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By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Ten days after his disappearance, there’s still no sign of Peabody interim city clerk Jonathan Clayton, the convicted financial felon promoted from dogcatcher to interim city clerk after mass resignations and firings in Peabody.

Questions about his disappearance have mounted in the wake of reports that he may be wanted in another county and that he sent townsfolk mysterious emails after he vanished Aug. 3.

According to Peabody Police Chief Philip Crom, Clayton is under investigation by Kansas Highway Patrol Troop O, which works to “gather evidence surrounding complex criminal cases in preparation for prosecution.”

City computers used by Clayton will be forensically examined by KHP, Crom said.

KHP has reviewed video from cameras that read license tags but has found no sign of Clayton, Crom said. He added that no Peabody money has been reported missing, but it’s unclear whether Clayton’s city computer has been forensically analyzed.

No one from Troop O has responded to calls from the Record.

He also is under investigation by the Kiowa County Sheriff’s office. Sheriff Kendal Lothman said his agency was not looking in relation to Clayton being missing.

“We’re working on an investigation,” Lothman said. “I can’t tell you more because it’s just an investigation.”

Clayton and his husband, city council member Christopher King, moved to Peabody from Mullinville, located in Kiowa County.

Clayton was convicted in 2016 in Pennsylvania of forgery, theft, and conspiracy to commit theft and is late in making court-ordered restitution in that case.

Council members promoted him to interim city clerk June 3 after firing Jylle Wilson. His term recently was extended after a woman hired to fill the vacancy changed her mind about taking the job.

After King reported Clayton missing Aug. 3, Clayton’s description — but no photo or information about the vehicle he was driving — was posted Aug. 5 on the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s “missing persons” web page.

On Aug. 7, four days after Clayton went missing, an email purporting to be from him was sent to a number of people.

It said that if he disappeared or died, the Kansas Department of Commerce and its director, Dave Toland, were among people who should “be looked at.”

Department of Commerce spokesman Pat Lowry said the email has been read by Commerce officials. He made no comment on it.

Although Peabody officials remain quiet about Clayton’s disappearance, Peabody Main Street Association sent an email Monday telling members that Clayton had not fulfilled requirements of a $1.5 million grant from Kansas Department of Commerce.

“Property owners,” the email says, “received new roofs, updated electrical work, foundation repair, repair and stabilization of limestone load bearing walls, doors replaced, HVAC systems upgraded or installed for the first time, installation of an oil burner heating system, asbestos removal, and property purchase.

“On July 25, PMSA was notified that our reports had deficiencies. We had understood that all documents had been submitted by Jonathan.”

“We began working directly with Commerce to rectify any errors or omissions in documentation. Being out of compliance could have a negative impact on whether the second disbursement is provided or not, and could have a long-term impact on the community. We are working very hard to provide all missing documentation in a very short amount of time.”

Clayton’s disappearance appears to have been discussed behind closed doors in two city council meetings.

One was a special meeting Friday; the other, a regular meeting Monday.

King was absent from both meetings.

Council members Friday opened the meeting, called for a half-hour executive session to discuss “personnel matters,” then came out of the secret session and announced that no action had been taken.

The council then adjourned but closed the door after spectators left and continued talking for several minutes.

With a quorum of four members present during council members’ after-meeting discussion, any comments made about Clayton or any other city business would have been a violation of state open meeting law.

“The council members owe the public an explanation as to what they discussed when they continued talking after the audience left the meeting last week,” Kansas Press Association legal consultant Max Kautsch said. “If those discussions involved public business, they needed to be had in public or in executive session subject to a valid motion to recess. Discussing the public’s business as a majority of the body in any other forum violates open meetings laws.”

During the open portion of the meeting, no clerk or treasurer was present to take notes. Instead, council member Julia Ensminger had a spiral notebook in front of her.

“Although public bodies are not required to take minutes generally, they are required to take minutes of motions and rationale before recessing to executive session,” Kautsch said. “If the only means for documenting the meeting is one person with a spiral notebook, the public is right to wonder whether such motions will be accurately reflected in the minutes. Taking notes this way is particularly puzzling when the technology for documenting the meeting is readily available to public bodies in 2024.”

At the end of Friday’s meeting, Mayor Catherine Weems told an out-of-county reporter that the city was aware of Clayton’s criminal background and had taken steps to ensure he had no access to city money.

The agenda packet for Monday’s meeting indicates otherwise. An invoice from St. Luke Hospital was paid with a city credit card issued with Clayton’s name on it.

After the television crew left, Weems spoke with Dallke and a public works employee.

Clayton was sentenced March 13, 2018, to five years’ probation and placed under house arrest, permitted to go to work and religious services and to perform community service.

He was ordered to pay $210,000 restitution at $600 a month. As of last month, he still owed $195,712.50.

Weems has not responded to multiple emails asking about Clayton.

Peabody treasurer Rayna Crawford confirmed Aug. 8 that Clayton hadn’t been in the office “for a couple days.”

Asked whether his city computer had been checked to see whether any money was missing, she said she would refer the Record to Clayton’s supervisor.

Asked for the name of the supervisor, Crawford said she did not know.

Pressed, she put the reporter on hold, then returned to the line and said she had nothing further to say.

Callers to the Record have suggested that the password on Clayton’s computer was changed and other officials could not access it.

Clayton and King’s retail store, CK Vintage, was advertising a clearance sale the week Clayton disappeared but on Aug. 3 posted on social media that the store would be closed “due to illness.”

Undersheriff Larry Starkey said the sheriff’s office was notified Aug. 3 that Clayton had failed to return as expected from a trip to Newton, but that Peabody police were investigating.

Clayton is 6 feet tall, weighs 215 pounds, and has brown hair and hazel eyes.

Crom’s missing person report lists the location of the “offense” as 610 Division Ave. in Peabody, which appraiser’s records show belongs to Clayton and King.

The report lists Clayton’s address as 300 N. Walnut St., which appraiser data indicate is owned by Peabody Housing Authority.

Clayton and King’s retail store is listed on the appraiser’s website as belonging to Peabody Main Street Association.