L&T Publisher Earl Watt

At last night’s Seward County Commission meeting, Commissioner Todd Stanton made several motions, none of which garnered a second.

Commissioner Stanton was asking his fellow commissioners to direct staff to follow the budget they followed on all positions as well as to ask county counsel on an opinion on how the assistant administrator position is being funded.

During the budget discussion on reducing the budget to match the revenue neutral rate, the position of assistant administrator was removed.

But the position still exists, and payroll is still being paid to the tune of around $96,000 per year.

The commission agreed to the budget constraints after several work sessions which included removing the position.

Not only has that yet to happen, but there are serious questions as to how the position is being funded.

The current assistant administrator previously directed the landfill, but when he was transferred to administration, a new landfill director was hired.

The decision was made in 2025 to leave the assistant administrator’s salary in the landfill budget until the 2026 budget took over.

But pay for the assistant administrator continues to come from the landfill budget with the exception of February 2026 when the position was listed on the administrative payroll according to research conducted by citizen Carolyn Huddleston.

But it returned to the landfill the very next month and since.

This would represent a misuse of budget funds, something that recently led to a recall petition in Bourbon County.

When Commissioner Stanton moved the board ask county counsel for an opinion on the legality of the landfill funds being used, not one commissioner seconded it.

That should be a concern for all of us.