Web exclusive: John Scheidler, county commission candidate
By KALEY LYON
HDN: What is your stance on the proposed Ellis County wind farm projects? What benefits or concerns do you foresee?
JS: "My stance on the wind farm itself is two-fold. No. 1, it has to conform to our zoning rules and regulations and I don't believe it does conform to our zoning rules and regulations.
"I think the proposed location for the Yocemento project is in the wrong place. There are so many neighbors that are within close proximity. And the vast majority 90-95 percent of those people, are opposed.
"It's also too close to the City of Hays.
"The concerns I have about the wind farm is, again in my opinion, it's torn the county apart. For five years now we've been dealing with major problems trying to bring two sides together that aren't going to come together.
"This is one of my main concerns about running for county commissioner is that I think the next elected county commission needs to reconcile the people of Ellis County.
"There has to be some peace made instead of hostility and adversity.
"Benefits to Ellis County I think are going to be very minor. The wind farms won't be paying property taxes, unless the Kansas legislature reinstates property taxes.
"I think the costs are going to be high to the county. The singular benefits will probably be to the landowners who will have towers.
"To me, this is an issue that's torn the county apart and it shouldn't be. And those concerns aren't going to go away."
HDN: What are your thoughts on the current county-wide zoning process?
JS: "The fact is that Ellis County has adopted zoning rules and regulations. "Those rules and regulations ought to conform to a comprehensive plan for the county, if in fact, we're going to have rules and regulations.
"Without a comprehensive plan, then all we have is a bully process in which the county imposes its will upon the citizens and the landowners of Ellis
County.
"That is not the purpose of zoning. The purpose of zoning is to have a planned use of the land in Ellis County.
"Without a comprehensive plan, we literally don't have a plan, and therefore I don't think we actually have zoning in Ellis County.
"We just have a bully pulpit from the board of zoning and also the county commissioners.
"The zoning process does not work. Every time something wants to be done in the county it requires a conditional use permit.
"We had a problem on the north side of town, where someone wanted to put in an oil field cement service, which was rejected because of immediate neighbors.
"If Ellis County would have an industrial area, zoned industrial so that people would know it's going to be zoned industrial and not have homes right next to it, then that would be a legitimate purpose of zoning -- to have an area for industrial projects.
"We don't have such a thing.
"Literally this is true with everything that comes before the county. It's all conditional use permit, unfortunately it goes to a zoning board who makes a recommendation to the county commissioners who then have to go basically through the whole process all over again.
"Again, I would like to see us, if we're going to do it, adopt a comprehensive plan where we would have areas of development designated, so that people knew up front what their property is going to be zoned for so that they can plan for their futures also."
HDN: Any changes you would propose?
JS: "Any changes that I would propose right now would probably be to do away with the zoning/planning commission in regards to conditional use permits and just bring those straight to the Ellis County Commissioners, who ultimately make the decision anyway."
HDN: What do you perceive the relationship between the county commission and the planning commission to be?
JS: "Right now I believe that the planning commission believes that they're the dog and the county commissioners are the tail, and that's the wrong attitude for the planning commission leaders to take.
"I know that last fall we had one of the, who is now the chairman of the planning commission, indicate that he would quit if the county commissioners didn't accept the recommendation of the planning commission.
"But again, it's just a recommendation that they make.
"Because it has to be finally decided by the county commissioners I think the county commissioners ought to take the responsibility to make that, and not try to pass the buck and say, well the planning commission made the recommendation and we have to take it.
"If the final decision rests with the county commissioners they ought to be the ones that hear the testimony and go through that process."
HDN: What are your thoughts on space needs issues, and of the proposed Hadley Center relocation?
JS: "I attended the hearing that the county put on last evening. I looked at the plans, looked at the costs. I think that the county does have space needs, I still need to do some research on the Hadley Center.
"At this point it seems to be extravagant and costly. I'm not sure that I quite understand the whole reason for doing it through a public building commission.
"And I'm not sure I understand the relationship except... rather than the general revenue bonds, they do the building commission, which is the county commissioners again.
"Which almost seems like it's a conflict between the county commissioners being both the building commission and sitting on the county commission.
"I need to do some more research on all that.
"I do know that there are some areas of the courthouse that are crowded.
"There are some departments of the courthouse that have grown almost exponentially over the past 10 years.
"I'm concerned over the growth of government that we're having, considering the fact that in the last 10 years I think Ellis County's only had one year of growth and nine years of decline.
"I guess I haven't made up my mind on this issue right now. From what I have heard and what I have researched, I think the current plan's probably going to be too extravagant for most of the residents of Ellis County to accept."
HDN: How do you view relations between Ellis County and the communities within? Do you believe anything could be done to improve city/county relations?
JS: "As a county commissioner, I'm a county commissioner for both residents living in the unincorporated areas of the county, but I'm also a commissioner for the residents living in the City of Hays, the City of Ellis, the City of Victoria and Shoenchen.
"I think relations do need to be improved. I think zoning was one of the things that showed that Ellis County government and the city governments I've just mentioned don't get along very well, in that the cities decided not to join with Ellis County in countywide zoning.
"What those problems are and why those cities decided not to do that I don't know why that was decided, except I think they want to remain autonomous.
"Obviously there are some things that the cities and the county do need to work on together, especially in regards to public works projects that may be necessary.
"Do I think anything could be done to improve them?
"Obviously there are all kinds of things that can be done. I think the city and the county government officials need to work together. The county commission does need to know what the city's going to do, the county needs to know what they have to do just on their own.
"I do not believe we need a consolidated government in Ellis County, as has sometimes been proposed. I think that it's important that we maintain our representation.
"If we consolidate then, for example, the unconsolidated people's representation's going to be diffused, spread out.
"We all have to get along in Ellis County, so I do think relations could be improved."
HDN: With taxes on the rise from last year to this year, and local property values also increasing, how does this affect the local budget? What are your thoughts about the current finance formula?
JS: "There's a lot of talk about the mill levy and there's a lot of talk about valuations. But the thing that really affects people is, are our taxes going to up or are they going to go down?
"And while Ellis County does have a low mill levy, the main reason for that is that Ellis County's probably one of the richest counties because of its oil production in western Kansas.
"Taxes go up because cost of government go up, and services go up. The problems with our local tax base is that our road and bridge department, which is the traditional big budget item for the county, is no longer the case. "We have lots and lots of other services. We've got rural fire, we've got emergency care, we've got court services that has expanded tremendously. "We've got all kinds of services that not just property owners use, and property owners pay for 100 percent of what is done by the county.
"I think that we do need to look at a different formula, I think we need to look at other options.
"I'm really concerned about elderly retired people who are now paying more in property taxes than they once paid for their house mortgages. I think that's a big concern for elderly people who have unexpected costs, and some people are probably being forced to sell their houses.
"When we talk about taxes, taxes should be paid by the people that use the services, and it's simply not property owners that use the services of Ellis County."
HDN: Should the mill levy be reduced to compensate for increased valuation?
JS: "The mill levy is what you use to calculate what you're going to get.
"The valuation is pretty standard statewide. I don't think whatever the state dictates the counties can change much.
"If we keep the mill levy the same and we increase valuations and all we're doing is increasing taxes, and yet saying we're not increasing the mill levy so people think taxes aren't going up, but effect they are.
"That's always going to be the bottom line."
HDN: Why did you decide to run for office?
JS: "By my count we have seven people running for two offices in Ellis County. I believe that we need a change of leadership in Ellis County.
"I believe that we need some new, different ideas. I believe that we need more listeners to the people of Ellis County, and less decisions being made without public input.
"Mostly I decided to run for office because after attending dozens and dozens of zoning meetings and dozens and dozens of conditional use permit meetings, I realized that the people of Ellis County are not being listened to. "And for the most part, it seems as if Ellis County government really doesn't care."
HDN: Any other issue you would like to address?
JS: "I think I bring some unique things to Ellis County government.
"That is, I was a graduate of Hays High School, an undergraduate and graduate student at Fort Hays State University.
"I worked for Wichita State University as assistant director of planning and director of institutional research for five years.
"I've been heavily involved in the oil industry in Ellis County, I've been involved in farming and ranching in Ellis County. I've done appraising work.
"I do have some qualifications other than just being a stubborn SOB.
"I bring some unique qualifications to the Ellis County government that I think will help me in improving the quality of government as well as improving the quality of life for citizens of Ellis County.
"I think I will listen to people of Ellis County, whether or not I agree with them, and I will respond to their needs."