Barton County Commission at a glance
Here is a quick look at what the Barton County Commission did Wednesday morning:
• Approved a letter of support for Sunflower Diversified Services’ grant application to the Kansas Department of Transportation. This is for the public transportation system, said Christina Jimenez, Sunflower transportation coordinator.
• Adopted a proclamation for Operation Green Light for Veterans and will light the Golden Belt Veterans Memorial with green light Nov. 7-13.
• Heard about the dedication of the fourth stone at the Golden Belt Veterans Memorial.
The Memorial Parks Advisory Committee has scheduled the dedication of the fourth stone for 1:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
• Approved a Facade Improvement Grant extension for McCord Property Management in Ellinwood for the Wolf Hotel.
• Approved renewing the county’s employee health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas and use of Freedom Claims Management Inc. as the broker for 2023.
• Rejected A resolution concerning the commission and familiar conflict of interest involving county commissioners and county personnel.
• Approved an out-of-state travel request for county personnel to attend the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America National Leadership Forum in National Harbor, Md., in early 2023. Attending will be Tyler Morton, Juvenile Services, and Katelyn Sigler, Health Department.
• Approved the replacement of 44 computers and related equipment for $41,820.62 from Tech Focus.
• Approved the certified rebuild of 826G Caterpillar compactor for the Barton County Landfill at a cost of $502,907.16 from Foley Equipment.
• Approved trading water rights for property with Knop Sand involving the county’s sandpit south of Ellinwood.
• Corrected the purchase order for a mowing tractor for the Road and Bridge Department.
On Nov. 30, 2021, the commission authorized the purchase of a John Deere 6155M mowing tractor for a bid price of $139,386.40. The correct vendor has now been identified as Deere and Company instead of Bucklin Tractor and Implement of Great Bend.
By a three-two vote, Barton County commissioners Wednesday morning rejected a resolution concerning the commission and family-related conflicts of interest, noting they didn’t want to hamstring future commission members and that existing guidelines already cover such potential problems.
Under the failed resolution, a familiar conflict of interest policy was detailed, and included the definition of the relationships and guidelines for operations, said District 1 Commissioner Kirby Krier, who put forth the idea.
“We need to address it now that there may be a conflict of interest between, say a sitting commissioner, and maybe a brother, sister, mother, father, whatever, son or daughter, that may be a director of some department in the county,” he said. Under his resolution commissioners were prohibited from making motions and voting on items which directly affected their family member but it allowed the commissioner to participate in discussions with the family member and allowed them to vote on the county budget.
Basically, it would only restrict the commissioner from voting on matters related specifically to their family member, he said.
Without referring to the specific current situation that sparked his resolution, “we have a thing here that has never happened,” Krier said.
“I have a little bit of a concern with this,” said County Counselor Patrick Hoffman. “The current system states all commissioners should always recuse themselves if there is a possible perception from the public of a conflict of interest, and I trust all the commissioners we have to do that.”
And, he said, “I’m not completely certain that you can legally bind future commissioners who are elected by the public to not vote on things just because we have a policy.”
“Well, that’s his opinions, we can get multiple opinions,” Krier said. “This will be in place and at least it gives you direction.”
“So Patrick, are you saying future commissioners do not have to abide by policy set?” said District 4 Commissioner Jon Prescott.
“That’s a good question. The theory of government is the public elects the commissioners and as elected officials, they have certain powers inherently, including their power to vote on things. You’re telling who are elected people, who are put in by the voters, what they can and can’t vote for.”
“I will personally debate this, that we have the right to do this,” Krier said. “We also have a right to rescind this. We’re not holding anyone back.”
“My policy has always been if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said District 5 Commissioner Jennifer Schartz. “We have had people who have had to recuse themselves from votes in the past and I think we should trust those incoming commissioners to do the same and that they do they do the right thing.”
If they don’t, they can be taken to task by the other commissioners, she said. “They can say ‘hey, you know what, I don’t think you should be voting on this because of XYZ.”
“I think the policy stated in this resolution is a good general principle,” Hoffman said. But, he can see future commissioners balking at it, invoking their statutory rights to cast votes.
“Whether this passes or not, it’s been made public and people are aware of it,” said commission Chairman Shawn Hutchinson, District 3. He also agreed with the idea, but wasn’t sure it had to be codified by resolution, noting instead, that voters or commissioners should hold board members accountable.
Krier said other he and other commissioners are on record as recusing themselves in the past.
“You guys have good guidelines and principles on the books adopted previously to just say if a commissioner sees a potential conflict of interest, they are expected to and need to recuse themselves,” Hofrman said. “I’m just trying to say, ultimately, you guys are accountable to the voters more than anyone else. Those are the people who hold you guys accountable for the way you act as commissioners.”
Krier made the motion to adopt the resolution which was seconded by Precott. They were the only two to vote for it.
Voting against it were Schartz, Hutchinson and District 2 Commissioner Barb Esfled.
