Allen County commissioners dismissed the county’s two representatives to the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center Board of Directors at the conclusion of Tuesday’s commission meeting.
Commissioner John Brocker told the Register afterward the decision was in response to the “numerous complaints” commissioners have received about the salaries of SEKMHC executives.
No discussion about removing Ken McWhirter and Walt Regehr preceded the unanimous vote. Commissioners David Lee and Jerry Daniels did not respond to efforts to follow up on the decision.
SEKMHC board members decide the salary of Nathan Fawson, chief executive officer. For 2023, the 990 tax form for non-profit corporations claiming federal tax-exempt status lists Fawson as receiving $436,133 in salary and $191,941 in benefits.
“That’s more than the president is paid, and he has a heckuva lot more responsibility,” Brocker said.
“I have nothing against a private business owner making gobs of money,” said Brocker. “But it’s different when it comes from public tax dollars.”
Brocker said the decision to remove Regehr was also done “to protect him from what the public has perceived he has done.”
Regehr’s son-in-law is Job Springer, chief financial officer for the mental health center. 
“That’s a conflict of interest,” Brocker said. “He should have stepped down from the board the minute Job took the position. I certainly would have.”
IN ADDITION to Fawson’s salary and benefits, the mental health center’s other five executive-level positions were paid a combined $2.2 million in salaries and benefits, ranging from $444,282 to $276,555, according to the 2023 report. Fawson has the responsibility of setting those salaries.
The high salaries “look bad,” Brocker said. “And if we don’t do something, we look bad.”
The mental health center is funded primarily by the federal health program Medicaid (about $26.6 million in 2023), followed by income it receives from having recently acquired Ashley Clinic and its pharmacy in Chanute, and to a lesser extent by those who have Medicare and private insurance.
The Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center serves six counties — Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Linn, Neosho and Woodson — whose collective support amounts to about $550,000, less than 1% of its budget. Each county appoints two board members to help guide the non-profit organization.
Fawson, CEO since 2013, met with the Register on three separate occasions in mid-April to discuss the mental health center’s executive pay model as well as its rapid growth in the last several years.
Fawson said that at a SEKMHC board meeting earlier this year, the board unanimously supported his suggestion to increase salaries across the board by a total of $2 million.
SEKMHC uses The Hebets Company, a Phoenix-based financial consulting firm, to establish its executive compensation and fringe benefits plans. At the state level, Fawson said Mercer Consultants is used to evaluate compensation plans.
