Pending an itemized list of expenses within report categories, the Seward County Commissioners will likely sign off on the Seward County Drug Interdiction Task Force’s Equitable Sharing Agreement and Certification (ESAC) report at its Oct. 27 meeting.
The report is required for the county program to comply with U.S. Departments of Justice and Treasury rules and was originally due Aug. 30. The submission may put the program on track to regain compliance in the Department of Justice’s forfeiture disbursement program, but the county has additional hurdles to clear before regaining compliance with the Department of Treasury.
Commissioners asked the sheriff’s office to provide detail on the totals submitted on the ESAC to provide transparency now and in the future, even though the federal departments allow report totals by category.
The commissioners have also asked Sheriff Mike Vance to work with commissioners Scott Pekarek and Darrell Zabrocki to establish a purchase order process for the task force and adopt and implement a policy around those purchases. Those are currently in the works and expected to be finalized and submitted for County Attorney Wendy Elston’s review soon.
The department is also supposed to create a memorandum of agreement to be used with participating school districts to define their school resource officer programs.
The drug interdiction program involves task force officers stopping motorists and, when there is suspicion of illegal activity, sometimes confiscating cash or other items of value instead of making an arrest.
The funds are submitted to the two federal departments and some portion of them are disbursed back to the law enforcement agencies involved.
The Department of Treasury gave the sheriff’s department a “do not spend” status after review of expenditures between 2021 and 2024 flagged $762,504 that had been spent on non-qualifying officer salaries. It withheld $729,292 from disbursements pending, leaving a balance of $33,212 yet to be repaid.
Commissioners who have worked with Vance and the Department of Treasury have said the implementation of the purchase order system and spending policy would help the county regain compliance, but that Treasury will not complete its reviews until the end of the calendar year.
Zabrocki said submission of the ESAC would allow Treasury to audit last year’s expenditures and disbursements.
In other action, the commissioners:
• Authorized the Detention Center to sign an $8,000 annual service agreement for its Tek84 body scanners.
• Deferred decisions on three claims from those approved based on the need for departmental approval and coding changes by the sheriff’s office and clarification on who should be responsible for a claim submitted by county court.
• Tabled a request from Windstream Nebraska for a utility permit for Windstream Nebraska to bore in the right-of-way near 4582 Agnew Road pending completion of emergency contact information on the application.
• Appointed Courtney Kossow of Pleasant Dale to the Seward County Aging Services Board for a term ending in September 2027.
• Discussed how the insurance deductible payment from the Aug. 9 storm should be paid because the policy groups all departments’ damages into a single claim with a single $10,000 deductible, concluding that each department should pay a $1,000 deductible as other claims would require, and the additional deductible funds would be paid from the Inheritance Fund.
• Conducted the quarterly jail inspection.
