Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin. Submitted photo.
Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin is unhappy with the raises of administrative county employees, he said. He would have preferred giving input into raises in his office, including the one given him by the Bourbon County Commissioners.
A raise for elected officials became effective Dec. 15, 2019, according, to Bourbon County Commission minutes. This raised the clerk and treasurer’s salary to $47,248 annually, the register of deeds to 44,821 and the sheriff’s salary to $60,000.
Martin said in his budget request he had asked for a three-percent raise for all his employees.
“I did not request that large amount” for the sheriff’s position, he said.
There were no across-the-board raises given by the commission.
Martin said he was not aware of any raises until he received an email from Bourbon County Clerk Kendall Mason on Dec. 18, 2019.
“At no other time was any raise amount ever discussed with me by the commission, not for myself or any member of my staff,” Martin said. ” I attended several commission meetings where I questioned the commission on budget figures for 2020 and, as usual, I was not ever given any answers. At no time after I submitted my 2020 budget did anyone on the commission engage myself or my jail administration in salary discussions.”
In 2015 Martin had paid for a wage comparison survey and presented it to that Bourbon County Commission because he wanted to bring the salaries of the county employees as a whole up to standard amounts.
He felt it fell on “deaf ears” at the time, he said. It was a different set of commissioners.
For the 2020 Sheriff’s Office budget he had requested a three percent raise for his employees.
Instead, Martin’s salary was raised from $45,000 to $60,000.
He contends that discussions with him and his staff would have been beneficial to the decision making process.
“I am never provided with verbal information or written information as to where the money is put, cut or moved to in the budgets,” Martin said. “My door is always open for any discussion.”
Martin has two salaried employees.
“One of the two fell below the new income guideline set by the Federal Wage Law and the US Department of Labor,” Martin said. “A captain at the correctional center fell under this ‘salaried employee category’ and therefore is required by law to have a salary increase. If this wage increase is not performed, this employee would be eligible for overtime. I can assure you that increasing this wage is far less harmful than allowing this employee to request overtime hours for all the overtime he works. I am still unaware if this salary increase has been added to the correctional center budget. The commission was made aware of this federal law… several months ago.”
Martin said the responsibility of the sheriff’s office falls to him.
“I am the face and the buck stops with me, so to speak, but they are the men and women with their lives on the line every, single day and every single night. Christmas, Easter, Monday through Sunday. They sign up to make a difference in their community where they live. It’s nice to be thanked and appreciated and compensated to prove yourself worthy.”
“Top-Heavy”
The county has two many administrative positions, Martin said.
“Our county is now so top-heavy with administration that the people in the offices and on the road and doing the jobs are unable to receive any fair raises and are far from a competitive wage for the jobs they are doing,” Martin said. “Our county has a road and bridge supervisor that makes over $60,880 a year plus benefits. This county has a part-time, county counselor who makes $64,000 a year for 25 hours a week and has a private practice on the side; this is in addition to the county attorney who makes $50,000 a year. This county now pays (not attacking the person) an economic development director… $70,000 a year plus benefits. As of January 1, we have a sheriff making $60,000., a county clerk, making $47,248 a treasurer making that same amount and a register of deeds making $44,821…We have three county commissioners who make $21,416 (each) per year plus benefits, which is another $64,248 plus benefits in a year.”
” I have been requesting additional deputies every year since I have taken office and every year, I am told that there is no money to spend, budgets are close, overspending and overtime are out of control,” Martin said. “Yet, we have almost $200,000 in salaries for administrative staff, who hold jobs that should be performed by our road and bridge director and crews, the elected county clerk, our elected county attorney, and our elected county commission. $200,000 would pay for other staff raises, staff who are on the ground working.”
“It would pay for a much-needed school resource officer for Uniontown Schools plus a courthouse security officer, which is mandated by the state,” he said. “I cannot get anyone to understand that when you pay a deputy a $35,000 a year salary, you are better off to hire two more deputies on the force and reducing the $60,000 in overtime pay. I am contending that if they would not have raised my pay $15,000, they could have very easily allowed me to hire one new deputy and they would have been ahead money. Where did all this money come from and how do we put these jobs back in the hands of the people who were elected to do them and eliminate all the huge salaries that we are paying right now.”
The sheriff’s office operates around the clock much like an ambulance service or hospital does, he said. And some of his employees are struggling financially.
“People do a great job for great pay,” Martin said. “People do a decent job for decent pay and proud people show up to work to draw a wage rather than go on welfare. Some of my employees can claim state insurance benefits for their families and that is shameful to think that we cannot provide a wage above the poverty level… I also have other employees who work two and three jobs and I cannot control what my employees do outside their duty time… during my time as a deputy, I worked three jobs to provide for my family and pay my bills.”
Photo from L to R: Logan Geiger, Maddie Ard, Clay Brillhart, Braden Griffiths and Coach Scott Sutton.
The Uniontown FFA Meat Evaluation team recently brought home 4th place honors at the National Western Roundup Meat Evaluation contest held in Fort Collins, Colorado. Uniontown earned the opportunity to represent the state of Kansas in the contest with their state runner-up finish this past May.
The contest consisted of placing classes, beef grading, retail identification, questions, meat formulation problems and a written exam. After completing all of the above on Saturday, January 11th on the campus of Colorado State University, the team ranked 3rd in Beef Grading, 4th in Placings, 6th in Retail Identification and 4th overall.
Clay Brillhart led the team individually with a 7th place finish overall. He also ranked 8th in the placing category and 8th in the retail identification division. Maddie Ard finished 17th overall, Braden Griffiths was 5th in Beef Grading and ranked 21st overall, and Logan Geiger ranked 24th in Retail Identification. The team is coached by Uniontown FFA Advisor Scott Sutton.
Lynne Oharah, District One Bourbon County Commissioner. Submitted photo
Bourbon County Commissioners are trying to close the gap in wages for its’ elected officials, according to chairman Lynne Oharah.
Recently the commission raised four elected officials earnings with a combined total of $46,000.
At the Dec. 17, 2019 county commission meeting Ohara made a motion to approve a salary resolution for elected officials effective Dec. 15, 2019, according to commission minutes. This raised the clerk and treasurer’s salary to $47,248 annually, the register of deeds to 44,821 and the sheriff’s salary to $60,000. Commissioner Jeff Fisher seconded and all commissioners approved.
Ohara then made a motion approving a wage resolution for Bourbon County employees changing the following: the salary for the correctional center captain, the emergency preparedness director and the deputy county appraiser were raised to $35,568 annually to comply with the U.S. Dept. Of Labor standards for salaried employees. A Maintenance 5 position was added at a rate of $17.47 per hour. Commissioner Nick Ruhl seconded and all were in favor of those changes. The economic development director’s salary was changed to $70,000 a year on the same resolution.
Jeff Fischer, District 2 Bourbon County Commissioner.
Ohara made a motion to approve changing her salary to $70,000. He said that if Bourbon County gets an administrative fee from Phase 2 of the Healthy Bourbon County Grant then part of the $70,000 salary would be subsidized from the grant, Fisher seconded this motion, Ruhl voted against this motion, and the motion passed.
Nick Ruhl, District 3 Bourbon County Commissioner.
The following is an interview with Bourbon County Commissioner Lynn Oharah.
He started with a history of the raises.
“In 2015, Sheriff Martin contracted an agency to do a wage study to compare Bourbon County wages with other comparable counties because he thought there was a large wage disparity between Bourbon County employees and other like counties,” Commissioner Oharah said. “The county commissioners also accessed Kansas county wage information from the ks.gov website. The results indicated that Bourbon County wages were significantly behind our peers. The commissioners resolved to address these wage disparities and devised a plan to increase FTE (Full Time equivalent) positions first and address the next positions that had the most wage disparity, which happened to be the elected officials. Along with this effort we wanted to incentivize employees to continue working for the county and we did this by approving a $100 per year of service longevity pay increase.”
Where did the money come from to give the raises?
“We gave four elected officials raises when combined totaled $46,000.00. This money came from most of the departments managing their budgets and workforce which created a carryover from the 2015 and forward budget years. These wage increases did not increase the mill levy and this carryover gave us the resources to create a competitive wage with our peers although Bourbon County wages are still on the low side.”
What is the justification for the doubling of the earnings of the Bourbon County Economic Development Director?
“This position was initially created to see how the position could help the county,” Oharah said. “It was created with a minimum of 20 hours of work per week at $35,000 annual salary and we would look at the performance and scope to see if we needed to increase the hours and wages.”
“Our economic developer has been a great asset and for the first six months spent a lot of time helping get the Bourbon County Ambulance Service up and running along with the other duties.”
“Since then all Bourbon County businesses and government entities have been contacted and surveyed to address their needs and identify what’s important to them. Also, new businesses have been guided through the process of starting a business, grants have been written, the County NRP program has been implemented and coordinated under economic development. Meetings and plans regarding healthcare are ongoing with economic development highly involved. This is just naming a few projects that are ongoing and the time spent well exceeds what was required.”
“Based on the need, the commission voted to increase the economic development salary and scope. The salary was based on what was being paid to other economic development directors in our surrounding market and the Bourbon County Economic Development budget is still lower than most of our competitive counties.”
“Bourbon County needs to grow and prosper and we cannot get there by doing the same thing that we have been doing for the last 100 years,” Oharah said.
The commission meets on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. at the courthouse.
To contact Ohara: 620-223-3800, ext 110; Fisher at ext. 112 and Ruhl at ext. 111.
Carla Nemecek is Southwind District Director and agent.
Kansas State University provides you with research-based information through many avenues. Locally, your contact is the Southwind Extension District in Erie, Ft. Scott, Yates Center and Iola. Hundreds of publications and fact sheets, written by K-State researchers and specialists, are available through the university’s Publications Library, www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/ Another alternative is to research the information provided on the Southwind website, www.southwind.k-state.edu/ In 2020, we are working toward making more information and resources available to you in a digital format – but that initiative is a work in progress!
Not all of our services can be found on the internet. One of the most utilized resources is soil testing. K-State Research & Extension can test soil for $12 per sample or $10 apiece for two or more. Soil testing is recommended for gardeners, farmers, testing for lawn & turf problems, or pasture management. Feed and forage testing is also offered. The only way to know for certain the quality of the feed is to get a lab analysis of it, to take a forage test. A forage test may run from $12-24 per sample, depending on what you want the sample tested for. Other tests that are available include Radon Test Kits ($6) and Water Quality Testing resources.
Have you ever wondered what that unidentified pest or plant lurking around your home may be, or even how you can get rid of it? The Extension Office has expertise and resources available to identify pests that are common to our area and in Kansas. This includes home and crop insects, weeds, and various plants. We can also provide information on how to remove or control the pest, depending on your situation.
One of our “best kept secret” products that we offer for sale are odor neutralizers. Ecosorb ($28) is used in numerous homes, farm and industrial/commercial applications. Most of our clients seek this product to control the odor from fuel spills, mold smell, or skunk sprays. Neutroleum Alpha ($35) is a concentrated product utilized in a similar fashion to control strong odors. Because it is a concentrate, it can be used in a larger area.
This time of the year, we sell quite a few Farm and Family Account Books ($4.50 – $8.50). If you haven’t made the transition to computerized record keeping, this resource allows for an accurate accounting of your finances in a form that makes completing taxes easier.
Extension publications are very accessible to the public, and most are free if you pick them up in the Extension Office. The Kansas Garden Guide is a new publication that is available for only $6. If you are looking for resources on planning a garden, seeding & planting, or details about a specific crop, this publication is a must-have. Extension offers many, many publications on home gardening so please stop by if you are looking for something specific.
Area farmers and ranchers often utilize the Kansas Performance Tests for various crops to determine which varieties will grow best in this area of the state. Next month, the 2020 Hybrid Reports for Corn, Soybeans, and Grain Sorghum will become available in the Extension Office. This is in addition to the Wheat Seed Book that is always available in late summer after wheat has been harvested and data collected.
The 2020 Chemical Weed Control Guide will be published in January and provides suggestions for chemical weed control in several major crops. It offers recommendations, and guidelines for crop specific chemicals.
If you are involved in a club or organization that requests presentations, the Southwind District offers a “Speakers Bureau” brochure, which contains the public speaking topics offered by the Extension Agents. Let us help you with your educational topics during your meetings. We try to mail this to civic and social organizations on an annual basis, but you are also welcome to pick up a copy in any of our four offices.
As a consumer, you have many options for finding the answers to your questions. By choosing to use the Extension Service, you can be sure you are getting research-based, unbiased information. We encourage you to use the Southwind Extension District Offices in Erie, Ft. Scott, Yates Center and Iola to help answer your questions. Or you can find us on the web, www.southwind.k-state.edu/
Carla Nemecek
Southwind Extension District
Director & Agent [email protected]
620-365-2242
1 North Washington, Iola, KS 66749
Uniontown 4-H Club members have been busy preparing for the Southwind District 4-H Days by practicing their 4-H skit. The club will perform the skit, which is about 4-H facts, for judges at the event on February 1st in Moran.
On December 30th Uniontown 4-H Club members attended the Southwind District 4-H Skate Party in Chanute. Members skated and ate pizza with 4-H members from all four counties in the district.
About 60 attendees and opponents of the Jayhawk Wind wind turbine project in Bourbon and Crawford counties received a roadmap to derailing it at a meeting sponsored by opponents Thursday at the Rodeway Inn.
Opponents say they’ll now take their case to Bourbon County Commissioners at a county meeting set for Tuesday, January 14.
Organizer Kim Simons said she was pleased with the turnout of county residents who came to the meeting. A Facebook live stream of the event was viewed by more than 700 people not in attendance, she said, and was still posted on the group’s Facebook page for those who weren’t able to attend.
Opponents say they now plan to lobby Bourbon County Commissioners to withhold the approval of a road use agreement with the company, and for the adoption of a county zoning plan to protect residents from similar threats in the future, she said. Simons said the group would also network to prospective landowners to further explain details they might not know about the project and convince them not to sign leases for it.
The core of the opposition revolves around protecting county residents from the destruction of the natural vista of Bourbon County and a reduction in home values by the construction of what will in essence be a 28,000 acre power plant, Simons said Friday. Jayhawk Wind, owned by Apex Clean Energy has proposed the project in southwest Bourbon and Northwest Crawford counties and says the project will produce jobs and economic benefit, and enough electricity to power more than 70,000 homes.
“Maybe it can,” said Dane Hicks, a Garnett newspaper publisher and one of three speakers from Anderson County who successfully fought off a wind farm project there in 2017, “unless the wind doesn’t blow. What are you going to do when the wind doesn’t blow?” Hicks told those in attendance the wind industry is illegitimate because it is wholly kept alive by federal income tax credits for corporations which develop them, and by government mandates that force power companies to buy the electricity they produce.
“There’s no environmental benefit, there’s been no coal fired power plants shut down because of wind power, because when there’s no wind blowing you still have to have electricity,” Hicks said Friday. “You can’t just power a bunch of coal plants up and down on the power grid on a second’s notice based on if the wind’s blowing or not.”
A second speaker, Burt Peterson, provided a detailed review of the landowner lease submitted by the project in Anderson County and an attorney’s review of the language of the lease. Peterson said the lease, which was similar to other wind farm leases the group had reviewed, in essence ceded nearly all control over lease sites to the company including up to 500 foot easements for access roads and utilities, and even required landowners to pay the costs of litigation if there was ever a lawsuit brought in regard to the site.
“Our lawyer said it was unfathomable that a landowner would enter into a lease that restricts their rights like that,” Peterson said. “That lease is written for the explicit benefit of the company, and if you sign up you’re basically giving up any protections you might have.”
Another featured speaker, Mike Burns, CEO of AuBurn Pharmacies in Garnett and one of the landowners who was approached for the Anderson County project, said landowners had to be sure they read the lease fully and got a lawyer’s review of it. He said his experience in Anderson County led him to distrust these companies.
“I really didn’t know anything about wind farms either,” Burns said. “I’m all about economic development, but is it going to be good for our county or bad?” He said he asked the company representatives what property tax payments would be to the county and school district, ‘…and they said we’ll have to look into that.’
“It took me about ten seconds to Google it and find out that in Kansas they were exempt from property taxes, and I knew right then I was dealing with people who were not going to be completely honest.”
Burns stressed the need to press county commissioners to adopt a county zoning plan that set regulations and guidelines for wind farm development. He said everyone has the right to do what they want with their own property, but that right only extends to the point it damages someone else’s rights.
Lori Lovelace, a local appraiser, said from appraisals she had done in Coffey County, where a wind farm was constructed several years ago, and from other appraisals she had seen done of properties near wind farms, home values saw a reduction of some 20 percent.
Simons urged all county residents opposed to the project to attend the Bourbon County Commission meeting Tuesday, January 14. It has been announced that the commission meeting will start at 1:30. The commissioners will break at approximately 4:30 and then reconvene at 6pm. An agenda will be published Monday afternoon.
New Wave Appreciation Award, from left Taylor Crawford, Andi Garrett, Jennifer Terrell, Harry Lee, Kevin Lee, Jason Lee and David Lee.
Southwind Extension District 4-H Agent Jennifer Terrell presents New Wave Broadband with the 2019 Extension Appreciation Award.
New Wave was instrumental in assisting the Southwind District implement a new online system for 4-H entries and results for the Allen and Bourbon County Fairs. 4-H families utilized an online entry system in 2019, and results were available in real-time thanks to the cooperation of New Wave. Online results allow families near and far to see what 4-H members achieve with their projects.
The K-State Research and Extension Appreciation Award was authorized by the Extension administrative staff in 1977. Its purpose is to honor a person, business or organization who has made outstanding contributions to extension programs in a county or district.
The Southwind District Extension Board and Agents want to express their sincere gratitude to the New Wave Broadband for their support for Extension in Allen and Bourbon Counties and look forward for partnerships yet to come.
