County Commissioners Meeting

Ross · April 11, 2011, 02:14:19 PM

A little old lady was sharp enough to ask if the Elk County web site is an official government web sight.
And when the commissioners finally admitted that it is, she asked why a private organization was permitted to have
a web sight on it.

Elk konnected was using our resources for free and because of the lady's inquiry they are being evicted from the County Web site.
They will be permitted to have a link and that is all.

Kudo's to the lady. job well done.

Patriot · April 11, 2011, 09:22:25 PM

Quote from: Ross on April 11, 2011, 02:14:19 PM
Elk konnected was using our resources for free and because of the lady's inquiry they are being evicted from the County Web site.
They will be permitted to have a link and that is all.

Kudo's to th lady. job well done.

Agreed! Job well done. Now if only someone would realize what a farcical conflict it is for an elected county commissioner to sit on the board of directors of ElkKonnected, LLC when ElkKonnected ( a private corporation) exists, in part, to lobby/influence decisions of the county commission we might start to witness a return to integrity in local government!

Patriot · April 11, 2011, 09:31:32 PM

Same subject, for what it's worth....

From the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.....
http://www.kansas.gov/ethics/Local_Level_Conflict_of_Interest/index.html

Local Level Conflict of Interest

Although the Commission is the enforcement agency for the state level conflict of interest laws and the Campaign Finance Act, the Commission's jurisdiction under the local level conflict laws is advisory only. Pursuant to K.S.A. 75-4303a(b) and Opinion 1994-25, the Commission lacks jurisdiction to hear and determine complaints under K.S.A. 75-4301 et seq. Violations of the local level conflict laws are handled by the appropriate County or District Attorney or the Attorney General's office by criminal complaint.

Criminal complaint? Hmmmmm. Do we even have local conflict of interest laws in Elk County?

Ross · April 12, 2011, 05:42:15 AM

I didn't know who the ladt was but have since been told she is the aunt to County Commissioner Liebau. How cool is that. I don't know if that is true. I still think she was great.

Ross · April 12, 2011, 05:44:42 AM

Patriot, I like your thinking. I think Honesty and Openess is what is needed.

Ross · April 12, 2011, 06:48:43 AM

Quote from: Patriot on April 11, 2011, 09:31:32 PM
Criminal complaint? Hmmmmm. Do we even have local conflict of interest laws in Elk County?

I don't believe so. Is there even a local conflict of interest law?
I do believe it was very unethical on the part of Elk Konnected to assume they had a right to use the counties resources.
It appeared that they were attempting to surrogate themselves into the county government.
I do believe Two of the County Commisioners were unaware that Elk Konnected posted on the web site because they appeared to be surprised by the question.

Patriot · April 12, 2011, 07:56:34 AM

Quote from: Ross on April 12, 2011, 06:48:43 AM
I do believe Two of the County Commisioners were unaware that Elk Konnected posted on the web site because they appeared to be surprised by the question.

That's a stretch, methinks. I understand that one of our commissioners is also on the board of directors of ElkKonnected and the website content is managed by a county employee. Surprised, yes. But perhaps more surprised that members of the public noticed the inappropriate mess and made an issue of it. You will notice how quickly the web link disappeared.

Lookatmeknow!! · April 12, 2011, 08:28:16 AM

I didn't know that Elk Konnected was a private corporation. I thought anyone could be members of it, well elected to it or whatever. Do you know what Elk Konnect does? I have seen alot of good that comes from this group. They are trying to make things for the younger kids possible here and around Elk County. Sounds to me like you are all on a bashing spree??? Or just not like that one person is on both things? Not many people will step up and run for things, so to me it is what it is.

Patriot · April 12, 2011, 08:49:24 AM

Quote from: Lookatmeknow!! on April 12, 2011, 08:28:16 AM
I didn't know that Elk Konnected was a private corporation. I thought anyone could be members of it, well elected to it or whatever. Do you know what Elk Konnect does? I have seen alot of good that comes from this group. They are trying to make things for the younger kids possible here and around Elk County. Sounds to me like you are all on a bashing spree??? Or just not like that one person is on both things? Not many people will step up and run for things, so to me it is what it is.

A bashing spree? Try a public education spree. Even you did not know EK is a nonprofit private corporation establish in Kansas. I have no doubt that EK has some positive influence. But the fact remains that the same private corporation (with no requirement of public disclosure) is also involved in facilitating the lobbying of the county commission on which one of its' board of directors sits. That's called confict of interest and is generally recognized as inappropriate (and possibly illegal) for elected officials. Yes, it is what it is. A reputation is built by many acts but easily destroyed by one.

Ross · April 12, 2011, 11:43:15 AM

The fact that they are having meetings to find out what Elk County citizens mya want to have happen with any monies the county mya get from the wind farm implies that they want to influence out county government. And that fact make them a politacal action committee. A PAC by any other name is still a PAC. Simple, no bashing. In the nations capital they have PAC's and lobbyist that influcence our government's actions and they are not well liked by anyone. I'm not dissing Obama, but how do you think he got into office. He wasn't worth millins but yet PAC's raised 3/4 of a billion for him. This year they are expected to raise closer to a billion.

Now with EK I believe they want to control any monies to use as they see fit, so as with any political activity you manipulate and you give a scoop of ice cream here and a piece of pie there to get what you want in the end.

Ask your self how many people are registered members of EK? Who is on their board? Who is their president? Who is there secretary? Who is there treasurer? Where do they get their operating money?

Just think about it.
I'm not asking that you agree with anything I say. It's my opinion and I know it's right but it's still just my opinion.