One of the most important functions of Sedgwick County is providing emergency medical services (EMS). In this, the county has failed. (more…)
Tag: Elections
When voting for Kansas Attorney General, Remember the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity
With the resources of the federal government at his disposal, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach found no voter fraud. (more…)
Election Deniers in Kansas
Some candidates for high office in Kansas believe in the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. (more…)
Wichita Primary Election, August 3, 2021
In each city council district, the top two candidates move to the general election in November. This means in district 3, Mike Hoheisel will face the newly-appointed incumbent Jared Cerullo. In district 6, Maggie Ballard runs against incumbent Cindy Claycomb.
Wichita City Council District 6 candidates
The Save Century II committee presented a forum of candidates for Wichita City Council District 6. There are six candidates. The primary election is August 3, 2021, and the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election on November 2, 2021. (more…)
Wichita ethics code to be considered
The Wichita city council will consider an ethics code that overlooks a simple and effective solution to a problem.
This week the Wichita City Council will consider the final version of a proposed ethics code. It does not cover campaign finance. It does cover gifts to council members, which has been an issue in the past.
Part of the problem with the proposal is the creation of a new board, the Ethics Advisory Board. Its members will be asked to judge things like whether a gift is “… intended or has the appearance or effect …” The board will be asked to judge intent. It will need to consider how things appear. This is all highly subjective.
A further problem is that the new code requires disclosure of gifts, but on an annual basis. This means that by the time the public becomes aware of activity, it is likely past the time when awareness has value. If information about gifts has value in helping people make informed voting decisions, we need to have timely disclosure. This is also a problem with the disclosure of campaign contributions in Kansas.
Rapid disclosure of gifts can help citizens judge the actions of elected officials. Disclosure should have these properties, and the propsed code has none:
- Disclose everything. This means everything, except gifts from family. If someone buys lunch or coffee for an official, it must be disclosed.
- Disclose rapidly. Something like filing a report each Monday covering activity during the previous week.
- Disclose online.
- Disclose effectively. This means information entered in a machine-readable format that can be downloaded in useful form.
Some of the points that have caused disagreement include the meaning of friends. If we want to restrict the involvement of friends, how do we define the term? This is a problem with the current ethics ordinance in Wichita. City attorneys have told us that with no definition of the term friend, the ordinance can’t be enforced. See In Wichita, a problem with government ethics, Wichita fails ethics test, Wichita City Council can’t judge airport contract.
Disclosing everything eliminates the issue of someone deciding the meaning of friend. Voters and others can make their own decisions. Elected officials’ opponents will help us learn this.
(An old saw: “Why bother researching your family? Just go into politics, and your opponents will do that for you.”)
Will disclosing all gifts rapidly be burdensome to officeholders and staff? Many employees file detailed expense reports so that they may be reimbursed. This is not a problem.
Disclosing effectively is necessary to make use of information filed on these gift reports. The minimum requirement is that the information in reports be downloaded in machine-readable formats. Currently, for campaign finance reports in Sedgwick County, including for Wichita city offices, reports are filed in a variety of formats. The information is difficult to use, even if optical character recognition can be applied successfully. Some reports are filed in handwriting, and others appear to be faxed to the election office in such low quality that I believe the candidates want to avoid effective use of the information.
Disclosing effectively means that analysis of the reports will be easier than it would be otherwise. Who will do this analysis? There are several sources, such as journalists and citizens such as myself. And, of course, candidates’ opponents.
The agenda report for this item is here, and the code itself is here. Here are a few excepts from the code:
“Avoid the appearance of improper influence and refrain from ever receiving, soliciting or accepting gifts, gratuities, hospitality, favors or anything of value for the official, or their family, valued over ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS ($150.00) from a specific donor over a one-year period ending on December 31, which is intended or has the appearance or effect of influencing the performance of the official duties of an official.”
“Further, a public official shall report any offer or presentation of a gift or gratuity valued at fifty dollars ($50.00) or more on a yearly basis.”
Visualization: Kansas 2020 presidential election
An interactive visualization of the 2020 general election for president in Kansas, at the precinct level.
End this now. Nominate Sarah Lopez.
Sedgwick County Republicans have a chance to do the decent thing and avoid the spectacle of a rump county commissioner.
Rump: a small or inferior remnant or offshoot
especially: a group (such as a parliament) carrying on in the name of the original body after the departure or expulsion of a large number of its members
(from Oxford languages)Now that the vote canvass is complete in Sedgwick County, Sarah Lopez has won the seat for Sedgwick County Commissioner, District 2. The vote count is 17,041 for Lopez and 16,777 for the incumbent Michael O’Donnell, a margin of 264 votes.
O’Donnell is within his rights to ask for (and pay for) a recount, but that is unlikely to change the outcome of the election based on recent experience. In the August 2018 primary election in a different commission district, the loser asked for and paid for a recount. All the ballots were counted by hand, at the precinct level, in a laborious process. In the end, not a single mistake was found.
So Sarah Lopez will become the new commissioner on January 10, 2021. The question is: What to do now? That question needs an answer, because O’Donnell resigned from the office last week. There currently is no commissioner for District 2.
The normal course of events, as prescribed by Kansas law (K.S.A. 25-3902), is that the precinct committeemen and committeewomen in county commission district 2 meet and select a successor to serve the remainder of O’Donnell’s term. Because he was elected as a member of the Republican Party, it is the Republican committeemen/women who make the selection.
It is possible, therefore, that a person will serve as a county commissioner for less than a two-month period, as there are 55 days until January 10. It will take some time to meet and make a selection, as law requires a notice period of seven days or more.
It is unwise to appoint someone to serve in an office for such a short period. It would be a term of perhaps eight weeks at the most, and some of those weeks will be holiday weeks, in which there are no commission meetings. There will be costs to the county. News stories will cover a term of office that will have no meaningful consequence.
But there must be a nominating meeting, and within 14 days, says Kansas law.
The decent and reasonable thing to do is for the nominating convention to meet and select Sarah Lopez to fill the remainder of the term. It is already decided that she will become the commissioner on January 10. It would make sense for her to start her term early, thereby avoiding a lot of time and effort for no good reason. We could avoid a rump.
We should remember that the vacancy in the District 2 commission office arose from the corruption of the immediate past officeholder. He was about to be subject to ouster procedures. He lost his bid for re-election to Sarah Lopez.
We should put this episode behind us, and place Lopez in office now.
Herman Cain, RIP
Today we learned that Herman Cain has died at the age of 74. He had been hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a statement on his website.
He was an interesting man. In 2010, as he was rising in national prominence, I interviewed him in his hotel suite in Las Vegas. He ran for president in 2012.
For my interview, click on Herman Cain: Conservatives should dream, be united, informed, inspired.
