Holub apologizes for comments about legislators

Marion County Commissioner Dan Holub has asked to clarify comments he made at a Sept. 26 commission meeting.

Suggested at the meeting that the county “start budgeting to contribute to political campaigns of select government officials in Topeka so that someone would start listening to us.”

In a letter after the meeting, he wrote that his remarks were “tongue in cheek” and “made out of frustration” with lack of progress in his attempt to repeal a tax exemption granted for a pipeline that traverses Marion County.

“I did not mean to suggest that government officials were on the take,” Holub wrote. “There is no evidence to prompt an accusation of that sort.”

In his letter, Holub said he specifically wanted to apologize to State Rep. Bob Brookens (R-Marion), whom Holub said had been approached “about being ‘on the take.’”

Holub said he had become frustrated while watching half a dozen legislators “ignore their constituents” and gather around a pipeline spokesman after a recent meeting about the exemption.

He added that a congressman representing another part of the state had told him “get over it; a deal is a deal.”