L&T Publisher Earl Watt
Clay Louderback, Jairo Vazquez and John Mettlen were sworn in last night as Seward County commissioners after a whirlwind followed the resignations of Presephoni Fuller, Scott Carr and Tammy Sutherland-Abbott that were announced Dec. 15.
Those resignations kicked in a process that was completely citizen-driven, and it was a testament to the system of citizen leadership we practice in the United States.
There was no bureau in Topeka or Washington, D.C., that selected temporary leadership for Seward County. There was no administrative function to seize control over the public.
What took place was the democratic process guided by private citizens.
When the vacancies occurred, The Seward County Republican Party had the obligation to fill the seats.
Seward County Republican Chair Bill Hatcher contacted his fellow Republican leaders, he contacted state Republican leaders, and he researched the legal requirements to fill the seats.
Hatcher called an organizational meeting which was well-attended and also had Seward County Attorney Russell Hassenbank in attendance to offer guidance to the law and the process.
Once it was determined how to fill the vacancies, notices to all Republican precinct representatives were sent and followed up with phone calls from Seward County Republican Party Secretary Neal Coffey.
Because time was of the essence, Hatcher called for the three district conventions to take place Dec. 29, and those conventions took place in the open with a capacity crowd watching as well as having the event streamed live. That stream received more than 10,000 views.
In broad daylight in a very open process, the 12 candidates for the three openings made their case to the precinct members. That’s more candidates than a regular election usually receives.
The precinct members then cast their secret ballots, just like every other American election, and the tellers sat at a table in front of the crowd and tallied the results.
Democracy in action. It was something to see. It was for sure a historic moment in Seward County. No one alive has shared they ever witnessed anything like having to fill three simultaneous vacancies at once.
And yet the process took place as required by law by regular everyday citizens.
There were no claims of impropriety because the process was done in public view.
Documents were sent to Topeka as the decisions were being made, and by the end of the process which took just a little more than an hour, Seward County citizens had fulfilled their responsibilities to fill the vacancies and had turned all documentation to the governor to be certified, which Gov. Laura Kelly did.
There was no delay in government operations. The next scheduled commission meeting was Jan. 5, and it took place on time.
Payroll was a major concern for the county employees, and nothing delayed their paychecks.
While government can be complicated and bloated, the process to fill vacancies proved something very important — we still have a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
When the people feel ignored, when they believe leadership has gone astray or is operating outside the rules, they will exert themselves.
And it doesn’t have to be adversarial. Citizens started making requests for public information to review how the county was spending their money. Citizens reviewed how statutes reflected the actions of the commission during the Revenue Neutral Rate hearing. Citizens shared their concerns about limited input.
In the end, citizens decided to file recall petitions, and commissioners chose to resign instead.
That is a legal process, and citizens exerted every legal option they had.
Truthfully there aren’t enough avenues for the public to hold their local governments accountable, and a Kansas Constitution amendment is anticipated to be on the 2026 ballot to correct that. Still, the public sought ways to engage and reclaim authority.
And they did.
The people have now selected three new commissioners to protect the public trust.
Those commissioners have inherited a difficult set of circumstances. They have a pending case with the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals that is challenging the massive 15 mill tax increase for not following the RNR process and misleading the public. They have to decide how to structure county administration in a way that re-establishes trust with the public on how to administer the duties and oversight the public expects.
There is a reason public officials are in a position of public trust. When the public loses trust, it is impossible to govern.
The Declaration addresses these issues by saying, “ Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Government only works at the consent of the people.
We can never lose sight of that. It’s what separates us form most of the world.
And we have a declarative right to alter or abolish ‘any’ government that is destructive to protecting our rights.
The people chose to alter this government they saw as destructive to securing their happiness. Freedom can be clunky and messy, but exercising the rights of the people prevailed in Seward County.
