ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
As opinions continue to swirl regarding the Sept. 15 public hearing that saw a narrow 3-2 vote to pass a budget that contained a 13-plus increase in the mill levy, one Seward County commissioner sought to relook at the budget to see if further cuts could be made at Monday’s meeting.
“I just want to open up for discussion based on the public reaction in the last two weeks, is there room to amend the 2026 budget, which we are still able to do at this time?” Commissioner Todd Stanton said. “There’s additional information we’re all aware of at this point. Is it something we’re willing to discuss?”
Stanton said reaction to the budget from the public has been extraordinarily negative, and he believes county leaders now know about more options available to them.
“I believe there were budget reduction options that should be explored further, and we’re still at a point in the process where we can discuss this and take action if we approve to do so,” he said.
Commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott, who along with Chairman Scott Carr and Commissioner Presephoni Fuller voted for the increase, asked after commissioners hosted eight budget work sessions what Stanton was proposing to be done.
“What are your suggestions?” Sutherland-Abbott said. “You were very quiet at all of those meetings. What do you propose we do, not just a number to be at, but how do we get there?”
Stanton said there were several ways he felt further cuts could be made to reduce the mill levy increase.
“Which one would you like me to explain?” he said.
Stanton also questioned the amount of money put back for a potential payback of as much as $5.9 million to Conestoga Energy for settlement money in an ongoing tax appeals case. He said from what he had seen from county documents, only $500,000 had been set back as of Monday.
Administrator April Warden said $1 million was put aside in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, and she added if a settlement is not reached this year, that money is rolled over into next year’s budget. She said another $1.5 million would then be added, bringing the total to $2.5 million, a figure which was given to commissioners at their budget work sessions earlier this year.
Stanton said that $2.5 million still does not equate to a 13-plus mill increase.
“This is wreaking havoc on the local economy just from real estate, not just from residential, but commercial as well,” he said. “If we have the opportunity to take a second and look at this, I believe it’s something we need to do.”
Sutherland-Abbott said Stanton needs to come up with ideas to further trim the budget.
“Tell us what your ideas are,” she said.
Stanton said he has been attempting to put ideas out for discussion he feels would allow the county to hold the line on its finances.
“Please don’t tell me I haven’t put anything forward,” he said. “I don’t know how else to tell you to hold the line other than just keep it at a level we can deal with.”
Sutherland-Abbott continued to question what Stanton’s ideas were.
“What are you cutting?” she said. “What are you saying the departments can do away with? What are you saying? Tell me specifically what you want to do that we’re not doing.”
Stanton said employee salaries would be preserved, but he simply wants a number for how much would have to be cut to make the budget liveable for taxpayers.
“I want to know what percentage do we need to reduce everything else to bring this down to a number that is something the local economy can actually deal with and the taxpayers can actually deal with?” he said.
Fuller said she feels enough time has been spent on getting a workable budget.
“We have had eight budget work sessions,” she said. “None of this information has been brought up. We spent hours and days looking at this budget. With all of the chatter in the community, it just blows my mind you are here asking this question. We did not come up here and be elected not to do the business of the county, and we know we have to make hard decisions. We have cut this budget multiple times. I did not hear you make any kind of corrections in the budget work sessions we had.”
Fuller said commissioners themselves make between $15,000 and $18,000 a year, and this is without benefits.
“That’s $100,000,” she said. “How much of a cut is that going to be? The employee benefits have been cut. Hours have been cut.”
Fuller said Warden has been handling most of the open records requests from media and the public regarding county budget numbers.
“She’s become literally a library of papers back and forth of things that you could take up and ask the questions,” she said.
Fuller said more one-on-one conversations need to take place to allow individuals to get explanations about budget concerns.
“It’s easy to cast stones and throw stones, but you had the opportunity to come and sit down with the county administrator and point things out to you,” she said. “This is not something we enjoy doing, and to come tonight and ask us if we have not looked at this with a fine toothed comb, it’s not a nice thing.”
Stanton said no one was grandstanding at Monday’s meeting, but the discussion regarding cuts was done for a serious reason.
“We have a budget that has significantly increased from the prior year,” he said.
Carr said the budget concerns started when prior commissioners chose to reduce a previous levy by four mills, which took out at least $1 million dollars from the budget. He added that decision caused county officials to use much in the way of reserves, leaving those accounts with very little left.
Stanton said he felt budget numbers do not accurately reflect what is in reserves.
“What I’m doing here today is saying ‘Are there things here we can revisit?’” he said. “I don’t believe we gave an honest hearing.”
Carr said Vice Chairman Steve Helm did have some good ideas, but he said those would likely better work with next year’s budget.
Stanton said he felt, for the most part, the county’s employee salaries were competitive with other counties.
“There are some people where there are exceptions,” he said.
Sutherland-Abbott later questioned Stanton’s reasoning.
“Did you get on this commission to support the county or to fight the other commissioners?” she said. “We have not worked together like the five of us should be working to make the county successful. I feel there’s so much in fighting or knit picking, name calling outside of here, and it’s very hard to work together. I was elected to represent the people of this community with the hard things I didn’t know about before I got on and to take care of making our county and our employees better, not to cause all this fighting.”
Stanton said all commissioners should strive to make things better for everyone in the county. Warden reminded him employees are part of that equation as well.
Fuller said if discussions were to be had, a special session should have been called first.
“Don’t try to do this now,” she said. “It’s just not the appropriate time.”
Sutherland-Abbott said all of the budget work sessions were public meetings.
“Any of the community members could’ve come and had their input, and we could’ve considered it then also,” she said.
Stanton advised commissioners not to denigrate community members. Fuller said she was not trying to do so.
“Seward County has always had an open door policy,” Fuller said. “They are welcome to come. I encourage them to come and to write e-mails and get it from the horse’s mouth, not secondhand information, not half truths, but the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Warden too said budget work sessions and town hall meetings are livestreamed. She would later visit recent concerns about open records request, and she said her executive assistant, Hillary Franco, had reached out to the Kansas Attorney General’s office regarding the matter.
“They let us know all requests for open records must be handled in the same manner regardless whether they come from an individual or the media,” Warden said. “They also said those requests must be received by your records custodian, which is the county clerk’s office. They cannot require requestors to use specific request forms.”
Warden said she did not feel she was asking anything out of the normal last week when she considered requesting media fill out a Kansas Open Records request form.
“We have been getting the same requests for information, so it has been helpful,” she said. “When they ask for it, if we already have that, we can forward that on to the next person. It saves us time.”
Warden said she tries to provide correct information, and she welcomes questions to verify that information. She said many of the comments made by the public about the recent budget increase have been harmful to both her and others.
“We have been verbally attacked,” she said. “Employees driving around in county vehicles and trying to fill up their vehicles, they’re being verbally attacked for things they have not done. We have pitted employees against each other through all of this back and forth. I hope people realize when there’s false information out there, the things that are said about people are very hurtful.”
Fuller said she wants everyone to work together to get matters resolved in a civilized manner.
“We have got to do better, and all of these people who are saying these things go to somebody’s church,” she said. “We need to pray for our community to come together and to allow all to calm down and make the decisions we need to make. If you have a challenge with someone, come to them. Respectfully come to them, and I would encourage you to have a third party there. I would encourage everybody to stay in their lane. If you’re not an attorney, don’t talk attorney language. If you’re not an appraiser, you don’t know that role. Stay in your lane, and be respectful.”
Sutherland-Abbott called for better understanding from the community about what the county does before passing judgment.
“Understand what they do,” she said. “I do call on this community to see what Liberal is, and I know us to be kind and to help each other out. We should band together as a county like we’ve always done before.”
