The Seward County commissioners agreed to explore an amendment to the Seward County public defender’s contract to allow funding of up to $5,000 for costs that could include expert witnesses in misdemeanor cases.
The board, at its March 31 meeting, also approved expenditure of up to $4,000 for a misdemeanor case Public Defender Tana Fye is now working with that requires expert testimony, for which fees are charged. Her current contract does not have a contingency for such funds in misdemeanor cases.
Fye is one year and one month into her two-year contract with the county and noted it was the first time she has come to the board seeking additional funds. Her contract allows such expenditures for felony cases.
Fye said her misdemeanor case is unusual, but so is having to “lay out my defensive strategy” to some extent in a public meeting.
The board voted unanimously to approve expenditures of up to $4,000 for Fye’s current case.
Commission Chair Misty Ahmic said she would be asking the Public Defender Policy Board, which created the criteria and contract for a non-elected public defender in Seward County, to revisit the contract language for a possible amendment.
Deputy County Attorney Barbara Armstead usually works with the commissioners’ contracts but said it would be a conflict of interest for the county attorney’s office to be involved on behalf of the public defender because its staff prosecutes misdemeanor and felony cases.
That policy board was convened in 2024 to address the need for public defense services when Seward County was unable to hire or retain a public defender after the last elected public defender left the area soon after being elected in 2020.
The county had to wait for the 2021-2024 term to expire before they could implement an un-elected, contracted arrangement for the public defender, as some other Nebraska counties do.
Prior to Fye’s appointment, the courts had to appoint legal counsel as needed for public defense activities.
The commission included retired Seward County public defender Dave Kimble and two attorneys with current public defense experience, Lee Timan of Beatrice and Scott Gropp of Wilber.
ARPA fund transfer OKd
On another financial matter, the commissioners approved payment of $300,000 to the city of Seward for its water tower replacement project, which had been awarded when the county initially received American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds as a result of the COVID pandemic.
The county has held the city allocation for some time, with occasional questions about when the grant would be expended because the funds are to be spent by the county by Dec. 31, 2026.
Commissioner Darrell Zabrocki, who is the commission’s liaison to the Seward City Council, said the city has experienced delays with the project, most recently due to the availability of the needed contractors to complete the work. But he said officials have a rolling list of anticipated expenditures and more than enough work has been done to meet the criteria to remit the $300,000 to the city.
Seward County spread a sizeable portion of its ARPA funds out among the county’s cities and villages for water and wastewater projects. It has also used ARPA funds for county projects, such as purchase of a public transit van last year.
“We have done a very good job of sharing it,” Zabrocki said of the funds. “We have gotten really good bang for the buck.”
In other action at the meeting, the commissioners:
• Approved on a 3-2 vote the offer of a $2,000 hiring bonus for the roads department vacancy on the construction and culvert crew, which has been open for more than six months. Commissioners Ken Schmieding and Zabrocki voted against the incentive, with Zabrocki saying he had opposed such bonuses before because he does not think they are effective.
• Directed the contracted Seward County Surveyor Brian Foral, who is with the JEO firm, to work with a local title company to determine ownership of properties within the City of Milford’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction northeast of the city limits impacted by a planned floodplain enforcement project in which a portion of the property is county owned.
• Heard Commissioner Raegan Hain report on an effort to add some covered parking for county vehicles at the county’s West Wing offices, just off 14th Street and Highway 34, to protect against storm damage.
• Opened a single bid for mowing abandoned cemeteries up to six times this summer, which was $700 per mowing from Buresh Lawn Care.
• Approved the use of barricades to close a route, including 238th Road between Agnew and Rock Creek Road and back on 252nd Road, for the Bee Buzz Run on April 12.
• Approved a letter of engagement with the Woods Aitken, LLP, law firm which authorizes the county to use its services for legal representation in the future via the Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (NIRMA) legal hotline.
• Discussed plans for providing a budget template for county departments that would include the current year’s expenditures as they plan for the 2026-27 fiscal year that begins July 1.
• Approved a request for the road department to seek bids for a used motor grader to be opened April 21.
