Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

like to call the meeting to order. We'll do the flag Tyson have a few words 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. Few reminders to Google before we go that you please state your name and title when you first begin speaking. Public comment will be allowed to the extent that it's on topic. Persons participating via Zoom are currently muted. You have a comment and please let Mark know via the chat function. Mark will then inform Chairman Trile who can take up the comment in a manner that doesn't disrupt the agenda. And if an executive session is needed, then we'll mute and turn off the video. And when we're done, we'll turn everything back on.

Heather, you there? I am. Can you hear me? Sure can. Okay. Just got a couple of things. Um Chase, I don't know if SEA told you, we've heard back now from the airport and Coats in terms of the small cities that want to take part in neighborhood revitalization. Um just so I'm clear, do we want me to send out one more email sort of giving a June one deadline to get moving or not? Leave it to you guys. Yeah, probably. Uh I did get a hold of Mark with the airport authority. They're going to have a meeting this Wednesday and discuss it.

Okay. The city of codes, you know, said they were discussing at their meeting. I still have not heard back from Preston or Sawyer. I will probably put individual emails um from some of their council people that I also have on this last email basically saying now or never. Yep. Sounds good. I mean, they don't have to do a whole lot. So yeah, now or never. And if they call me, I can give them drafts of ours just like I gave drafts to everyone else so they can kind of just pattern off of that. Right. Right. Um I just want to tell that so I basically want to Are you going to be in or are you going to be out? We need to know so that we can know who we're trying to manage. Yep.

Okay. Uh I also received two phone calls from businesses this week. both um one is an existing business owner opening a new business and the other is an existing business doing a pretty significant expansion. Both uh requested assistance. One wanted a grant uh some grant assistance which I do think that there may be a grant through the Kansas Department of Commerce that could assist them. The other one was talking about pretty substantial layered incentives that would be both um city, county, state. It's more um I don't want to say in its infancy, but there are some things that have to happen before we proceed to the next step. But wanted you just to be aware that I told that person that I would walk them through the process and also connected them with another vendor who may be helpful in um their expansion. PADC is meeting Wednesday. I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it. Um I have I'm double booked. But uh on their agenda is basically setting off uh sorry we're getting ready to have some weather here so there's some background noise. Um basically getting ready to launch the small group discussion with developers who are interested in potentially participating in the housing incentive grant um and following up on the other two grant projects through PADC that are outstanding. The third project is one of the people who contacted me about grant funding. Um, so that'll be on Wednesday of this month with the goal of the housing grant through PADC being launched the next Wednesday. And I think that's all I have for you today.

I don't have anything, Heather. I don't have anything. You better take cover. Yeah. Yeah. Soon. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye. Dirty, you guys want to come on up?

I have these state forms that are just for you. I think this sign you don't sign till the budget's been approved. I'm just supposed to get you since we are properly functioning. Okay, perfect. Okay. And then that's a copy of our 2027 budget. And then I also included for you guys a copy of our last year's budgets just so you'd have something to go off of. So on top is our proposed budget for 2027 and then right underneath it is our proposed budget and I'll leave an extra copy for Tom.

I can Okay, we'll if you guys want to look at as well. Okay. So you guys are listed under receipts under county appropriation. So what we are asking for this year is a three. Uh we have been operating under the same amount since 2023. So we have not received an increase for four years now. So we do not think that it's unreasonable to ask for a 3% increase this year simply for cost of doing business, cost of living, etc. etc. Um, we know that a lot of your departments, we've been watching some of your budget hearings, um, have also asked for that same amount and, um, so we definitely don't think that that's out of line to ask for a 3% increase. Uh, we do cut costs uh, where we can. We are down to one full-time office professional now who does not get health insurance because she's not a county employee. She's an employee of the extension council. So, uh, Sam does not get health insurance. So, we try and pay her as much as we can, um, so that she can afford health insurance on her own, but please keep that in mind. She's not on the county's health insurance. So, any increase that you can give us would be helpful. Um, cost of running our vehicle, of course, has gone up when gas is $4 a gallon. So, um, I'm sure you see that as well. Um we did get a slight increase last year from Kansas State University. Uh that money goes um directly to our salaries, me and Jenna's. So that does help a little bit. Uh I don't foresee that happening this year as um the state's having you know what the state's doing. State's having issues with all kinds of things.

The state gave you an increase this year? LA uh 2026. It's the 2026 budget year. Yeah. This says it's the same amount, right? So I Right. I don't foresee it going up in 2027. The same amount as 2025, right? So 2026 2027 from 25 to 26. So you're looking at

Yeah. This is Yeah. So you're looking at the current year's budget and then the proposed 2027 budget. So, I look for those two to be the same. Again, at least that's the information we've gotten. So, uh Jeremy Doug is our board uh vice chair this year. So, any comments you'd like to make, Jeremy?

You know, it's been a good experience to join this board and see how they operate. I knew quite a bit about what they did, but I've learned even more uh in my short period of time on the board. glad to be a part of the organization and help them in any way I can. It's it's amazing how many different places they touch, not just in the county, but throughout the state. And they they actually give us uh reports monthly on different things that they do to our prior meeting. Gotcha.

And it's it's just a snapshot of some of the things they do. Um actually ends up being quite a bit some months. And I'm really impressed with the schedules that they keep because sometimes it's before hours, after hours, weekends. They really put in quite a quite a bit. So the 3% is from the 224 766 up to the 23150. That is correct. Yes. Yeah, you got

that will cover a lot of things more than just that. Yep. Yep. That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's see what we can do. I mean, this is really a pickle. Really? I think we only had what a couple of department asked for a little bit more. Yeah. Most of it is come from appropriations. I don't know where we're going to land. You understand? Next year maybe. Who knows? Yeah.

Yeah. I I don't know. I'm pretty sure they took the price off oil and gas before it went double. So that's not going to help us any. And people are screaming at us about taxes even though we stay revenue neutral. Our taxes still go up because of what the state does. But yeah, we'll do what we can. Yep. Okay. That's what we've been telling everybody. We understand and yeah, you guys do good work. Yes, you're needed. What was

Sorry, I had too much wind in here. Accountant. Yeah. What was he asking about the extension? He wanted to know if it went region yet because where he's from it's went into regions or something. Oh, uh, districts. this district. Yeah. Yeah. We have not. That's what I told him. Because it's really a decision for county commissioners to make. Oh, really? Okay. Whether we district with another county or not because then we create another taxing entity within the state. We would create our own mill levies. Okay. If we created a That's why he asked. Yeah. Okay. That makes more sense.

Yeah. And in the I mean we've we've approached county commissioners in in my tenure. we've approached county commissioners with with that proposal with like Barber County or Stafford County um creating that district and at the time those county commissioners were not in favor of it simply because we've got so you know many um everybody's got counties got well you've got two school districts you know you've got the college you've got adnauseium um taxing entities already in the county and they didn't want to create another got

and we're not in such a financial pickle that we need to do that that our county extension board needs to do that and that's really a lot of the reasons why some county extension councils do that is because finances finances they need to do that and we're we're fully staffed between Jenna and I and if we have an area of programming that we need help with we reach out to another county we might have animal science guy in barber county science here. Yeah. Homem stuff up. I said they share.

I mean, right now I'm planning on doing a food preservation workshop with Barber and Kingman and Comanche counties because they don't, you know, because they don't have a family and consumer science agent in Kingman County. So, we're going to help cover that need that they have in Kingman County by doing that. Am I getting paid extra for that? No. But, you know, there might be a need that I need later on from Kingman County that they can come help me with. So, we kind of do that program sharing already without having to form that district. So, you know what I told you? He had brought that up. Yeah. No, you you probably answered that question pretty accurately. What county is he from? I don't know. Well, he lives in Galvea. So, yeah, he's Oklahoma. Scott is from where?

Oklahoma. No, he's from right by outside of McFersonen. But he was talking about he's from Oklahoma. the context of his comments was with Ottawa. Yeah. Was with Ottawa because I think that's what they're getting ready to do. Yeah. And there's there's some districts that work very well and there's some districts that haven't worked very well. I mean, there's one district that's getting ready to break up and go back into counties right now because it just the taxpayers didn't like it and they don't Yeah. See it for like Comanche County or some small counties. Yeah. There's some counties that only have one agent and I can see where that that would be very helpful for one agent county. Yeah. All righty.

So, yeah. All right. Well, thank you. State your name. Oh, sorry. You go first. Oh, I you did you Oh, sorry. I'm Jenna Fitz Simmons. Okay. Thank you. No, you're fine. Thank you guys. Thank you. You guys knew who I was. Put down trouble. Thank you. Thanks for coming in. Sorry about your grandpa. Thank you. Yeah. So to not keep them waiting, who do you want to go ahead and

I'd request an executive session for attorney client privilege to discuss zoning related documents for 15 minutes and when we come back in, we'll make that motion. Sorry, I'll second it. We're going to do two things in one. We've got a make got a motion on the table to approve an executive session for attorney client privilege for zoning regulations for 10 minutes. 15 minutes 15 minutes. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same thing. will be an executive session.

I'll make a motion we come out of executive session with no action taken. Second it. Been moved and seconded. We come out of executive session with no action taken. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. We're back in open session. I'm going to make a motion that we sign the contribution agreement, the decommissioning agreement, and the road use and maintenance agreement on the uh battery energy storage that we asked last week. Last week, couple weeks. Couple weeks ago.

Seconded. Been moved and seconded that we approve the three agreements that Rick read. a contribution agreement, decommissioning agreement, and a road use and maintenance agreement. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. You say there's no signature on the No, there's they're all on the back pages. Last pages. So, Tom's not here today, guys.

I'm going to leave these here. Try to get Tom to come in tomorrow and I'll get them up to you as soon as I get them. Why have you guys uh saw the email on repower? Patrick's going to be involved on that since he did the rigs. Uh BJ's out to him to try to see his availability. I'll probably be a part of that conversation, too. One of the things I I want to understand is, you know, so when we talked about this probably a couple years ago at this point out of public safety building, the issue of the exemption and whether it's going to impact that, is there any clarity at the state level like what are are you guys changing your output cap like your name play capability and whether that has an effect on the exemption?

So I don't think the output impacts exemption. What we want to look at is the equipment. We can get I can get I'm not the tax person on this, but we can get some input on that whether the change in the equipment itself does. There's there hasn't when I talked to the appraiser. What I don't want is for my appraiser to be making call, right? That's part of why I'm happy to be involved also. But I'd love to know what you guys I know you guys have done your research on it. State rags and

Yeah. So I think and here's what I need to verify is that certain parts of the equipment may go to the 10-year exemption and then go on to the tax rules after 10 years. So our contribution here's now let me verify that. Don't hold me to it. But that on the equipment that's changed some of it goes on to the 10 years. So it stays under the tax exception and year 11 some of the equipment will go on. Yeah. Because I think it literally goes down to item by item. Okay. Okay. We didn't have a clue because it's a state deal and and I I did tell DJ to get with the state too to see what we can get. They should have at one point I thought there was a memorandum floating around that they gave a breakdown on.

That sounds right. I'll double check too, but we'll get that because we we've done that analysis. I just can't. It's been a while. Okay. Um, and then on the other thing, uh, maybe talking about having a meeting. I talked to Luke a couple times last week about having a meeting relating to just generally billing and then maybe on the ground stuff. Again, open to doing that. You know, don't have any push back on the agreement. We're fine with that being in the agreement. It probably be helpful. And we're open to do it in informal or formal setting, however you guys want to do it. Um, and Kirkham is open to it as well. talked to I think it'd be good dialogue going. Yep.

So, um told Luke as far as if he has billing specifics to get them prior to that, that way we can have productive conversation about it. He said he'd get back to me. So, I figured we'll schedule at some point after that. I think we just have an accurate actions report, too. just getting feedback on kind of some of the issues that we had because we'll be on boarding the the battery team for construction and that way we're not kind of repeating those same yes problems going forward. Yeah. Um I think that would be super helpful for everyone and like I said Kirkham was open to the dialogue and wanted to participate and they don't want there to be issues either. So

yeah, I think just kind of doing that meeting kicking it off. So we get the kind of the construction teams introduced get them introduced. Yeah. univil for the battery side. So yeah, got to get that introduction, make sure then we take best practices through especially the second part of things so that we make sure we hit going just the way you guys wanted. Yeah, we did when they built that new building preconstruction meetings and we met every week made things go a little smoother. I think we get everybody on the same page up front. avoid some of the things that we ran into. Yeah. Uh you guys got anything else for us?

Until next week. See where see where your company making a big investment up there with Virginia. That area. Yeah. I missed our big meeting about that. With Dominion. I'm out of the loop on this. They're purchasing Dominion electric company for power for AI. The big utility through the at the Virginia area. Yeah. West Virginia and North Carolina. South Carolina a little bit. South Carolina market is in a big amount of money. I'm sure.

It should be exciting. They have a good scale. It's a long process to get the approvals for sure. We're talking 18 months. Yeah. Okay. We appreciate you guys coming down. Coming down. Nice to meet you. You guys ever need anything? All one of us. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure you guys know the same thing. Run into anything. I've been with, you know, with you guys on your ride. I went to a funeral that day, so that's why I didn't thank you. Yep. The notes back I got on the ride along was it was good. there's some concrete dates that have are set and you're working toward fixing 90. That's everybody was pleased on mine and they were like, "Yeah, that was a really good meeting." So, good. Awesome.

Yeah, I think the communication through the, you know, the second or at least the last part of that was really helpful. Like it was good that we kind of got a chance to. Yeah. I think I think one of the disconnects is a lot of the the reports that we send up differ a little bit from Michaels because it's more of our action items. Yeah. Versus like kind of highlighting what the issues are. Yeah. I think it it paints a better picture more the way forward on those issues when you kind of combine that.

Anything that I mean I'm open to anything that betters the communication process. And so when we do have the meeting in the coming weeks, I mean, if we want to talk about a process to improve the communication, everybody is open to that. Awesome. Yep. Sounds good. All right. Well, thanks guys. I'll get you to execute it as soon as we need to introduce ourselves. I think I think we know by

welcome to hell. I mean Brad. Yeah. Hopefully that goes smoother. Yeah. So then the next one is the thing must really be draining a lot of water. Either that or it's plugged with mold. So that's the engagement letter and there's not an overall total but there is an hourly and again just to remind the public he was talking

anywhere between 25 and 30,000 is what he was thinking. Uh, I'm going to make a motion that we approve the engagement letter with Adams and Jones Law Firm out of Witchaw for our comprehensive zoning plan at a Joshua's ally rate at 375. Uh, some of the people under him anywhere from 120 to 400. Uh, But we're only figuring it to be about what did we say 20,000? Roughly 25 to 30.

Yeah. 25 to 30,000 to get our comprehensive plan in order. Second that. It's been moved and seconded to sign the engagement letter with Adams and Jones for doing our comprehensive plan work. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. He was see was on us. I'm going to take that one back from you, Morgan. Just email it up. Make sure that get it right after that. So, she didn't need to.

No. Okay. And I'll I'll get SA included on Thank you. need the permite protection renewal. Yeah, I got questions on that. This is for $700, but it is for the OPRRC builder. It is not the courthouse or anything else. Well, I think we had two. Let me go back and look at our I had to call you this morning on that and I forgot.

I saw two on the email. I would wait on if we can wait on it and I can look into it and just to see if it just because I know we entered into a separate contract with them to cover PRC. Um because I think it hadn't had it for a while and they found traces several years back. Uhhuh. because it said like we're on a 10 year and we're in year um I thought I saw that somewhere initial treatment days is June 26 2024 I can call and find out just to be sure. I think it's on a separate contract

and if it's for the year that's the cost for the year. I would just wait on this a little bit a little more clarity because If we're going to sell it, yeah, there's no sense of us being on the contract. Yep. I agree. So, hold off. I'll I'll find out for sure and then we'll just work in on the election bipartisan. Yep. Um

committee for our retention schedules. Um, we u need you guys to appoint a bipartisan team to witness um the destruction of some election materials um for the uh presidential preference primary and also the last city school.

So, I'll make a motion that we Let me think about this. Okay. I'm gonna make a motion that we Make a committee for the destruction of elected materials for all ballots, envelopes, associated records from the 2025 city school election based on the state of Kansas retention schedules. Uh, I would nominate Sherry Winrich, Democrat, Holly How, Republican, or appointed to the county commission to supervise the destruction of electric election materials. Second that it's been moved and seconded to appoint Sher Winri and Holly How to watch the destruction of ballots from the 2025 school city and school elections. All in favor say I.

I oppose. same sign. Motion carried. Okay, that's fine. either that and then I'll make a motion to also appoint Sher Winri and Holly how to the county commission to supervise the destruction of election materials for the 2024 presidential preference primary which are supposed to be kept 42 months based on the state of Kansas retention schedule.

Second it. It's been moved and seconded to appoint Sher Winri and Holly How to watch a destruction of all ballots envelopes with associated with the 2024 presidential preference primary. All in favor say I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. They just sit there with their coffee and watch you shred them or

No, we we call in a company that comes and treads on site and it has a camera that So they um they watch they watch us from the time we pull them out of um election security take it down there with us uh the the the company and and they watch it on the screen as they throw it in and it gets disrupted. Okay. Like a hard job. Yeah. Yeah. There's no pay involved. You got anything else this week?

Um yes. I we did receive the um Miss Kansas tickets and they asked that if we're not going to use them that we find someone to use them so they don't have empty seats sitting there. Do you guys are are you guys wanting to go to that? I'm not I'll I'll wait and check with Tom to be sure and then we'll Tom usually goes and how many he Okay. uses. Well, I'll check with Tom first then if not we'll we'll get some county people to fill those seats. Usually not a good time. Yeah. And then the other thing was I did stick just so you guys had it. I didn't know where you guys were on the

that's for the sprinkler system, but I did stick them in there just so you guys had them. Um to make sure we have all three of them that we received. We the best is looking. We need to do something. Well, we did something on the mowing. Well, yeah. Mowing mowing's being taken care of. Just it's starting to Yeah. Starting to die. I think it is everywhere. Yeah. Yep. So, we'll just leave those in there and then that way you guys decide something next week y prices are going up to probably double next.

That's the road application. Uh, I got a road crossing permit for Northern Natural Gas request to cross northeast 130th Avenue between southeast quarter. Southeast quarter of section 34 and southwest quarter of southwest quarter that section 35 township 27 range 11 approximately 12 mile east of

seconded been moved and seconded. We approve a road crossing for natural at the location Rick Red. All in favor say I.

I oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Sure. Will this one need palms too, or is it okay just to have your guys not we assign it to all.

Okay. You got anything else, Tyson? I don't have anything um to move on, but next week I am going to ask for authority to hire First American to start the title work on the next tax foreclosure. Amy sent out letters probably been almost a month ago now. Tried to narrow the amount that we're getting over to title work. So, I'm going to touch base with her this week and see what we got and then I'll have a uh hard number 30 next week. And we have more about the same number of property.

Uh on the letters, we were in the it was around 60 letters that went out. Some of those got pulled because they would have been in old ones. Some of them we have conflicts with that I mentioned to you previously. I think my hope is to be under 50. So we're looking at 200 to 200 track for 50 track. Okay. Sashi, you got anything else? I do not. Make a motion we approve the minutes from May 11th.

I'll second it. Then move and second we approve the minutes for May 11th. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried.

And next week we'll meet on Tuesday. Correct. Yes. You can come here Monday or two if you want. No, I wasn't. I just wanted to let the public know that. Yeah, it'll be Monday or Monday. Tuesday from Memorial Memorial Day on Monday. Yep. Make a motion we approve the vouchers in.

Yep. Second move and second we approve the vouchers. All in favor say I. I. Same signs. Motion carries. You can have some work today. I know you try to get with Tom then and get all those sign and then when you do, will you get me those three agreements, please? Yep. Do you want me to like keep do you want me to give you the originals like set the originals aside to give to you? You want me to scan them in and send them to you?

I'm gonna Yeah, the scans will be fine. I'm going to send the scans to them. That way they can execute on there and then I'll give you finals when I get them back. Okay. You want to tell all the courthouse employees that I know it's hot, but you did get Friday afternoon. They're they are working on it. Yeah.

Trying to make improvements in the long run. It's only supposed to be in the 60s tomorrow. Yeah. Doesn't mean this building will cool down. brick and stones. It holds holds the heat pretty good, especially on the south side over here. It goes Yeah, especially second floor over there. They got all those windows. It opened up his glider a little bit. No problem. Yeah, he went uh

Oh. brings up another deal I got from uh Association counties doing a year- end wrap up on all the bills that went through. Yeah. And they're now allowing counties to charge fees to cover the tag offices. Not familiar. I'll have to do research on it. So, they've always allowed a facility. I mean, it doesn't matter. I mean, they're going to pay taxes. They're going to pay it when they register. So, but I didn't know if anybody else has heard of that.

I think they allow a facility. They've always allowed a facility fee um that if you come in person to pay, they can tack on an additional $2. Um I don't it we've never done that because it's you know don't want to add to their their tax bill and it's you know penalize someone for coming in. I think they just raised that amount. I'm sure Amy would know more about it but that was my understanding was that they they raised the amount that you could charge. County Treasurer fees. Senate Bill 325 pass giving treasurers and county commissioners the ability to set fees which occur which actually cover the cost of running our tag offices. It took years to accomplish this common sense solution. This means county should no longer have to subsidize tag operations with the general front property tax dollar.

I don't think we're doing that anyway. I'm gonna have to research it. Okay. I meant to ask her. I'm sure.

Yeah, that's what I mean. I was going to call her, you know. employees benefit. I don't want to leave and go back upstairs.

I guess I could just remote my computer. Commissioners asked me commissioners asked me to sniff.

I'm surprised we didn't have a bigger audience down here watching today. 573 the road department. Anybody have anything else? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn.

I will so move to adjourn. Second it. Be moved and second to adjurnn. All in favor say I. eyes.