County swaps out citizen appointee to police board

By Emma Loura – The Manhattan Mercury, Kan. (TNS)

Dec. 30—The Riley County commissioners on Monday swapped out their citizen appointment to the county police board after uncovering a potential conflict of interest.

Orville Maupin now will fill one of the seven roles on the Riley County Law Enforcement Agency Board after the commission previously picked Gary Olds to do so.

Commissioner Greg McKinley said the move came about after commissioners learned Olds wants to petition to alter the makeup of the police board by turning it into a separate, elected board.

“We thought that it would be a conflict of interest that he would be on the board and at the same time pushing to change it,” McKinley said.

County commissioners originally appointed Olds on Dec. 16, but the resolution hadn’t passed yet, allowing them to make the switch by a unanimous vote. Maupin, a retired federal investigator, was their second choice after picking Olds before.

McKinley said they didn’t remove Olds appointment to prevent him from petitioning to change the police board. He said legislation allows the alterations Olds wants, but they haven’t been explored in Riley County before.

The seats on the police board include the country attorney, representatives from the city and county commissions, and appointed citizens.

“For a long time, citizens-at-large were also picked from other city and county commissioners,” McKinley said. “They thought it should all be elected officials on there, and people complained that they wanted the public involved, so then they changed it to this. Now, we get complaints that there are not enough elected people sitting on the board.”

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