Resident questions hiring of county counselor

By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – The Linn County Commission on Monday, May 5 fielded a question from Mound City resident Kevin Amer about the role of the new County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta.

Amer aked whether she had been officially hired and what her fee would be. He asked if she was going to be at the meetings. 

County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta

He said that he and others had never heard whether she was officially hired.

Commissioner Jason Hightower said that it was official.

County Commission Chair Jim Johnson said Amer could get with the county clerk. County Commissioner Alison Hamilton agreed and  told him that he could file a Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request to get those questions answered.

Hightower said that she won’t be attending every meeting but will be there when the commission needs her.

County Clerk Danielle Souza answered the question by reading from the March 31 minutes.

She said that the exact minutes say, “Jason motioned to hire Jacklyn Paletta as the county counselor on an as needed basis at a rate of $200 per hour with contract to be approved next week.”

Paletta’s contract was approved at the April 7 meeting.

According the website of law firm Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho P.L.C., she is managing partner of the firm's Kansas City, Mo., office. She is also city attorney for the city of Pleasanton.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the commission reviewed the quarterly report of county Treasurer Janet Kleweno. 

The report as of March 2025 showed that the interest Linn County receives on its accounts continues to be trending up as compared to last year for the first quarter.

In the first quarter of 2024, Linn County earned just over $9,700 on its Super NOW account balance of nearly $2.4 million. For the first quarter of 2025, the county has earned more than $16,000. The balance as of the end of March 2025 was nearly $3.45 million.

Linn County earned nearly $182,000 on its certificates of deposits (CD) in the first quarter of 2024 with a balance then of more than $19.64 million. In the first quarter of 2025, the balance on the CD accounts was nearly $18.26 million with the quarterly earned interest of just over $325,500.

In summary, the interest earned from all accounts during the first quarter of 2024 was more than $191,600, and in the first quarter of 2025 more than $321,600 interest was earned.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Learned from interim Public Works Director Jesse Walton that he was going to recommend to the Planning and Zoning Chairman that the Tuesday, May 14, meeting be cancelled because letters notifying nearby residents had not been sent out. But as the conversation continued Hamilton said that she would like to have the county counselor attend the meeting and work with the planning and zoning on figuring out how to update the regulation verbiage.

• Learned from Walton that the surveyors were at the landfill today figuring out how much room was left for construction and demolition (C & D) trash. Walton said that the overview of the cells shows how much the county can fill in each spot. He told the commissioners that the engineering firm Terracon Consulting Engineers doing the work sent out a letter to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) about the vertical expansion that has been going on. 

• Learned from Walton that he was going to have the on-call county engineer examine the old military bridge just north of Mound City due to a fracture in the center pillar of that bridge. 

• Discussed sending out request for proposals (RFP) for the courthouse roof project. Discussed doing this for any other county building that had hail damage also.

• Approved C & D dumping assistance reduced fees for Joanne and Polly Yates at 210 S. 3rd St. in Blue Mound.

• Approved a change order from Terracon of $5,742 for drainage and berm work for the vertical expansion.

• Approved an assistance application from Roger Carbon for the public works department to dig two post holes to set a gate at the fairgrounds.

• Told Walton that they were okay with him attending a 20 minute tutorial about purchasing rights-of-way so that paperwork could be completed on the High Risk Rural Road project on 1095.

• Approved a burial permit for a water line at 1700 and Baskerville roads.

• Went into 10 minute executive session with the county clerk regarding financial matters pertaining to the budget. No action was taken.

• Moved to add additional language about towers to the zoning regulations after learning from Walton that the Peoples Telecommunication tower near Tanglewood Lakes was on hold until the regulations were figured out. Walton said that in the old zoning regulations towers 75 feet or higher needed conditional use permits (CUP), but the height of the tower is not listed in the new zoning regulations. The Peoples tower is less than 75 feet, and Walton said that this is what he had discussed with Peoples Director Jennifer Leach-Harlow

• Went into a 15 minute executive session with Walton, Souza, the three commissioners for non-elected personnel, job descriptions. No action was taken.