At the end of his department update report to the Bourbon County Commission, Public Works Director Eric Bailey read his letter of resignation. Effective August 28, he will no longer be with Bourbon County. His assistant, Dustin Hall has also left the county’s employ.

“I just want to say publicly, ‘thank you, Dustin,” said Bailey. He also thanked Hall’s family for their sacrifice.

Bailey said he is committed to helping transfer the responsibility of his job to his replacement.

“With those two resignations, I am fearful for our public works department,” said Commissioner Mika Milburn.

Commissioner Samuel Tran said he is very sorry to see Eric and his wingman leaving. “I understand why they chose to leave. I’m not happy about it, but I understand,” he said.

Old Business

NRP Update

The commission voted to change the NRP from 10 years to five years for residential in the county. This does not affect the City of Fort Scott.

Budget Advisory Committee

Milburn moved to amend the bylaws for the BAC to say that a recommendation to increase the mil needs to be unanimous on the part of the committee.

Tran agreed and told BAC chairman, Greg Motley, “Based on the fact that your recommendation carries so much weight and it’s high-profile and we need your recommendation…I’m going to say ‘yes,’ it needs to be unanimous.”

The bylaw change passed unanimously.

Public Comments for Items Not on The Agenda

Michael Hoyt: Gave a copy of Rosenberg’s Rules, which is recommended by the Kansas Association of Counties to each of the commissioners, as well as copies of the US Constitution.

He also asked for clarification about the timeline of the changeover from 3 to 5 districts. He was also concerned about the township changes in District 3 going forward.

Greg Motley: On the Freeman Fort Scott Board of Directors, said that it was brought to his attention that the second quarter sales tax has not been paid to Freeman by the county. They are operating at a huge cost because they’ve already hired all the staff.

New Business

Commissioner roles and responsibilities

Commissioner Samuel Tran suggested the commissioners take on the role of liaisons to facilitate the commission’s helping of county department chairs. He offered to be the liaison for public works, suggesting Milburn for the departments housed in the courthouse, and Beerbower for emergency responders and sheriff’s department.

The goal would be for the commissioners to work to seek to understand what the department’s do and what the challenges are and be their voice in the commission. Commissioners would continue to help in all areas, but specify areas of focus.

“I’m agreeable to it,” said Beerbower. “I see the merits…”

“You wouldn’t be wasting your time if you drafted a proposal,” said Milburn.

Scott Township Appointment Recommendations

Jerry Johnson as Treasurer and Jeffrey Dailey as trustee for Scott Township were approved by the commission.

Enterprise Vehicle Leasing

Sheriff Bill Martin brought Kenneth Olson with Enterprise to talk to the commission about changing the way vehicle acquisition and maintenance is handled in the county.

Olson said that his company has the largest used vehicle inventory in the country and the largest dealer network in the country, which helps them in their work of getting vehicles for small to medium-sized government fleets.

At this time, the average age of Bourbon County sheriff’s cars is 2018. The current fleet cycle is 16 years, purchasing 2.7 vehicles per year. Olson’s company recommends a 5-year cycle, which he said would save the county in maintenance and fuel costs as well as reduce downtime. He recommended that the Sheriff’s Department lease 11 new vehicles.

“We know this is a big philosophy change,” from the 2.7 vehicles per year the county has been following, he said.

Sheriff Martin said that his department needs to create plans for vehicle replacement going forward.

“This is probably one of the best things that we’ve come up with,” said Martin. “I think it’s a win-win for everybody.”

Milburn expressed concern about having the money in the budget.

“The macro looks right…When it’s all said and done, it looks very, very good,” said Tran. H

Addressing the two other commissioners, Tran said, “Past commissioners have done what they’ve done. I refuse to do that. I refuse to have my decisions have these ramifications that are going to haunt us in the future.”

Greg Motley of the Budget Advisory Committee, said that leasing through Enterprise makes perfect sense as it has a built-in replacement plan. He offered to have the budget committee look at it and give their opinion.

“The commission has to avoid making decisions on how much money it’s going to cost them this month. You have to look at this program on a 4-6 year horizon and say ‘what’s it do over that period of time?'” said Motley. “We’ve got to start thinking long term for what’s best for the county and not what’s best for the county today or tomorrow.”

No decision was made.

Contractual services for payroll and benefits

Milburn said that a presenter will come on July 21st. The purpose is to provide continuity to the county, and to answer the Clerk’s office’s request to add another position to handle their workload in the next budget year, by taking this part of their job off their plate.

Beerbower said that if it will be beneficial to the county moving forward, he is in favor.

Commission Comments

Tran: He said that the county’s standards haven’t been clear and now “we have to form; you have the storm; then we’ll norm, and then perform…that’s how you build a team.” He said the county is in a storm now. He wants to find a way to give everyone who serves the county what they need to do their jobs well.

Milburn: “I’m not pleased with the current decisions that we are having to make on such short notice; however, I will not continue down this path to deficit,” she said of the budget-making process. Spending will be evaluated by the budget committee and the commission to find a way forward that is least abrasive to the citizens of Bourbon County.

County Commissioners heard from Greg Motley, representing the newly-formed Budget Advisory Committee about whether or not the county should choose to go revenue neutral in the new budget.

The commissioners had to decide this question and notify County Clerk Susan Walker as well as set budget hearings by September 20 and submit their final budget to the clerk by October 1.

Motley said the committee plans to have all the data that they need to make final budget decisions significantly before the hearing date deadline.

He said that thus far, the Budget Advisory Committee has been working on big picture stuff. They were awaiting the commission’s revenue neutral decision to dive into the details.

Almost everyone on the BAC has an accounting degree or other significant accounting experience. He said they have reviewed 6 years-worth of data on the county’s finances.

“I think we need to commend the people in this building, everybody contributes to that because our audits are absolutely clean, and especially the county clerk. She has delivered clean audit after clean audit after clean audit,” he said. “The integrity of the numbers is good and the committee has appreciated that.”

While the committee prefers the county be revenue neutral, or at least keeping the mill levy as low as possible, the reason they cannot recommend going revenue neutral is that the county is playing catch up.

“We’ve run down the cash reserves of the county,” he said. The current financial condition of the county would make bond approval very challenging, and if approved, the interest rates would be very high.

“We need to start building our cash reserves back to where they were several years ago,” said Motley, and it will take multiple years to do that.

“We’ve also robbed peter to pay Paul,” he said, “In that previous commissions had set a plan to do replacement reserves,” by transferring funds, but in order to balance the budget, they did not made those transfers to those reserves for equipment replacement.

The landfill has a sinking fund requirement by statute. The landfill needs to be covering that, not the public works department. The courthouse needs $1 million in deferred maintenance. Cost increases that are out of the commission’s control, including insurance costs, keep sky-rocketing across the nation. These are examples of why the county can’t go revenue neutral. Motley did say the BAC will be fighting to keep the mil levy where it is.

“We have interviewed virtually every department head and every elected official in the building,” and talked to individual employees besides that, he said. “The committee has been very impressed with the quality of the employees in this building. We have good people, and we have people that serve the public.”

The draft 2026 budget that the committee received calls for a 6 mil increase. The committee is not willing to go that high. After comparing all the data, the maximum that they can recommend is 62.5 mils compared to the current 59.9. Motley recommended they adopt that as the maximum rate and then work to lower it between now and Sept. 20 or Oct. 1 with the goal of not raising the mil at all and perhaps lowering it if we can, “But we’re facing a lot of headwinds.”

“We are going to be doing everything we can to make sure that rate is lower, but there’s a lot of things out of our control here, too,” he said. The problem didn’t start here, but with historical decisions by previous commissions.

“We have to find ways to save money,” said Commissioner Mika Milburn.

Commissioner David Beerbower said that the budget will require a lot of work.

“A budget is simply a spending priority and when you decide to spend less, something’s got to go,” Motley said. So the commissioners should be attending the budget advisory committee’s meetings and setting their priorities.

Commissioner Samuel Tran suggested telling department heads give the commission their top 3 priorities.

Beerbower moved that the commission extend the mil rate to 62.5 and set the hearing date for August 11 at 5:35pm.

The motion passed unanimously.