LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Carolyn Huddleston, Liberal
The Seward County Health Department is only open four days a week, Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. None of the staff are working 40 hours per week. At the current time hours range from 32 to about 36.
However, as a result of an open records request, I learned that two sets of bonuses were given to staff of the Health Department this year. In one bonus, 23 staff each received $2552.58. It appears that every employee got one of these bonuses, which altogether totaled $58,709. The second set of bonuses, which was drawn from a KDHE grant, totaled $45,000, and these went to only seven women. Not all received the same amount. Here quarterly payments were made, totaling $9000 for 2 women, $6000 for 4 women, and $3000 for 1 woman. The Director, Brie Greeson, whose earnings for 2024 amounted to $107,446, is receiving one of these bonuses in the amount of $9000, and she also received one of those other bonuses in the amount of $2552 [as did all the other women in this group of 7].
The amount of money that went into these two sets of bonuses in 2025 was $58,709 + $45,000, which is $103,709. I took the wages from August 2025 pay records and found that, for the 21 full-time, paid by the hour employees of the Health Department, it would cost $478 for them to all work 1 hour. Thus $103,709 could cover 217 hours of work for all these ladies, and that is 4 hours per week for a year. So instead of giving out bonuses to the tune of $103,709, the Health Department could have put this money into funds for wages, and added half a day of services on Fridays.
The Health Department has no Advisory Board, but the Seward County Commission is its governing body. Why are they giving out bonuses like this, instead of investing in the delivery of services?
