Harvey County commissioners on July 29 approved two sets of warrant checks and directed the treasurer to void a $266 per diem payment to outgoing elected official Rebecca Opland after commissioners questioned whether the out‑of‑state travel had appropriate preapproval and whether county funds were used properly. The board approved the July 22 checks for $134,868 and approved the July 29 batch with an adjustment that reduced the total by $266 to $139,313.83.

The discussion focused on whether the county’s travel and reimbursement procedures were followed for a national conference attended by Opland. One commissioner said the policy process for out‑of‑state travel “wasn’t followed in this case,” and Commissioner Scott said the board should examine the written policy. “I’d be in favor of reviewing the policy just to see if there’s any updates we can do to it,” Scott said.

Commissioners described the unique fact pattern: the conference and hotel were charged to a county credit card before formal board approval, and some travel costs were paid from motor‑vehicle‑fund accounts. One commissioner argued taxpayers should not cover what appeared to be an unnecessary extra hotel night and urged adjusting the per‑diem payment to remove that cost. “I think we should do that because the taxpayers should not be paying for that extra night,” the commissioner said.

County staff and other commissioners confirmed that motor‑vehicle funds were used to pay certain conference expenses and that, for elected officials, the boundary between individual discretion and board oversight can be less clear than for appointed staff. Lynette Reddington, Harvey County health department, also clarified that some grant‑funded travel she discussed earlier was paid with grant dollars, not general field funds.

Formally, a commissioner moved to approve the July 29 warrant checks with an adjustment voiding the $266 per‑diem check to Rebecca Opland; the motion passed by voice vote. County staff said the treasurer will void the original check and issue a revised check in next week’s batch to reflect the change.

The board asked county administration to review the county’s travel and reimbursement policy and suggested clarifying whether and how elected officials’ out‑of‑state travel should be preapproved and how motor‑vehicle‑fund expenditures should be handled going forward. No additional disciplinary action or reimbursement requirement beyond the check adjustment was recorded in the meeting minutes.

The action keeps the county’s warrant approval schedule on time while prompting a policy review that commissioners said they expect to address in coming weeks.