Alocal businessman voiced his concerns about conduct at Ellsworth City Council meetings Nov. 12, during the petitions and delegations portion of that council meeting.

“The reason I am here this evening is just to be heard,” said Rick Soukup, Ellsworth business owner. “I can safely say myself, my family and other business owners and community members would like to see our community grow and flourish. After reading last week’s paper (the Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter) along with several other papers and watching YouTube videos of the city council meetings, please tell me why would anyone want to move to a community that has such turmoil and hostility during council meetings?”

Soukup said the namecalling is very childish and unprofessional.

“Most people who are seeking to move into a new community will go there, ask questions to the people who live there,” he said. “They grab a newspaper — anything they can find out, good or bad — that is the info people are seeking.”

Soukup pointed to a council meeting the last week of April when Mayor Dan Finnegan called council member Don Panzer names.

Soukup noted that was the weekend the Big Kansas Road Trip visited Ellsworth.

“Lo and behold, we had people in our store from all over Kansas and even some from out of state,” he said. “Now, how does it make our community look when someone doesn’t know the real reasons behind the behavior or the way our mayor conducts the meeting? It would make most people talk negative about our town and they would probably tell people to think twice about moving here.

“This childish, bullytype of behavior is something most would see in early elementary age kids, not in adults,” Soukup added.

“Our motto of the City of Ellsworth is “A Community with Pride.” If the city is going to continue with that motto and logo, then I would sure hope some positive pride would start to show when people grab a paper or watch a YouTube video. This room should be the foundation of our community, not the divide. Mr. Mayor, you can’t be the problem and the solution.”

Soukup closed his remarks with the following words: “A true leader doesn’t create separation; a true leader brings people together.”

Ellsworth resident Mary Schmidt also spoke during the petitions and delegations portion of the meeting.

After Panzer spearheaded a motion to censure Finnegan at the Oct. 28 council meeting for creating a hostile work environment against City Administrator Dustin Stambaugh, Schmidt made what she described as a “citizen motion” to censure Panzer. She stated the reason for censuring Panzer was “due to the multiple failures to uphold his position in a respectful manner, to be professional, to serve the best interests of all community members, to keep the community informed on local government affairs, to communicate in a constructive manner with community members and local government officials, to be professional during the city council meetings and totally creating a vitriolic hostile work environment toward our mayor, Dan Finnegan, which is proved time-andtime again.”

Schmidt cautioned that if the council does not censure Panzer, then the entire council is at “ginormous risk of being sued, as, obviously, Mayor Dan Finnegan has the grounds to sue the city as seen in person, via YouTube link and even in the newspaper.”

“Panzer is quoted as ‘yelling,’” Schmidt said. “This is not alleged; it has been heard and seen by all in the room at the time, seen via the video of the meeting or read in the newspaper, from the meeting on Oct. 28, 2024.”

Before handing copies of her citizen motion to the council members, Schmidt said it was “an exceptionally and incredibly strong citizen motion to censure Donald Panzer, which cannot be denied.”

Panzer asked Schmidt to tell him the evidence she and Finnegan have against Stambaugh.

“And I’ll back off,” Panzer said, “but we’re getting along perfect; we get along good. But it seems like every two months or every six weeks, you start bringing up a bunch of more crap and get everybody stirred up. We were getting along fine until the last meeting. What proof or what do you have on Dustin that says he should be fired or we should get rid of him? I haven’t seen one ounce of evidence, but you pose this all the time.”

Panzer said all of this happened before he got on the council last October.

“I have still not seen any evidence of your accusations towards Dustin,” Panzer told Schmidt.

No action was taken on Schmidt’s citizen motion.

In other business:

• Ordinance 3160 was approved, which would re-implement the .25 percent sales tax as per the result of the Nov. 5 general election during which a majority of voters were in favor of reimplementing the sales tax. The tax, which is a continuation of the existing sales tax, will begin July 1.

• Ordinance 3158 was approved, which establishes a code of procedure for the conduct of Ellsworth City Council meetings. It incorporates by reference the “Code of Procedure for Kansas Cities, Fourth Edition (2017)” of the League of Kansas Municipalities Code of Procedure for Kansas Cities.

• Ordinance 3159, which sets cemetery fees via the city fee schedule, was approved. Stambaugh said the current ordinance states that marker and memorial permits are $10 and $20 each, respectively. The city is currently charging $30 and $40 per each respective permit. Not approving the ordinance will require reverting to the $10 and $20 fees, which will result in a loss of revenue for the city, Stambaugh noted.

• The council began discussing land acquisition for the wastewater treatment facility improvement project. It was noted the city needs 230 acres for the project. The council and Stambaugh will continue discussion at the next council meeting.

• Resolution 2024-30 setting the 2025 mitigation rates, was approved.

• Ordinance 3161, amending pool fees, was approved.

• Ordinance 3157, amending municipal court and diversion fees, was approved.

• Panzer said he was asked by Schmidt to check into the handicapped parking situation along Douglas Avenue.

Panzer said after walking down both sides of Douglas Avenue, he noted there are 15-minute parking spots in certain areas with green curbs.

“I thought we can’t enforce the 15-minute parking anyway, so could we make those 15-minute parking areas handicapped areas,” Panzer asked. “And if we make them handicapped areas, will that eliminate the signs which we’ve all had trouble with enforcing?”

Panzer said the only place he sees the city needs more handicapped parking areas is on the front corner of Connally Agency and across from Farm Bureau Insurance.

“That’s just an idea,” Panzer said.

• Commenting on government ethics and a proposed plan of action for the City of Ellsworth, Finnegan noted the council has already started talking about the subject.

“We want to kind of grow from what Rick (Soukup) was talking about,” he said. “We don’t want to keep doing this every two or three years. I think we’ll have more details in the future, but I think one of the positive things that has occurred is that Patrick (Hoffman, Ellsworth city attorney) has reached out for more information about the investigation of the diversion program and the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation) investigation that happened the middle of this year, so we’re going to have more dialogue and kind of determine exactly when we the people have enough information to where we feel good about it.

“At this point, we just don’t have it, and I think that’s really the foundation of our disagreement, because we just don’t have enough information. Some of it is conflicting. Some of it is rumor. We want to get as much as we can. That is not a promise that we’re going to know everything within a couple of months, but we’ll know more, and that’s a positive step forward.”

• Finnegan said he was just accepted into the 2025 Class of the Kansas Farm Bureau Leadership Program.

He is touching on the conflict experienced during the council meetings as part of the program.

“I thought it was risky, but I’ll be honest and talk about it,” Finnegan said. “Not in detail, but in ways I could have handled it better.”

• By consensus, the council chose to have just one meeting in December, at 5:30 p.m. Mon day, Dec. 9, at city hall. They also chose to leave it up to Stambaugh to determine the December water and sewer termination requests.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth City Council will be at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25, at city hall.