LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Carolyn Huddleston, Liberal
According to information provided to me by April Warden under open records requests, in June of this year, the Advisory Board for Cimarron Basin Community Corrections met and approved a 7 percent bonus for all staff. These bonuses were paid in July. Note that this was all done at a time when nobody at the county is supposed to be getting a raise.
Kayla Janko, the Director of Cimarron Basin Community Corrections, whose total pay in 2024 was $107,647, got a $7,347 bonus, and her supervision officers got bonuses in the amount of $4,513.
Since $4,513 is 7 percent of the expected earnings of these people, that suggests their annual income would have been $64,470 prior to the bonuses.
Interestingly, April Warden, who spent considerable time at the public hearing listing everything they are doing to cut county expenditures, is on the Advisory Board that approved these bonuses, as is Commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott. Yes, the same Tammy Sutherland-Abbott who made the campaign promise to never raise taxes, and now has voted for a record tax increase. Citizens in Tammy’s district are disheartened by decisions like these.
This isn’t the Tammy I thought I was putting into office.
