Resident says judge should lose funding because of Tanglewood public roads decision
- Charlene Sims, Journal staff
- Jul 4
- 6 min read
By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – During public comment at the Linn County Commission meeting on Monday, June 30, Mound City resident Mike White complained to the commissioners about the district court increasing its budget from last year.
He told the commissioners that, if he were them, before increasing Judge Andrea Purvis’ budget he would take into consideration that she is costing the county a lot of money because of her decision on Tanglewood Lake.
White began by asking the commissioners what the exact amount of increase was.
Commission Chair Jim Johnson said he thought it was around $30,000.
Commissioner Alison Hamilton said that the proposed district court budget for 2026 was $230,300 and last year’s was $182,026 with the difference really being closer to $50,000.
White asked about the reason for the increase.
Commissioner Jason Hightower said the increase was in the contractual and it was for their defenders that they are having to hire. He said they increased $35,000 on that category, which was the total change in the budget.
Hamilton said they had increased in court reporters, trial costs, and several other things.
County Clerk Danielle Souza clarified that the county does not pay any district court wages. She said the county did pay contractual obligations to attorneys that come in to service our county.
Hamilton explained that the increase was on indigent services for when a person did not have the money to hire an attorney and a public defender was provided. That line item increased from $142,000 to $179,000.
White said he was somewhat confused about that. He asked if the county did not pay it, where does the money come from?
Souza said that the Sixth Judicial District of Kansas includes Linn, Miami and Bourbon counties, and those counties contributed to the district’s operation.
White asked if that increase was split between the three counties.
Souza said the budget just showed Linn County’s increase.
Hightower added that it was due to the nature of Linn County’s trials.
“It bothers me a little bit that Judge Purvis needs this money because she’s actually causing this county a lot of grief right now with the ruling at Tanglewood. I feel like you need to take that into consideration if you go increasing her budget,” White said.
Souza reiterated that, “Judge Purvis does not benefit from any of our funds directly. She gets paid through the Judicial District No. 6, not from Linn County.”
In other business, the commissioners:
• Voted to not put Dave’s Towing service back on the rotation for Linn County towing services due to the felony information and lack of a driver present in Linn County.
• Learned from Economic Development Director Chasity Ware that she had reached out to Rice County, Kansas to see where they get the funding for their airport. Ware reported that Rice County officials said that the county should stay away from federal funding because there are so many more stipulations and guidelines. Ware said she planned on reaching out to Marshall County this week.
• Opened culvert bids and read them:
- Metal Culverts, Inc. Jefferson City, Mo., $243,626
- J & J drainage Products, Hutchinson, Kans. $151,067
- Contech, $29,357 and $473,630
- Welborn Sales, Salina, Kans. $176,345
Johnson asked interim Public Works Direct Jesse Walton if that was a lot more than the county normally gets.
Walton said that the county had quite a few culverts on this bid. He will qualify the bids and bring them back to the commission.
• Heard from Walton that the 1850 Road project request for proposal went out and contractors are getting back with them on more specifics. He said he hoped those bids would be in within the next week so that road can be worked on.
• Learned from Walton that the final walk through on the Hell’s Bend bridge had been completed and everything turned out really good with it. He said that the state was decommissioning the old bridge number and assigning the new bridge a new number.
Walton said that he was going to sign the notice of acceptance and send it back to the state. He told the commissioners that the county was going to haul off the old bridge beams.
• Approved a payment to Terracon of nearly $5,500 for the vertical expansion of the landfill from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
• Discussed purchasing two trucks for the landfill with ARPA funds. Walton asked if it was alright if he put an RFP out on the trucks.
Commissioner Jason Hightower said that his only question was what if the bids came back incredibly higher than what we had set aside in the ARPA funds. He asked if the county was going to be able to afford two trucks.
Walton answered, “I don’t know. I wasn’t in on that. The bid was for three trucks last time. I don’t know what the bid was per truck.”
Hightower said, “I’d like to know if we are short and if we have the money in equipment reserve and if it’s adequate before we go out for bid. I would rather have that all kind of lined out where the money is coming from.”
Johnson said that the commissioners were concerned last time because the bids were and amount plus tariffs and the tariff costs were not given.
Walton will check to see how much money is available and where it is coming from and bring that back to the commissioners.
• Walton asked to go into executive session for 15 minutes with the commissioners, Souza and Paletta concerning employee performance. No action came from the executive session.
• Hired Ben Capps as an Equipment Operator I without a CDL for the Linn County road shop 1 at the hourly rate of $17.04 an hour.
• Discussed items at the Parker Senior Center that the city asked the county to remove. Commissioner Alison Hamilton said that should be Parker’s responsibility and that the county did not need to take any more work on to move the items.
• Heard from Craw-Kan Telephone Cooperative representative Rob Dent that they were replacing the copper wire with fiber in the Prescott area. Dent asked if they could purchase a blanket permit for installing the line for $1,500 like they had done in the past. Presently, Walton is charging Craw-Kan $300 for each road crossing and they are just into the county three or four miles and have 11 crossings already.
The commissioners decided to look into what was done in the past and any changes that had been made to the fees. Since Dent said that his crew was already at the county line, he would be willing to write a check for the $3,300 if the county would look at the blanket permit. The commissioners agreed to refund the money if it turns out that they give Craw-Kan a lower blanket fee.
• Went into executive session for an interview for the Public Works Director for 20 minutes with Human Resources staff Rose Mohler and the three commissioners. Later extended the executive session for 15 more minutes. No action came from the executive session.
• Discussed anti-harassment training for Linn County employees. Souza explain that the courses were one-hour online courses, which had two short quizzes during the presentation just to make sure the person watching was paying attention. Those quizzes did not count toward taking he course but the quiz at the end had to be passed with an 80% grade to pass the course.
Other road department courses were discussed including the flagger course.
The commissioners decided that all employees should take the sexual harassment, harassment, and bullying training buy the end of the year. Souza will work with each department head about what other courses they would like added for their employees to take.
• Discussed the traffic coordinator job description which was last updated in 2017.
• Reviewed and approved the fence viewing resolution and agreed with it. It will be certified by Souza and then the register of deeds and then to the landowners, Charles Self and Mark Isbell.
Comentários