The City of Fort Scott was hit by a ransomware attack in late August and had its systems back within six days, IT Director Stephen Mitchell told the city commission Sept. 1. In the same four-hour meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to strip the 2027 demolition budget to lower the mill levy and agreed to rewrite a historic-preservation ordinance that carries heavy penalties for downtown property owners.

Mayor Kathryn Salsbury presided, with commissioners Matthew Wells, Tracy Dancer, Julie Buchta and Tim Van Hoecke present. City Clerk Lisa Lewis called the roll. The commission approved the agenda as amended — adding the IT update and folding the mill-levy choice into unfinished business — and approved the consent agenda. On the latter, Matkin flagged the Mid-Continental Restoration contract for Wall Street retaining-wall repairs, telling commissioners the city will get the money back from FEMA; asked by Salsbury whether that covered the entire amount, he indicated it did (video, 30:09).

“Wasn’t something we wanted to do in six days”

Mitchell handed commissioners a written synopsis and timeline before walking them through the attack, which he said was detected about 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday (video, 39:15). He said he isolated the affected machine, shut down City Hall and the core network, and verified public-safety systems were functional before restoring anything else.

Part of what made it worse, Mitchell said, was a coincidental Microsoft bug that crashed the city’s antivirus and let it restart, leaving some machines partially infected. Microsoft acknowledged the flaw and released a patch the same day; once applied, the antivirus came back and began functioning (video, 40:38). He described the malware as “a pretty sophisticated little crypto virus.”

The city was running again within six days, after the IT team worked in 12- and 18-hour shifts, losing about a week of data on two machines that were backed up to OneDrive (video, 42:45). Mitchell said he used the outage to rebuild what had been a flat legacy network into segments isolated site-by-site, and recommended the city move toward a zero-trust, cloud-first architecture.

“Cities and school districts right now, local governments, are all being heavily targeted for ransomware,” Mitchell said (video, 43:43). Commissioners contrasted the six-day turnaround with the multi-week recoveries common at other municipalities, and credited having the work done locally.

Commission cuts demolition money in 3-2 vote to trim the levy

Budget consultant Ben Hart of Baker Tilly, which handles the city’s finance function, asked commissioners to approve one of two versions of the 2027 budget for publication, against a hard deadline: the notice had to be in the newspaper’s hands Thursday to publish Saturday ahead of a budget hearing on the 15th (video, 46:54). Option A assumed selling eight lake lots and using the proceeds to pay down $7.9 million in debt inside the general fund. Option B dropped the lot sales and instead deposited the county’s dispatch reimbursement into the general fund to cover the 2027 debt service, routing the lake-lot question to a capital improvements fund for the commission to allocate later.

Hart told commissioners the revenue-neutral rate is 41.472 mills and the proposed rate is 42.551 — virtually identical to the current year’s levy (video, 49:53). Tracy Dancer pressed on why neither budget option before the commission held the line at revenue neutral (video, 49:38), saying the commission had authorized exceeding the revenue-neutral rate earlier in the year only to preserve flexibility, and that no revenue-neutral plan was ever brought back.

“That’s the kind of conversation we had three work sessions ago, and the very questions we were asking, Commissioner, is where do you want to go with this budget? And that’s exactly where we needed to hear that. At this point, we’ve got two days to get this into publication,” responded Hart. He went on to say that the budget hearing is not the equivalent of adopting a budget and he is open to having a fourth workshop to discuss a revenue neutral budget – “Just understand that this going to involve people, not things,” he said.

Wells moved to eliminate the 2027 demolition budget — $38,977 — for one year, lowering the levy by roughly half a mill. Dancer seconded, saying it was “the only thing that reduces this across the board” (video, 1:00:24). It passed 3-2, with Wells, Dancer and Salsbury in favor and Van Hoecke and Buchta opposed.

Hart confirmed the effect: there will be zero money for demolition in the general fund in 2027, and the levy drops by the equivalent amount, for one year (video, 1:01:18). Van Hoecke had argued against the cut on the grounds that lowering the levy guarantees nothing. At the last work session, he said, property taxes owed stood at $2.5 million, and the county has spent $30,000 simply to publish the delinquency list the requisite three printings, with the same names appearing repeatedly (video, 55:55). “We can lower it, but is that a guarantee?” he asked, warning that a cut this year could force a significant increase next year. He acknowledged some property owners genuinely cannot pay their taxes.

Van Hoecke also asked what happens if the city faces an unsafe property with no demolition money. Commissioners said they would have to reconvene and find the funds.

Moments later City Manager Brad Matkin noted the sum was not a pure demolition line: “That’s his wages right there,” he said, referring to the city’s newly added codes officer (video, 1:02:24). Salsbury replied that she had understood it to be the demolition budget and “was not told that was the codes officer’s budget.” In the commissioner comments portion of the meeting, Wells said that he had understood that line item to be for demolition only, not a salaried position for the codes office.

“We’ll make it work,” responded Matkin.

Historic-district ordinance headed back to a work session

The longest stretch of the meeting was a dispute over ordinance 3782 and the city’s Certified Local Government status. Buchta delivered an extended presentation arguing that the ordinance’s enforcement clause — a Class B misdemeanor carrying up to a $1,000 fine, up to six months in jail, and a separate offense for each period of violation — was being read as authority for full enforcement across the downtown historic district (video, 1:20:49).

Several downtown owners objected to the prospect of fines or jail over building maintenance. Lindsay Madison, president and CEO of the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce and director of its Main Street program, and Kathy Dancer, who leads the city’s historic preservation commission, defended the CLG program’s benefits — faster local approvals, access to tax credits and grant eligibility — while agreeing the enforcement language should be revised and that owners need better education.

Kathy Dancer also told the room she had not been told the discussion was happening: “I am the lead of the Historic Preservation Commission and Resource Commission here in town. I was not notified that this conversation was happening” (video, 2:22:24).

“Enforcement is the city’s job. If codes wants to enforce, let them enforce. If they don’t want to enforce, then that’s on them. But be aware that if you choose not to enforce when the state SHPO [State Historic Preservation Office] comes and does their audit of the CLG, we won’t qualify for CLG status, which is fine if that’s the decision this commission makes. However, keep in mind that absolutely 100% jeopardizes your ability to get grants and tax credits,” said Kathy Dancer of the benefits of becoming a CLG and the need to enforce codes in order to do that. “Historic tax credits are the most valuable of tax credits out there.”

Commissioners established that the ordinance posted online is not the version actually adopted, and that codes officer Leroy Kruger cannot enforce design guidelines that have not been adopted. Wells said only two properties he knew of would be affected, on the grounds that the rules would reach only work done since the CLG was established; Buchta immediately disputed that, saying it was not her understanding and that no list of who had been grandfathered in was ever provided. Kruger said he felt unfairly blamed. Van Hoecke moved that the commission hold a work session at 5 p.m. before its next meeting to rewrite the ordinance, with the penalty aimed at demolition by neglect — the fate of the Moody Building and the lost Eagle Block (video, 2:55:29). The motion passed.

$1.45 million trail grant accepted

Rachel Carpenter, director of human resources and community development, reported the city had won a Transportation Alternatives Grant for a Buck Run Creek trail: $1,451,000 awarded toward a roughly $1.8 million project, requiring a $362,712 local match (video, 34:13). Matkin said the match could be met through the city’s annual federal fund exchange, worth roughly $94,000 to $98,000 a year, plus a special parks and recreation fund. Buchta moved to accept the grant and the 20% match, and it passed (video, 38:13).

Other business

In public comment, Betty Brough urged the commission to act on homelessness, asking for outhouses, showers, laundry, safe fire pits, shelter and affordable senior housing near the Second Street camp (video, 30:41). Matkin later announced a Homeless Alliance meeting set for Sept. 9 at 5:30 p.m.

On 118 E. Wall, Matkin said the owner still wants a cash settlement the city is not offering, and recommended pursuing grants now rather than waiting — warning of “an Eagle Block issue coming up” (video, 1:04:44). The commission voted to do what is legally and financially possible to take possession of the building, without a cash offer. City Attorney Bob Farmer separately reported the owner of the Moody Building intends to quitclaim it to the city (video, 3:13:04).

The commission passed six resolutions setting hearings on allegedly unsafe structures at 507 W. 18th St., 611 W. Fifth St., 735 S. Little, 416 S. Barbee, 418 S. Barbee and 108 N. Judson. A motion to table the Judson resolution to reach the actual owner failed before the resolution itself passed.

Cindy Bartelsmeyer was appointed to a vacancy on the Fort Scott Land Bank (video, 1:17:16). City Engineer Jason Dickman reported a single bid for window and exterior restoration at Memorial Hall, from Mid-Continental Restoration, at about $530,000 against a budget near $700,000; the commission accepted it, subject to Department of Commerce approval (video, 1:18:48).

Ordinance 3801, amending the city’s alcohol and cereal malt beverage code, was tabled to the second September meeting after commissioners said they received the extensive draft only the day before (video, 1:04:25). Van Hoecke also relayed that Bourbon County had entered a two-week burn ban (video, 3:48:10).

Salsbury closed with pointed remarks tying local homelessness to defunded mental health care and Medicaid decisions rather than a lack of city effort. Several commissioners commended Matkin for the decision to move the homeless to Second Street as a sensible solution.

The commission then recessed into executive session on a technology investment, citing the financial affairs and trade secrets exception at K.S.A. 75-4319(b)(4) (video, 3:49:19), returned with no action and adjourned.