Clerk’s death spurs push for more checks
Staff writers
Controversy surrounding the disappearance and death, confirmed Thursday, of Peabody’s interim city clerk has prompted the governor and lieutenant governor to promise to be “pursuing changes to the background check statutes this upcoming legislative session.”
“Clearly, Jonathan Clayton was able to avoid the discovery of his criminal convictions,” Will Lawrence, chief of state to Governor Laura Kelly, said in a release Thursday. “His financial crimes coming to light, and questions about his involvement with local organizations that received ARPA grants, appear to have set off the chain of events that have occurred over the last several weeks.”
Clayton, a convicted financial felon, disappeared Aug. 3 amid a cloud of suspicion regarding handling of COVID-related money. His pickup was found wrecked Sunday in a field near Newton. An autopsy Thursday identified his badly decayed body.
“Currently, investigators has not found evidence of foul play,” KBI spokesman Melissa Underwood said in a news release Thursday. “The investigation is continuing.”
Shortly before Clayton disappeared, Kansas Department of Commerce, which employed him to oversee COVID-related grants until last fall, began investigating grants given in Mullinville, where he formerly lived, and Peabody, where he moved while still working for Commerce.
Mullinville Community Foundation received $425,398 on July 15, 2022, to repair storm damage to recreation equipment. Peabody Main Street received the first half of $1.5 on April 25, 2023, to restore historic downtown businesses. Those investigations are continuing.
Lawrence said Kelly and Lieutenant Governor David Toland would be “working to sort out issues with those impacted at the local level and will provide whatever support they can to those communities.”
Commerce spokesman Pat Lowry said his department had been unaware of Clayton’s record when he was hired Feb. 23, 2020.
As initially reported July 11 by the <span class=”italic”>Record</span>, Clayton pleaded guilty Dec. 13, 2016, in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, to forgery, theft, and conspiracy to commit theft. He was sentenced March 13, 2018, to five years’ probation and still owes $195,712.50 of $210,000 in court-ordered restitution.
Clayton moved to Kansas afterward, but his probation never was supervised, as typically occurs, by the Kansas Department of Correction.
“Under existing Kansas law, we are unable to perform national level criminal background checks for the position that Clayton held,” Lowry said in a release Thursday. “Our process for vetting prospective employees included online searches, social media reviews, and reference checks, which unfortunately failed to uncover his felony convictions. He would not have been hired by Commerce had we been aware of these convictions.”
Clayton, promoted amid a rash of firings and resignations from dogcatcher to interim clerk in Peabody after leaving Commerce, attempted to shift blame for any wrongdoing onto Commerce, but Commerce is categorically denying claims made in a “dead-man switch” email that Clayton reportedly set up to be delivered after his death.
“While his death is unfortunate, the Department of Commerce believes it is necessary to provide clarity regarding allegations made publicly by former Department of Commerce employee Jonathan Clayton,” Lowry wrote. “Clayton’s allegations of wrongdoing by the Department of Commerce related to the awarding of BASE grants, along with his allegation that he was forced to serve on a volunteer theatre board, are categorically false.”
Clayton had alleged in his email that Commerce, under the direction of Toland, had “concocted a scheme” to alter results of the Building a Stronger Economy (BASE) grant program so that Butler and Johnson counties were favored in awards.
He alleged that this steering of grant money was part of a deal between Toland, the speaker of the House and the Senate president.
Clayton also claimed he had been assigned by Toland to join the Iola Theater Association board in the hope of getting grant money for restoration of Iola Theater in Toland’s hometown.
“This request was not given to me as an option but as a demand,” Clayton wrote. “In December, 2022, I was requested by Toland to travel to Iola during a workday, using a state vehicle, to visit with him in person regarding the board position and the status of the theater’s condition. During this visit, I was told by Toland, ‘You are on the board now.’ I felt, due to my position reporting indirectly to him at the Commerce department, that I was not given a choice in the manner.
“During 2023, I was requested multiple times to pursue grant funding for the Iola Theater that was in direct conflict with other non-profit entities across the state. I was encouraged to use my work connections and office time to obtain grant funding and was eventually successful in working with the board to obtain a $300,000 grant from the Sunderland Foundation in September, 2023.
“Allegations by the Commerce Department that I did not provide sufficient documentation for two BASE grant awards are unilaterally unfounded,” he wrote, “and I believe to be a form of retaliation. These allegations have been escalating since my October, 2023, departure from the Commerce Department.”
Clayton was told to resign from Commerce on Oct. 6.
Writing Thursday for the governor, Lawrence praised Toland’s work as secretary of commerce.
“He has worked to bring more, not less, accountability to the agency,” Lawrence said.
Lowry said an independent contractor was performing a full review of all COVID-related grants through the department.
“Commerce has also requested and is assisting local, state and federal agencies investigating Clayton’s volunteer work with community-based organizations in Kiowa and Marion counties who may be victims of fraud.”