Minutes from the September 28, 2026 Bates County Commission meeting
The Bates County Commission met with Presiding Commissioner Jim Wheatley, Northern Commissioner John Gray and Southern Commissioner Trent Nelson present.
Chris Gach was present for all meetings.
Cara Keller, Anna Nichols, Jami Page, Carolyn Lake and Carl Bettels sat down with the Commission to discuss a professional matter.
Cara thanked the Assessor, Carl Bettels, for coming. Cara then began explaining that an incident that had occurred needed to be brought to light. She went on to reveal that the Assessor’s Office had deliberately taken over the GIS subscriptions and removed the Administrators, Cara Keller and Anna Nichols in the Clerk’s Office. Cara pointed out that she took over the GIS Subscriptions in 2021 when she took Carol Cumming’s position and managed it until 2025. She mentioned that she then gave that position to Anna when she joined in 2025, and Anna has been taking care of it for the last year. She then stated, “September 23rd, 2026, Sheriff Anderson was talking about the GIS subscription and doing 911 addressing and had questions about his password. Anna went into GIS where it told her that her access has been restricted.” She went on about previous times that this had happened, where a password needed to be reset or something, so she decided to sign in as well. Oddly enough, she was restricted as well. Cara stated she reached out to Midland, the company that runs GIS, to see what the issue was. She explained that Luke with Midland kept saying “Meghan” which confused her. She thought back to an employee that worked in the office previously, but it wasn’t making sense, she stated. Luke then told Cara that her and Anna were not even on there anymore, they had been removed as an administrator and user. Trying to figure out what happened, Cara stated that Anna had remembered that Meghan Mooney Robbins had called her and asked her several questions about how GIS works, the price and billing. Cara stated that Anna didn’t think anything about it at the time, she just answered to be helpful. Cara continued to explain that she asked Luke how this happened and he couldn’t give an answer, so Ryan, the owner, ended up calling and informing her that Carl Bettels had Cara and Anna removed. Ryan stated this happened because Carl owned the system. Cara then pointed out that, at this point, a user had administrators removed and all their rights. Cara then told Carl, “This isn’t about the work. You want it? You got it.” And continued to question the way this happened and why it was done, considering this was a Commission owned system. She presented bills from year(s) 2022, 2023, and 2024 where it was paid out of General Revenue through the Commission's Maintenance for the GIS System. Then she presented the year 2025 being coded in the Assessor's Fund by Carl with Jim Wheatley's signature saying that it was the correct code. Cara then asked Carl, “In January of 2025, what was decided at that point? And the same thing in 2026.” Cara then made sure to inform everyone she had no issues with Ryan or Midland, they were just doing their job. Cara just felt that Carl was able to snatch away their access and Anna’s job duty with the Presiding Commissioner's knowledge and no one else’s. She stated, “It was never voted on in the minutes, never asked about or reviewed in the budget. Just completely taken off General Revenue and put into your hands through you and Jim, is what appears. That’s what I see. It’s unprofessional and devious, at best. The Assessor’s Office has been consistent with this kind of tone, either toward targeted members of our Community, and now it appears towards other offices. It just floors me that this could be done, and at this point we deserve an apology and a vow to do better towards us and our citizens.” She then informed him that he paid $7,200 and it only brings in $3,685 and congratulated him on another loss within his budget.
Carl then stated, “Well for one thing, I don’t know what the deal was with Jim signing off on that. I have no idea. I just realized this year when I was looking at the Budget that I had paid the full amount on that. I inquired about it to Ryan about who’s got this and he said, ‘well it looks like you do. You paid the…” after a pause, Cara informed Carl that Ryan would not know who paid it and would only know if Carl had told him he did because Ryan gets a check that doesn’t tell him which fund it came out of. Carl then stated, “Well, I don’t know. But anyway, he told me that he said, ‘well,’ he says, ‘you’re the one that paid the bill this year, so I assume you are’.” Carl then went on to explain that the new software system that he has “integrates into GIS, which allows people to see more than just the map. They can see records and stuff like that. So therefore, I feel like I need to be the administrator on that part of it, so I can say what people can see.” Cara then stated, “These aren’t for people. General people cannot see what these realtors can see. This GIS subscription handles people like realtors and cities. A general person is not going to see those things.” Carl then goes on, “But anyways. Theres a free subscription that everybody can see.” Cara confirmed, “Yes, that’s not what is handled here. What’s handled here is what realtors and towns see.” Carl stated that he understood that and stated, “but that’s also part of what my office needs to be in control of, as to how much they can see.” Cara then states, “What I am upset about here is the way you handled it. Why couldn’t you have just come to us and said, ‘Hey, with all of this going on, why couldn’t we just take it over?’ Why did it have to be sneakily done so that we didn’t even know. We had to call into the company to find out ourselves, that we were removed.” Carl replied, “For one thing, they were supposed to only be administrators taken off and they ended up doing access as well.” Cara replied, “I wouldn’t need in there for any other reason. The only reason why we needed in there was to be able to control the subscribers, update their dates and add and remove people as needed. My problem is the way it was done. It was underhanded and unprofessional.” Carl then informed everyone, “Well, I have been handed unprofessional instances, also. I’ve had my reassess… my… let me get my notes….” And Cara reminded him, “But all that is not the subject at hand. The subject at hand is what you did.” Carl then replied, banging his fingers into the table, “I’m just telling you, that you all in this office have been just as unprofessional in handing me things in the past. Just like my state reimbursement. Jami sends me an email “I’m not doing this anymore.’” Cara then replied. “I don’t know how you have dealt with that in the past, but I am dealing with this now.” Jami then informed Carl that it was his reimbursement. He brought up the instructions, but Jami informed him quickly that the instructions read, “should” not “shall.” Cara then asked Carl, “So, what you’re saying is because you’ve been done dirty, you want to turn and do dirty to others?” Carl replied, stating he did not intend to be this way, but Cara reminded him that he brought that up, she was only bringing up the problem at hand. Jami mentioned if Carl would come to her Office and had a conversation, they would have been more than happy to give GIS to them. Jami also informed him that all the money received from GIS since 2025 has still been deposited in General Revenue and his office has received nothing even though he paid for it. She also informed him that he isn’t even getting less than half of what he paid for. She stated it was never switched over to his office because it was never communicated to her office. Carl then went on to claim that he didn’t know until he came across that he had paid in full, so he started looking into it. Anna then explained, when she received phone calls from Meghan asking about GIS, it would have been forward and professional of Meghan to let Anna know that they were looking into taking it over. Cara agreed and stated that Meghan obviously knew. Anna went on to explain that she didn’t think anything of it was just being helpful and “was stabbed in the back immediately and GIS was ripped from me.” Cara agreed and stated it was super underhanded and unprofessional. Carl then stated, “But we were trying to establish what cost we were going to put on our subscriptions.” Jami said, “Right!” Cara also stated, “Exactly, so you knew.” Carl continued, stating, “We were trying to establish what we needed to do to get this, but then it came… they got us going in the system faster than what we planned on, so we just… Anyway, I apologize for what we did, but…” Cara and Anna both thanked him for his apology. Carolyn Lake, with the Assessor’s Office, then added, “There is a lack of communication between all of these offices, and it’s bad.” Jami agreed, “You are exactly right. You’re right.” Carolyn went on to say, “I didn’t even know we had a paid subscription until, what, a couple months ago? It’s like, there’s a paid subscription? There is nothing on GIS website for anybody to subscribe to. Then I find out there is access being granted for everyone in the Community.” Jami and Cara explained that was to help the cost, and how you can see more when you pay for the subscription. Carolyn then pointed out that in Morgan County, the Assessor runs the subscriptions. Jami told her that it’s fine that they are taking it over, it just should have been communicated. Carolyn then stated that she was shocked to even find out about the GIS Subscription and then to learn that it was run through to Clerk’s Office made zero sense to her. Jami and Cara explained that it was run by the Commission, the Clerk did the paperwork, and it had been this way for years.
John then asked Carolyn how they could resolve the communication issues and slamming fingers on the table in threatening ways, but she said she was unsure.
Jami then told Carl, “My issue, if you and I would have had a conversation about this… I do not feel like you have the authority to take away the job duty of one of my employees without discussing it with me first. That’s my issue.” Cara added, “and the evidence shows that you have known about this for a while, and we had zero knowledge.” Carl then replied, “Well, you know, here’s another thing that when you… when this particular room has knowledge of things, some people tend to get involved in it and screw everything up. So it makes it harder for us.” Jami agreed and stated that there is an individual who meddles in other offices that should not, which causes this drama. She then brought up the Foster assessment and asked what a certain individual had to do with it. Carl stated that they didn’t have anything to do with it. Jami then wondered why that individual was talking to a citizen about that during a recorded meeting. She stated that is what tends to cause hate and discontent.
John then mentioned that he would like to hear from Jim Wheatley about the note on the bill in 2025 that he confirmed the code on. Jami then stated, “and honestly Carl, your budget is so short… you know what I mean? You don’t have a lot of funds. Why would you want to pay $7,000 on something that is only going to bring in $2,000?” Carolyn then mentioned, “Cheaper than inheriting 911 addresses. Which was attempted to get dumped off on us. Just throwing that out there.” To which John felt was way off base during this time and explained that Carl is aware now of someone else than can possibly do it for the County, to which Carolyn stated, “Yes, and probably much more efficiently and better.” Then Carl went on talking about the 911 situation, and Cara then thanked him, again, for coming and for the apology. Carl replied, “Certainly didn’t mean to get anyone aggravated.” And John then mentioned he was in good hopes that in the future everyone can move passed this, John included.
John asked Jim about the GIS billing situation. John pointed out how Carl Bettels, the Assessor, just started taking control and Jim signed off on it without any vote from the Commission or a conversation about it. Jim was unsure of what he was referring to, so John reminded him that he signed off on Carl changing the billing line in January of 2025. John informed Jim of the previous meeting with the Clerk’s Office, telling him that it was brought up that it looks like Carl and Jim were conspiring behind the scenes. Jim disagreed and wondered why Carl even wants to pay for GIS in the first place, due to not making the money back. John asked how Jim found that out, but Jim said he went and investigated it when it was brought to his attention a week ago. John asked why Jim signed off on it to come out of Carl's Fund and not General Revenue like it did for years before 2025 and 2026. Jim said he just went down the line confirming the budget and Carl had a line for it to come out of, so Jim signed off on it. John told Jim that Carl did apologize and told Jim, again, that he was trying to figure out why Jim changed it, and Jim had the same answer. Jim stated he was just doing the budget like normal. He then went on to explain that the GIS issue never even came up until Chad wanted to switch Chad said he wanted to switch it out of his office over to the Assessor's Office or to EMA.
They then spoke over the bill and line item, how the Assessor’s Office did it and how the Assessor’s Office called the Clerk’s Office to get all the information before they stripped it away from them. Jim then explained that Carl had a line for it and General Revenue had a line for it, but Jim didn’t look elsewhere when the bill came through coded from the Assessor’s line instead. Jim and John’s conversation about it got a little intense.
Trent made sure that the company was not paid twice, Jim said no. Jim then sternly informed the room that both offices were budgeting for it, it just didn’t get caught during the budget and “now everyone is in a tizzy because the office that got billed for it, paid for it.” Anna quickly reminded Jim that no one was in a tizzy because the Assessor’s Office paid for it and stated they were in a “tizzy” because of how the Assessor’s Office chose to go about it. Jim then stated that Carl’s Office should be the ones that are upset because it all comes out of his fund now.
Trent then stated that communication should have been better, it would’ve never come to the situation it is now if the two offices would’ve spoken on the matter.
They then spoke over the Senior Tax Credit and how they need to decide what office will be taking it over. John explained, “The Clerk’s Office is no longer doing it. Like the Sheriff’s Office, if they aren’t required to do it, they are no longer doing it.” Jim asked who did the Senior Tax Credits beforehand, but John reminded him that it was new and the Clerk’s Office stepped up to help during that time.
Brent Bettels came in and spoke with the Commission about the Road Use Agreement response that he seen in the minutes. Brent stated that he thought the Commission was going to reach out to him, not just through the minutes, so he wanted to stop in and check where it’s gone from there. John informed him that Kimley/Horn had already come out, again, and retaken the pictures of the roads. Brent asked for a copy, so John printed him one. Brent then stated that he feels like they need to come out and take pictures yet again and have a Commissioner ride along with them, as they are supposed to be involved and are not being present during any of this. Brent continued to explain that there is a part in the Road Use Agreement with Swan Solar that the Commission is supposed to be involved, but he isn’t seeing any.
He also spoke over the Road Use Agreement in Linn County and how they have such a tight agreement and contract, he felt Bates County would benefit from doing the same with NextEra. He reminded the Commission that he gave out a bunch of things that he felt should have been in the Road Use Agreement with Swan Solar, but nothing was investigated and put in writing.
Brent asked Trent to reach out and give Brent a call when they know more and when they are going to take pictures once more, due to the roads being in even better shape and the Commission needing to be involved firsthand.
Terry Bettels came in and gave the Commission an updated list of the Bates County Senior Services Tax Fund.
Kent Page, with Road and Bridge, came in and updated the Commission on the bridge they are currently redoing.
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