Commission chair seeks to replace county health department

By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – Commissioners Alison Hamilton and Jason Hightower, along with Linn County Health Department Director Amanda Snyder, fended off suggestions from Commission Chair Jim Johnson that the county’s health department be replaced with the SEK Multi-County Health Department (SEKMCHD).

Johnson has expressed concerns since he came into office more than four years ago about the county’s health department. A couple of years ago,  Johnson scheduled a speaker from the SEKMCHD to speak with the commissioners about joining that organization.

In his quest to make the switch, Johnson has in previous sessions grilled previous health department directors about their operations, spending, budgets and how they could save money. Subsequently, they both moved on to other employment.

On Monday, Aug. 4, when Snyder came in to go over her budget with the commissioners, Johnson started out the questioning, “Well, I’ll tell you my question. One of my questions is with the four counties that’s around us, Bourbon, Allen, Anderson and Woodson. The county portion of what they do isn’t near what we pay.”

Snyder answered, “So, correct. Do you know what the multi-county’s budget is?”

Johnson answered, “I don’t know the exact budget for the whole thing but I do have the figures from last year for what the counties paid. Bourbon County was 14,408 population and theirs was $90,750. Allen’s (population) was 12,112 and that was $115,000. Anderson County (with a) 7,838 population for $89,000. And Woodson 3,115 population (paid) $36,000.

“And I realize that’s not their grant because the grant money is tied together,”  said Johnson. “I requested the budget but I haven’t got it yet. That is the county portion. They have no benefit package. They have nothing. And they have probably two people in their counties, a nurse and a clerk.

Snyder said that she had their audited budget from 2024 and their overall budget for those four counties was $1.4 million, and they actually went over their budget in 2024 to $1.48 million. So the combination of those four counties and what each county is paying combined for that year was $332,200.

Snyder pointed out that Linn County did originally belong to the multi-county organization but broke away in 2007 when the organization asked Linn County to pay $161,000 yearly. She said the organization based each county’s contribution to the program on assessed valuation and population.

Snyder told the commissioners that Linn County paid $91,369 out of tax dollars to the health department for 2025. Snyder explained that the rest of the money in the $332,099 2025 budget was from grant funds as well as other monies received. 

Johnson asked if that included benefits. Snyder said it did not.

Johnson said, “You know the benefit package is huge to us. It’s a huge expense.”

Hamilton asked Snyder to forget that the budget was an issue and explain what the benefits are for Linn County not belonging to the multi-county health department.

Snyder said that the county health department is more accessible to Linn County residents. She said she could not say what it would look like if the multi-county organization took over but she would assume they would probably have two people in the office so they would definitely get rid of staff. 

Snyder said in most of the multi-county offices they offer the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children (WIC) services one to two times a month. The Linn County Health Department offers it four times a week.

Hightower said that part of the reason Linn County was doing that was because of the sheer number of people that we have on WIC, is that correct?

Snyder said the WIC case load is pushing 200 clients right now. She said that she would feel comfortable saying that, under the multi-county department, services would be reduced and basically the county would only be meeting the statute minimum of providing a health department.

Snyder told the commissioners that she felt like the health department had come a long way and done a lot work to build to what is now offered. She said that she would hate to see that go backwards.

“I feel like you will be levying more taxes to be part of the multi-county group if that is the route we choose to go,” Snyder said.

Snyder explained to the commissioners that the multi-county organization makes up for a lot of their expenses with state grants. She said that in 2024 that organization received nearly $603,700 in state grants, another almost $50,000 in federal grants and $35,000 in local grants. 

Snyder said that money all goes into a big pot and and they distribute it as they see fit. 

Snyder reported to the commissioners that she did pull Pratt County’s information because it was comparable to Linn County in size. The report she cited from Pratt County in 2024 was that their proposed budget (they had not yet been audited) was just over $828,400. Snyder pointed out that it was considerably higher than Linn County’s.

The amount Pratt County residents paid in taxes for their department was about $398,700.

Johnson took off on another direction saying it was just not the health department that he was concerned about. He said he had checked around with other neighboring counties and they had less employees for the whole county than Linn County, 

Johnson said that  Bourbon, Allen and Anderson had 90 some employees while Linn County has nearly 150. But then he said he learned from Facebook that Bourbon County had not had it’s own dispatchers because the city of Fort Scott handled that. But he said Bourbon County would have to be adding some employees because they were going to take over their own dispatching.

Discussion went back to the health department with Hamilton asking Johnson, “So outside of the budget, is your focus on a possibility of eliminating the health department? Is that where you are at in this? Because I have heard you mention it a few times. I’m just trying to figure out like. . . “

Johnson interrupted, “Tell you what. I just want to do it as cheap as we can because if we take a $100,000 or whatever the benefit package is, we’re leaving a lot of money on the table is the way I feel about it than what other counties do.”

Snyder replied, “But I don’t think their citizens get the same services that we provide either. So we would be providing less of a service to our citizens, which right now is costing our citizens $9 per person to be able to utilize the health department.”

Johnson said we have Southeast Kanas Community Health Centers (SEK-CHC) in three of the cities of Linn County.

Snyder said that they don’t provide the same services as the health department. They are a medical health clinic.

Johnson said, “They don’t do anything as far as vaccines or anything? They couldn’t do any of that.”

Snyder said that SEK-CHC could do that, but they did not have the vaccines for children (VFC) program where people could get their children’s vaccines for free.

Johnson said, “There’s opportunities I would like to look at myself. The opportunities of what we’re doing just because of funding. I mean, I’m just here to look to make sure we’re doing things for the taxpayers in Linn County being the best stewards of the money that we can be.”

Hamilton said that she did not feel like it was fair to Snyder or other health department staff to give them the implication that the commissioners are on the same page of eliminating the health department.

Hightower said he was not wanting to eliminate the health department and Hamilton agreed.

Hamilton went on to say how impressed she was with the health department and the outreach services. She said seeing the health department at community events was so important. She said she did not believe that would happen if the health department  joined the multi-county group and only had two people at the Linn County office.

Hamilton said what they would get from the multi-county group was the bare minimum and the county would still be paying a lot of money for it. Hamilton expressed concern that the health department staff felt like they had clouds over their heads because they always felt like they were going to lose their jobs.

Snyder said, “It definitely lowers morale.”

Once again, Johnson said he was just looking at what was best for the county. 

Johnson said, “I’m not for cutting services, I mean if it’s services that are actually needed.”

Hamilton said that they could look at costs of different programs in the future. 

County Counselor Jacklyn’s Paletta suggested that Johnson was looking at how much programs above the bare bones cost and the number of people served by those programs.

Snyder said, “I’m happy to do whatever you’d like. I just feel like it comes down to do you want us to do the bare bones or do you want us to exceed and lead and provide these services for our citizens.”

Hightower said that he liked the way the health department was operating and said that was his vote of confidence.

Hightower concluded, “I think the reports that we receive monthly from Amanda show that it is services that are needed within our county. I think beyond just population there are different demographics in different counties that require different needs and this office is trying to meet those needs for our people.”