Maring Resigns As Osawatomie Recreation Director
By Jeff Gulley
Following his arrest last Wednesday morning on two felony counts of theft and misuse of public funds, the Osawatomie Recreation Commission accepted the resignation of long-time director Ron Maring effective Oct. 31.
The commission began its meeting with a 30-minute executive session and when it opened the meeting to the public, members voted to accept the resignation and then in a second motion, voted to suspend Maring with pay during the investigation.
Maring is accused of one count of misuse of pubic funds and theft, both of more that $1,000 but less than $25,000. Both counts carry the possibility of 5 to 17 months in prison and a monetary fine.
Maring is accused of taking cash advances of about $4,000 from a recreation commission credit card. According to city records, Maring has reimbursed the city for the charges.
City manager Don Cawby said the city could not comment on the employment of Maring but since starting on Monday, Cawby has been looking over the relationship between the recreation commission and the city.
“We have a sort of dual government situation here as Ron is employed by the recreation commission but is paid by the city and has city benefits,” Cawby said.
Commission member D.J. Needham said the commission thought it was best to keep Maring on through the fall to ensure the programs went on as planned.
“We still want the best programs for the kids of Osawatomie,” Needham said. “We would not have been able to have the fall programs with out Ron’s support.”
Maring has served as recreation director for more than 26 years in Osawatomie. He is the only recreation director employed by the city of Osawatomie since it formed the recreation commission.
He was released later last Wednesday on $5,000 bond.
Signups for fall youth sports began last week as planned and the commission said there would be no change to the normal recreation business.
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on Aug 18 2011. Filed under News and Updates.
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Wow, was the police officer recently charged able to be suspended with pay for over two months??? Similar charges, but treated differently. What else do they have to investigate on Maring? He’s already been charged. Doesn’t make sense. It’s a sad situation for everyone involved which includes the entire community of Osawatomie. The level of trust in the Osawatomie Government may have reached an all time low. Who’s supposed to be overseeing these credit cards? Why did it take so long for Styles/Butters to catch the officer? Wasn’t Glendening Maring’s supervisor? Makes you wonder why Glendening left? Lots of questions that will never be answered. Hope the city council learns what accountability means as this is a big reflection on them.
Pubic funds? Wow I didnt know he was in trouble for that too.
I think judge judy is wrong and dosnt know jack p.s. i shut down my page
Judy is an idiot. She clearly doesn’t read the newspapers thoroughly or have a grasp of how the system is set up. Do your research before you shoot your mouth off. I suspect Bret resigned because he grew weary (that means “tired”, Judy) of people like you that have diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. Morons like you are what give the good people who live in Osawatomie and truly care about improving the community bad names. You only seek to tear people down to your level, and that is quite sad.
Glendening resigned because of people in this town thinking they know everything without getting all the facts. Everyone wants to complain but do nothing to fix any problems. There are rules and guidelines that the city manager has to follow. If you think you could do a better job as the City Manager then maybe you should have applied for the job. Let’s focus on the Recreation Commission board who hires the director and is suppose to make the director follow guidelines and show bank statements of where money is being spent. So if anyone isn’t doing their job. It would be the Rec. Commission board. Now who are the members on that board? Let’s ask them why this problem wasn’t taken care of?