ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The Seward County Commission’s March 20 town hall meeting finished with discussions about the county’s capital improvement plan and questions from the audience regarding an additional emergency management director and a study from the Kansas Association of Counties concerning loss of revenue from tax exempt properties.
Administrator April Warden said capital improvement planning is something the county has always done, and while planning in the past has been done on a five-year basis, she said county leaders want to project some of that planning out further.
“The costs we’re dealing with Road and Bridge, deferred maintenance and buildings is a big issue we have, and those expenses are very large,” she said. “You’ve got to do short-term planning, but we’ve got to plan out beyond that five-year plan too. We’re working on budgets way before that.”
The commission hosts the county’s annual budget work session normally in July, but Warden said that process could see a change in the near future.
“The other thing the commissioners have been looking at is departmental fee structure reviews and making sure we’re keeping up with current cost as to what it costs us to be able to provide services whether it be in the landfill, EMS and what we charge for rental fees and usage of some of our county facilities. They’ve been doing a lot of departmental fee structure reviews,” she said.
The commission’s next strategic planning session is scheduled for April 15, and Warden said the participation at town hall meetings helps guide those sessions. She said in particular, constituent concerns about budgeting are important, but so too are how the county is meeting taxpayer needs and how various costs can be budgeted.
After the CIP discussion, the meeting was opened to questions from the audience, and former county commissioner Jim Rice asked about the county’s need for two emergency management directors, with the recent hire of Tim Newman to replace long-time director Greg Standard, who is scheduled to retire in 2026.
“For years and years, we had one,” Rice said. “Has the workload increased so much we now need two, or is that something that could be reduced in size? The public needs and deserves an answer as to why we have decided it’s time to have two directors.”
Commission Chairman Scott Carr said the hire was made as part of the county’s succession planning to have a new director in place and trained to know everything about Seward County before Standard retires.
“We’re having one retire here pretty quick, so we wanted the second one in place,” Carr said. “We didn’t need one of those train wrecks with chemicals everywhere and not know what to do, so we wanted that person in place ahead of time.”
Rice asked with Newman’s qualifications and experience in emergency management, what was the need for his training? Carr and Warden said training for each county is different due to the prevalent conditions in that county.
“He did work in Hutch in Reno County for a time,” Warden said. “He was in Nebraska, and then he came here. The difference here too is you get to know your businesses and the type of businesses we have – the major industrial businesses we have where you could have major disasters, getting to know those individuals, working with the ethanol plant, working with the National Helium plant, working with the different businesses, National Beef, coordinating with the hospital.”
Warden said when Standard announced he was retiring, even with the county’s succession plan in place, county leaders were unsure if they would get someone with Newman’s expertise.
“Tim did come to us with some good emergency management background,” Warden said. “Workforce issues have been huge, and we don’t always get the qualifications we would like to see these days. We got lucky with that hire and were able to find somebody.”
Warden too added the county has also had either administrative assistants or assistant emergency directors in place in the past.
“We have not hired that position back because we do have the two director type positions in place right now,” she said. “I will also say Greg was able to get a grant through Civil Defense to help pay for the position, so it is not costing the taxpayers of Seward County. I know people argue grants are taxpayers’ dollars too, and I understand that, but we were able to get a federal grant at the time for the additional position.”
Rice then asked about the timeline being looked at for the transition to be complete from Standard to Newman. Warden said that is something county officials will need to discuss.
“When we had our budget work sessions, not last July, but two years ago this July, he had let us know he planned to retire,” Warden said. “At that time, we did the search. We were able to find somebody who was qualified.”
Warden said Standard let county leaders he was planning to stay on as director through July 2026.
“That is something this commission will have to determine,” Warden said. “That is a future discussion of this board to provide me with direction of how we want to go with that and talking with the employees as well.”
The discussion at the town hall meeting concluded with talk about a statewide KAC study of tax exempt properties in Kansas counties.
“KAC’s done two studies, but that particular one is all of the properties we have that are exempt in our counties, but we still are required to service and the cost of services to have those, whether it be a church or a non-profit or whatever that gets the exemption,” Warden said. “We still have to offer fire service, Road and Bridge services, trash services and all of the different services we provide, but they’re exempt from paying property taxes and the burden that is putting on the counties.”
Warden said the second KAC study showed each county has 18 services they are mandated to cover for which they do not receive federal or state funding.
“It falls on your counties,” she said.
Warden said a total of 32 counties in the Sunflower State participated in the KAC survey when Seward County leaders traveled to Topeka in January.
“They were still trying to get more of the 105 counties to respond to that, but of the 32, it was just an astronomical amount of money we, the county, have to come up with somewhere to offer those mandated services we’re required to give, but we get no funding from state or federal funding for that,” she said.
Commissioner Steve Helm said the properties include churches, non-profit agencies, schools and housing such as that provided by Original Town of Liberal Revitalization (OTLR).
“All their properties are tax exempts,” he said. “You can go download the list. It’s quite extensive, and you can actually sort it by the different types to realize how much the city has given on housing development we don’t have control over. We don’t have control over the OTLR.”
Rice said the county’s loss of revenue can also largely be attributed to delinquent taxes that have not been paid.
“If you look at the newspaper, you find two or three pages of delinquent taxes,” he said. “I can see why you guys are having a hard time navigating.”
Helm said delinquent taxes go as far back as 1993, and no attempt had been made to collect them for some time. These include personal properties and oil and gas properties.
“I don’t know how much attempt was made to collect, but now, we’re trying to deal with 1993 to 2025,” he said. “We’re trying to start collecting that, but that’s difficult.”
Warden said having information in place about what not just the county, but other local governments such as the City of Liberal, Seward County Community College and USD 480 are facing is good.
“That’s what we’re talking about when we have to do public relations and get that information out and educate the citizens,” she said. “People don’t realize what we’re mandated to fund and what we can’t collect when they’re given exemptions that affect us. There’s still a cost for us to provide services in our communities.”
Warden said Appraiser Angela Eichman took matters a step further and broke down the totals of what the exempt properties would bring in tax revenue.
“It’s good information, but it’ll shock you as well,” Warden said. “Then you understand what we’re faced with when we’re trying to make decisions about the services we offer and where we can make cuts in the budget.”
