Jessica Hightower, whose titles include Linn County economic development director and assistant public works administrator, is moving on after six years of service. (Submitted photo)
By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – After giving her weekly report on Monday, July 15, Linn County Economic Director Jessica Hightower asked to go into executive session with the Linn County Commissioners.
Following the closed-door session, the commission acknowledged that they had received and accepted Hightower’s letter of resignation effective Aug. 9. Commissioner Jason Hightower recused himself from the vote.
In a separate interview, Jessica Hightower said she has taken a position with the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission (SEKRPC) as a housing grants administrator.
Her resignation ends a series of confrontations initiated by Commissioner Jim Johnson, who over the past 18 months has made several attempts to fire her. She is also one of three people who have filed a grievance against Johnson.
None of the grievances have officially been resolved.
Jessica Hightower has been the target of Commissioner Jim Johnson since her husband Jason Hightower was elected commissioner. He charged that, because the Hightowers were related by marriage, they had violated the county’s nepotism policy.
In the July 31, 2023 meeting, Johnson said that Commissioner Hightower put the county in a difficult position because he (Johnson) and McCullough are at odds on everything. He said they shouldn’t be in this situation.
At the meeting, Johnson told Jason, “I did not do what you did to me. You did it to the whole county by doing what you did,” apparently referring to Jason Hightower running for a seat on the county commission.
Johnson complained at the Oct. 2, 2023, meeting that the Hightowers had messed up the county business and flow chart.
He also was concerned that in order to get around the county’s nepotism, the commissioners had changed Jessica Hightower’s position to be supervised by Public Works Director Shaun West. County policy allows relatives or spouses to work for the county as long as one is not the direct supervisor of the other.
He questioned how West could do an evaluation on Jessica Hightower and then the commission, including Jason Hightower, do an evaluation on West. At that time, former County Counselor Gary Thompson said that if the commission thought that was a problem, Jason Hightower could recuse himself from West’s evaluations.
According to Jessica Hightower’s contract, her salary, duties, and that West would be her supervisor were listed in the contract which was dated July 1, 2022 and was formally approved Aug. 29, after the August primary election.
Johnson was the person who made the motion before Jason took office that West be Jessica Hightower’s supervisor knowing that this concession was being made to avoid a conflict of interest. The motion passed unanimously.
Despite being under the scrutiny of Johnson during the past two years, Jessica Hightower, who was hired as the part-time economic development director in July 2018, has a long list of accomplishments in the three positions she is currently handling.
In the spring of 2022, she became full-time as she took over some duties for West as he recovered from an injury. After that, she took on responsibilities as the assistant public works director. Shortly after, airport manager was added to her responsibilities.
As assistant public works director, Jessica Hightower wrote proposals for bids for tires, culverts, and other equipment. She recommended mowing proposals to the commissioners and supervised the mowing activity. She became qualified in purchasing easements for the county.
In her economic development role, Jessica Hightower continued many grants that had already been started by the county before her employment. However, she also applied for and administered new grants and wrote requests for proposals (RFP) for many different county projects. She worked on different ways to develop the Pleasanton Industrial Park, wrote and solicited proposals for the airport and other programs.
Jessica Hightower kept the commissioners aware of the balance of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grants funds, the specific requirements of how the money was spent, and worked with West in overseeing the projects of companies that received ARPA funds.
She wrote the grant for the Rural Housing Champion program and a childcare program, receiving both grants and set up committees to oversee these grants. She spent a lot of time on both of these programs, attending meetings, researching statistics, setting up a Housing Assessment Tool required by the state for Linn County, and met with childcare providers in the county to hear their concerns.
She met monthly with the economic development committee and as needed with the airport committee. She also represented the county as a representative at several organizations for the county, including the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission. She represented the county as a board member on the Southeastern Technical Academy for Rural Students (STARS).
Just recently, Jessica Hightower took on forming and leading a subcommittee of economic development to meet with representatives of the five historical museums to work on their budget requests for the county.
As airport manager, Jessica Hightower earned and conveyed information about state requirements for airstrips, of which the commissioners had previously been unaware.
Commentaires