April 2, 2018

Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
Courthouse Lower Level Conference Room
April 2, 2018

Ronald Freeman, John Unruh, Bert Lowery, Chay Howard, Kristi Cooper, Terry Mayhew, Travis Payne, Rosa Spainhour, Matt Christenson and Rhonda Fernandez attended the meeting.

Consent agenda included: Agenda and Commissioner minutes of 03/30.

After the prayer by Terry Mayhew, Ron opened the meeting. John moved to approve the consent agenda with the addition of an executive session for 10 minutes with Travis under this time on the agenda and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0.

Travis Payne came forward to give updates for his departments which included; he is going to run the ad for the supervisor for the Solid Waste for another week or until it is filled. Bert will work with Travis on interviewing applicants. They discussed the rock for the driveway at the fairgrounds and the low spot. Table this till the next meeting until they can get a chance to look at it again. John moved for a 10 minutes executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee relations at 9:12 and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Regular session began at 9:22 with no action taken. John moved to go back into executive session for an additional 5 minutes and Bert seconded motion carried 3-0. Regular session began at 9:27 with no action taken. Next, they talked about spraying at the golf course due to liability, so John moved to not allow the Noxious weed to spray the golf course. Motion died due to no second. Travis informed them of some upcoming trainings that he will be attending as well and will be gone for that.

Break was called for 5 minutes.

Rhonda Fernandez came forward to discuss utilization summary reports for Benefit Management Inc and Blue Cross and Blue Shield and give updates regarding insurance. She informed them that insurance is going up 3% to 5% with our current plan. They asked her to look at different options such as deductible increases and employee/employer shares. She will work on those and get back with them.

Matt Christenson came forward to discuss scheduling interviews for the maintenance position and John will sit on the interviews.

Break was called for 5 minutes.

Rosa Spainhour came forward to discuss hotel tax exempt and explained that she cannot get hotels to do a tax exempt without a company credit card and so it was by consensus to get a county credit card for the ambulance to use on trips for lodging, meals, etc. Kristi asked her to get with Greg at Peoples Bank to set up her new account.

John moved to 10:40 for 5 minutes. Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. 10:46.

During Commissioner Discussion Kristi Cooper presented information on the Paid Time Off and Extended Illness Bank policy per their request from the last meeting. Kristi explained the policy and how it works for the employees with those hours. Next, they discussed the donating time to employees and Kristi explained the process on that policy as well. Next, they discussed creating a policy for employees that are on a volunteer emergency service to be allowed to respond and remain being paid regular pay up to their regular scheduled hours. And she asked for them to allow them to keep any pay they receive from those services as an incentive. It was by consensus to draw up the policy for the next meeting. Also, she asked to amend policy 301 to allow employees who get called on Jury duty to keep their pay as well and it was by consensus to make that change as well. Kristi will work with Chay to get those drawn up. Last she presented a payroll change for M Brown for a 6-month probation period for review. After review John moved to approve the pay change as presented and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Last they talked about the court lawn and it was by consensus to call Dave Moyer. Dave Moyer was called via phone and they asked him to thatch the lawn before he mows for the first time. Dave agreed to those conditions and he will charge the same as one mowing. Bert mentioned the sealing of the mason at the Commons building need to start getting bids. Ron moved to get bids for that project and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.

Meeting adjourned at 11:57