Can Sedgwick County commissioners put the investigations behind them? They’re trying

The Sedgwick County Commission has dropped an investigation into the ethics of commission members after spending $89,000 on an investigation that led to the ouster of County Manager Michael Scholes last year.

The investigation of commissioners’ actions had been demanded by former Commissioner Richard Ranzau, who said commissioners were improperly meddling with staff and partly responsible for the high turnover and low morale that were cited as reasons to replace Scholes.

Ranzau and commission Chairman David Dennis had established the scope of a potential inquiry into commissioners’ ethics.

But there was little appetite for continuing on that course after Scholes accepted a settlement and left in December, Ranzau was voted out of office in favor of Lacey Cruse in the November election, and Commissioner David Unruh retired in January.

The investigation languished in limbo until Interim County Counselor Mike Pepoon brought the matter back last week seeking guidance.

“We need to address some of the ongoing questions of what this commission wants to do,” Pepoon told commissioners. “Does this commission want to conduct an investigation essentially based on the action of a former county commission?”

The answer was a decisive “no.”

The vote was 5-0 to end the investigation, including Commissioner Jim Howell, who was Ranzau’s ally in trying to protect Scholes’ job.

“I’m interested in moving forward,” Cruse said. “I don’t want to spend any more money on an investigation into commissioners who are no longer here.”

Ranzau, contacted later, said an investigation would have uncovered “systemic abuse of power” on the commission and that he was disgusted to see it dropped before it started.

“They should all resign immediately, every last one of them,” Ranzau said. “It makes me sick to my stomach. . . . They’re protecting their friends and it’s interesting the new folks don’t really care about their behavior either, apparently.”

Responded Dennis: “I don’t know exactly why we should resign.”

“The bottom line is there were numerous investigations, several with the FBI, there was an open-meetings accusation, we just had numerous investigations,” Dennis said. “And it was time to put an end to all of this and start making sure that we’re taking care of our 500,000 citizens in Sedgwick County and our 2,000 staff.”

The contentious personnel investigation sparked the FBI’s interest last year. Agents questioned several county officials as to whether Unruh had sought to retaliate against Scholes for cooperating with a federal investigation of Commissioner Michael O’Donnell.

O’Donnell faced federal campaign-finance fraud charges but was acquitted at trial in early March.

Memos obtained by The Eagle showed that Unruh had inquired last year whether Scholes could be fired for disloyalty for reporting information to the FBI.

Then-County Counselor Eric Yost at first told him that firing the manager was permissible because he owed a duty of loyalty to the commission.

But Yost later reversed the analysis and warned that proceeding against Scholes could expose Unruh and the county to possible criminal and civil liability under laws prohibiting retaliation against government whistleblowers.

Unruh confirmed he had consulted Yost, but said he took no action toward firing Scholes before or after.

No charges have been filed.

“As of this time, we have no reason to believe that there’s any active investigation going on further with regard to those allegations,” Pepoon told commissioners Wednesday.

Yost took a $77,000 settlement and left in November.

Investigating the commission any further would face significant obstacles, Pepoon said.

“Several of the key people in the investigation are no longer in the state and may not be readily available to be interviewed,” he said.

Also, it would likely require 100-150 hours of work and cost between $30,000 and $40,000.

That would be in addition to the $89,000 spent investigating Scholes, a process that included 47 interviews over 200 hours, Pepoon said.

It was conducted by attorney Stephanie Scheck of Stinson LLP and the $89,000 was “virtually all attorney hour expenses,” Pepoon said.

The probe found two serious policy violations by Scholes.

It said he made staff falsify and backdate an employee review to help a former county employee, Tom Golden, get a job.

Scholes, a retired Army general, had hired Golden, a retired military pilot who he had served with, as his chief of staff at the county. But Golden was forced out after friction with staff and some commissioners, accepting a $40,000 settlement to leave after about eight months on the job.

The investigation also found Scholes misused a county photographer’s time by directing him to take personal photos for the Scholes family.

Scholes left after accepting a settlement of $205,427.

Ranzau disputed that the investigation had shown any firing offenses committed by Scholes.

“They did a sham of an investigation to put the blame on the county manager that was so poorly done, they didn’t even present the allegations to him,” Ranzau said. “Instead they decided to settle for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“He (Scholes) had offered a long time before that to settle and resign because at that point it wasn’t worth staying. But they went ahead and did that report anyway to try and CYA.”

Pepoon said a separate district attorney investigation into potential Kansas Open Meetings Act violations by county commissioners Dennis, O’Donnell and Unruh found insufficient evidence that violations occurred.

The commission adopted its first-ever code of ethics in November.

This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 7:35 AM.