L&T staff report
Three conventions took place Monday night to fill the vacancies on the Seward County Board of Commissioners after the resignations of Presephoni Fuller, Scott Carr and Tammy Sutherland-Abbott, and the names of the winners have been sent to Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to be certified before Monday’s regularly scheduled commission meeting.
Seward County Republican Party Chair Bill Hatcher led the process after being notified while returning from Omaha two weeks ago that the previous commissioners, all Republicans, had resigned.
That kicked off the process to fill the vacancies without disrupting payroll or other county services that required commission action.
The precinct representatives for Seward County Commission districts 2, 3 and 4 met at the Leader & Times Community Room for the conventions, and District 2 started the evening with four candidates making their case including Don Barr, Jr., Chris Linenbroker, Clay Louderback and Sandra Montes.
Louderback was selected.
District 3 precinct representatives heard from Jairo Vazquez and Justin Higgins and selected Vazquez.
District 4 needed two ballots to choose a commissioner after listening to presentations from candidates Mike Hale, Jimmy Holman, Eduardo Magallanes, Carolyn Huddleston and John Mettlen.
There was a tie between Huddleston and Mettlen, with three votes each and with one vote going to Magallanes. By rule, Magallanes was eliminated, and in the second round of voting Mettlen was chosen.
Once Gov. Kelly certifies the results, the candidates can be seated, and she has seven days to certify, or the appointments become valid by default.
The new commissioners will then select a new chair and vice chair and then start regular business Monday. The commission will also have to decide how to move forward with the existing complaints filed with the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals after the massive 15-plus mill tax increase which was passed 3-2 by Fuller, Carr and Sutherland-Abbott was challenged for procedural and factual inaccuracies. That hearing is slated for early February after a delay because of the resignations. The new commissioners will have to decide if they want to continue to challenge the complaints or accept the results and return to Revenue Neutral Rate which would reduce the current taxes and require Seward County to trim the increase out of the budget for 2026.
They will also have to address the budget concerns on how to reduce expenses while maintaining services and also how to work with Arkalon Energy on another pending valuation case and how to negotiate the potential refund that will be due to the ethanol plant once the decision is reached.
The appointments are for one year, and the 2026 elections will allow the voters to choose the commissioners for Districts 2, 3 and 4 for the next four years.
