March 8, 2022 Tuesday 9:00 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners and the County Deputy Clerk present.
Ann Dare, Matt Crystal, Don Coffman, Clint Walker, Bill Martin, Jason Silvers, Ben Cole, Rob Harrington, and Matt Quick were present for some or all of the meeting.
Clifton made a motion to approve the previous meetings minutes. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Eric Bailey presented culvert permits. A culvert extension for John Burlow, 920th St, Moran, KS. Lynne made a motion to approve the permit. Clifton seconded. All approved. A culvert extension for Paul Hopkins at 2528 240th. Lynne made a motion to approve the permit. Clifton seconded. All approved. Thomas Russell at 135th & Maple for a culvert. Lynne made a motion to approve the permit. Clifton seconded. All approved. A new culvert for Larry Snyder a quarter of a mile north of 205th & 31 Hwy on the west side of the road. Lynne made a motion to approve the permit for Larry Snyder at 2379 190th St, Fulton, KS. Clifton seconded. All approved.
Eric presented the 2022 Management Plan for Noxious Weed Plan. Lynne made a motion to accept the plan. Clifton seconded. All approved. Next, Eric presented 2022 Annual Noxious Weed Eradication Progress Report. Lynne made a motion to accept the report. Clifton seconded. All approved.
Eric spoke on hay bids. He stated that the two usual spots are Elm Creek, Native Road and recommended the Radio Tower that has approximately 3 acres at 1131 250th St. This will be put out for bid for all three locations and the bids brought back to the commissioners.
Eric stated the bridge at 115th & Range is back open as of this morning. The next project will be at 30th & Ivory there is another void that we need to fill in.
Eric reminded everyone of the work session to be held next Tuesday, March 15th at 1pm. We’ll bring some prices on what we think it will cost to produce asphalt this year. Our 6422 oil is locked in at $560/ton through May.
Eric stated they are still working on the final punch list regarding Windmills. Spoke with Jeff Spangler yesterday and we are following the road use agreement.
Railroad crossing at 240th will be taken care of this Wednesday working with BSNF to extend the culvert. We will be looking at a couple of others as well.
Snow Removal & Mowing Bids – tabled until March 29th.
There was discussion of liquor sales in the county. Justin stated that we are a nonzoned county so we can follow state guidelines or make our own. Susan stated that the local alcohol tax is something that we’ve never received. One third goes to general fund, one third to special parks and one third to special alcohol fund. The
revenue coming off of that would be new to the county. Right now we levy for special parks and special alcohol so at least maybe we wouldn’t have to levy for that anymore. A resolution will be created and presented at the next commission
meeting.
Lora Holdridge discussed the 17 County Meeting that Bourbon County will be hosting in the fall. It was determined that September would be the better month. Exact date and other details will be determined at a later date. Lynne suggested inviting
Jay Hall, KAC Attorney to speak. Susan said she would give him a call when a date has been set.
Counselor Comments: Clifton made a motion for Executive Session KSA 75-4319(b)(1)
to discuss personnel matters of individual nonelected personnel to protect their privacy including 3 commissioners, Justin Meeks and Susan Bancroft for 7 minutes returning at 9:40am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to
return to normal session at 9:40am. No action. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Clifton made a motion for Executive Session KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personnel matters of individual nonelected personnel to protect their privacy including 3 commissioners, Justin Meeks, Susan Bancroft, and Dave Bruner for 10 minutes
returning at 9:53am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to return to normal session at 9:53am. No action. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Clifton made a motion to for Executive Session KSA 75-4319(b)(2) for consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship dealing with hospital contracts including 3
commissioners, Justin Meeks and Susan Bancroft returning at 10:14am. Lynne
seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to return to normal session at
10:14am with no action. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Finance Director Comments: Susan gave an update on financials. We have worked through January 31st. Patty is working on getting through February. We had another director meeting and had good discussions. I would like to put together an
administrative policy handbook. It will take a good year to get through it. It really talks through how we handle certain situations. Within that administrative policy handbook would also be our personnel handbook that we are working on. I’ve had
good feedback from most of the directors and elected officials. It’s been good for us to get together and work together on some things.
Public Comment: Anne Dare asked for clarification of audit violations and how they affect grants and why are we still in violation and why isn’t it cleaned up? What’s
going to be done different so we can get out of this cycle?
Susan responded to the questions as follows: The audit letter was dated September 10th, 2021. You are almost through 2021 completely when we got our final audit. Anything that happened before that period of time is going to be very difficult to change. Depending on the issue. October tax rolls is our biggest audit violation that we are going to have. Too much money was paid out to the taxing entities. It leaves our cash balances in a negative. We over paid and that couldn’t be corrected until the January distribution in 2022. In the January distribution she reduced the amounts paid out to the taxing entities. Nothing we can do about that. Stated it was a system error but I have no validation of that. I would need to go back through the CIC notes but that is something that Patty worked with CIC on. At the end of 12/31/21 there will be 50 funds in the negative. Reconciliation of cash in bank to the counties accounting records are complete we should not have a violation of that this year. We’ve tied out all the records and right now the things that I’m doing is to make sure we don’t have any budget violations. If a revenue is booked into an expense account that could show us understating our expenses. Those are the things I’m fixing. Things have not been coded correctly. Reconciliation of our annual tax roll. There will still be an audit violation for that. Public works billings that were fixed the very first part of 2021. Jennifer has done a great job in that area and has everything lined back out and approximately the $100,000 we were short has been collected. Maybe about $10,000 we are going to have to write off. We have put some controls in at the landfill and how they reconcile their cash everyday and we match it to a report. That was done at the end of 2020.
Preparation of financial statements. We are trying to get to a point where we are monthly producing something to give to the commission and department heads because they have not received a budget report in months. Getting things lined out in the Treasurer’s office has been challenging, but we are getting there.
There was another concern with inmate monies put into a separate checking account and how those monies are deciphered. That is internal controls that we need to work on with the Sheriff’s and Corrections departments. That will be the next big thing we will tackle.
County Attorney’s diversion funds, same situation as the inmate funds. Concern with rotation of duties. The reason you have rotation of duties is to catch any kind of fraud that could potentially be going on.
In the Clerk’s office, they have several different people that do vouchering and checking those things. We’ll have to get to the same type of situation in the Treasurer’s office.
When you ask about grants, it specifically asks you on these federal grants have you had any audit violations? I have to answer that, yes. It then asks what type of violations? The ones I would be really concerned with is the billings which means we didn’t have a very good internal control system. The preparation of financial statements is a big one. Not matching cash in bank to accounting records is another big one. We are not going to show favor with those kinds of violations. We will still have some violations for 2022.
Don Coffman asked if there was a policy in place for the whistles being put in. Is there a certain size limit? Jim stated we have a very extensive handbook on culverts, right-of-ways, easements, etc. If it is a big ditch, we’ll do a water hydraulic study from Ag Engineer. They then tell us what size. If it is a standard ditch we just match it up.
Elected Official Comments: No comment.
Commission Comment: Lynne stated that the commission meeting for March 22nd will be at 6pm, City Hall in Uniontown. Jim stated that it’s time for the Commissioners to pay their dues to the Kansas County Commission Association. Lynne made a motion to continue membership in the KCCA. Clifton seconded. All approved.
At 10:29am, Clifton made a motion to adjourn. Lynne seconded. All approved.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Jim Harris, Chairman
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Commissioner
___________________, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Doretta Neville, Bourbon County Deputy Clerk
March 15, 2022, Approved Date
