Mum's still the word on investigation into alleged County Clerk's Office theft

At the request of Commissioner Barbara Albright, County Attorney Terri Johnson gave a brief update on an ongoing criminal investigation involving a former county clerk's office employee during a busy Bourbon County Commission meeting on Friday.

"The investigation is being conducted by the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation,)" Johnson said. "They are still conducting the investigation and have not turned anything over to me for review or potential charges."

Bourbon County Commissioners decided during a special meeting Jan. 3 to pursue a criminal investigation against a former non-elected employee of the Bourbon County Clerk's office.

Johnson had said the name of the employee being investigated is not being released because of the ongoing probe.

"We had a termination yesterday (Jan. 2) from the clerk's office of an employee for misconduct," Coleman said during the meeting. "As part of our decision, we are going to authorize a criminal investigation for alleged employee theft."

During that meeting, commissioners also passed a motion to appoint Terry Sercer, of Diehl Banwart Bolton CPAs to conduct an audit of all the funds to which the clerk's office has access.

"The county is the victim of an alleged criminal act," Johnson said. "The sheriff will be investigating."

Johnson could not disclose a dollar amount, or whether the alleged theft was monetary or property because of the pending investigation.

Johnson informed county department heads on Jan. 7 of an ongoing criminal investigation of an as-yet unnamed former non-elected employee of the clerk's office during a short meeting in the County Commission room.

"For those of you who don't know, there's been an allegation of employee theft," Johnson told the employees assembled for the brief meeting on Jan. 7.

Johnson went on to tell all of the department heads that County Clerk Kendell Mason will hand out a report that each of them should "go through and verify there are no discrepancies," and then return the reports to Mason "completely and quickly." Mason said the reports show each department's expenses for the year.

She then said she could not comment as to whether or not these reports are related to the investigation.

Quarry

In other matters on Friday, commissioners received an update on oil drilling operations at the George Quarry.

Darel Zimmerman, of Running Foxes Petroleum said mechanical difficulties have stalled progress of drilling operations at the George Quarry. He did report to commissioners, however, that there was "a show" of oil during the drilling, but the company could not assess whether it was enough to continue drilling there for a significant period of time. He said they should have a clearer idea of how much oil is there by Monday. The county recently postponed planned rock crushing there and moving operations back to the Beth Quarry because of conflicting leases with the George Family Trust.

Legal publications

County commissioners also listened to representatives from two local newspapers on Friday.

Bourbon County Review owner and publisher Jerrod Handly lobbied commissioners to consider making his publication the official newspaper of record for the county.

He told commissioners that his publication was the only locally owned newspaper in the county and that his paper was the only one printed in Kansas.

When asked where in Kansas, Handly declined to answer.

The Tribune representative Lois McMillan said The Tribune offers the county service, investment, convenience and flexibility. She said the paper has been serving the community for 129 years.

"For decades and decades we have serviced the community and during all those years we have chronicled the lives of Fort Scott and Bourbon County," McMillan said. "We have a long legacy and want to build on that."

She said the paper has a "financial footprint" in the county.

"Our employees work here, they spend their money here and our newspaper reinvests back in the community," McMillan said.

She said the flexibility comes from being a daily newspaper and being able to publish in a timely manner.

Handly accused The Fort Scott Tribune (the current official newspaper of record) of "pinching" the county by charging too much per column inch. He said that if The Tribune had "been so gracious last year to extend you the $6.25 rate that they were so gracious and quick to extend to you this year, you would have saved yourselves $7,649.80."

He said he realized the county is no longer paying last year's rate to The Tribune, but said, "I want you to understand something - it is not because they want to do you a favor."

He said in his opinion, it was strictly because of "greed."

He said the Tribune lowered its bid to the City of Fort Scott to retain its account with the city and he called the action "despicable."

"To publicly lower your bid just because you have some competition now is despicable," Handly said.

"I'm not going to lower them to get into a -- I'd rather not lower them to get into a pricing war," Handly said.

He later told the commissioners "I'm not interested in making money. I want to serve the community and help you folks spend the taxpayers' dollars as efficiently as possible."

Johnson said one of her concerns was the issue of publishing once a week in the Bourbon County Review versus having the option of the five-day-a-week Tribune.

"I just think that's something you guys need to consider," Johnson told commissioners. "Cost issues aside, that is the difference between the two papers."

There also was a lengthy discussion about font size for legal ads.

Commissioner Allen Warren said he was told by someone at The Tribune there was a state statute that mandated a minimum font size for legals. He said he later found out there was not.

McMillan agreed there is no statute.

Allen said that after the Tribune agreed to reduce the font size last year, the paper put blank lines within the text, increasing the price of the overall ad.

"We lost everything we had gained," Allen said.

McMillan said that was done to insure readability.

"If you have a long legal description and you put it down to six (-point font), it's too small to read," McMillan said.

She said that putting the spaces allows them to get away with using the six at times.

Warren suggested that most readers do not read the legal ads line by line, that they are really only looking for specific names and that the county should have the say in what size font is used.

In addition to the legal publications, Handly also offered to print job openings for the county free of charge as long as his paper was the official newspaper of the county, and he offered a free subscription to the county.

Warren said in the last two years, there has only been about five openings for which the county has had to advertise.

"That hasn't been a big item," Warren said.

Commissioners decided to further discuss the situation.

In a separate matter, Handly told commissioners he offered his services as a mediator for conflicts between Drywood Township and the Garland Rural Fire Department.

"I want you to know that we received one reply. Out of 14 letters we sent out to the figureheads of the situation, we got one reply," Handly said. "That tells me that they're not interested in coming to a resolve. That tells me that they have dug their feet in the sand."

In other business:

*Public Works Director Marty Pearson told commissioners it will cost about $2,834.33 for replacement parts to repair an axle on the county's backhoe trailer.

*Albright suggested immediate attention to a whistle culvert that is exposed 3 feet into the roadway near 240th on Arrowhead Road.

*Mason thanked Pearson for his department's help with the last election.

*Commissioners decided to look into the possibility of using the legal counsel of Shaver, Kline and Warren, of Kansas City, Mo. during the permit process for Enbridge, a company which plans to install oil pipelines in the county. Commissioners said the firm has worked with other counties and has the engineering expertise to help the county.

*Warren said Wednesday night's meeting for the Citizen's Emergency Response Team was well attended and applauded the efforts of CERT leadership.

*Warren requested Pearson update job descriptions for his employees.

*Commissioners approved a road closing on a dead-end road on Birch Street, south of Garland. Land on both sides of Birch Street are owned by the Bohlken family. Annette Bohlken requested the closure because of a theft problem on her property.

*Commissioners went into a 10-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel with Pearson. No action was taken.

*Commissioners met for five minutes in executive session with Mason, Register of Deeds Lora Holdridge and Johnson under attorney client privilege with possible litigation.

* A second jail tour planned for Friday was canceled and rescheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, April 12.

*Commissioners announced they will canvass votes at 10 a.m. on Monday.

*Commissioners approved the financing of two Freightliner trucks for $140,931 each through UMB Bank. The county received the trucks last month.

*Commissioners decided not to accept a small lot of donated property from Wells Fargo near Garland, but suggested the information be posted at the Garland Community Center for the town's consideration.

*Pearson said he will meet with someone next week regarding railroad oil tankers to be used to repair the Yellowstone Road Bridge. He told commissioners a 9- to 10-foot length would cost about $9,500 and he is looking into T-Works funding.