FORT SCOTT — Bourbon County commissioners voted Monday night to remove Chairman Samuel Tran from the chair and elected Commissioner Gregg Motley to replace him, roughly two and a half hours after a resident stood at the public comment table and asked Tran to step down.
Commissioner Joe Allen was elected vice chairman. Motley was elected on a 3-2 vote, with Tran and Commissioner Mika Milburn-Kee dissenting; Allen was elected unanimously. With about seven minutes left before the commission’s 8:30 stop time, after certifying the election results, the board then voted to table the remainder of its agenda until the next meeting, two weeks out.
Tran, who has four months left in his term, declined an invitation to step aside voluntarily before the vote was taken.
A resident asks first
The request came first from the public. During public comment, resident Josh Jones told Tran he had watched the previous meeting and the past year of the commission’s work and did not think Tran was suited to the chair. (video, 0:15:36)
“You’re due here to keep the meetings orderly and peace, and so far, they’ve been out of control, and that directly relies on you,” Jones said. “I come here today asking you to step down from chair. I mean, I don’t know you, you seem like a good guy, but I just don’t think you’re the right man for this.”
Jones then named the commissioner he wanted to act if Tran refused. “I would ask for you to make the motion to replace Chairman Tran if he so chooses not to step down,” he said, addressing Allen as his district commissioner.
Allen did not make the motion. He seconded it when it was made later.
“I’m the lightning rod right now”
The question returned at the end of the meeting, under a new business item listed as “Vice Chair Resignation.” (video, 2:45:59)
Commissioner David Beerbower resigned as vice-chair, citing his platform of the need for change and the current attitude that the positions of chairman and vice chairman “have become confused with command and control rather than on of guidance and leadership. Leadership is not a title. Leadership is stewardship,” he read from his resignation statement.(video, 2:46:03)
“I respectfully call upon the chairman to consider following the same example and allow another commissioner an opportunity to lead. This is not criticism of service, but an affirmation of a principle: leadership renewal strengthens public institutions,” Beerbower read at the end of his statement.
Motley put it to Tran directly. “Mr. Chairman, would you consider stepping down and allowing us to vote on new leadership tonight?” he asked. (video, 2:51:00)
Tran declined. “No, not tonight,” he said. “I made a promise to some people. It wasn’t a position that I sought, but it was a position that was given. I understand that there’s a lot of turmoil that happened within this building. I think part of it is a growing pain. I think there’s a path forward now.”
In a longer answer, Tran acknowledged the criticism directed at him while defending how he had run the board.
“I’m the lightning rod right now, and I understand that, and I own that,” he said. (video, 2:51:35) “I have never, to my knowledge, I don’t ever remember dictating anything from this position. I’ve always tried to let you guys say what you want to say, do what you want to do. The quorum is the quorum. But when you have very passionate people sitting here and have very passionate views, they’re going to say what they want to say, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Tran said the same friction had occurred under previous chairmen and would occur under the next one. “And right now, I am the lightning rod. And one day, I won’t be the lightning rod. But I have four months left, and I intend to, barring anything from you guys, I intend to finish out my term and do the best that I can.”
Motley then moved that the commission vacate the chairman position and hold an election for chairman and vice chairman that evening, and that the deputy clerk run the election. (video, 2:53:03) Allen seconded. The motion carried 3-2, with Tran and Milburn-Kee voting against.
Acting County Clerk Michael Hoyt came to the table and ran the vote. (video, 2:54:04) Allen nominated Motley for chairman, seconded by Beerbower; Motley nominated Allen for vice chairman, also seconded by Beerbower. Motley was elected 3-2, Tran and Milburn-Kee dissenting. Allen was elected unanimously.
Tran closed with a brief statement. “I do appreciate the opportunity to be chairman. It’s been fun. It’s been real,” he said. “I wish everybody the best of luck in their current position. I have no hard feelings against anybody. It is the nature of this beast, and it is a beast. So best of luck, gentlemen.” (video, 2:55:26)
Tran pressed for the clerk’s full statement in the minutes
Earlier in the same meeting, Tran had objected to how the minutes of the previous meeting recorded County Clerk Susan Walker’s resignation — the statement in which Walker rebuked Tran directly.
Reviewing the draft minutes, Tran said he had no issue with the narrative but that the summary did not go far enough. (video, 0:05:31)
“I think it would be a disservice to the county if we did not include the whole verbage of that resignation statement,” he said. “That resignation statement needs to be in the minutes.”
Told that including it in full would roughly double the length, Tran said that was acceptable and explained his reasoning. “What happens in the future, the minutes tend to be the things that people pull and people reference,” he said. “Very few people go back through and look at the actual documents.” (video, 0:06:39)
The commission tabled approval of the minutes until a corrected version is produced. Tran also asked whether Walker’s resignation letter had yet been sent to the governor, saying the county was “in limbo” until the vacancy is formally recognized. (video, 2:32:40)
Walker announced her resignation, effective Aug. 31, at the commission’s Aug. 10 meeting, telling Tran that his behavior toward her had “crossed every reasonable line” and accusing him of open disrespect and sexist comments. Hoyt, her deputy, was named acting clerk and has been running the office since.
When Walker resigned, several of her staff also left the clerks office. Hoyt is running the office as deputy clerk with one other employee.
An attempted abstention, then an abstention
Early in the meeting, Milburn-Kee asked to set aside a $3,485.21 invoice from MSB Law, the firm conducting the county’s review of the donation agreement covering the former Mercy hospital property. She said the invoice covered an opinion letter she had not been able to obtain. (video, 0:07:56)
“I’ve been trying to track down the opinion letter, and I’ve not been able to get it,” she said. “So we paid $3,400 for it, and they won’t give you an opinion letter?” (video, 0:08:16)
Motley explained that the firm was only able to go through half of the data and thus could not submit a full analysis. When the commission voted to stop funding the effort, the firm stopped analyzing: “There is no opinion letter in that account… They got through about half of it, so you can’t give an opinion letter based on half review.”
Told the board intended to approve the payables regardless, Milburn-Kee said she would abstain. Tran ruled that she could not. “In order to abstain from the vote, you have to have a conflict of interest,” he said. “I’ll just vote no,” she replied. (video, 0:12:11) The accounts payable, totaling $129,800.18, were approved.
Roughly two and a half hours later — after Tran had been removed from the chair — Milburn-Kee abstained. Asked to approve Resolution 27-26 finalizing the results of the Aug. 4 primary election, canvassed shortly before the meeting began, she said she had not read it. “I’d like to look at it. So, I mean, you have enough to pass it. I’ll just abstain,” she said. (video, 2:56:28) The resolution passed. The commission adjourned moments later.
Budget, radios and EMS
Before the leadership vote, the commission worked through a long agenda, most of it budget-related.
Budget consultant Matt Lawn of Baker Tilly presented preliminary operating fund pages. Milburn-Kee asked him to evaluate holding every department at revenue neutral and splitting the roughly two mills of increased valuation between the general fund to increase cash reserves and the employee benefits fund, “sharing the burden of the increase.” (video, 0:42:47) Lawn said he is “in favor of looking at that.”
Milburn-Kee also flagged the landfill, which the county treats as self-supporting. “The landfill is a fee-funded operation. However, we’re not figuring in their benefits. So it’s not 100% fee-funded. The mill is carrying the benefits,” she said. (video, 0:44:27)
Commissioners heard a presentation on a countywide emergency radio system estimated at roughly $14.5 million in infrastructure plus about $6.3 million in long-term maintenance.
“It’s something that we need desperately because it’s mandated, number one, and number two, it’s officer safety,” said Sheriff Bill Martin.
The system would be shared with the City of Fort Scott: “I don’t expect the county to foot the whole bill. I expect participation from the city,” said Martin.
Tran pressed on how the county would guard against cost overruns once bids came back. Milburn-Kee questioned the financing against the equipment’s lifespan: “It’d be silly to get a 30-year bond if the life of the materials is only 17 years.” (video, 1:58:41)
EMS Directory Teri Hulsey talked with the commission about the financial information she had gathered from the EMS department’s billing company, Omni. Currently, the EMS department is nearly $60,000 ahead in receipts compared to where they were last year.
The commission approved an EMS hire after discussion of an overtime-heavy schedule, with Milburn-Kee confirming the position was covered in the benefits budget. Commissioners also discussed election administration costs, including ballots that must be approved by the Secretary of State before the November election, and deferred a decision on the county’s human resources contract until the first meeting after Labor Day.
Old business items, including allocation of space, were tabled.