October 11, 2022
Fort Scott City Commissioners
123 South Main
Fort Scott, KS
66701

RE: An Open Letter to Fort Scott City Council

Good evening Commissioners,
I am coming to you this evening with an update on your T–Mobile Home Town Grant. After giving it a lot of thought and consideration, the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team will be stepping away from the lead position of the Farmers’ Market T–Mobile Hometown Grant.

The T–Mobile grant was awarded to the City of Fort Scott in October of 2021. City Manager Kelley Zellner came to us in March 2022 to help lead the grant project because there had been no progress on the grant objectives since awarded. We agreed to take on the project as a good faith effort to work toward a common goal: to support the Farmers’ Market. Their success helps our
efforts in building resilient food systems and supporting economic growth in our community.

On April 19,2022 the commission made the decision to support this collaboration by unanimous vote, and appointed Commissioner Walker to attend meetings along with Bourbon County REDI
Director Rob Harrington.

In less than 6 months’ time as lead on the City’s grant, we have accomplished, at no charge:

1. Re–negotiating the terms on the grant to allow more flexibility with the timeline and the parameters of site location and expected outcomes
2. Obtained technical assistance from USDA for site selection, pavilion size/dimensions and renderings at no cost to the local community
3. Engaged the market vendors and completed a survey of needs for a successful farmers’ market
4. Held one on one conversations with community members, farmers’ market vendors and customers, and leadership at the National Historic Fort. We learned that the initial plans
for site location and pavilion were not fully approved by the merchants before renderings were submitted for the T–Mobile Grant and development did not include input from any
of these critical sources who will be directly impacted by the decisions made.
5. We discussed the project and parameters at length with The Fort Scott Historic Site leadership to ensure any concerns with parking, traffic, and the view of the Old Historic Site from Main Street are incorporated in the conversation and addressed.
6. We made intentional efforts and outreach to ensure stakeholders were invited to each conversation.
At the request of the commission, I sent an initial email to Commissioner Walker and Bourbon County REDI Director Rob Harrington to schedule a time that would work for all parties. I
received zero response.

At the September 8th meeting we had a virtual and in person meeting at the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team Headquarters. We had a room full of stakeholders and farmers’ market vendors to discuss these issues and to look at potential site locations with the USDA Technical Assistance on Zoom.

Commissioner Walker logged into Zoom late and left very early according to our records.
This is the only meeting on this subject that he has attended. At that meeting Commissioner Walker didn’t realize he wasn’t muted and made a comment with a negative connotation about
me personally and the location of the pavilion.

Farmers’ Market Vendors feel strongly the success of the market is dependent upon the location due to size, visibility from the highway, and proximity within downtown. They report being questioned by City Commissioners about the current location the market is held and “just how important it is” to be located within Skubitz Plaza.

It has become apparent our work is not being appreciated by those who will ultimately make the decision on its placement. It has been our experience the commissioner who was appointed by
you to inform your decisions on this T–Mobile Hometown Grant Project is unengaged, unresponsive, absent and uninformed.

Our work is to support the Farmers’ Market to be a success. The Healthy Bourbon County Action Team is not getting paid to take on this project; we took it on because we believe in collaborating to make our community the best it can be. I am not going to subject myself, my teammates, or my organization to this type of poison and disrespect.

We will direct our efforts to where they are most appreciated moving forward.

I am not going to make any further comments at this time. If you have any further input or recommendations, they may be emailed to me at [email protected] and I will discuss your feedback with the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team Board.

Thank you for your time,
Jody Hoener
The Healthy Bourbon County Action Team, Inc.
President and CEO
104 North National
Fort Scott, KS 66701

Submitted by Bourbon County Sheriff Wm K. Martin,

Preservation Amendment

This fall, a proposed amendment to Article 9 of the Kansas Constitution will be on the ballot.

Voters will be asked to decide a measure which requires the county sheriff to be elected in all Kansas counties with the exception of Riley County who consolidated law enforcement services
in 1974.

Further, this amendment identifies the Kansas Attorney General as having the sole authority to initiate ouster proceedings of a sitting sheriff.

Currently, this authority is shared with each county attorney and has shown to be partisan and subject to personal animus. This change is supported by the Kansas County & District Attorneys Association.

Finally, the voter recall process is not eliminated or changed in any manner.

Following a survey by the National Sheriff’s Association of states who have sheriffs, it was learned all but fifteen recognize the office in their state constitutions. These fifteen states, mostly in the
midwest, have the office created by an act of legislature. This means the office of sheriff can be abolished by an act of legislation or through a charter commission.

The premise of this amendment will preserve the office of sheriff in the Great State of Kansas while protecting the ability of a qualified electorate to choose this individual by popular vote every four years.

This decision belongs to the voters and should not be relegated to a group of elected or appointed individuals.

Please note, this vote is not about the individual holding the office of sheriff, rather it is about preserving your right to actively participate in choosing who holds that office.

Why is this important?

The sheriff is the only elected law enforcement official in Kansas. As such, he or she (sheriff) is directly accountable to the public they serve and are not filtered through an elected body or appointed official. The actions of the sheriff should be predicated upon the US Constitution, the Constitution of the State of Kansas and lawful statutes. He or she is responsible for their actions and those in their employ and subject to remedy grievances directly to the populace and not at the direction of administrative oversight.

In recent years, attempts to abolish the office of sheriff in some Kansas counties have failed.

Counties such as Phillips, Lyon, Bourbon, Reno, Shawnee, Sedgwick and Johnson County have entertained this notion. These efforts have failed due in large part to opposition from the populace; however, the threat remains to all Kansas counties which elect their sheriff.

In 2000, Johnson County established a Home Rule Charter and soon after abolished the elected offices of County Clerk, County Treasurer and Register of Deeds. These positions are now
appointees of the county administrator.

Although the office of sheriff and county attorney were initially preserved, every ten years the charter commission is required to revisit this issue.

Earlier this year, the commission met and initially supported abolishing the office of sheriff only to change course and preserve it until the next review period.

The citizens of Johnson County, with a population in excess of 600,000, came dangerously close to losing their ability to cast votes for who they wanted as the chief law enforcement officer of the county.

Unless and until the office of sheriff is preserved in the Kansas Constitution, the voice of 104 Kansas counties remain in
jeopardy of being usurped.

A yes vote in support of this amendment is non–partisan and will help to preserve not only your participation in deciding who has the privilege of serving Bourbon County as elected sheriff, it
will preserve the office of sheriff itself.