OTTAWA – After a 20-minute executive session with county administrator Lisa Johnson, county commissioners refused on a 4-0 vote Wednesday to accept three Freedom of Information requests seeking information about the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s probe of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department. Commission chair David Hood abstained. He submitted one of the three Freedom of Information requests. The requests would reveal improper information from the investigation, other commissioners said. Before the vote, Sheriff Jeff Curry defended himself and his department and predicted the complaint that sparked the probe would be found to be baseless. Curry said he and his officers were fully cooperating with the KBI. Despite the rumors flying around the probe, Curry said neither he nor any of his officers were suspended and they all remain on duty. The county commission’s vote drew a response from Franklin County Clerk Shari Perry, who said she was unfairly being targeted as the instigator of the investigation. Perry said she didn’t know what was going on, which is why she submitted one of the other Freedom of Information requests. During her comments about an earlier controversy in which an anonymous letter accused Curry of an improper relationship with a former county attorney, commissioners tried to cut her off. “You let Jeff Curry speak,” she said. She said that commissioners have treated allegations against Curry differently than allegations leveled against her. Earlier this year, commissioners hired a special consulting attorney to investigate an elected official and send the results to the Kansas attorney general’s office, then later publicly censured Perry, warning her not to interfere with the investigation.
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 8 p.m.