L&T Publisher Earl Watt
Last night’s Seward County Commission meeting devolved quickly into a three-ring circus with accusations made and one commissioner telling the public to only be informed by other paid inside government source.
Sorry, Commissioner Presephoni Fuller, but you don’t get to tell the public where and how they should inform themselves, and that the source should be solely the government.
That’s why freedom of speech exists. That’s why the right to redress the government exists, so that people like you who feel ordained to lead cannot impose your will on the rest of us.
Fuller stated last night, “If you need information, come get it from the horse’s mouth.”
This is a poignant statement since the actual phrase comes form horse racing where if you really know who to bet on, you should get it from the horses themselves.
And these people are betting you will buy what they are selling.
They believe you can afford whatever number they determine.
They don’t understand the role they have, and at one point during the circus, Commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott abandoned all reason and questioned why Commissioner Todd Stanton ran at all.
Some may ask why Sutherland-Abbott made a commitment to not raise taxes and then approved the largest tax increase in Seward County history. And she doesn’t understand why Stanton believes the commission went too far?
Stanton and Commissioner Steve Helm attempted to get the commissioners, of which there are five, to revisit the budget and possibly amend it to lower the massive burden being placed on the tax payers.
For his effort he was belittled, berated and chastised by both Fuller and Sutherland-Abbott.
Fuller accused Stanton of “grandstanding” before she took center stage at the circus to go on her full endorsement of the tax increase and why after all the meetings they had there was no need to revisit it.
But on a television interview, Fuller herself suggested that a “coming together of the minds” might lead to the possibility of “bringing it down.”
She said that for the interview but clearly had no intention of following through. Instead she defended the massive tax hike.
Sutherland-Abbott then asked Stanton what he would cut.
Funny, a year ago when Sutherland-Abbott did not approve of an 8 mill increase I pointed out in this very column that while her vote was the right one, she had an obligation to present a budget that would not need an increase.
“I have to respectfully disagree with your opinion about the commissioners having an obligation to provide an acceptable alternative,” she sent to me in a text. When she was asked for an alternative, it was out of bounds, but she pushed Stanton to present an alternative during the three-ring circus last night.
Like Congress, the Taxing Trio made their decisions and now they are trying to convince you they were right.
And perhaps not even that, because I’m not sure they believe they owe any allegiance or explanation to you at all.
Adminstration made their recommendations, and these three bought it.
That’s not a criticism of administration. They are charged with presenting a plan.
But the Taxing Trio only took that information and did not counter it with what the community could afford. They masked it with the scare tactic of an upcoming decision that will result in a refund to one tax payer without knowing what that number will actually be.
In the realm of public relations, this is a textbook lesson on how not to communicate with the people.
It’s also a lot to swallow at one time, and on top of that, your November ballot will be asking you to give these same people a half-cent sales tax increase to use for repairing and maintaining county roads.
We keep hearing the word “cut.” But the facts are this is a 13-mill increase. The facts are payroll was a quarter of a million more in 2025 than it was for the same time period in 2024. A “cut” to the peasantry out here is when you have to cut your prescription pills in half. It’s when you have to cancel vacation so that others can get as much as 50 days of paid time off. It’s when you have to increase your insurance deductible so that others can have a $200 deductible, and you are paying for it.
The peasants understand what the word “cut” means. They’ve been sacrificing so that we can have a qualified staff to handle local government operations. They’ve put their community first and have cut out their quality of life so that others can experience something far beyond what many of them ever will.
The City and schools used restraint. Seward County dind’t.
Mrs. Fuller, I would suggest you put your scepter aside for a moment and go listen to the people for a change. I would encourage you to meet the public, button your lip for a change and open your ears and listen to the people you are supposed to represent. When the first thing she said was, “I wasn’t going to say anything tonight ...” was the same as telling the overweight man to skip the buffet. You can’t help yourself but to chime in and disrespect the hard-working people of this community by denying the data.
“There is misinformation,” she said.
Anything that she disagrees with is misinformation to her.
And Seward County Chairman Scott Carr refuses to educate himself. I invited him to come look at the data collected. But he won’t do it.
Why?
When you limit your circle to a select few, you are destined to fail. Scripture says plans succeed when counselors are many (Proverbs 15:22).
Limiting where you are informed is dangerous, and in this case will cost taxpayers big time.
It’s too bad that there is no willingness to receive information. Town halls have been shams. The information flows one way, and any concerns are “explained away” by staff.
Administrator April Warden reached out to me with a late-night text Sept. 15 in a conversation that ended with her inviting me to ask her if I had any questions about county information. She then later spun that to the commission as me reaching out with multiple questions and that Seward County counsel has recommended I make those Open Records requests. She invited me to reach out to her.
Another department reached out to me about a recent story, and we had an email trail back and forth. That department head stated if I needed information, “please contact me.” And during the circus it was presented that I had requested info. from the department head. The department head asked me to approach her, and I did.
But the spin was that I was requesting information that should be an Open Records request.
Some people don’t understand the purpose behind the Open Records Act, and also as County Clerk Stacia Long shared, it is not required. Just remember, when they don’t want to answer my questions, they don’t want you to get any information from anyone other than their hired staff.
They want to control the narrative, and the Taxing Trio will make sure that any challenges to that will be addressed by paid staff.
They are in the process of hiring a legal firm in Wichita to further convince you that their actions of taxing you into submission were legit.
So they are spending your money to get a legal opinion on why they were justified in their record setting tax increase.
They want you to move on, take your medicine and get over it.
But some are resisting tyranny in our own back yard, and the Taxing Trio are not used to being challenged.
And so we get a circus like we saw last night, and that comes straight from the horse’s mouth.
