Some readers have asked if KSA 19-548 would make the County Treasurer liable for fines for leaving names and addresses off the newspaper publications.

Should any county treasurer neglect or refuse to make and publish the statement provided for in this act, he shall be liable to a fine of twenty-five dollars ($25) for each and every day he shall refuse or neglect to make such publication, to be recovered by an action at law against said treasurer, said action to be brought in the name of the board of county commissioners of the proper county. (KSA 19-548)

The language of this statute appears to refer to the neglect or refusal to make the publication at all. Other statutes appear to address situations where properties were left off of the publication.

Since delinquent properties were published in the paper–even though they were incomplete–this statute probably doesn’t apply.

The only way it could apply would be look at KSA 19-547:

 In addition to the duties required by K.S.A. 79-2101, and amendments thereto, each county treasurer, within 10 days after October 1 of each year, shall cause a statement to be published with respect to unpaid or partially unpaid delinquent personal property tax returns made by the sheriff as of October 1. Such statement shall be published once each week for three consecutive weeks in the official county newspaper or in a newspaper of general circulation in the county in accordance with the provisions of K.S.A. 64-101, and amendments thereto. The statement shall show the name of each delinquent or partially delinquent taxpayer, listed alphabetically, appearing on such returns, followed by the taxpayer’s last known address and by the total amount of unpaid taxes, penalties and costs. The cost of such publication shall be paid from the general fund of such county, and $15 shall be added to the tax due as part of the costs of collection, to be collected in the same manner as provided by law for the collection of the delinquent tax. (KSA 19-547)

One might be able to argue that if the publication wasn’t made according to KSA 19-547, it doesn’t count. However, that would probably be a bit of a stretch. Other statute talk about how the even leaving a property off of the publication doesn’t invalidate it.

According to the eMissourian, Paul House of Harvest Ministries and his wife were both sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay over $80,000 in restitution for Social Security fraud.

The sentence means the House’s avoided the expected jail term.

Harvest Ministries owns the old Western buildings down town where the planned to put in a television studio and medical testing facility.

You can read more details in our previous story about Harvest Ministries and the building.

The buildings have enough unpaid taxes that they should be listed on the upcoming tax sale. However, since they were not published in the past, they will have to wait to be sold until they have been published for three years.

There is a scholarship  available from the Kansas County Clerk’s and Election Officials’ association. Details from the press release follow:

February 15, 2012

NEWS RELEASE: SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION

The Kansas County Cler’s and Election Officials’ Association is taking scholarship applications from those students that are majoring in Journalism, Political Science or Communications. The scholarships are available to High School Seniors or College Freshmen or Sophomores.

The monies from these scholarships are made available by the effort put forth by local Election Officials and Supervising judges of the State of Kansas. Each is asked to call a toll free number and report to the Voter News Service, specified races in the General Election.

The Voters News Service collects and tabulates a single, accurate set of election returns for broadcast and publication throughout the nation and abroad for the Associated Press, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and United Press International.

Due to joint efforts of the County Clerks, Secretary of State’s Office and the Voters News Service, the Scholarship Committee will be awarding 10 scholarships in the amount of $500.00 each.

Applications may be picked up at your school or at the County Clerk’s Office and all applications must be returned to your local county clerk or mailed to Inge Luntsford, 130 N. Spruce, Kingman, KS 67068, on or before April 3, 2012.

The scholarship winners will be announced at the County Clerk’s and Election Officials’ Association Seminar in May. The County Clerk from the recipient’s county will award them a their local school awards assembly.

The BOCO Review is a new weekly newspaper that will start publishing next month. They have launched their website at www.thebocoreview.com. You can subscribe to the paper from their website. Local residents pay $38.50 for 52 issues of the paper with slightly higher rates for non-local subscriptions. Subscriptions to the online paper can be had for as little as $25 per year.

Roads

The heavy rains have shut down one road in the county that has become impassible due to mud. The Commissioner’s discussed TWorks funds and how to best make use of the funding that is available. There are $270,000 available and Bourbon County has plans for $100,000 of it.

The commissioners went into Executive session to discuss non-elected personel with Marty. No action was taken.

John Wonderly from Fulton

Asked if they could get a white line on old 69 high way from 54 to the county line.  He also said that there was a big bump in one of the bridges and wondered if it could be fixed. Chairman Coleman said that the cost of adding a line would be very expensive and at this time the county doesn’t have the funds to add lines to that road.

He was also concerned that the Fulton City Attorney (Valorie Lebanc) was requesting more funds for an assistant. He doesn’t understand how she can work for both the county of Bourbon County and the City of Fulton and wanted to make sure that she wasn’t spending time she is being paid for Bourbon County to do work for the Fulton City Court.

He was recently served a summons from the City of Fulton due to farm equipment and trash and said that he would have preferred if someone had just have come to talk to him about it.

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Schweikert

They were concerned about a creek that had sticks and tree limbs clogging it up. The Chairman said that they would probably need to talk to the State of Kansas about it.

There was also concern about the planned walking trail along the Marmaton River. They said that there was land that would come back to them from the vacated railroads and they had heard that the property was going to the trail instead of coming back to them. Mr. Endicott said that he had heard the railroad was going to be using that area again. The Scheweikert’s said they would prefer to have trains using the property rather than a trail because she doesn’t want four wheelers in that area. She was also concerned that the trail would push out the wildlife.

Mr. Endicott said that the Riverfront Authority was running into some problems securing some of the property they need for the trail so he said they didn’t need to be concerned about it for awhile.

The commissioners were asked why they requested $5,335.67 from the Treasurer’s bond through KCAMP and not the additional $1,130 that was mentioned in the audit. They said that since the $1,130 wasn’t directly from the period being audited, they didn’t feel they could pursue it based on the audit.

KCAMP has stated that they intend to pursue reimbursement from Susan Quick (County Treasurer).

The county was not clear if collecting on the bond would change the Treasurer’s ability to run for office. However, it appears that it doesn’t.  People running for public office are not required to be bondable to run, but certain positions must be bonded to serve. The county pays the fee for bonds for elected officials. It appears that pretty much anyone will be bondable but the cost may be much greater depending on the risk. It is unclear if the county would be responsible for the bond at any cost or if there there is a limit to the amount the county will pay.

The county attorney came to see the commissioners to ask what they intended to do with the check the received from KCAMP. Susan Quick (County Treasurer) previously asked the commissioners to send the check back to KCAMP. She suggested that the money could be paid from the Treasurer’s office budget or that the Treasurer’s office could attempt to recover the funds from the companies and individuals the underpaid.

Susan Quick (Treasurer) had told the Terri Johnson (County Attorney) that the commissioners had told her that they were required to go after the bond. Terri Johnson said there was no specific statute requiring them to go after the bond, but an argument could be made that they would not be fulfilling their duty to the county if they didn’t pursue it.

Chairman Coleman brought up the fact that Susan Quick said that these were errors from the computer. The commissioners said they wanted to be careful that they aren’t overstepping their bounds in making the claim and they also want to make sure they aren’t picking on an individual. After some discussion, they decided it was within their responsibilities and voted to go ahead and cash the check.

KCAMP told Terri Johnson that it is very rare that a claim against a bond comes in.

Angie Timi requested a speed limit on East Kansas RD because of the high speed of vehicles on that road. She was concerned about how fast people drive down the road and that there would be an accident. The commissioners voted to put in a speed limit sign on that road.

There was some discussion about properties that were annexed by the city, but feel that they have not been provided the promised city services and would like to be de-annexed. Terri Johnson has requested documents from the city showing how the properties were originally annexed to see what options they may have.

Marty found out that TWORKS would pay for the sign that was part of the request for a sign and flashing light over at Uniontown.

Brian Snyder presented a signed petition to close Willow at 135th street to try to keep people from driving out in his fields to go “off roading.”