Evidence & Documents

Seward County code-enforcement record, Case #38

The county’s own case record, printed from its code-enforcement system on August 21, 2026 in answer to an open records request. Violation: “Zoning Violation.” Complaint: “Operating a business out of a home.” Filed anonymously. The parcel is zoned “RR” Rural Residential. Ten months after it opened, the status still reads “Pending,” with no permit application and no completion date.

Commissioner Stanton’s home address is covered. Nothing else is.

The sign in his Landmark Center window

Photographed into the county’s case file. He posted it himself, before any complaint was made, and it tells the public the business is moving to the restoration workshop and that they can visit by appointment.

The sign, from the county case file

County Administrator April Warden to the Board of Commissioners

Her account of what happened when two Planning & Zoning employees telephoned a sitting commissioner as a courtesy instead of mailing the certified letter.

From the email, page 1

A county employee’s name is covered. She did not make the complaint, and she asked not to be taken for the person who did. The Administrator’s mobile number is covered. Nothing else is.

Commissioner Stanton’s reply, and the Administrator’s forward of it

Seventy-two minutes after she wrote to the Board, this was his entire answer to her. She forwarded it to all five commissioners sixteen minutes later without comment. He never said what in her account was wrong.

His reply, sent from his county email account

As above: one employee name and the Administrator’s mobile number.

Notice of Violation, Planning & Zoning Director Albert Gallegos

The letter itself. It asks him to abate the violation by applying for a conditional use permit within twenty days — and tells him that if he thinks the decision is wrong, he may appeal it to the Board of Zoning Appeals on the same twenty-day clock. He did neither.

From the Notice of Violation

His home address is covered in the mailing block. The legal description of the property is left as written — it is the operative text of the letter.

April Warden to the Board — the follow-up about her staff

She wrote again the next day, and this one is not about Commissioner Stanton at all. It is about what the week had done to the people who work for the county.

From the email, page 1

The employee’s name and the detail that would identify her locally are covered, at our discretion and not at the county’s request. Every word about what happened to her is left as written.

His business website, saved into the county case file

Under the heading “We’ve Relocated!” — three weeks before his attorney told the county he had not relocated.

uncommonllc.net, Contact/Hours page

Lane L. Frymire, on behalf of Todd Stanton, to Planning & Zoning

His attorney’s answer. It argues he is pursuing a permitted home occupation and needs no permit — and it closes by telling the county what defending a lawsuit would cost its taxpayers, and suggesting the whole thing is driven by “personal animus” inside the Administrator’s office.

The closing paragraph, page 2

Published in full and unredacted, including the argument that he was entitled to do what he was doing. Read it and judge it yourself.

The open records request for this file, and who wrote it

Ten months later Commissioner Stanton emailed the publisher of the Leader & Times telling him what to ask the county for — including the notes taken by the two employees who had called him. The publisher’s request went in four days later.

Two personal email addresses are covered. County addresses are left as written.

Commissioner Stanton and KPERS General Counsel — the KP&F issue

The opening correspondence: a sitting commissioner contacting the state retirement system directly about a county employee’s benefits, without the Board’s authorisation, from a private email account.

A second county employee’s name and identifying details are covered throughout. He was found to have correctly earned his benefits, and he is entitled to the privacy Mr. Standard was not given.

KPERS internal correspondence on the Standard file

How the agency handled the challenge internally once it had been made.

Commissioner Stanton and KPERS on Greg Standard’s retirement

Including the request that the determination letter be copied openly to county Human Resources while his own copy went by blind copy.

KPERS General Counsel’s note of the call with Rep. Francis

The agency’s own record of a call about the matter.

April Warden and KPERS General Counsel — the position descriptions

The exchange in which KPERS’ counsel writes that the review ran on the document Commissioner Stanton sent, and that it was one the County Administrator had never seen before.

The second employee’s name and identifying details are covered.

County Administrator April Warden — contemporaneous notes

Her own notes as the matter unfolded: the unauthorised contact with KPERS, the request that the Sheriff file criminal charges, the July 29 meeting at which he would not say where his list of KP&F employees came from, and KPERS’ eventual confirmation that the benefits were properly earned.

Transcribed verbatim; wording unchanged. Two clearly-labelled side notes were added for context and are marked as not part of the original.

Greg Standard’s statement of service, signed by Sheriff Gene Ward

Mr. Standard’s own account of thirty-seven years of work, written for the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. At the foot of page three, in his own hand, the Sheriff of Seward County writes that it is “consistent with my recollection of Greg Standards service to Seward County as a first responder,” and signs and dates it. Ten weeks earlier Commissioner Stanton had told the same agency that it was “the opinion of our rural fire chief and county sheriff” that neither man was eligible for KP&F.

Published whole and unaltered, at Mr. Standard’s request and with his permission. The Sheriff attested that the ACCOUNT OF THE SERVICE matched his recollection; he did not write a ruling on pension law, and nothing here should be read as one. The date Mr. Standard typed at the head of his statement does not exist on a calendar; it is his own slip and the page is reproduced exactly as he wrote it.

Seward County Sheriff’s Office — incident report 25SO06392

A deputy was called to the County Commission meeting after Commissioner Stanton pointed his finger in Commissioner Persephoni Fuller’s face as she left executive session. Stanton acknowledged to Sheriff Ward that he told her to “watch your mouth” while holding his finger up at the level of her face, and the Sheriff told him he could not speak to her that way. She asked that no charges be filed. Page 3 is an unprompted email from the County’s IT Director to the Sheriff the next day saying he saw it happen.

Date of birth, driver’s licence number and home address are covered. Every name, and the whole account of Commissioner Stanton’s conduct, is left as written.