County commission approves terminating contract of appraiser

Following four executive sessions totaling nearly an hour in length, the Cloud County board of commissioners approved terminating the employment contract of Toby Marco as Cloud County appraiser, effective immediately, during its regular meeting on Tuesday.
This change in leadership comes one week after the Cloud County Commission voted to appoint Shea McMillan as interim county appraiser for a period not to exceed six months.
McMillan's appointment has been sent to David Harper, Kansas director of property valuation, for approval.
Marco had been serving as Cloud County and Republic County appraiser since July 2022.  
An experienced registered mass appraiser in commercial, industrial, and residential appraisal practice, Marco came to Cloud and Republic counties from Salina, where he worked as a commercial and residential field appraiser for Saline County since 2014. He replaced Barry Porter, who retired last summer after 26 years with Cloud County.
The county commission met in a 10-minute executive session for non-elected personnel with Cloud County attorney Rob Walsh and Cloud County clerk Shella Thoman.
The commission then met in two executive sessions for non-elected personnel, totaling 35-minutes in length, with Walsh, Thoman, the Republic County commissioners and Republic county attorney Justin Ferrell. Finally, the commission held a 10-minute executive session for non-elected personnel with Walsh, Thoman, the Republic County commissioners, Ferrell and Marco.
Also during the meeting, county commission chair Gary Caspers and Cloud County public building commission chair Joshua Meyer signed a contract assignment this week, the latest step in Cloud County's efforts to recover payment for recent corrective work performed on the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center in Concordia.
The Cloud County public building commission approved transferring to Cloud County all rights, title and interest to any and all claims and causes of action that the public building commission has or may have against Zahner Hansen Construction Group, Inc. under the construction contract for the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center and Westchester Fire Insurance Company under the performance bond it issued for the project. This includes all claims and causes of action for breach of subcontract, subcontract overpayments, change order overpayments, back charges, breach of warranty and lack of proper workmanship, and all claims and causes of action for obligations under the Performance Bond.
The public building commission further assigned to Cloud County all warranties relating to the Cloud County Jail or construction of the facility, including all warranties from Zahner and all Zahner subcontractors and suppliers.
Zahner-Hansen Construction Group of Brentwood, Tennessee, was awarded the bid on the $4.68 million Cloud County Law Enforcement Center project in August 2012, with a groundbreaking ceremony held a month later. September 2013 marked the originally contracted substantial completion date for the work on the construction of the center, but many internal issues, including an electrical subcontractor briefly walking off the project, resulted in numerous delays. Contractually, no penalties were imposed on the contractors by Cloud County.
The Cloud County Law Enforcement Center held its grand opening celebration on March 28, 2014, but since that time, many issues reportedly plagued the new facility, including a leaky roof, mold and structural problems, and outside elevation issues.
In 2020, Cloud County requested Campbell & Johnson, Engineers, P.A. of Concordia inspect and evaluate the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center facility to determine what needs to be done to remediate any problems.
The Cloud County Commission voted in the summer of 2021 to approve a contract/owner agreement with Budreau Construction, Inc. of Clyde for remedial construction work to the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center. Budreau Construction served as the general contractor on the project, while Hood Heating, Air, Plumbing, Electric of Concordia was the mechanical and electrical contractor.
During the construction period, Cloud County's inmates were held out-of-county in Clay, Mitchell, Republic and Washington counties.
After many months of repairs to remediate problems at the facility, the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center began successfully operating on a temporary Certificate of Occupancy in July 2022 while they waited for a new smoke control system to be activated in the jail. That work was completed at the end of March 2023 and a Certificate of Occupancy was signed on April 3, 2023.
According to information provided to KNCK News, the Cloud County Commission approved eight change orders related to the remedial construction work to the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center.  The original contract price was for $944,064. Change orders totaling $2,273,388.13 have brought the total cost of the contract to $3,217,452.13.
In December 2022, the Cloud County commission voted to move forward on litigation to recover payment for the corrective work that has been performed. The decision came following two executive sessions for attorney/client privilege, totaling 20 minutes in length, with attorney Wyatt Hoch, an accomplished construction lawyer with Foulston Siefkin LLP of Wichita.
Meanwhile, in February 2023, Cloud County Sheriff Ken Davis announced the jail had returned to housing out-of-county inmates again from Saline County and Sedgwick County. Sedgwick County also increased their payment from $30 to $40 per day per inmate.
Davis also said the Kansas Department of Corrections recently reached out to Cloud County about having their inmates brought in to the jail again.
Davis told KNCK News this month the construction work is complete and the Cloud County Jail is functioning as it should, with the revenue generated from housing out-of-county inmates large enough once again to pay for the costs of the facility.