Remarks by Jim Howell
146 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 6
- Play at 2:31:28
“Commissioner Howell? Thank you, Chairman. It just seems like there's three options here. You could approve it as is. You could redline it right now and approve it with a redline. It's got to go back. It looks like it only has one signature on the LOI. That's the director of the airport authority. So it's not hard for him to review that and potentially sign it again. But again, the third option, of course, is to push us back one week and have that conversation first and approve it without the redlines. In either case, I'm going to vote no, but I'd just like to point out, I don't know if…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:27:27
“Commissioner Howell? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple quick questions. You mentioned there's, before the $5 fee started in July 1, what were the fees we were charging before that?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:27:48
“So that fee for people who were visiting the office did not change?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:27:53
“So the total fee was $4.50 for the state and then $5 for someone who visited the office. It was $9.50 total. Is that right?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:28:04
“Well, the state charges a modernization fee.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:28:13
“The total is $450 for the state? Correct. How much of that today goes to KDOT? All of it. All of it. Okay. But there's other fees included in the $450 you just said?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:28:36
“So if someone comes in and they just get a renewal, what's the total fee currently and what's the total fee that's proposed? Current fee total would be what?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:28:49
“For everything that is required to do a renewal today. How much is the fee for today's renewal versus what we're proposing?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:29:10
“I see. And then on top of that, we still charge $5, I assume, for us.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:29:16
“Okay. On the renewal, does the state charge fees for the online and mail?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:29:30
“So the state does not charge a fee for the mail?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:30:30
“A little bit ago, Chairman Bluebot gave you some numbers for, I guess, I'm not sure if his number is, or people visiting the office. He used the word transactions. He said, for example, he used the number 636 or 645,787 transactions, I think what he said. But your estimate here today is, if you add this up, For the things we can charge this permit fee or this fee on would be 537,421 transactions. That's my estimate. That's correct. Is the number that Chairman Blubaugh used including things we can't charge?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:31:10
“Based on the 537,421 transactions in 2025, If that was the same number going forward and we charge $5, that's an increase of $2.687 million to your office.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:31:25
“Our shortfall, the shortfall we talked about for the subsidy from the property tax funds was $831,000. Correct. And that was for 2026? That was for 2025. 2025.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:31:40
“It would have been over $1 million in 2026.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:31:51
“What I'm wondering is, again, I understand you have a salary concern and some other things we want to talk about here, but the $2.6 million is more than, if you wanted to talk about the subsidy, what we would have had in 2026 budget or 2027 budget. budget, it sounds like it would be less than the $2.6 million.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:32:31
“Right. And you said the starting pay today is $1,704. Correct. What's it going to be once this is done? What's your new starting pay going to be?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:32:52
“Starting pay is still $1,704. So the guy at McDonald's would still not want to come work here.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:33:08
“By the way, I don't want to compare Sedgwick County with McDonald's. I just Googled it because you said it. They say online in Kansas the starting pay is $11.20 an hour on average. There's a range. $10 to $14 is the range. And I would argue our benefits are far superior to what McDonald's would provide. So let's just be clear. I don't want to use data that, in my opinion, makes it look like we're not paying our staff. I don't think that's fair to Sedgwick County.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:33:48
“Okay. A couple of things. Just a couple of quick comments here. I do think it should be on our legislative agenda that we would rename this modernization fee, call it a KDOT fee. That needs to happen because, again, people get the idea that we're collecting money that we're going to use in this office somehow. Correct. It's a false narrative. We're supporting a lie by the state of Kansas. By the way, if you add that up, it's well over $300 million they've collected in this fund that has been swept for alternate purposes. They misnamed the fee. It's over $300 million they've collected since…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:34:49
“And you can't buy one of them, but can you buy the other one today?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:35:06
“Does KDOR have the rules and regulations over this that they can change this if they want to? They do.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:35:19
“And if and when they would approve some other more modern model of printer, we'll have to re-outfit all of our printers. How many printers are we talking about?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:35:38
“So it could be $150,000 potentially as a one-time hit.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:35:49
“HR, you agree that $487,000 is the right number for this? You've done the full analysis. That's what we need to do this change in how we pay.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026