Lyon County commissioners heard a variety of items during Wednesday’s study session including 2010 budget requests from local agencies.
Bill Persinger, executive director of the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas, asked for an allocation of $282,737 for 2010 for the mental health center.
Persinger said the center is holding its own money-wise and are a couple of days worth of expenses ahead.
“That’s because we have held the line on costs,” Persinger said.
Persinger said holding the line on costs has caused the staff to make sacrifices and salaries aren’t competitive. Persinger said the center can’t keep doing that forever.
Persinger also asked commissioners to consider establishing a Special Services Addendum/Agreement, which would help pay for mental health services provided by the mental health center to inmates. Persinger suggested setting up a fund the center can bill out of for $60 an hour up to a capped amount set by the county.
“It allows you to capatate a certain amount of money,” Persinger said.
Persinger said if the county does not sign the agreement to establish a fund, the center still will provide those services.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Persinger said.
Ty Wheeler, of Kansas Legal Services, presented the agency’s request for appropriations. Wheeler asked for $7,500 in funding, which is where the agency was at five years ago before taking cuts, Wheeler said. Wheeler said Kansas Legal Services provides attorney services to those who can’t afford it anywhere else. Last year in Lyon County the agency provided 1,054 people with some type of legal service. 977 of those are now listed as closed cases.
Kansas Legal Services also provided 762 cases that were under their Lyon County Public Defender contract and 215 civil cases, which included 88 divorces. The agency only represents divorce cases in circumstances such as domestic violence and threats by a spouse.
Gary Post, Lyon County appraiser, gave a departmental update to commissioners. There were 183 informal 2009 hearings scheduled out of 17,850 parcels, which is the lowest since he has been county appraiser, Post said. There are six second-half payment-under protest, he added. Post also compared the county’s 2006 with 2008’s mill levy. In Lyon County, the mill levy was 50.546 in 2006; in 2008, it was 46.437. This puts the county in 50th place of 105 counties in 2006 and 67th out of 105 counties in 2008.
“That 4 to 5 mills drop made a significant drop in your ranking,” Post told commissioners.
The certified real estate appraised value for Lyon County is $1,587,208,710 with 18 percent of that being exempt.
In other business:
F Commissioners discussed the clean up of the former Pallets Plus site at Kansas highway 99 and Road 130. The building was destroyed in a fire and is in need of clearing. The owner of the site has not responded, the county said. Chip Woods, Lyon County engineer, said the amount of time it would take to clean up the site would vary depending on what has to be done. There are two vehicles in the middle of the site and a forklift along with stacks of pallets that need to be moved.
F Judge Merlin Wheeler discussed potential unpaid furloughs for district court employees. Because of budget cuts from the state, and cuts in district court budgets, the district court would need to furlough employees 30 working days over the course of the next fiscal year. However, the governor and legislators have asked chief judges to defer that until the first of the year to see what or if anything will get done in the legislature. The furloughs equate into 11 percent of all employees except judges pay over the entire fiscal year. Wheeler asked commissioners to express their opinion about the issue to legislators.
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
Hey Judge Wheeler:
You got your courthouse, your armed bodyguards/car starters, your fancy judges chambers, maybe you could give up about 10-20% of your salary until times are better. That in itself would probably keep the court workers from taking furloughs?
May 21, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )