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Atchison County to publish department worksheets ahead of R and R budget hearing to help constituents prepare
Summary
Commissioners instructed the finance director to publish departmental budget worksheets and year-to-year comparisons online ahead of a scheduled R and R budget hearing so residents have data to review before the public meeting; staff will produce PDFs and seek to include three fiscal years for context.
Commissioners discussed public reaction to recent R and R notices and a request from constituents for more accessible budget information ahead of the county's R and R budget hearing. Several commissioners said mailings had prompted constituents to ask what they were being asked to approve and suggested that department-level worksheets be made available online.
Mark Seltner, the county finance director, said the worksheets and related budget detail could be provided in PDF form and that he expected to have the materials ready the following day. "Oh, I'll probably have it done tomorrow," Seltner said when asked about posting the files.
Commissioners favored publishing three years of comparison (2023, 2024, 2025 or the recent sequence) and including dollar amounts rather than only percentages so residents could better assess line items. They also discussed whether to include staff notes; several cautioned that informal or request-based notes that reflect department wishes (for example, requested but unapproved COLA amounts) could confuse the public and recommended limiting or redacting sensitive personnel details.
Logistics for the public hearing: The commission scheduled a public R and R budget hearing at Memorial Hall with a plan to let constituents speak first from a podium and then allow commissioners to summarize work already done to reduce the R and R figure. Commissioners asked staff to produce a short explanatory statement for the meeting clarifying that published R and R "asks" are the departments' initial requests and that commissioners have since acted to reduce the figure prior to final budget action.
Separately, commissioners discussed publication of the statutory delinquent-tax list (routinely published in The Globe newspaper) and agreed it would be acceptable to post the Globe proof as a PDF on the county website after publication so non-subscribers can access it.
