FORT SCOTT — Five motions to buy a backhoe for the county’s transfer station died without a second at Monday night’s Bourbon County Commission meeting, and a staff motion that emerged from more than an hour of closed-door discussion failed with three commissioners opposed.
Chairman Gregg Motley presided, with Commissioners Joe Allen, David Beerbower, Mika Milburn-Kee and Samuel Tran, County Councilor Bob Johnson and County Clerk Ann Clarkson. The published agenda indicated a start at 6 pm; the meeting began at the usual 5:30 commission time.
Routine business
The board approved the agenda, September 28 minutes, accounts payable and August finances. The package includes a $463,336.56 batch of accounts payable due Oct. 2, about $302,000 of it in Blue Cross Blue Shield medical and dental premiums from August to October. The council also approved corrections to the September 18 accounts payable and a set of tax record corrections. (On Sept. 28, the board had approved $15,421.96 that was left out of that week’s accounts payable report.) Motley noted that the documents executed the previous week were in the agenda packet. No public comment card has been issued.
Three executive sessions, then a failed motion
The agenda listed an executive session on employee performance, requested by Tran, to include Dr. Cohen of HR Solutions On Call, the county’s human resources contractor, Johnson and the commissioners. On Sept. 28, the board had given Tran authority to ask Cohen to come in personally to deal with personnel matters.
Tran moved three consecutive executive sessions under KSA 75-4319 (b) (1), for non-elected personnel matters related to job performance, each including the five commissioners, Johnson and Cohen. The first lasted 25 minutes and the second 20, and the board returned from both without any action.
Returning from the third action-packed 20-minute session, Milburn-Kee went on to “give that authority to Dr. Cohen to make those changes.” Tran asked him to “define the changes a little more.” Milburn-Kee said several changes had been suggested and that the motion meant “the last thing that allowed Mr. Allen to work with Cohen to do the payroll change forms.” Tran seconded. The motion failed on a voice vote, with Allen, Beerbower and Motley opposed.
Under future agenda items, Milburn-Kee asked if the personnel issue would return. “For me, it’s until it’s resolved,” Tran said, asking that it go on the agenda.
No budget update; pending asbestos results
The agenda had financial consultant Matt Lawn for a budget update, with the certified 2027 budget in the package. Lawn was not at the meeting, so that item was omitted. The board approved the 2027 budget, which did not exceed 56,678 mills, on September 28.
Regarding the asbestos inspection and court motion, Beerbower said the inspection has been done but he has not received the results. He said crews would begin computer and window work at the new courthouse location Tuesday morning.
Transfer Station: Allen reports on KDHE’s responses
Under Tran’s transfer station item, Tran called Kevin “Skitch” Allen, a local commercial hauler who uses the transfer station, to the table. At the Sept. 28 meeting, Allen had suggested the purchase of a pressure washer for the station’s equipment, and Beerbower had raised concerns about state regulations regarding wash water runoff.
Allen said he emailed his report to four commissioners and tried several times to call Beerbower. Beerbower said he had not received a phone call. “On my personal phone, you’re blocked,” he told Allen. After Allen asked him to repeat it “for the home crowd,” Beerbower added, “because it’s my personal phone.”
Allen then reported on two questions he had asked the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. He said KDHE told him the station can use a pressure washer, because the municipal solid waste area grate already drains into a basin and what he understood to be a 1,500-gallon sludge tank, and that it would only require an addition to the county’s state permit. He said two roll-off dumpsters at the top of the construction and demolition hill, one for tires and one for trash, would also only need an additional permit, as long as trash is taken down and emptied once a week. He said the county has about six roll-up boxes, two of which are now filled with tires, and that KDHE suggested 20-yard boxes, whose shorter sides make it easier to pull things over.
Beerbower said he found the same thing about the washer: The tilting floor meets the standards for one. He called the launch idea “a very good and feasible suggestion,” said it should be passed on to Public Works, and suggested starting with at least one container. Allen said landfill employees had been led to believe the dumps were illegal: “So it’s not illegal. It’s good to go.”
Who pays for the transfer station increase?
Beerbower then took up his issue of the 5 percent salary increase in the 2027 budget. Transfer station employees are paid through dues, not property taxes, he said, so his 5 percent in the 2027 budget must come from the station’s existing budget, a fare increase, or nothing. On September 28 his motion to raise station fees and give station employees 15% died without a second.
Beerbower said the budget figures showed a 2025 carryover of about $96,000 for the station that “certainly didn’t go back to the transfer station.” (On Sept. 28, Motley reported that the audit showed a $96,000 surplus for the station in 2025.) If there had been, he said, “we wouldn’t be talking about” the backhoe, “because we had $96,000 and we would have bought it.” Beerbower also pointed to $35,000 that he said had been applied to the bond, and Tran asked what happens to the $35,000 the station no longer pays for its building; Motley said that had been factored into the budget. Motley said the transfer stays in the station’s cash reserve and fare increases could pay for the increase.
Tran said he understood the 5% was already in the station’s budget. “If it’s in their budget, they can do whatever they want with their budget, not come back to the table and ask for more money,” he said. Instead of asking the public to pay more, he said, the county should find the money internally. Beerbower agreed to ask Lawn how the raise will be paid for. No action was taken.
The package for the article also included a written memo from Milburn-Kee calling for a formal compensation survey and structured pay plan, a cost-of-living increase of 1.5 to 2 percent plus a performance-based pool of up to 5 percent total, before position-by-position salary decisions are made. The note was not discussed. The packet also included a Linn County job listing for an equipment operator from $15.09 to $18.91 an hour.
HR proposals close on Wednesday
Allen said the county’s request for proposals for human resource services closes Wednesday, Oct. 7; he said he had mistakenly written October 5th as the deadline. He said he believes there are three responses so far, two from companies and one from an individual, and the board will decide next Monday.
Milburn-Kee questioned whether applicants had to meet the RFP’s requirements and said changing them later would be “setting yourself up for deviance” for someone already chosen. Motley and Allen said no one had been selected; Allen said he purposely did not read the responses. Milburn-Kee said she had seen them. She and Beerbower said the council had not used an RFP when it hired a human resources provider a year ago. Tran said he brought the RFP idea from the recruiting world in which he works. “If you put out an RFP, that’s your guide. That’s what you should use,” he said, warning that a bidder’s deviance could open the county up to a protest or lawsuit. Johnson recommended the board “look at them and deal with it next Monday because you don’t know what you have yet.”
After the vote to suspend, Tran asked where the RFP had been advertised. Allen said it came out in the Tribune; from the exchange that followed, it appears to have been placed in the Help Wanted section.
The backhoe deals are second to none
Bids for backhoes had been suspended since September 28, while Public Works confirmed that quotes were still in place. Beerbower said the director of public works had gathered five bids, as ordered by the board, and the vendors had re-dated them Monday at the same prices. He accepted Foley Equipment’s bid for a new 2026 CAT backhoe. The motion died for a second, as did his motions for the 2025, 2024, 2022 and 2018 machines. Beerbower said the transfer station was being run with an excavator on loan from Public Works at this time.
Joe Allen said when he spoke with Public Works Director Kenny Allen the previous week, the director also planned to ask Murphy Tractor for a bid. Beerbower said no one had told him that and the board had not given that direction.
When future agenda items came up, Beerbower countered that Murphy could now see the competitive price: “They know Foley’s offer. So it’s very easy to underbid.” Milburn-Kee responded that the bids had not been sealed. Beerbower said the board had approved one backhoe bid, then rescinded it, then solicited five bids and did nothing with them. Johnson advised that “if you’re going to rebid them, you should probably have everyone rebid and not add a bid to an existing RFP.” Tran suggested a market analysis, which he said is non-binding, before making a formal offer. Beerbower asked that the backhoe be back on next week’s agenda.
Letter of support to the tobacco distributor
Dr. Roger K. Harris requested a letter of support from the county, which he said the state requires because he plans to distribute cigars from his home on the lake through his company, Eagles and Osprey LLC. He said his state application and bond had already been filed; the package includes a $1,000 Kansas Tobacco Distributor Tax Bond for the company. Harris said he started the company in the county because it’s a federal HUBZone and offered to help the county pursue HUBZone hiring, saying a contracting company he worked for had half a million dollars in government contracts, 5 percent of which had to go to small businesses. On a motion by Milburn-Kee, seconded by Beerbower, the commission authorized Motley to sign the letter on behalf of the board.
next week
There is no county commission meeting scheduled for next week, Oct. 12, because it is a holiday.
No commissioners commented. Items named for future agendas were the backhoe, transfer station pay raise, human resources proposals, executive session personnel matter, an auction, Becky Gray’s letter of support for transportation. The list of future topics on the published agenda also included insurance and procurement policy. The meeting then adjourned.
Editor’s note: County’s video feed of this meeting malfunctioned and showed a still image for its duration; this story is based on audio from the meeting.
