax rolls been completed?  Documentation kept showing that the tax role has been reconciled and all related reports printed off.  Whose responsibility is to see that the quarterly financial statements have been published?  Have any been published this year?  When is the next time they should be published?  Has the department of corrections made changes so that there is more than one person overseeing the deposit of inmate funds?  Has the county attorney’s office made changes so that diversion funds deposits are overseen by more than one person?  The last two seem small but have been happening for four years and so it would be ridiculous for these two items to be the thing that would cause the federal government to say that the county can no longer receive money from them through grants, etc.  However, it does speak to the ability of the county to hire those that do their jobs with excellence.  There were four violations to the Kansas statutes.  What are the consequences to these violations?  You’ve also stated that the county has now hired a financial director and that it is her job to point out errors and deficiencies.  It seems to me that you’ve given a lot of power to an unelected official.  Who is overseeing this position?  The commission has stated that the only control you have over each department is how much money you allow for their budgets and yet each department head goes into an executive session with you every time they need to hire someone or meet with you about an HR problem.  You are all the gatekeepers and in the end it is you that bears the responsibility if the federal government has to get more actively involved in how the county operates.  Jim stated that he could address the landfill issue as far as billing.  We’ve had changing personnel and changing director position and one of the things that was created last year was a lot of people were going through changes and a lot of people changed positions.  It was nothing illegal, it just wasn’t done, but with the new people on board with the personnel changes and also the director changes they’re on top of it.  Anne stated that Justin Meeks said there was a problem.  Justin Meeks stepped forward and stated that we raised the rates on tires that were being brought in.  It was seven cents per pound and that’s gone to 10 cents per pound.  The reason is because the price of everything has gone up so the landfill gets charged 185 dollars a ton and so we were losing money on the tires that were coming in so they’re weighing them by the pound now instead of per tire.  We are basically breaking even on the tires.  Jim stated that the landfill doesn’t receive any tax dollars so it’s not a budget.  Clifton stated that it really wasn’t a billing issue it was the fact that we weren’t charging enough.  Lynne stated the landfill itself doesn’t make money.  Construction and demolition does.  We are providing a service and that service is not tax payer funded.  Justin Meeks stated that years ago the county looked into actually selling the transfer station to make money.  Obviously, it’s a tax-funded service that we had long conversations about with regards to how it processed.  The actual transfer station itself does not make money; it breaks even.  If we actually made money like some other disposal services with the region we would not be charging what we charge now.  The C & D does make money but not a whole lot, but once again it’s a service.  We’ve had couches and tires in the ditches and that just causes Road & Bridge to go out and pick that stuff up.  When we looked at the landfill to actually sell it the cost of doing business was going to go up substantially.  It has value.  We had an independent appraisal done when Mr. Harris was the Road & Bridge Director.  The appraisal came back over a million to sell it but when we did the math it made sense for Bourbon County to have that service so that we wouldn’t have stuff in our ditches and it wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.  Our goal is to break even.  If it makes a little extra money that’s great but if it does it goes into equipment because we don’t really have the equipment fund built in.  Lynne stated it does make money off the C & D side and that’s the only way it can be self-funded.  It’s a fine line on the trash service because we can’t raise rates where we’re not competitive with the surrounding landfills because of the cost it takes to transport the trash to other landfills.  Justin Meeks stated that we are losing because of our rates, we are losing business to other in-the-ground service providers.  Because the difference between us and someone that’s really close is they actually put in the ground and we don’t.  We transfer it.  So when fuel costs go up it our margins tighten up.  Lynne stated going on down the line a little bit.  Susan is working to make sure some of the items are being corrected from the treasurer’s office.   Jim stated that working with Susan and Patty, all the department heads, I look for January to look really well with her help.  Susan stated that she could give a little bit of an update.  She printed everything from January to the end of September to start doing a review of the trial balance and there are several journal entries that we need to make and some of those are coding errors.  Some are that the auditor would like to see bond and interest payments split out. Right now what he has to do is go in and make adjusting entries which at the end of your audit letter you saw all those journal entries that had to be done.  That is because he is breaking out the principal and interest and any kind of fees.  In our financial statements we’re not showing it that way so that’s all stuff that’s going to have to be cleaned up before the end of the year.  Those are some of the major things that we need to work with the departments.  Your main departments that do that would be Sheriff’s, and Public Works.  I think the County Attorney has a bond payment.  So that’s what we’ve got to work on.  That’s going to take those conversations with each department head to do that.  The other thing is that I spoke with Patty and she told me that they were pretty much reconciled up through current.  August would be the most recent that I would think would be completely finished.  I haven’t talked with her since.  Right now we would be working on September close-out.  In a perfect world, to be presented about the middle of October that should be expected that there should be some kind of presentation of financial statements.  I’m going to bring how I present our financial statements at the city over to the county and give them an example of what we should be doing each period to reconcile cash.  If I were to look at a cash statement today for August, we have violations.  You cannot spend more than what you have in the bank and we have a couple of funds that have done that.  One is a bond payment and what is going to have to make up that bond payment until the money comes in.  It’s a sewer bond debt that’s repaid each month.  The city is capturing those revenues on the sewer payment and then we send those over to the county to make the sewer bond payment.  The bond payment comes before you have enough money in the bank so technically the general fund is making up for this until the end of the year.  The other thing is we just closed out a CDBG CV Grant and we’re eight thousand dollars in the hole.  I’m going to have to contact the state to find out if we didn’t draw those funds down, what was charged there, if that was an error because you can run grants in the hole because it’s a reimbursement back but we closed that grant so that’s a concern.  Another fund, the EOC upgrade is in the hole eight dollars but that would need to be transferred back to the general fund to cover that expense because I assume that’s a grant that’s been closed out.  Those are the kinds of things you have to look at, at the end of each month to make sure that you don’t have any violations.  This is not necessarily in Patty’s area.  She works with the revenue.  It’s a partnership between the Treasurer’s office, the Clerk’s office, and myself to make sure that we’re following all the statutes correctly.  Monthly reports are a must to make sure that you’re tying out your cash.  We have a fund status report that gives you all your cash balances.  We want that to reconcile back to bank statements.  Some of the other things I’m checking are state payments and the state gives a printout that shows you exactly what’s coming.  I go back to the trial balance and make sure they have hit the bank and they’re in the right fund.  Regarding the landfill billing, we had about a $100,000 that was not billed out.  When Jennifer got on board that was the very first thing that we attacked.  We got all that billed out and because some of the bills were very large we are working with because it was about six or seven months they hadn’t been billed.  We are working with them to make payments, but most everybody is caught up.  I think we only have one that outstanding.  You can definitely see that in the revenue for this year.  Jim stated that when he came back to Director in 2013, there were 11 citations of violations from the state.  We did such a good job out there.  Now we get zero citations.  Now when anyone goes to the landfill they’ll notice how clean it is.  Lynne stated that the earlier question from Anne regarding the attorney’s funds and diversion funds.  Susan stated that we can do an annual internal audit.  I can review their records and make sure everything looks kosher.  If they don’t have enough staff to rotate that position it becomes a problem.  Clifton Beth reiterated monthly reports are a must.  Clifton stated that Anne said that the county hires those that do their jobs with excellence.  I would change that statement to the county to elect those that do their jobs with excellence.  We don’t get to hire the Sheriff, Treasurer or Clerk.  Do I think they do a good job, that’s between me and them.  Also, Anne asked who is overseeing Susan.  The answer is we are.  In regards to executive sessions to hire someone for one of our department, I don’t know why it was ever that way.  It’s up to the department heads to hire their help.  Justin Meeks stated that the commissioners are responsible for hiring the county Appraiser, the Road and Bridge director, and Maintenance.  When you talk about performance issues with those specific people you have to go into executive session.  An elected official has to go into executive session to talk about their specific employee.  Clifton stated that some of the executive sessions they have gone into had any reason or right to go into executive session.  Clifton stated to Anne that elected officials need to do their jobs.  Justin Meeks asked to go back to Commissioner Beth’s statement.  It’s important to clarify this.  We went into executive session recently on something happening in the appraiser’s office.  We had to go into executive session for that.  There was no offense, but you’re talking about specific people, their job performance and what they were going to get paid.  Clifton stated that wasn’t what he was talking about.  Justin stated that what Commissioner Beth was hinting at was a COMA violation.  Clifton stated that he was voicing his opinion.  He said that the point he was trying to make was that an elected official needs to hire their own staff.  Jim stated that if someone wants to add additional staff to meet with Susan to make sure they do it budget-wise.  Clifton stated that he is sick and tired of being blamed by elected officials for their problems.  Susan stated that when an elected official asks for an executive session, a lot of times it’s based on performance.  They have issues in their department and they don’t know how to handle it.  That places liability on the county and these folks need to be involved when there’s any kind of liability involved.

Jim requested a 5 minute break.

Lynne stated break over.

Clint Walker stated that when a person gets a grant for new employees some of the questions that the commissioners might have missed, and they may come back and ask for later is equipment or vehicles to accommodate additional staff.

Susan mentioned when putting together all your department rates and stuff that you’re asking for.  I think one thing that would help is if we have something in writing that we can hand to the employee that’s considering leaving the county is information regarding the benefits and how much value they bring to you and your family.  If you can put that in an hourly rate form that may make or break a decision.  The benefits are rich here.  Jim stated that we might want to take that a step further and not wait until they’re getting ready to leave us but could put in their check stub every quarter to make them aware of their benefits and the value.  Susan suggested that the comp statement be included with their W-2.  Susan stated that she doesn’t know many places that give almost 9% into your 401(k) and that goes into your KPERs.  There are a lot of things that need to be brought to light for an individual.

Susan read the letter from Atkins Insurance Agency.  In closing it states that we were unable to obtain a quote for the property and liability as we did not receive all the information that we requested from the sheriff’s department and some of the cyber liability information.  So they were not able to quote your liability so you really only have one bid on liability.  Their work comp was almost double what KWORKS was.  I’ll go back and compare and bring a recommendation next week.

Just Meeks asked for permission for he and Mr. Harrington to start working on the potential of a fire station or additional fire hydrants west of Fort Scott city limits to pass the airport.  There are some construction projects going on out there that are substantial, and we’d like to get the insurance rates down and we need fire hydrants and possibly a new fire station.  We understand it’s a lot of work.  It’s been talked about before, but we need to move forward and handle that situation so see what we can do to do our due diligence.  I’ll help with the legal part and Rob will help with any grant funding or anything we can get at the state and federal level.  If we have to have community involvement, which we will, we’ll work with them to move the process forward.  We’ll need the help from the city, the lake residents, people that live around the golf course in the area of Justice Lane and 205^th.  There’s a lot happening out there and it’s great stuff we just need to start doing some infrastructure improvements out there.  I need a vote to have the ability to do that with Mr. Harrington and I’d actually have one of the commissioners to help us with that too be awesome.  We would like to work with an existing fire district.  This is a preliminary starting point and we’re not asking anybody to do anything else except for Rob and I doing some due diligence to see what we can get.  If it’s some crazy number to put fire hydrants out there then we’ll come back to the board.  Clifton asked when we were going to look at hydrants in the rest of the county.  Justin said we can do that, but there are a lot of houses out on 205^th, but we can look at county-wide.  We’re just trying to get a starting point.  Jim made a motion to allow county counsel to meet with Rob Harrington and the possibility of one commissioner to do feasibility study and move forward with the possible fire station and increasing some water line size in some areas of construction and fire hydrant protection.  Justin Meeks clarified that there would be no county or city funds used.  Jim Harris volunteered to be involved in the process if they need a commissioner.  Jim asked that the motion be amended to include fire protection throughout the county.  Lynne seconded.  Clifton abstained.  Clifton said that when the discussion began it was for a particular section of the county and not the whole county.  He said that that’s been one thing that’s irritated me about this county and city for years is that we try to help one certain person instead of the entire group and I think it needs to be the entire county and not one set of individuals.  Clifton asked why their insurance rates are more important than mine.  Justin stated that the pandora’s box has gotten opened.  We haven’t had a good banter in awhile so I’ll go down the rabbit hole.  We had conversations about paved roads.  Data drives decisions in my opinion.  Everyone pays taxes.  I completely understand that, but to put a fire hydrant out in northwestern Bourbon County for one house is not as cost effective as putting a fire hydrant in a housing development that has 20 houses and 7 of them are half million dollar homes.  The fire district came up because of what is happening in that area.  There’s an explosion of housing rates for the price of a lot and then there’s also new construction that’s happening along 205^th street.  I think there was an e-mail sent by a patron that is looking to help with those rates when you build a half a million dollar home your insurance rates are going to be higher if you don’t have good fire protection.  It’s just part of the conversation that we’ve had for years now trying to get our base expanded so we can have more property taxes and more people moving here.  If there is going to be a possible expansion at the lake with additional lots being sold, I mean I noticed one’s up for auction coming up and there’s another three lots that are going to be for sale.  If they open another 10 of them, you know, we’d love for 20 houses to be built up by Fulton so we can expand the fire district but there’s not 20 houses being built there right now.  There’s potentially seven or eight that are being built on the lake area and then along 205^th street.  Everybody is important in the county, we’ve always said that but it’s data driven.  If you have 5000 people driving down a road a day and you have 100 driving down another road a day the road that has 5000 people on it should be looked at first before the 100.  I’m just county counsel trying to help.  I’ve had some administrative responsibilities given to other people which I’m very grateful for but this, to me, is a liability issue on some levels, also just trying to make our community grow so we have a better base.  I will look at putting fire hydrants all over the county if I can but I know just common sense would say that fire expansion for fire hydrants in a certain area of the county is not going to be cost effective and we’re not going to get a lot of bang for our bucks.  I’d love to have another fire station up in northwestern bourbon county but we’re not going to get the volunteers.  The other thing that has been talked about is actually paying firefighters in our rural areas because the lack of volunteers.  I think the districts we have and the volunteers we have and what they’ve done is awesome.  This is just a starting point.  Lynne stated that the county really doesn’t have a dog in the fight.  Justin stated that other than using the rights-of-way, there wouldn’t be a lot for the county to do.  Clifton asked if that be so then why are we voting on it.  Justin stated that he could do this as a private citizen but would be a little afraid of doing that.  Lynne stated that the county doesn’t have a problem with Justin doing this.  Jim stated that we need to look at projects like this all over the county which would encourage development.  Susan stated that we would be more likely to get a grant in areas where there’s growth.  Lynne stated that the volunteer fire departments do a great job on the services they provide.

Justin’s second request is with NRP.  We have a county-wide NRP.  The city of Fort Scott at this point does not.  We need to work with Mr. Harrington to make a county-wide NRP.  There’s a couple of projects that I’m aware of that are actually being delayed because of the lake of NRP within the city.  With your permission I’ll have to contact the Attorney General’s office to see if we can amend our NRP to make it county-wide.  It already covers all municipalities except for Fort Scott with our current NRP.  It would really change our NRP would be the historical district in downtown Fort Scott.  They have a 15-year refund on those properties that are rehabbed.  REDI is now running your NRP with the administration part coming through one of your directors who the commission is responsible for.  There’s a fee that’s associated with NRP.  I think it’s $50.00 per application.  You would only have to worry about the City of Fort Scott, FSCC and USD 234.  I don’t know if legally an amendment can occur to include or change the NRP but once again that has to be approved by someone higher up than us.  I’m making an assumption again, but we would just copy the old NRP with the city of Fort Scott and then get it active again.  There’s still the baseline but any improvements would be 100 perfect refund.  Clifton made a motion for County Counselor to work with Rob on the NRP to figure out how to include the city into ours therefore since theirs has lapsed.  Jim seconded.  All approved.  Justin extended an invitation to the commissioners to attend two presentations, one in the city of Uniontown, one in the city of Bronson.  You would need to make a motion to allow for all three of you to be in those meetings if you want.  I think there is one meeting tonight and one tomorrow night.  There’ll be some checks presented and some really good information happening.  Clifton made a motion to allow all three commissioners to be present at those meetings if they wish.  Jim seconded.  All approved.

Clifton Beth clarified a statement that he made earlier.  He was not self-reporting a COMA violation.  I was trying to make a point.  To my knowledge, I believe that we have not had a COMA violation on any executive session I have been on since I became a commissioner.  It is my opinion, though, that some of those, although legal under state laws, were not warranted.  Justin stated in the last commission we talked about giving budget authority or budget amount to an elected official and let them spin it how they see fit.  The problem we’ve run into is that some elected officials don’t stay within their budget.  Then you have major problems trying to make that money up so there’s a real yin and yang.  Giving them the budget authority and if they go over budget or a natural disaster happens or snow plows have to be out for a week because we have a mega snowstorm things get cumbersome with the budget.  Clifton stated that with the directors we control we don’t allow them to have overtime, but we can’t do the same thing with our elected officials.  They’re going to go over budget anyway.  It has happened for the last eight years with one.  Justin stated that the citizens of Fort Scott elect that person to run that department and if they fiscally believe that person’s doing their job correctly they re-elect that person.  Lynne said the only way to stop that is that if you go over the budget, we’ll quit doing budget amendments and then you go into no fund warrants then it goes back to the elected official.  Susan clarified that if you go into no fund warrants and you have funds in other funds you have to cover them.  So you can’t do that until you put the county in cover up.  Lynne stated we don’t do a cover up; we go through and do a budget amendment to cover the shortfall every year.  Susan stated you would have to basically break the county before you go into no fund warrants.  The general fund continually keeps picking up all those overages.  Clifton stated that the public needs to be involved in decisions.  We had a meeting and only 15 people showed up.  Lynne stated that he hears from the public about taxes being too high.  Justin stated that people want their property taxes lower but they also want to have fire protection, they want to have roads and bridges, they want to have police protection, they want to have paved roads.  The list goes on and one.  It’s a matter of priorities.  Justin stated that he recently moved out of the city into the county on a dirt road.  I made that choice.  Clifton stated that the people that built the $500,000 homes made those choices, too. Justin stated that without investment in infrastructure you will never have development.  You should have those half a million dollar houses to be built and should give them every advantage you can because it will increase your base.  Justin stated that he wants the county to grow because without growth you’re dying.  Private public partnerships are the future of rural America.  Data shows that you have to have the ability for government to think outside the box and you have the ability of private citizens wanting to invest in rural American to make it grow.  The budget is a big deal and controlling it is really important because that’s really what you guys have been voted into office for and having elected officials go over budget, it’s been happening a lot of years.  You can’t wave a magic wand and get rid of elected officials.  Jim stated that with Susan helping us to monitor it differently we ought to be able to tell elected officials in October that you have to do something different.  Justin said that you can make the suggestion to the elected official to watch their budget closer.  Anne asked how to find out how many times this official has gone over budget and Susan said she could give her the answer.  Justin stated that no one has ever asked that question.

During Commissioner Comment, Lynne announced there would be no meeting next week as the commissioners will be attending the KAC meeting.  The next week there is early voting so there will be no meeting.  Jim suggested that week be used for a lunch with the city as a group and talk.  Susan said she would check and see if that can be worked out and let them know.  Jim made a motion that we will not have a meeting in this commission room on October 19^th because of KAC, October 26^th due to early voting and November 2^nd because of the election with the possibility of meeting with the city of Fort Scott at lunch on the 26^th with the possibility of all three commissioners.  Clifton seconded.  All approved.

Clifton made a motion to amend the agenda to allow Mr. Hoyt some comment time as he was not here during public comment time.  Also, allowing Rob Harrington some time at the podium as he was not here during that time.  Jim seconded.  All approved.

Michael Hoyt asked about early voting.  Ashley stated that she is working on the schedule and lining out people to work and planning to do an evening and a Saturday morning if possible.  Michael invited everyone to the VFW hall to witness a presentation that he will present on a veteran’s road to 100% disability.

Rob Harrington stated that he was there to ask the county commission a very specific question.  There is the McDonald Hall building downtown Fort Scott.  It is a very important building to the downtown area.  It is the second oldest building in Fort Scott, built in 1865 I believe.  The condition of that building has been deteriorating for the last four years while the taxes have not been paid.  The taxes are currently $15,635.78.  What I’m asking from the commission today is to agree to waive that upon the purchase of the building by a new individual and on condition that the building be renovated and then used thereby raising the property values.  Jim asked if that was the old Chop House building.  Rob stated that the entire building is actually three spaces but one of the spaces have already been redone and is being used in the antique store.  Those facilities are dilapidated.  They have not been taken care of.  When the assessor goes in there the assessment will probably be lowered on that facility because of the condition it’s in and so what I’m asking is the county to agree to waive the $15,600 on the condition that the new owner renovates the facility to therefore making it assess at a higher value.  Jim asked if the county taxes only would be waived.  Justin Meeks confirmed.  Jim continued with if the new owner does nothing with the building do we have the power to put them back on.   Clifton stated that we would be setting a precedent.  Justin Meeks stated that this is the first time this has happened in the time I’ve been county counselor.  He went on to say that he presents the potential new owners so he didn’t want to create any conflict.  I can answer questions that are broad-based but I can’t answer any questions that would be specific to that building.  I wanted full disclosure so if you need to get another attorney to answer those questions.  Lynne asked if the taxes weren’t waived that would hinge on the sale?  Rob confirmed it would and the building’s just going to continue to dilapidate more.  I do not believe the current owner will end up paying.  It’s been four years since they’ve paid and that’s why it’s such a high amount.  Clifton asked what the city’s position is on this as it is in the city limits.  Susan stated the city has been working with the owner to gain access and to try and find a buyer.  Jim asked if the city was going to waive their portion of the taxes.  Susan stated she couldn’t answer that.  Lynne said that would be nice to know.  Susan stated that they could make it contingent on that.  Jim made a motion for the county to waive its portion of the back taxes on the Chop House/McDonald building downtown Fort Scott contingent on the city of Fort Scott waiving their portion of the taxes as well and depending on the sale and this is not sold and renovated the taxes will be reinstated.  Clifton seconded.  All approved.  Clifton did say that he is very concerned of the precedent that we are setting.

At 11:31am, Jim made a motion to adjourn, Clifton 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:

Ashley Shelton, Bourbon County Deputy Clerk

November 9, 2021, Approved Date