Special Olympics of Kansas requests mill-levy funding and vows county accountability

John Lair, CEO and president of Special Olympics of Kansas, urged the Crawford County Commission to consider directing mill-levy money to Special Olympics programs that serve people with intellectual disabilities in Crawford County. "We can show you 100% what we're doing in Crawford County and what we can push out to these individuals," Lair told commissioners during the meeting.

Lair said Special Olympics Southeast runs a broad set of programs in the county and estimates the organization serves a little over 1,000 people there, including children and adults. He described local services that include sports, health screenings and distribution of hygiene products and shoes: "Last year at Crawford County, we did 700 health exams free of charge for our athletes," he said, and added the program distributed 3,000 pieces of hygiene products in the county and provided 712 pairs of shoes locally as part of a statewide 5,000-pair distribution.

Why it matters: Mill-levy allocations fund services for residents with intellectual disabilities, and Lair told commissioners that current recipients of the mill-levy funding receive the money with little public accountability. He proposed that Special Olympics receive some of that funding and produce annual receipts and reporting showing money spent within Crawford County.

Commissioners and staff pressed for data and for clarity about how the county’s existing beneficiary counts were calculated. County staff noted the current figure the county is using is 381 people, while Lair and others said individuals may be multiply counted (for example, once for day services, once for residential services and once for case management). Lair told commissioners he believed the double- or triple-counting likely inflates the figure and that the true number of unique individuals receiving those services could be closer to 200.

Lair also described the local economic impact of Special Olympics events: the organization stages nine county events and brings large events to Crawford County that draw visitors — "Our big state event, we bring in about 1,200 people for our state powerlifting and our state flag football tournament," he said — and said the group is discussing national events that would bring additional visitors.

Commissioners did not vote on a funding change at the meeting. Instead they asked staff to verify how the county’s beneficiary numbers are calculated and to report back before finalizing allocations in the upcoming budget process. "I have a contact that prepares that, so I can reach out to her and get her to... Give me more details," a staff member told the commission.

The commission discussed timing: distributions are made in stages and the county must decide by February whether to include a new recipient this budget year; commissioners noted there is still time to consider a partial or full award before the next distribution cycle.

Ending: Commissioners said they would follow up with staff and with Lair, and that they were open to receiving documentation on how Special Olympics would use mill-levy funds and demonstrate spending in Crawford County. Lair said he would provide materials and welcomed invitations to upcoming events in the county.