Linn County Commissioners, from left, Jim Johnson, Danny McCullough, and Jason Hightower discuss the appropriateness of the results of a open records request by the Linn County Journal and why the commission has no attorney representing them at Tuesday's meeting. (Screen capture / Linn County Kansas Live Stream)
By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – At the Linn County commission meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 3, Commissioner Jason Hightower asked Commission Chair Danny McCullough why Linn County did not have a county counselor.
“Because you were allowed to do things separate than or different than what Jim and I were supposed to do, and I didn’t agree with it and I used my cuss words,” McCullough responded.
That was an indication of how the discussion went after the commissioners revisited the results of a Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request that was made by the Linn County Journal in late May. Commissioners bickered among each other about the items that were released in a report on the KORA request.
Former County Counselor Mark Hagen and County Clerk David Lamb had worked with Hightower and recommended to not have department heads come to the June 3 meeting for fear of them being harassed by Commissioner Jim Johnson and McCullough. Hightower made the decision to follow the attorney’s recommendation.
At the June 10 meeting, Hightower started out the meeting with Robert’s Rules of Order procedures, asking if there was anything they wanted to add to the agenda for the meeting. Hightower then asked if there was a motion to approve the agenda as presented.
When Johnson asked why the commission was changes to those procedures, Hightower said it was just a parliamentary procedure and he was just checking so that he could keep the meeting on track. He asked Johnson if he had an issue with it.
At that June 10 meeting, McCullough asked Hightower, “Do we need to take a class on how to run a meeting now? It seems like each week we are coming into something different.”
“Last week we find out the chair gets to make the decision on when department heads come in and now we are doing this, so is there anything else?” asked McCullough.
Shortly after this discussion, Johnson moved and McCullough seconded to remove Hightower as chair.
On June 24, Hagen left the meeting and did not return but submitted a resignation letter stating, “As I said in the executive session this morning (letter dated June 24), communications have broken down between attorney and clients to such an extent that effective representation is no longer feasible.”
McCullough, when chair during 2023, had made the decision to not have Linn County Health Department Director Amanda Snyder come to the Sept. 11 meeting due to concerns that the meeting would be out of control due to Johnson harassing her.
On Tuesday, Sept. 3, the comment that led into this discussion was Johnson saying that he had been receiving emails and phone calls about the private information that got leaked when the KORA request was released.
Johnson seemed to be especially concerned about a communication from solar utility opponent Mark Briggs that said it was not legal to have that information out there. He was concerned about pictures that were on Hightower’s text messages from Briggs that showed pictures of his children.
Briggs sent about 10 pictures of his daughter to Hightower with the message that having solar would ruin their family memories.
Johnson asked if the commission had a responsibility that those pictures were leaked out like that.
(It should be noted that Briggs’ Facebook page is accessible to the public and has several photos of his family, including his children. The Linn County Journal has not published anything that could be deemed private, however, the intent of the request was to discover what if any correspondence was made between commissioners as well as communications to commissioners from members of an anti-solar group, including Briggs.)
Hightower pointed out that Briggs had texted him the pictures and when his phone texts were released the pictures were also.
“That’s not the only thing that’s in them,” said Johnson.
Johnson brought the discussion back saying, “My question is why do we release information that wasn’t on the KORA request? That’s the question I have. That’s been my question all along.”
Johnson said he did not want to see this happen again.
McCullough asked Lamb if there is a procedure that should be followed when doing KORA requests. Lamb answered that there was no specific process listed in the statutes.
“I mean so it’s kind of just turned into a (expletive) show because we’re not following a process here,” said McCullough.
Johnson said to Lamb, “I think it state that you have three days to answer a KORA request but it’s reasonable to get the information out there, right?
“I don’t feel it was reasonable what we turned loose as far as information,” said Johnson.
McCullough has refused to turn over his private cell phone to the sheriff's department, and he has stated that his county phone is available but he doesn't know where to turn it in.
The Linn County Journal has filed a complaint with the Kansas Attorney General's office for McCullough's failure to comply with the KORA request. Based on information gleaned from the KORA report, the Journal has also filed a complaint citing the failure of Johnson and McCullough to comply with the Kansas Open Meetings Act.
Previously, McCullough has said that most of his communication comes in on his private phone which he carries into the meetings. Because of that, McCullough’s private phone data relating to county business was requested by the Journal.
Hightower asked the other commissioners if they did not see the difference in the process because of the advice of two different county counselors. The first KORA requests by the solar opponents were just screen shots done on the honor system and Gary Thompson was counselor.
When the request from the Journal came in, Lamb had learned that the sheriff’s office could take the calls and texts off of the phones, and the county counselor was Mark Hagen.
“No, because I did not go with what he recommended,” said McCullough.
“The point I was trying to make was that you guys aren’t going with what was recommended and that’s why we don’t have a county counselor,” said Hightower.
Hightower asked why Johnson had lashed out at the county attorney.
“How do you know I lashed out at him. What do you know? What you got a little secret deal in your phone?” Asked Johnson. He continued blaming Hightower for talking to people on the planning and zoning commission and for firing a member of the planning and zoning board.
Johnson told Hightower that Hightower must like what happened with the KORA request because he was choosing not to want to do anything about it
Hightower asked, “So what are you going to bring to the table, Jim? What would you like to see?”
“Do what we’ll say we’ll do when we say we’re going to take the county business and that’s it. That’s what should have happened,” said Johnson. No matter whether it took two days or two years..”
(The request was turned in on May 29 and Lamb answered in three days. The actual release of the KORA request, which was significantly redacted, was Aug. 3.)
“I’m not happy about it either,” said Hightower.
“So you’re just shoving it under the rug?” said Johnson. “I’m not for that. I think we got offended myself so I think we need to correct the issue.”
Johnson questioned Lamb asked who went through and redacted the information on the phone records for the KORA.
Lamb replied that he would rather talk to legal counsel before commenting on anything.
Johnson said that there was no reason that the information had to go out on Aug. 3 when the election was on Aug. 6.
“You know there was no reason it had to go out on the third,” said Johnson.
(While the information was given to the Journal on Aug. 3, the Journal consulted experts on what was revealed, and the decision was made to not publish KORA results before the election. The first limited publication of result was not published until after the election on Aug. 10.)
Johnson complained about what was and was not redacted from the records.
Hightower asked Johnson, “Why was Mark Briggs contacting us on this after he’d already talked to you?”
“I don’t have no idea. You have to ask Mark Briggs that. He probably didn’t like what happened,” said Johnson.
Hightower said, “You know those concerns that we got seem like they’re more Jim’s concerns.”
McCullough asked if there was software, like a program, that the county could take information out before results were released. He said that is what he thought the sheriff’s office did, but he supposed they just extracted everything off the cell phones and then turned it over to Lamb’s office.
Lamb said, “I can’t really comment on their process.”
“So can we all agree that the process is broken?” asked McCullough. “So can we do anything about it?”
Hightower said the commissioners could hire legal counsel.
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