Remarks by Jim Howell
146 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 6 of 6
- Play at 3:36:25
“How much of that 487 is going to the administration side of this?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:36:36
“Okay, and I'm looking at the budget book. There's like 41 of one type, and there's 11 and a half of another type, but I don't know. I asked a question, I think, when we spoke the other day. You said there was like 51 or 52, 53 clerks, and you want to add 10. So I'm just trying to understand how this 487 breaks down amongst that number of staff.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:37:27
“First of all, I want to thank you, Gina. I appreciate that. I want to state I'm generally supportive trying to fix the stated and known problems of this office. I think it's going to take some funding to address a lot of these things. I'm not against everything on this list. I'm against a few things on this list. I'm a little concerned. We have a meeting next week. I'll just throw this out there to my colleagues. We have a meeting next week. I feel like we're just, again, this came at us kind of quick, and I think Commissioner Meister kind of mentioned that. I feel the same way. I don't feel…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:39:07
“So here's what I'm saying right now. I don't know which one of these to support. You know, you recommend a 950. I don't feel great about that number. I don't know if that's the right number. And, again, some of the things on this list, I'm not going to go through the long list here. I have a lot of notes here. I don't know that I support everything. You know, some of this stuff I think is more important than other things, and I want to be very careful. So for me personally, I would rather not vote on this at the moment. I think we have a week to chew on it and figure out a better number, be a…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:40:32
“It says Section 1, the Board of County Commissioners, I'm sorry, the Board of Commissioners of Sedgwick County, Kansas, approves the recommendations of the Sedgwick County Treasurer and motor vehicle transaction fee authorized by KSA 8-145VA2B, thereby increased to $9.50, effective January 1.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:40:59
“As I've heard from lots of people, if you're explaining, you're losing. We need this to say to the public, it's $4.50. By the way, I'm not sure that's the right number. I wish it was $3 or some other number, $2.50, or something else that's a little more conservative, perhaps. But I would like the public to say it's $2.50, not $9.50. And to me, the way this is worded, we're just creating the news headlines that we just raised the fee. By the way, in $9.50s, almost, let me just say this, that it is... If I can get my math right, $5 fee increase is right at a third of a mil equivalent in…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:42:19
“The Board of County Commissioners approved a fee increase of blank. That's what it needs to say.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:42:24
“It might be less. But whatever that's going to be, we want to state it specifically. And the total fee under this authority of your office is going to be some other number. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Commissioner Meister.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:01:11
“Commissioner Howell. Thank you, Chairman. A couple of questions. How long is the program for the adult population that's out on supervision? How long does that usually last?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:01:47
“I'm a pretty big fan of the drug court, but it's interesting on the two numbers here, the one year and three years, same data. It says two of 24. I'm just curious, is that correct?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:02:20
“One thing I would like to, typically, and this is probably another really giant variable, but what's our average adjudication time period to go from a charge to a judge's decision or a jury's decision on that charge? I don't know that. I couldn't speak to that. Well, one of the challenges I see with this definition here is it talks about convictions within one year. That's not really... Fair, because I would think that the adjudication process probably takes most of the year in many cases. It can. So if you were to add that to that and say they were charged and ultimately convicted, that…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:03:40
“I think that does need a little bit of discussion, perhaps some cleanup there, only because I think it's a little bit misleading not to understand. I mean, it's a great number, but we should track it. I just think it doesn't really present the entire picture there. But again, thank you for all you do. Appreciate the presentation. Thank you very much again, Laura.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:19:42
“Just again, just to clarify, you said JDF has 81 beds total?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:20:07
“It reminds me of Second Light when they say they don't have beds, but they have beds right there. They just don't have the staff to manage what's going on in Second Light. At the end of the day, those beds are available. We need to provide the appropriate staff if we need those beds. So let's have that conversation. I know things are bad right now in terms of we're seeing an uptick in... and these placements and these facilities. But again, I think over time, this might get better. At the end of the day, having better standards for youth behavior, I think it'll pay dividends down the road.…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:22:17
“And that is under the bill, House Bill 2329. That means they're committing some type of a chargeable crime with a firearm. Not just possession. But there's a crime being committed with a firearm. And we're simply letting these kids out. Am I understanding that correctly?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:22:46
“Right, but they have possession of a firearm while they commit a crime. Correct. And these kids are not supposed to have guns. Correct. But that's what's going on is they're committing a crime in possession of a firearm. It doesn't mean they used a firearm in the commission of a crime, but they did have it on their person.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:23:30
“But of those 12, ultimately nothing happened to any of those 12. Those 12, the charges were dropped or released or not charged, whichever, but there was nothing that happened actually. So again, I hate to say this, but that's the problem. These kids need to have consequences for this type of behavior. People wonder why are we seeing these kids commit these violent crimes with guns. And a lot of these kids, some of the cultures there in this county, these kids feel like they have to have a firearm because what they perceive as their enemy also has firearms. It's gang activity. And these kids…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:24:56
“Would you be willing to provide that data at some point soon? That would be great to have that. That's one of our concerns, I think, is the juvenile system, frankly, under Senate Bill 367, charging and adjudicating crimes under the juvenile system is nearly impossible. And I think that's what we're seeing right now is the juvenile population, frankly, doesn't have any behavior standards whatsoever. Unless they committed a violent crime when they're age 16 or 17 and they're charged under the adult system, nothing happens to these kids. One more thing. The Senate Bill 323-29 did require…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:25:53
“Yeah. Out-of-home placements being handled by foster care system rather than handled by the criminal system. They're handled by foster care.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:26:21
“What I'm saying, let me clarify my question further. The out-of-home placements actually has been, we didn't have a place to put these kids. They're not sick children. They're kids who've committed crimes. So rather than handling them in an out-of-home placement, they put them in foster care. That's been going on. And that creates havoc in the foster care system because you have a kid who, frankly, has parents. That's not the problem. They're just a kid that can't go home for some reason. They're a criminally charged child, if you will. They're under 18 years old. They have a criminal charge…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:27:43
“Okay. I want to track that going forward because this is one of the problems in foster care. We've had... And I'm looking at Commissioner Beatty here. We've had a huge problem with this. And the foster care system is just reeling with challenges because we have kids who are so behavior challenged. And it's not these are just children that need parents. They're not just neglected and abused children. They're not four and five-year-olds. These are 16-year-olds that committed crimes. and they're being placed in D.C., and then they run away. We hear about their spending the night in offices. This…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026