“Everyone is dancing around the truth and getting irritated in the process.”

In early August, I started hearing rumors that concerned me greatly, rumors that something myself and many others over the years have considered our baby was dying.  That baby was the concept of what became Bourbon County REDI.  What follows is based on conversations with multiple former and current Bourbon County REDI board members, all of whom I know and respect, and none of whom contradicted each other in telling me about their time on the REDI board.  Author’s Note: I’m not including any names, because if anyone is going to take any nasty phone calls over this article, it will be me and me alone.  Just know this, prospective nasty caller(s) – unlike last time, I will have a recorder and some prepared questions ready, so fair warning.

Anyway, first some brief backstory:  Back in 2007, I was the Fort Scott City Commission’s representative on the Outside-In Economic Development Visioning Team.  Members of the team traveled to several other cities and counties, and a clear pattern quickly emerged – counties that were thriving economically had independent, staffed, public-private partnerships that handled economic development for both the county and the cities within.  After compiling a report, one of our team leaders (shout to Gary Palmer) gave a detailed, passionate presentation to the City Commission, but like pretty much any suggestion of substantial change back then, it went over like a fart in church. 

In the time since, neighboring counties like Allen County took the approach we proposed and have seen tangible results, while Bourbon County stayed pretty much where it was at…until 2021.  In 2021, I started hearing talk that Bourbon County might finally be getting its own version of Thrive Allen County. For the first time ever, we might have a fully staffed, independent, City and County supported economic development program – we were joining the 21st century!

A Promising Start

It started out very promisingly, with every major city and educational entity in the County buying in.  REDI ended up starting with 12 board members (13 if you included the Director).  I know that sounds incredibly high, but 10 of those members each represented local governments and entities – FSCC, USD 235, USD 234, Fort Scott, Uniontown, Mapleton, Fulton, Bronson, Redfield, and the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce.  Two members, including the then-President, were at-large, and the 13th was the Director.  I learned from my time on the City Commission that the various cities in Bourbon County have not all had the fondest views of each other over the years, so getting them all on the same page was an accomplishment in and of itself.  In 2022, the first ever County-Wide Visioning Meetings were held, not entirely unlike the Visioning Group I was a part of in 2007, but unlike that one, this one had buy-in from local leaders and would actually have its ideas taken seriously.  It had taken 15 years, but what I and many others had thought impossible was really happening.  Unfortunately, the honeymoon period would not last.

The Cracks Begin To Form

In late 2022, a rift between members of the Board emerged.  Some members, including the then-President, advocated pursuing a pork processing plant that started being discussed in 2021.  Other members advocated pursuing what later came to be known as the South Project, the STAR Bond Project, etc.  The County Commission’s representative on the Board led an ouster of the then-President, and the Board chose to focus on the South Project.  I think it’s important to mention that the then-President was the *only* Board member with any experience in city-scale commercial development, and by that I mean *Kansas City*-scale, not City of Fort Scott-scale.  On a side note, as of this writing, the land where the South Project is proposed to be located is not owned by REDI or any affiliated developers, but by a gentleman named Billy Madison, the developer of the now years in limbo pork processing plant.

You Cannot Serve Two Masters

At some point in 2023 I started hearing a rumor that I dismissed as baseless gossip – that the Director of REDI was not only working for REDI, but was also working for Legacy Healthcare, whom he had helped bring to Bourbon County, and to whom the County had given $2 million in ARPA funds and the former Mercy Hospital building (I won’t go into all the details of that – if you’d like those, pack a lunch and then click here).  I blew this rumor off because I assumed there had to be some bylaws in the REDI charter that specified any employee or contractor of REDI could not also work for private entities engaged in business with the County or City. 

This past summer, right around the time I started hearing those rumors of REDI’s impending demise, I took a look at the invoices Legacy had submitted to the County for the ARPA funds they had been given (all of which are public record and highly recommended if you have insomnia).  All of the invoices are run of the mill stuff like construction services, engineering services, supplies, etc, but two of them made my heart sink.  One of them was addressed to “Legacy Healthcare ℅ Rob Harrington” which is concerning, but not necessarily a smoking gun, but the other was addressed to:
“Legacy Healthcare VIA EMAIL:[email protected]”.

I’ve been in the I.T. field for 25 years now, and I have never worked for a company who provided an email address and paid for an email license for someone who wasn’t either an employee or a contractor.  After seeing these invoices, I started contacting REDI Board members who were active in 2023, and learned that the Director had at some point in 2023 switched from an employee of REDI to a contractor, while also contracting with Legacy, all with the Board’s consent.  Whether or not he is still involved with Legacy in any sort of paid capacity, I don’t know.

This opened up a can of worms in my mind – if the Director had been allowed to be employed by Legacy while he was also serving as the Director for REDI, had his consulting firm that advertises site selection services, or his think tank that specializes in wind in solar had any contractual involvement with the solar developers he was also negotiating PILOT agreements with on behalf of the County?  As a contractor or employee for Legacy, did he receive any compensation for any work he did for Legacy while also acting on behalf of the County, particularly if he was involved in the negotiations for the now finalized sale of the hospital building?  These are all hypothetical questions that I genuinely don’t know the answer to, but in allowing the Director to work for both Legacy and REDI simultaneously, in my opinion the REDI Board opened a Pandora’s box of possible ethical conflicts.

The Dream Dies

So back to this past August.  The rumors I mentioned earlier were that USD 234 was going to pull out of REDI due to lack of faith that REDI was producing anything of value for the community.  At this point REDI was down to only eight Board members, two of whom were at-large.  The others, mostly representing the smaller cities in the County, had all left of their own accord between 2022 and 2023 for largely the same reasons USD 234 was.  I quickly sent an email to several REDI board members I knew, giving them my thoughts on how they could start over, rebrand, and rebuild trust before the whole thing went up in smoke.  I quickly learned I was too late – the City of Fort Scott, the only government entity regularly funding Legacy, was also likely pulling out.  With them leaving, all that remained of what was once a 13 member board was now just six members, two of them at-large.  The vast majority of these members are good community leaders who see the writing on the wall and I believe want to try and help cushion the landing as best they can, but they have no illusion REDI in its current form will continue.  The City of Fort Scott has now severed their contract with REDI, and have created internal positions to handle the responsibilities it hoped REDI would.  While I can’t speak for the newly elected County Commissioners, I don’t believe any of them have any plans to support REDI once they are sworn in.

Something myself and many local leaders have dreamt of and fought for for over 15 plus years will now essentially cease to be after less than four years of operation.  My hope is that after the new County Commission is able to rebuild trust with the City governments, this concept won’t have to wait another 15 years to be given a shot again.

The $75,000 Question

Discussed at this past week’s December 19th County Commission meeting (and back on the agenda this Monday night) is a request from REDI to the County for $75,000 for services rendered.  I mentioned that the City at the time of its departure from REDI was the only one regularly funding it, and that’s because while I believe the County at some point in years past voted to fund it, they’ve played some weird political game of kick the can with actually providing that funding for the last year or two.  Currently there is no funding for REDI budgeted at the County for 2025, and even if there was, I don’t believe the incoming County Commission would actually fund it, nor would they be obligated to.  Which begs the question – what’s the point?  Did the County receive services in good faith from REDI?  Given what I know now, I can’t answer that question.  I don’t think anybody who looks at the facts could feel confident of that.  As someone who just cut a sizable property tax check to the County, I would prefer they *didn’t* spend that $75,000, but ultimately I don’t have a vote.

The quote at the beginning of this article is from a former REDI board member who texted me while watching the REDI presentation at the December 19th meeting. As a card carrying nerd, I’ll close with this quote from the movie The Dark Knight Rises:

“Maybe it’s time we all stop trying to outsmart the truth and let it have its day.”

Nick Graham
Uniontown, Kansas