McPherson County commissioners approve hires, equipment purchases and enterprise password manager; appoint new county appraiser

The McPherson County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 27 approved a slate of personnel changes across county departments, purchases for road and equipment maintenance, and the county's first countywide enterprise password manager. The board also adopted a resolution appointing Stacy Hubbard as county appraiser.

The personnel actions included promotions, new hires and temporary assignments across law enforcement, emergency management, community corrections and county offices. The board approved personnel change notices (PCNs) including promotions for Christian Clemens (effective Feb. 16, 2025) and Casey Burke (effective Feb. 2, 2025); a PCN for Jamie Thompson in Emergency Management effective Jan. 19, 2025; a temporary part-time PCN for Eileen “Jeanne” Drake in Harvey County Community Corrections effective Feb. 16, 2025; a full-time hire for Amy Norman in the Register of Deeds office effective Feb. 3, 2025; a PCN for Emily Yates effective March 2, 2025; and a PCN appointing David Bonham (Public Works director) effective Feb. 3, 2025. The board also authorized the chairman to sign the PCN for Stacy Hubbard as county appraiser, effective Jan. 19, 2025.

On administrative and budget items the board approved routine checks, claims and payroll, and accepted accounts payable reports included in the packet.

The board approved several public-works purchases: up to 150 tons of deicing salt from Independent Salt at $51.05 per ton (total not to exceed $7,657.50); repair parts for a 2015 Caterpillar paver (machine No. 77) not to exceed $7,846.76; and replacement tires and axle components to convert a tanker trailer to modern hubs — tires through Commercial Tire (not to exceed $2,148) and axle components through FleetPride (not to exceed $2,630.80), combined total not to exceed $4,778.80. Each purchase was moved, seconded and approved by voice vote.

The board approved a request from Information Technology to purchase LastPass Business password-manager licenses (20 seats) through CDW-G, not to exceed $7,999.20. County IT staff framed the purchase as a step to replace insecure password practices (spreadsheets, paper notes) and to provide enterprise-level password sharing, dark-web monitoring and centralized mitigation alerts.

The board adopted Resolution No. 2025-01, appointing Stacy Hubbard as county appraiser, and approved a separate notification to the state about the change in the county appraiser following the resignation of the prior appraiser. Commissioners voted to authorize signatures on required documents.

The board approved an agreement between the Board of County Commissioners and the McPherson County treasurer that sets the treasurer's compensation in a manner equivalent to the county clerk and register of deeds rather than the treasurer collecting specified annual fees. The county treasurer and the board will complete the adjustment and allocation for the 2024 partial-year calculation described at the meeting.

Smaller administrative items approved included appointments to advisory boards for Community Corrections and several routine PCN authorizations across departments. Several motions were made as recorded in the meeting packet; all moves that required immediate board action were adopted by voice vote.

The board recessed at the end of the meeting for a scheduled county event.

Ending: The commissioners scheduled follow-up reviews and authorized department heads to proceed with the approved hires and purchases. Several items (land-use policy and rural housing incentive district discussion) were deferred for future policy discussion.