RecallStanton.com · Seward County, Kansas
Thirty-Seven Years
Greg Standard answered Seward County’s calls for thirty-seven years. Weeks before he retired, one commissioner told the State of Kansas he had not earned it. Ten weeks later the Sheriff signed his name to say otherwise.
In his own words
“I have always placed the welfare and safety of myself and my family secondary to the welfare and safety of the citizens of Seward County. I would not trade this experience for anything.”
Greg Standard, in his statement of service to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System — the document Sheriff Gene Ward signed his name to on August 20, 2025.
Greg Standard gave Seward County thirty-seven years. He was the man who came when the fire was in your field, when the water was over the road, when the tornado was on the ground and somebody had to be out in it to say so. Weeks before he was due to draw the pension he had spent a career earning, one commissioner wrote privately to the State of Kansas and said he had not earned it.
His first retirement payment came in more than 25 percent short. Everything below is from Greg’s own account of his service — the account Sheriff Gene Ward signed his name beneath.
What thirty-seven years looked like
1988 – 2025
He answered calls in this county for thirty-seven years.
He signed on as a volunteer firefighter in 1988, became a part-time EMT in 1990, and in 1999 took the job full time as Assistant County Fire Chief and Emergency Manager. He never left.
From the record
“This job has been a minimum of 50+ hours per week for the entirety of my employment. I have been on call 24 / 7 for the entire term of my employment, with on the average 8-12 days off per year.”
Greg Standard, in his statement of service to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, attested by Sheriff Gene Ward, August 20, 2025.
Eight to twelve days off a year. For twenty-six years.
Structure fires, oil field fires, wildland fires
He worked fires until they were out, however long that took.
EMS calls, structure fires, vehicle fires, oil field fires, cropland and hay fires, wildland fires. He attended almost every call in Seward County from 1999 to 2016, and Mutual Aid calls in the counties around it.
From the record
“The fires sometimes lasted for several days, and working 36 hours straight was not unusual.”
Greg Standard, in the same statement.
Severe weather
He drove toward the storms so the warnings would be better.
He kept a group of trained volunteer spotters and went out himself, because somebody in the field sees what radar cannot.
From the record
“In a number of cases the risk to myself was very high due to large softball size hail and tornadic/straight line winds which is extremely hazardous.”
Greg Standard, in the same statement.
From the record
“the last two tornados that affected Seward County were warned by myself prior to the NWS providing warnings for the storms.”
Greg Standard, in the same statement. By the National Weather Service’s count he spotted on 214 severe thunderstorms, 22 tornadoes and 6 flash floods in eight years.
Twice, the warning that reached Seward County families came from him before it came from the Weather Service.
Katrina. Greensburg.
When the worst days came, Kansas sent him.
As an authorized member of the Kansas Incident Management Team he served as Operations Chief at numerous fires, Planning Chief for Hurricane Katrina, and Deputy Incident Commander and Logistics Chief for the Greensburg tornado.
From the record
“I have participated in many searches for missing or lost individuals, body recoveries, rescues of stranded motorist in blizzards”
Greg Standard, in the same statement, on work done under State and local law enforcement direction.
COVID-19
He ran the county’s pandemic response, and was never paid a dollar extra for it.
He led the Seward County response — including the stretch when the Health Department was closed — and filled in as a technician at the vaccination and testing sites whenever a spot went unstaffed.
From the record
“for approximately 287 days… conservatively, 12-to-16-hour days 7 days a week providing information, transportation, meals, housing, vaccinations and COVID tests for over 55,000 residents and others.”
Greg Standard, in the same statement. Neither he nor the director of Seward County EMS was ever compensated for those extra hours, beyond their regular salaries.
From the record
“because as first responders this was our job according to Seward County.”
Greg Standard, in the same statement.
Two hundred and eighty-seven days. The County told him emergency work was his job, so he did it, and never asked for a dollar more.
Then one commissioner wrote to Topeka
Four other commissioners sat on that board. None of them were told.
June 12, 2025
A commissioner wrote to Topeka and told the State that Greg had not earned it.
He did not raise it with the Board of Commissioners. He did not go to the County Administrator, or Human Resources, or payroll — who between them held every record needed to answer the question correctly. He wrote from a private business email account, and attached one of the three position descriptions the County held. The one he sent never mentions firefighting and never mentions emergency medical response.
From the record
“It is the opinion of our rural fire chief and county sheriff that neither is eligible for KP&F.”
Commissioner Todd Stanton to KPERS, June 12, 2025, in the production obtained from KPERS.
He told the State the Sheriff was with him.
August 20, 2025
Ten weeks later, the Sheriff signed his name.
At the foot of Greg’s account of his own service, in his own hand:
From the record
“I Gene Ward, find the above to be consistent with my recollection of Greg Standards service to Seward County as a first responder.”
Sheriff Gene Ward, signed and dated August 20, 2025. Reproduced exactly as scanned, spelling included, in the evidence index.
We will put this precisely, because precision is the whole point: the Sheriff attested that Greg’s account of his service was true. He did not write a ruling about pension law — that is not a sheriff’s job. But a commissioner had told the State of Kansas what the Sheriff thought, and the Sheriff put his signature to something else.
The question had already been answered — three times
Long before any of this, three separate things had settled whether Greg Standard belonged in Police and Fire. Every one of them was the County’s own doing, or the State’s.
The County enrolled him itself.
Nobody slipped Greg Standard into Police and Fire. Seward County put him there, in writing, through its own administration office.
From the record
“In 1999 I was enrolled in KPERS by the Seward County administrations office, in 2006 when Seward County first offered KP&F, I was enrolled in KP&F by the Seward County Administrations, Office.”
Greg Standard, in the attested statement.
KPERS audited the program and raised nothing.
This was not a quiet arrangement nobody checked. The State reviewed how Seward County ran Police and Fire, and his participation was not questioned.
From the record
“The county’s KP&F program has been audited by KPERS and no question was raised about my participation during these audits according to administrative staff.”
Greg Standard, in the attested statement.
He checked with the State before he retired.
He did not assume, and he did not rely on anyone in the county to tell him. Before he retired he asked the State directly what he had earned, and the State put the answer in writing.
From the record
“I did confirm my benefits though KPERS prior to retirement… and received confirmation that I would retire with 20 years of KP&F and 6 years of KPERS.”
Greg Standard, in the attested statement.
What the law actually asks
Police and Fire status is something a county confers. It is not a score anybody earns by the hour.
The Kansas statute that governs this, K.S.A. 74-4952, sets out four elements. Two of them are not facts about the man at all — they are acts of the County. The position has to be designated by the governing body, and it has to be certified to the retirement system by the employer. In Seward County the governing body is the Board of Commissioners, sitting together, in public.
From the statute
“specifically designated, appointed, commissioned or styled as such by the governing body… and certified to the retirement system as such”
K.S.A. 74-4952(11), as amended. The statute defines “fireman” and “police.” The words “EMT,” “EMS,” “paramedic” and “ambulance” do not appear in it anywhere.
You may have heard a thousand-hour figure quoted about this case. It is in the statute — and it is a condition of the position, not a tally of hours anybody worked. The law says the employment must require at least 1,000 hours a year. It applies to a sheriff’s deputy in exactly the same words. Nobody has ever had to keep a scorecard to stay in Police and Fire, and no county in Kansas asks one.
Which leaves a plain question. If Seward County designated the position and certified it to the State, then a single commissioner asked Topeka to undo his own Board’s act — privately, from an account the County could not see, without the Board ever knowing.
What the record shows
- KPERS cut twenty years of his service on the strength of one position description — one of three the County held, sent by a commissioner, and one the County Administrator had never seen.
- His first retirement payment was more than 25 percent short of what he had earned.
- The other two descriptions did not reach KPERS until five weeks after the decision.
- Once the County was allowed to answer, KPERS restored the full twenty years of KP&F and six years of KPERS.
- Nothing he alleged survived review.
- Undoing it took the time and work of the same county employees who were never asked in the first place.
Three questions, and we would publish his answers
He is one commissioner of five. Who gave him the authority to ask the State to reopen another man’s pension?
Why go around the Board, the Administrator, Human Resources and payroll — every person and every record that could have answered the question — and write from an account his own county could not see?
The County held three position descriptions for Greg Standard. Why did the State receive one?
These are not rhetorical. If Commissioner Stanton answers them, we will publish his answers on this page, in full and unedited.
Three things we will say out loud
He has not been charged with anything, and we do not say he has. Nobody is being recalled for asking questions about how Seward County spends money — that genuinely is a commissioner’s job. And the budget scrutiny that year was routine; every department got a look, and several were tightened.
None of which explains a private email to Topeka about one man’s pension.
Sources. Greg Standard’s statement of service to KPERS, attested and signed by Sheriff Gene Ward, August 20, 2025 — published whole and unaltered in the evidence index, and used here with Mr. Standard’s permission. Commissioner Stanton’s emails of June 12 and August 2025 are from the production obtained from KPERS. The retirement outcome and the position descriptions are set out on The Record and in the chronology. The statute is K.S.A. 74-4952, read from the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes.