Meeting of August 27, 2024
Fiscal Court Meeting - August 27th, 2024 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Hardin County Fiscal Court – August 27, 2024
The Fiscal Court held its regular voting meeting, approving minutes from the prior meeting and receiving a $2,000 donation check from the Hardin County Farm Bureau for the large animal disposal program.
A major focus of the meeting was the annual setting of county property tax rates. Judge Tall presented a detailed overview of the process, comparing the 'compensating' rate (no revenue increase) against a 4% revenue increase option. After discussion of budget pressures, including rising sheriff and detention center subsidies, ambulance purchases, and infrastructure needs, the Court adopted the 4% increase option, setting the real property tax rate at 11.1 cents per $100 valuation (down slightly from last year's 11.3 cents) and the personal property rate similarly reduced. The Court also acknowledged (but did not set) tax rates from the Health Department, Soil Conservation District, and other independent taxing bodies. A public hearing on the tax rates drew no public comment.
Department reports included the Soil Conservation District's annual report and outreach programs, the Health Department's unchanged tax rate, the Coroner's office update including a new quick response officer and a second transport vehicle, the Sheriff's activity and financial report (noting the office runs a deficit until tax revenue arrives later in the year), and the County Clerk's report on the delinquent tax sale and upcoming general election preparations.
The Sheriff and County Clerk both expressed gratitude to the community and the Court for support following a recent tragic shooting near the Clerk's office, and for funding a new security deputy position. County Attorney Jenny Oldham was congratulated for receiving a county attorney of the year award.
The Court approved a lengthy consent agenda covering financial reports, personnel resolutions, a road-closing viewer appointment, an online auction services contract, an HVAC replacement project funded by an energy grant, disposal of a surplus vehicle, financial transfers, hiring of the Coroner's rapid response officer, and a state flex-fund road resurfacing agreement. All motions passed unanimously. The meeting concluded with magistrate announcements of upcoming committee meetings and adjournment.
Agenda (15)
- 2:43
Roll call and opening
The meeting was called to order with a roll call of all magistrates present, followed by invocation and pledge of allegiance.
- 5:36
Approval of prior meeting minutes
The Court reviewed and voted to approve the minutes from the August 13, 2024 meeting.
- 6:12
Farm Bureau donation for large animal disposal
Jason Buckles presented a $2,000 check from Hardin County Farm Bureau to support the county's large animal disposal program.
- 7:39
Soil Conservation District annual report and tax rate
Vincent Thompson presented the Soil Conservation District's annual report on programs funded by tax dollars and announced their tax rate of 0.015, choosing not to take the compensating rate.
- 13:30
Health Department tax rate presentation
Melissa Phillips reported the Lincoln Trail District Health Department set its tax rates at 22 cents per $100, unchanged from the previous year.
- 14:18
County property tax rate presentation
Judge Tall presented a detailed analysis of compensating vs. 4% increase tax rate options, budget context, and recommended adopting the 4% increase resulting in a rate of 11.1 cents per $100.
- 38:56
Public hearing on tax rates
County Attorney Jenny Oldham opened the required public hearing on the proposed tax rates; no members of the public offered comment.
- 41:35
Coroner's report
Coroner Pat Elmore presented June/July case statistics, introduced new quick response officer Justin Blair, and announced a second transport vehicle coming online.
- 44:34
Sheriff's activity and financial report
Sheriff John Ward presented arrest and citation statistics for June/July, followed by a financial report showing the office running a deficit until tax revenue arrives later in the year, and thanked the community for support after recent deputy tragedies.
- 51:12
County Clerk's report
Clerk Brian Smith reported on the delinquent tax sale generating over $252,000 and gave updates on general election preparations, poll worker recruitment, and voter registration deadlines.
- 57:40
Citizens concerns or comments
The floor was opened for public comment; no one came forward.
- 57:54
Property tax rate resolution vote
The Court voted on Resolution 2024-173 setting the 2024 county property tax rates as described in the earlier presentation.
- 58:40
Consent agenda
The Court reviewed and voted on numerous consent agenda items including financial reports, personnel resolutions, a road closing viewer appointment, auction services bid, HVAC replacement grant project, surplus vehicle disposal, financial transfers, coroner personnel hire, and a state flex fund road resurfacing agreement.
- 1:02:45
Comment time and magistrate announcements
The County Clerk thanked the Court for security funding following a recent shooting incident, magistrates congratulated the County Attorney on her award, and members announced upcoming committee meetings.
- 1:07:19
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned following a motion and second with no objections.
Motions & votes (4)
- 5:42
passedApprove the August 13, 2024 Fiscal Court meeting minutes
unanimous
- 5:42
passedApprove all items in the consent agenda (financial reports, personnel resolutions, road closing viewers, auction bid, HVAC replacement grant, surplus vehicle disposal, financial transfers, coroner personnel hire, flex fund road resurfacing agreement, committee minutes)
unanimous
- 58:09
passedAdopt Resolution 2024-173 setting the 2024 county property tax rates (real property at 11.1 cents per $100, 4% revenue increase option)
unanimous
- 1:07:19
passedMotion to adjourn the meeting
Transcript (54 segments)
- 0:28
e e e e reminder of your cell phones if you
- 2:20
wouldn't mind to check those real quick save all of us the embarrassment might check my my own that would be really bad all right so let's go ahead and uh get started uh this is the August 27th 2024 Harden County Fiscal Court regular voting meeting let's begin and call this meeting to order and start with a roll call Square clim here Square Hicks here Square Muse here Square Pennington here Square Saltzman here Square Thompson here Square Whitehead here Square Yates here judge tall here next we'll have our invocation by magistrate Muse and Pledge of Allegiance by magistrate Yates please stand in the name of the father of the Son and the Holy Spirit dear Lord we thank you for this beautiful day we thank you for this great country we live in and the Privileges we enjoy we thank you for given us this opportunity to gather today to improve our County help us make
- 3:35
wise decisions and work together to make this the best county in the state to work and live please guide our First Responders as they perform their duties and watch over our service men and women as they protect our country we humbly ask that you bring peace to our country and throughout the world in Jesus name we pray amen please join me in the pledge I pledge aliance FL of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all all right well again thanks for joining today um I'll just do a quick review of the agenda here uh we'll have our typical um vote on the last uh Fiscal Court meeting minutes uh we have we have some informational items to go through today um several um items regarding some um uh various tax uh rates that we'll um have and then I have a uh a um a presentation on um our tax
- 4:47
rate uh have a a a time for um a public hearing that will go through uh we'll have some department and office uh reports some presentations uh after that we'll have some time for Citizens concerns or comments uh we have our U the property tax rate uh resolution that we need to vote on and then we have several items in the consent agenda that I'll cover briefly uh before we vote on those and then uh typical comments after that all right so I don't have anything else really to review so we'll move right on into approval of Harden County Fiscal Court uh August 13th 2024 minutes is there a motion to approve so move second okay any discussion hearing none we have a roll call Square clim yes Square Hicks yes Square Muse yes Square Pennington yes Square Salzman yes Square Thompson yes Square Whitehead yes Square Yates yes judge tall yes motion passes okay we'll move on into our next
- 6:05
item uh informational items so our first one on here is one of my favorites we have a check donation today from Harden County Farm Bureau for the large animal disposal I think uh Jason buckles is here to do that today good evening Fiscal Court uh my my name is Jason buckles I'm here with uh the board of Hardon County Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau and uh we are here to contribute to the large animal disposal program that the county is running and uh this check is for $2,000 now uh 1,000 of that is for this year and a th000 of it is for last year something happened we think it got lost in the mail so anyway the check is for $2,000 and this is uh for our commitment to helping defay the cost of large animal disposal in the county and helping the community thank you all right well thank you very much you got that check with you okay could just walk out mail I'll be I'll be happy to take
- 7:20
that all right all right thank you very much appreciate it thank you Jon are you sure that's made out to the county and not Keith to I had twice okay thank you guys for your commitment it's not to me okay all right yeah thank you so much all right next on the agenda is the property tax rates um we'll have um first up is Harden County Soil Conservation Vincent Thompson good evening everybody how you done good good doing well glad to see uh you all at the hand breakfast of the day I know none of y'all sck your hand up and bit on it like I did and I sat there with my hands under my legs so a little bit too high for me but uh when they started at 100 when they started at 100,000 it it kind of left me out yeah it was beyond my my place course we got our farm real members here and I saw most of them up there as well it was a good turnout so uh typical routine we just come in to present our annual report to y'all um you should have that in your
- 8:31
packets and I'll entertain any uh questions you might have about it and uh in our tax rates we have opted to not take the compensating rate this year okay you can you tell us what the rate is then it's 015 and last year it was um I don't remember the exact amount it was I think it was 02 I believe yeah we raised it up just just a fraction last year right okay so and then also I always have the uh the use of the taxpayers money uh listing if y'all allow me to go through some of that I'd appreciate it please do all right so uh last year we had the art and writing contest we had 43 art participants 13 essay um that's always awarded at our annual banquet in March so some of youall are able to attend we appreciate having you next year we hope to have more of you um we gave away 10 scholarships five for high school and five for college then we're also we started helping with some hospice patients this last time around um we had 20 par participants in that program um the tree seedling give away we gave away 2,800 tree last time we're looking to
- 9:46
maybe increase that this time around um so we'll be looking for that in April Progressive safety day that was uh held at Creekside um we also sponsor four kids in the 4 FFA youth completion show at the Harden County Fair uh we have two students for Conservation Camp scholarships uh we try to help some people that try to go to that every year and then uh also we do two students for 4H Camp um we have the education material we use to teach students about conservation such as summer camps um this last time around Maria attended a Down syndrome camp and also one at the city of Valley uh Farmers Market winter back markets back to school bashes and then we have had an a day at Lakewood Elementary School this last year we try to do as many of those as possible each year CIA Valley Club day once a month so that's a monthly thing for Marsha uh we also are open to sponsoring High tunnels at schools we have one at uh Meadow View up in the north part of the county but we'd be happy to entertain any schools that would like to get that program going for some of their students for biology or a related issues Farm City Day always a sponsor of that then we also supported the central Haren High School land judging team I don't remember what place they came in in Kansas City but it helps those students get out there so as you can see you know