Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, we'll start our meeting off with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Good morning everyone. Welcome to the Shauni County Board of County Commissioners work session. Today's a special day because we're going to be recognizing those who have retired and uh and the first quarter uh anniversary. So, uh anyway, let's do some introductions. First, on my immediate right is Commissioner Kevin Cook who represents district 2. On my left is Commissioner Aaron Maize who represents District 3. I'm Bill Ripon and I represent District 1. On my far left is Rich Eert. He's our county counselor. So, uh with that, let's get started. Angela, I'll let you take it away. Good morning everyone and welcome to our first quarter recognition program. Just a few logistics before we begin. We will recognize um honores in five-year increments. Um come up, receive your award, shake hands with the commissioners and if you're in groups 5 through 15, you'll step over to the side and after everyone's been recognized, you'll come back and take a photo. We are so glad to have you here today and look forward to recognizing you. With that said, let's start with our five-year recognitions. The first one is Briana Haga, Brady Wagner. Cindy Murray.

Thank you. Thank you.

Jamie Telles Ortega. Jaylen Johnson, Christopher Lopez, Jordan Klene, Britney Lopez, Cheyenne Meyer, Sarah Rucker, Andrew Shepard, Austin Tilman, Lacy Wiggins, Jaman Carter Williams, David Benfield,

Tanner Dunham, Kayla Green, Steven Cullum, and Harley Field. That concludes our fiveyear. Once we get through um the shaking of the hands in this last award, we'll come back over for the photo. Perfect. One, two, three. Okay. Five years was a big group. Our group for 10 years is much smaller. Our first tenure recipient is Sonia Priest. HER next is Gage Stake. And finally, Cody Mcnite.

With 15 years, we have Carrie Golden and Kayla Martinez. Right. With that, we are now ready to honor people with 20 years of service or more. Directors and elected officials, please come up and honor your uh 20 year and more recipients. We'll start with Steve Bowman. Um, I'd like to call Laura Bev up here. Laura Bevett. Uh, do you want to stand by the commissioner?

Well, that way in case picture something. Laura Bevett started the appraisers's office 25 years ago, but it wasn't the first time she uh worked for Shauny County. Uh prior to us, she was uh with dispatch, spent some time with dispatch and the register of deeds office. both I believe contributed to her uh well actually benefited our office with that experience that specific experience uh dealing with high stress situations in dispatch and uh well deeds working with deeds in the register of deeds office um after leaving for other ventures Laura came back to our office uh she obviously decided that Shauny County was the place to be because we're recogn recognizing her for 25 years. She found her career with uh the appraisers's office. Um started in clerical and then realized her niche was uh in GIS section. Uh Laura is our cadestral mapping specialist. She's responsible for reading every deed that comes through Shauny County as well as court documents in order to determine proper ownership. Among other things, she is the beginning point of all real estate ownership transfers and and changes. An important part of her job is uh is trying to research defective deeds with incorrect legal descriptions or chain of title issues. while working to resolve these problems, she's uh developed quite a rapport with our title companies. Uh and we've had property owners expressing their appreciation for Laura as well. Uh Laura

is a valuable asset to our office and Shaunie County. Uh thank you Laura for your uh dedication, expertise, and uh service to Shaunie County. Congratulations on hitting this milestone. You probably don't know it, but the three of us commissioners, we use that GIS map daily. It's just it's so handy to haveations.

Good morning. Brian Cole, Sunny County Department of Corrections today here to recognize Horge Chavez for his 25 years of service. Uh I've known Horge for a long time and uh uh he holds me accountable. This is a person that is uh start his career on the adult detention and working his way through and has been in our training division longer than I can remember. that this is a person that begins our recruitment and holds on and and is a tremendous amount of uh success on why we have been able to lower our turnover rate. It begins with the example that our training staff present and that lives through Horge. This is a person that meets all of our new hires for our agility testing and uh teaches CPR, creates our e-learning for our curriculums and works through with the uh training team. He works on recruitment and career uh career affairs. This is a person here that has his hands in every bit of training which often will get come to the you know to light sometimes when there's problems or something at the jail. The first thing they look at is training. Horge has been is is a tremendous asset to our agency. Uh I know him personally. He is a good friend. Uh he takes his job very seriously and I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate the job that Horge does for this agency. And when you talk about the success we've had in filling our positions, I'm here to tell you that it starts with our training staff that's right there. And Horge Jorge, thank you brother. Thank you.

I don't believe Thomas is here. Thomas said he didn't know cuz he had a uh u a family uh doctor's appointment with his wife. So, he said he didn't know he's going to be here. I, you know, I didn't want to leave today without saying a few words about Thomas. Thomas is at the adult detention centers, been there for 25 years. He left us for a brief moment and then came back and said, "This is where I want to be." And he's made the Department of Corrections a home. That since that time, he has worked his way through our bookendin and our special services and serves in our classification. Uh, I can't begin to tell you how much has changed in my 36 years of when I was in classification to where it is now. Our population is almost tripled. The paperwork that comes in, this is a person who's uh responsible for the warrants, working with our sheriff's office, making sure the transports are taken care of, make sure that we have the correct probable cause for detention, make sure we have the right uh directives when it comes to court appearances and releases. This is the guy here in that classification department. They are busy the whole time. And again, it has changed in over the years. Um, Thomas takes great pride in what he does. Uh, what I appreciate a lot about Thomas is is that if he sees something and he doesn't understand something, he makes sure that it is done correctly. He'll call a judge. He has a great rapport with the judges. He will call an outside agency. He'll call a supervisor to say, "This doesn't look right before we release somebody or when it comes to court." And that's what you have to have when you're in this business. Uh, Thomas does a tremendous amount of work for the Department of Correction. um he represents our agency very well and Shauny County I'm very proud of the work that Thomas does and I wish I on behalf of Thomas I just want to say on behalf of Shauny County and the Department of Corrections thank you Thomas for all you do u I wish you well today with you and your family and thank you for the job that you do so thank YOU

I can go first.

Don't make it weird. You got four minutes. That's what I have to deal with. I will say that uh much like my house, every time Steve Balma comes up, he should get 10% more applause. Um, a Jonathan Bzon appreciation speech could go 45 minutes easy. Um, and I'm not going to do that. There's just too much to say. Um, this morning I was telling my wife about this that I was going to have to do something for a man who's meant more to me than probably um, any man that's not my father. And she said, "What's his greatest accomplishment?" And I said, "Well, I've been county counselor for 19 and a half years and I've never been fired. Um, he's kept me out of trouble. about,00 times and gotten me in trouble three. I think that's a pretty good ratio. Um the assistant county counselors are are a little bit unique. I think everybody in this room knows them. Um uh the department heads at least. And I always kind of look at as that they're the motor oil of the county. They try their very best to keep the engine running. They try to get all of you to a yes. Even when you ask the most outrageous, outlandish things that you want to do, we try. We we don't always get there, but even amongst motor oils, there are different grades. And Mr. Bison is the finest grade of motor oil I've ever met in my life. I guess I just made it weird, didn't I? Um, and I made fun of Brian Cole for crying last time, and I'm trying my best not to right now. Sorry, buddy. Um, I I I uh usually not at a loss for

words, but I'm coming to that point right now. So, buddy, here's to 25 more. Good morning. I'm Teresa Fischer with the health department and I am here to recognize Elaine Deers. Elaine is being recognized today for 20 years. Um and all 20 of those years have been with the health department and that's always a really special um event for our staff. So Elaine started with us back uh January 23rd of 26. I'm going to do just a little walk through what she's done with um the health department during that time. Uh in 2006 she started she worked in our immunizations in our CDD uh or STD CD uh department that was um communicable disease at the time. Uh she stayed there for four years in 2010. She decided she wanted to try something different. So she moved over to our maternal child health in our wick area. Um did that for about a year. Um she liked where she was at. So she headed back um to clinical services where she continued back in um STD, CD and immunizations and she stayed there until 23. Um in 23 then she was ready for another change and came over um to work in family health in the nurse family partnership program uh which is the home visitation program. Uh she did that for about a year and then she went back to what I think is her true calling which is uh our clinical services working um currently she uh works in our tuberculosis infectious disease and sexually transmitted infections program. So uh I think this is truly her calling. Um so when asked uh what her favorite part of the job was Elaine said that um it's helping clients resolve whatever program or problem they came in to see us for whichever program they're in. uh

her least favorite is when she has to deliver that unfavorable test results or news. So, a couple of fun facts about Elaine. Um I learned something new. So, Elaine uh she used to have a CDL with both passenger and air brake endorsements and she drove a 65 passenger stick shift school bus to pick up kids attending kindergarten through 12 schools. That obviously was not her calling and we're really glad um it wasn't. Um, also, uh, during the pandemic, Elaine was actually the first health department staff involved in our COVID testing. She obtained the very first specimen that went to, um, the KDH lab for testing here in our community. So, um, she played an integral role during during the pandemic. So, um, Elaine currently, uh, we are we are seeking a nurse to, uh, complement Elaine's work, but right now she is our only nurse in our tuberculosis, STI, um, infectious disease program. So, she splits her time between all of those programs. And Elaine, you do So um so well working in all of those um you really work with the patients to get the necessary information to them and on a level that they can understand um your years of experience in tuberculosis and STI um are just outstanding and you are a wealth of knowledge and um such an asset not only to our team but also the the community as well and we appreciate all you do. So I want to say thank you for 20 years and congratulations Thank you. Slick.

You're slick. Good morning everyone. In 1994, Leah and her husband loaded up the truck and moved from Beverly, Riverside, California, that is to Shaunie County. At that time, a recession hit Southern California particularly hard and Leah had an aunt and uncle in Topeka. So, the Midwest became their new home. From 1994 to early 2001, Leah worked for JM Bowersfeld. We could have crossed paths then at 29th in Wan Maker. It was also during this time that Leah attained associates degree in science and had two children. With a toddler and a baby and a husband working odd hours, Leah looked for a job that could provide stable daytime work hours and good benefits. Shauny County was the answer. A lot of us say that's the answer. Leah was hired in February 2001 by the appraisers's office to work in the lobby of the North Annex, greeting folks and assisting them, getting them to the right department. Steve, you got an extra position. I find Leah to be extremely conscientious and particular about her duties and responsibilities. She truly wishes to perform her duties correctly and with a high degree of skill. She proudly serves the public well, likes and gets along with the people she works with, and loves working at the North Annex, where parking is not an issue. Moreover, she does all the above with a grand sense of humor and a bit of West Coast perspective. H I truly enjoy working with you, Leah. She even convinced me once that there

was a live rabbit in the office under a bucket and I took it hookline and said, "Lah, I don't know what I'd do without you. I don't know what the department would do without you, but thank God for 25 years of service to Shauny County. CONGRATULATIONS,

Scott Height. He's not here today, but he's also enjoying 25 years of his of service. He started at public works in February 2001 and then Scott spent the next 20 years in road maintenance in districts one and two. In July 2021, Scott promoted to traffic regulator where he's been ever since. Although the new position was overwhelming at first, so much that it caused him to secondguess his move to the traffic department, he's now happy he made the move because he enjoys the work, especially making signs. When asked why he made the jobs change, Scott says that much of the road maintenance work takes place on the road while much of the signing work takes place beside the road. So, the risk is less. Scott likes working for the county and appreciates the many benefits that comes with county employment, especially generous vacation acral and the pension plan. In Scott words, life's good at the county. Again, Scott's not here today. Let's all wish him well and 25 years. Good morning. Brian Hill with the Shauny County Sheriff's Office. Uh we're going to start uh with acknowledging Sergeant John Culver who has served the citizens of Shaunie County for 20 years. Um John uh graduated from Washurn. He got his criminal justice degree. Um he started in 2006 where he

ran the road for Shaune County and was a deputy. Um he um apparently did four years in patrol. Uh in 2010 he was selected to the highintensity drug traffic area task force and that's the drug task force that they do at the KBI and uh combat drugs across the state. Um, in 2020 he was promoted to the rank of detective where he worked until 2023 and he was promoted to the sergeant of detective where he currently serves. I want to say John uh serves the citizens of Shauny County uh oversighting every major case that we have coming through Shauny County. Now, uh he's also been tasked with integration of our crime center and all the technology that's impacting the detectives which brings about uh a lot of new training. Um wouldn't think with all the social media platforms, there's a a whole investigative function that comes with that and he keeps the training going for all the detectives in the division. So, let's give him a big round of applause. And uh Sergeant uh Justin Roberts is not here today. Uh but I'm going to go ahead and say a few words about him. Um Justin started his career in in 2006. He served as a deputy in patrol. He was a field training officer. uh promoted to the rank of corporal in 2011. Uh Justin uh then went to uniforms operations division in 2014 promoted to detective. Uh he was recently promoted to the sergeant over in the offender

registration office which is where he's currently at. And he serves the citizens of Shaunie County. He's been very versatile and he's uh held a lot of different titles and did a lot of ancillary duties for Shaunie County. So, let's give him a round of applause. You going in retire? No.

Morning. Bill Sutton, Shny County Solid Waste. Um, I'd like to I have the privilege and honor of recognizing two of my senior employees today. Uh, and they are crucial in keeping the department running dayto-day. uh with everything that we have going on. So, first I'd like to call up Angie, Angie Aruster. She is she kind of wears two hats up there in the department. Uh she is my accounts receivable. Uh so the 100% user fee funds that you might have heard me say uh she keeps track of uh a $20 million revenue stream and she has been known to chase down a dollar. Uh so pay your bill and pay it accurately. But no, she does a great job. Uh and she keeps track of payroll as well. So the 115 uh employees we have uh the two different bargaining units and the different rules that go between both of them. Uh she does an outstanding job and she's been doing it for uh 12 years. 13 years was at the health department where she started and then she got smart and then she came over with the solid waste. Uh so she's been here a long time. Uh she knows a lot of people and a lot of people know her and she does an outstanding job for me. So thank you Angie. Next, I'd like to call up Deanna. And I might add that it took some major coercion to get these two ladies out of the north annex where we do not have a parking issue. Deanna Starky Bomb or D uh as we know

her. She started 45 years ago. That's longer than some of y'all been on this earth. Uh she likes to tell people that she started when another lady went on maternity leave and that lady never came back. Uh so she started right out the gate accounts receivable uh managing the day-to-day operations and the revenue stream and then she eventually became uh the office manager if you will or the admin officer. I it would take uh month of Sundays to tell you everything that D does automatically whether it's dispatching whether it's routing whether it's keeping track of again the two different bargaining units the employees the commercial accounts the residential accounts and just making everything mesh together and keeping me out of trouble uh which is a full-time job in itself. Uh again, I could be here 25 minutes just talking about everything that D does. Uh she's leaving us shortly and I'm going to be sad about that. But D, thank you for 45 years of great service. Uh you better not tear up on me. All right. We will miss you. But again, today is honoring your f 45 years. All right. Thank you. Congratulations to everyone. 45 years is amazing. Congratulations. Next, we'll honor our retirees. These people have dedicated their careers to Shauny County. Sheriff Hill, you're up.

Uh good morning again. Sher Brian Hill, Shauny County Sheriff's Office. Um first want to talk about uh Sergeant Jim Mummy. Uh he's here with us today. If you'd like to come up, Jim. Jim has held a lot of roles for the sheriff's office. Uh he was hired in 1994 where he did patrol and was one of our uh lead detectives out on the street. Uh he was promoted to detectives in 2007 where he actually investigated a multitude of of cases across Shauny County. uh Jim made sergeant in 2018 uh where again he uh was very versatile and moved around the agency and was very valuable to the agency in a lot of different aspects and now we're to today when he is going to retire and I want to thank you Jim uh you went over to the courthouse and took that job on and uh enhanced security protocols for us during the after we moved in over there with all the renovations. So, thank you for your service, Shny County. And finally, Tracy Traml, who is not here today, but uh I have to say a few words about Tracy. Uh Tracy was hired in 97, spent over 30 years for the citizens of Shaunie County. Loved what he did, never left the road. He retired as a deputy, was an interdiction officer. Uh Tracy was probably one of the best interdiction officers in the state of Shauny count or in the state of Kansas.

And Shaunie County got uh asked several times for him to train officers across this the state. Uh he's personally responsible for thousands of arrests uh running through Shauny County and narcotics interdiction. and he's had a few dogs that he's worked with and he did a tremendous job for the citizens of Shaunie County. So Tracy, if you're watching, uh we appreciate you and and thanks a lot. There just aren't enough words to say thank you for all of your years of service. We truly appreciate all that all of you do for Shaunie County. While the meeting is not over yet, this portion of it is. Um the commissioners will conclude the meeting and afterwards we have um refreshments in the hallway. Thank you all for your service. Okay. Like to thank everybody who's recognized today. Thanks for your time, your effort, and your devotion to Shaunie County. It's I think this is a good event and thanks for being here. Uh next on our agenda is public uh public comment and I have one person signed up, uh Irma Forbes. Thank you very much for the opportunity

to be here again. It seems that we having several visits. I do have some information. I don't know your procedure that I should give maybe to you. My name is Irma Forbes. I'd like to say good morning again. It's very nice. Uh it's a good opportunity to see the happenings. That was a very positive and lovely thing. My name is Forbes again. Um I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm the president and authorized representative of the Gil Carter Initiative. our organization. If you would permit me to explain that we are one of the very few organizations nonprofit over in East Tupeka who has the facility and accommodation to provide services for the children and the community over there. Our building is about 25 with the two buildings together is about 25,000 square ft. We do multitude of things. We collaborate with the library to do computer science. We have a lady from Ukraine who came in as a refugee and set up her sewing shop uh within the city. She is successful enough but not mightily rich. But she's so grateful that she wanted to participate and give back to the community. So she contacted uh Gil

Carter Initiative and started a fashion designing um outreach there. There's no charge to any of the services that we do in the community and none of our workers receive a salary. She donate her time and she teach sewing from very basic to very advanced. She um like I said is from Ukraine and she thought that her service would be valued over there. We do music lessons for children who are underprivileged. We partner with the Rotary Club. They pay uh professional musician out there to give the children music. We do after school program there. We teach underprivileged children who have challenges in reading to read and write. Um we do culinary arts. We do health uh and nutrition. So we are new, we're small, we're not very rich, but we do a lot of community service there. We also was the recipient of the grant from AARP and we have a 35 a 36x 26 greenhouse where we grow stuff vegetables uh all year round. Why am I telling you this? I have um received notice like I said last time for unpaid taxes. It would take a minute to really get to the bottom of these taxes, which a minute I don't have because you serve me papers through the court system, which I have answered and you have my response to the court there. We haven't had time to obtain an

attorney. So, I had to do layman work and I don't think the judge mind very much. I think if it's not quite professional, I stated my reasons and I answered as best I could while I'm in search for an attorney. I do understand um that people make mistakes and things go unchecked. It is reasonable to it is reasonable to assume that if I continue to get communication through the mail at the facility and I did not respond appropriately then it should be questioned. I receive with Gil Carter Initiative have several properties that deal with the appraisal's office. I get communication about them at that very facility. So it lived to reason that I did not get communication concerning the very property where I received mail for the other properties. So people are human beings and human beings make mistake. There was a transference of the property. So I assume that it went through the cracks and nobody noticed that I was not build. I'm not saying that we were responsible. I'm just using a different scenario here. So even if I was responsible for the taxes, I should have had due process. There is a thing in my research that's called due process. They cannot build me and punish me for things that they haven't built build me for. That's part of due process. So they have built me for many

years. No bill. Many years not no communication to that effect from the appraisal office. In 2025 they sent me a bill for $10,000. I don't think that's reasonable and that's why I'm here. The the taxes they say was 5,000 with fines and interest. It's another 5,000 plus. So, it's a little over 10,000. We are a small nonprofit who is trying to serve the community. And like I said, none of us receive a salary. We work volunteer hours there and we serve the community. So, I think it's unreasonable. And even if we were even if the um 5,000 was our responsibility, which we are still investigating, I don't think it should be promptly taken to the courts and threatened to sell my building who it's with worth of over $900,000 for $10,000 on the steps of the courthouse. I don't think that's reasonable. I think even if we owe this money that there are ways that they could work it out so that I could be given the due process which I think we are entitled to to take care of the matter. So, I'm asking I don't know really what am I asking because I came here before a couple weeks ago and presented before you and I thought that we were going to work together to find some sort of solution but it's not and I have a have had a limited time to get back to the courts because I could be in

default. So, I responded to the court last week. I just wanted to make you your body aware of what's going on. And I'm sure there are people out there also, I don't think I'm unique to that problem. I think there are people whose taxes have fell through the cracks and that they are penalized unreasonably. And um I guess I have talked enough and I just wanted to bring that to your attention. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mickey.

All right. U anyone else from the public who'd like to speak at this time? Seeing none, we'll move down to administrative communication. Commissioner May, nothing for me. No, you're good. Have anything else to add? U we do not have a need for executive session. So, we're journed.