The executive salaries at Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, which prompted the organization’s virtual defunding by the six counties including Anderson County, skyrocketed again in 2024 boosting its Executive Director, Nathan Fawson, compensation from more than $600,000 to nearly $900,000 annually. Those salary increases came after the organization’s revenues nearly doubled mainly, due to more federal medicaid patient billings and insurance billings from its own expansion into non-mental health services.
The previous year’s salaries aggravated county commissioners in all six counties, including Anderson County who took steps to substantially reduce or zero fund their previous commitments to the mental health center, saying if the organization could afford those salaries it didn’t need county funds which could be spent on local needs.
