photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Commissioner Patrick Kelly was elected commission chair along with Commissioner Shannon Reid remaining as vice chair on Wednesday, January 29, 2025.

Douglas County Commissioner Patrick Kelly was elected the new chair of the commission on Wednesday night, after his colleagues said his experience and leadership skills would be valuable amid the commission’s transition from three members to five.

Kelly, who represents the 1st District, takes over as chair from Commissioner Karen Willey of the 3rd District. The chair position is tasked with presiding over meetings and providing leadership and direction for the board.

Typically, at the start of each year, the vice chair of the commission becomes the new chair, and Commissioner Shannon Reid was the vice chair in 2024. But Reid started off the meeting by nominating Kelly as chair instead. She said that at the moment, the commission was in a transition phase of getting used to having five commissioners, and that while it may have been expected for her to become the chair, she personally thought Kelly was the best person for the job at the moment.

Reid said that Kelly had lots of experience on the County Commission and many other types of boards. Kelly had previously been commission chair in 2023, and he had served as a member of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. He also retired from Lawrence Public Schools as the chief academic officer in 2024.

“I think that Commissioner Kelly would be a great leader in that space,” Reid said. “… There’s just a real depth of experience in helping facilitate a meeting, which is what I perceive as the primary role and responsibility of the chair year after year.”

The other three commissioners echoed their support for Kelly to become the new commission chair. Kelly himself said that everyone on the commission has the skill to do what’s needed as chair.

“What we’ve seen on the commission is that the chair’s goal is to facilitate the meeting and sometimes speak on behalf of the commission,” Kelly said. “Beyond that, the agenda is set through our county administrator, and so anyone here could do that job.”

Kelly told the Journal-World that as chair, he hopes that the commission will have good meetings, engage with the public and continue to serve the people of Douglas County. When asked what his priorities are for the year ahead, Kelly said the proper setting for discussing priorities was during budget hearings and deliberations with the other commissioners.

“While our budget is really going to be the time when you get to see where our priorities and our values are, the discussion that we have, we’re doing the business of the county in these meetings,” Kelly said.

Kelly added that he is currently comfortable with how the county conducts meetings, and that the county has procedures for handling unexpected situations that may happen at meetings. Kelly added that something he appreciates about participating in county government is the collaboration at meetings and when it comes to making decisions.

“We elected from different districts, and so it would not be appropriate for me, with this body, to say this is where we’re going,” Kelly said. “It is a collaborative approach to government.”

Reid will continue serving as vice chair for 2025.

In other business, county commissioners:

• Deferred a decision on changes to the registration process for small-scale businesses that are run out of people’s homes in the county’s unincorporated areas. The changes would allow smaller businesses that don’t have an outsized impact on their neighbors to operate without needing to register with the county or pay an annual fee. However, larger and more impactful businesses will still need to register.

Commissioners deferred action on the item because they wanted staff to explore language that could make it more permissive for automobile, welding and upholstery businesses to be home occupations. Director Tonya Voigt said that businesses such as automobile painting, upholstering, mechanical or body repairs along with welding and machine shops were listed as prohibited because of the noise disruption and traffic that could result from the business. However, maintenance and repair of agricultural equipment is allowed as a home occupation. Willey asked, “where do you draw the line?”

Commissioner Erica Anderson said that a lot of times, people move to areas in rural Douglas County to be able to have these types of businesses. Willey agreed and added that prohibiting this entire class of activities seemed like a very different intent than regulating impacts.

• Authorized the county administrator to bind insurance coverage with Travelers for general property and liability insurance coverage in an amount not to exceed $937,229. Douglas County’s insurance coverage, which includes things like property, liability, crime and cyber insurance, will expire on Feb. 1, 2025.

Lockton, the county’s insurance broker, regularly compares insurance options to find the best deal. For nearly 30 years, Travelers has been the county’s insurer. Lockton informed the county that while insurance rates for public entities have been rising, the rate of increase is slowing down. Travelers has proposed a 24% increase for the county’s overall insurance, which is in line with what other public entities are seeing, according to a memo in the agenda.

• Allowed the Public Works department to solicit bids for herbicides, supply of rock aggregates and hot asphalt mix and dust control chemicals for roads, and to continue the dust control program for 2025.

• Held a work session with the emergency communications center and emergency management. This presentation was for informational purposes only.