L&T Publisher Earl Watt
Separating free nations from socialists societies starts with holding government accountable.
When government controls the information and the data, the people would be at the mercy of government without any way to know if the information they receive is accurate.
To make sure the people of Kansas are protected from nefarious government action, the Kansas Open Meetings Act and the Kansas Open Records Act protect the people’s right to the information in possession and control of the government.
The Open Records Act has always been a last resort for me when communicating with our government. I’ve always been able to make a phone call and talk with our elected officials and our management teams.
There have only been two cases when that relationship was severed, both times by the government agencies.
The first was when the City of Liberal, under then City Manager Mark Hall, did not comply with Federal Aviation Administration rules when selling land to the Neighborhood Market store to Walmart.
The other has been the recent massive tax hike and how County Administrator April Warden no longer wanted to discuss the questions I asked about the way she explained cutting 18 positions. She was making the case that these were being eliminated “from the budget” rather than actual cuts that would result in real savings to the taxpayers. I was making the case that if 18 positions were cut, payroll would be less.
Because I didn’t accept the budget cuts as actual cuts, and she didn’t believe these cuts could be found in payroll reductions, we were at an impasse.
I then used KORA to receive the gross payroll reports which clearly indicated payroll expenses were actually $250,000 higher through August in 2025 than they were in 2024.
I never said Warden’s statement was false, but I believed it was misleading. Even Commissioner Presephoni Fuller asked Warden to put into dollars how much that would save the county, and Warden said she didn’t have that number.
That may have been acceptable to Fuller, but it wasn’t to me or the public.
Through KORA requests the public has learned a great deal about the way the county operates, and none of it was forthcoming from staff. If not for the requests, the public would be unaware of the hundreds of thousands of dollars used for bonuses over the years for the health department while simultaneously cutting hours. No reasonably minded person in the private sector would believe it possible to issue bonuses while working fewer hours.
KORA continues to be used to locate documents that should indicate whether or not these grants from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment were accepted by a vote of the Seward County Commission and properly signed and executed thereafter.
The general public may not always know how to request a document, and by the letter of the law they may not conform to KORA standard. But our county staff can clearly see what is being requested, and they know if it is a public record.
Recent communication between management and staff has indicated that perhaps too much time has been spent providing the public with the information about the county finances. When you pass not only the highest tax increase in Seward County history but also perhaps the largest in Kansas for 2026, the people are going to have some questions.
If the commission believes their acts were necessary, you should be able to see them defending their action and explaining its benefits. The door is open. The Opinion page is open. But to this point, I get no response from Seward County Chair Scott Carr.
Liberal Mayor Jose Lara and I do not always see eye to eye, but he has always taken my call and responded to me in a timely manner, and I take his. Not every question I’ve asked Lara has been rainbows and sunshine. And yet he still responds.
But the county has gone completely silent from its leadership. Either they cannot explain the finances of the county, or they are intentionally putting staff on the line to do it for them. And now staff is being told not to be overly transparent and open with information but to provide only the bare minimum of what is required.
How does that build public trust? How does that develop a relationship between the county staff and the people?
Warden and I may have reached an impasse, but the real breakdown has come from the elected officials. Only Commissioner Todd Stanton has been willing to respond. I have also spoken with Steve Helm on occasion, and other times he does not respond.
How does it build trust when the only way to communicate with county commissioners is during public comments, and even when comments are made they are summarily dismissed?
Some department heads have invited me to reach out to them directly. It’s been unelected management that has discouraged that practice.
The only way currently to get information about the county is through KORA requests, and that’s not by law. There is nothing that prevents a response to a phone call. The concealment is by choice.
