Commissioners send warning to vets service committee

The Kimball County Commissioners voted to send a warning to the county’s veterans service committee at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled commissioners meeting.

The commissioners unanimously voted to have board attorney Audrey Elliott draft a letter to the committee about violations of the open meetings act and warn them not to meet Thursday under the posted agenda. A copy of the letter to the veterans service committee was not available by Tuesday night’s deadline.

If the veterans service committee meets at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 23, under the posted agenda and notice, Elliott urged the commissioners to take legal action.

“If they choose to ignore that letter, at this point I would suggest the commissioners do a cease and desist order from the next meeting to say you’re no longer going to have meetings and you’re prohibited from discussing until we can have a meeting to set this forward,” Elliott said. “And then if they go ahead, I think at that point the commissioners are going to have to look into maybe filing a suit against that office. Unfortunately, you’re going against yourself, but you’ve got to file an injunction to stop them. That’s the best we can do.”

Elliott said concerns she had were at least three violations of the state’s open meetings act in the notice. One is the location of the open meetings act poster, which must be in the same room as the meeting. In a special meeting held last Thursday, the veterans service committee referred to the open meetings act poster located in the commissioner board room, which was locked and across the hall.

“You have to be able to point to the public, this is where it is, you have a right to read it,” she said.

The board’s attorney said a bigger concern was the selective use of portions of the open meetings act in the notice regarding allowing members of the public to speak. The meeting agenda cited statute 84-1412, subsection two, which says a public body can enforce reasonable rules on allowing speaking at meetings and the conduct of those attending. The meeting agenda also stated that the committee “will not take questions or engage in debate or conversation with non-committee/non-VSO members of the public or of county government.”

Elliott said that is not only illegal, but it is also an incomplete reading of the open meetings act.

“They cannot do that. They cannot forbid anyone from attending or speaking at meetings,” she said. “They can limit time. That’s reasonable. You can say any person wanting to speak on this issue can be limited to five, 10 minutes. Because it clearly says, and what they did not do is include the rest of the statute, which says, ‘but it may not forbid the public participation at all meetings.’”

In a follow-up email Tuesday, Elliott also said the second of two agenda items, which simply reads “other discussion as required,” was not sufficient.

“It is very broad, and, it does not provide sufficient notice per the open meetings act to advise the public of discussions and/or actions by the committee. Topics have to be noticed, at bare minimum,” she wrote in the email.

Elliott said another concern was the discussion and “working on problems” before the meeting, which is also a violation.

“I don’t know how…it’s not clear to them that it’s a violation (of the open meeting act),” Elliott said. “So I’m very concerned, because we’re supposed to be watching over that office, so we’ve got big hurdles here. I think it’s appropriate for the board to tell me to write (Committee Chairman Bob Abramson) a letter and say, we understand you’re frustrated because of the budgeting process and we understand what you’re trying to do and how you’re trying to make that work, but until we go through budgets, this is what we’ve got to deal with.

“Second to that, having meetings of this nature and telling people they’re not allowed to speak, telling that we’re going to make decisions beforehand, is a violation of the open meetings act and you’re setting yourself up for huge litigation.”

County clerk Cathy Sibal also said the meeting notice was not posted in three public places as of Tuesday morning, which would be another violation.

Elliott said the commissioners needed to get involved to protect the county, since the veterans service committee and veterans service office are both under its purview.

“That’s just going to raise a whole lot of litigation problems that this county does not need to deal with,” she said. “Because we oversee that office, so at the end of it, we need to be directing them. I understand they’ve got a committee for a reason, that they want to try to do things without always coming here for everything, but it is just a committee. At the end of the day, we’re the ones who approve or disapprove what’s going on. And we cannot allow them to participate or have meetings of this nature. It just flies in the face of what we’re supposed to be doing and how things are supposed to be.”

Tuesday’s action is just the latest in an ongoing rift that started in February. At issue is the hours and pay for Shaun Evertson, veteran service officer, and his assistant. They are both part-time. The commissioners allowed Evertson to hire part-time help for his office this spring, which is the first time in at least two decades the office has had additional paid help. Evertson disputed some of the details surrounding the pay and hour allowed to work since he made the hire in late April.

A sometimes contentious discussion during the July 7 commissioners meeting led to an inflammatory-worded veterans service committee “emergency” meeting notice, written by Evertson, in which it said the meeting was called to “discuss and take action regarding the ongoing disruptive and damaging activities of the Kimball County Clerk and the Kimball County Board of Commissioners which are severely impacting the ability of the Veterans Service Committee and Veterans Service Office to execute their statutory mission.”

The commissioners immediately called an emergency meeting after receiving the notice July 9 and held a lengthy discussion about the meeting notice, the history of allowing Evertson to hire part-time help and a temporary solution. The veterans service committee then met July 16 to discuss its budget.

“They have a right to have their opinions. My concern, though, is that they still have to follow the rules,” Elliott said.