Tag: Wichita city government

  • Another unlikely Lavonta Williams voter

    Today’s Wichita Eagle contains a story that provides some detail behind something readers of this blog already knew. The Eagle story Campaign mailer listed endorsement from dead man tells how Val Jackson, a prominent Wichita businessman who died in 2002, came to be listed as someone who will be voting for Lavonta Williams.

    Sharp-eyed readers who received that mailing might notice another name that doesn’t belong in a list of those who will be voting for Lavonta Williams: John Kemp.

    A look at the voter file shows there’s no one with a name close to this registered to vote in district 1.

    There is, however, a John Kemp active in city politics in his role as a member of a District Advisory Board. But he lives in and serves on the DAB for district 3.

    Since he doesn’t live in Williams’ district, it’s hard to see how he’ll be voting for her.

    While it would be easy to brush off these mistakes as trivial, this sloppiness in Williams’ campaign material is the same sloppiness we’ve become accustomed to in city hall. Whether intentional or not, it’s a cause for concern.

    It further raises the issue of who is really pulling the strings on the Williams campaign team. Is it the candidate herself, or her advisors such as Beth King, with ties to those who seek subsidy from Wichita city hall? The post Williams — King — Minnesota Guys connection raises concern supplies details of one such connection.

  • Williams — King — Minnesota Guys connection raises concern

    There’s a triangle of influence and connections that should raise flags of caution as voters decide the makeup of the Wichita city council.

    At the center is Beth King, a Wichita public relations executive. She’s well known in city hall, having managed the mayoral campaign of Carl Brewer in 2007. She’s said to be a close advisor to him. Her name is so familiar that when her emails are forwarded among department heads in city hall, she’s referred to as simply “Beth.” No last name is necessary.

    The connection that voters should be aware of is this: King is the campaign manager for Lavonta Williams, who is seeking election to the district 1 council seat she holds after being appointed to fill the remainder of Brewer’s term after he was elected mayor.

    King is also the public relations consultant for Real Development. This firm — best known for its principals the “Minnesota Guys” — is a beneficiary of Wichita taxpayer dollars in the form of TIF districts and facade improvement loans paid back by special tax assessments.

    Lavonta Williams voted for each of the programs the Minnesota Guys wanted. Enthusiastically.

    The Minnesota Guys will be asking for more TIF financing, according to Wichita Eagle reporting.

    Lavonta Williams, should she be elected to a new term on the council, will be voting on whether to give the Minnesota Guys access to more Wichita taxpayer funds.

    Who will advise Williams how to vote? Beth King, her campaign manager, with financial ties to the Minnesota Guys?

    It’s a relationship too close for taxpayer comfort.

  • Wichita Downtown Revitalization Steering Council Formed

    If you thought Wichita had too many councils, commissions, boards, and advisory councils, get ready for another. At yesterday’s meeting of the Wichita City Council, Mayor Carl Brewer announced the formation of the Wichita Downtown Revitalization Steering Council.

    Reading the mayor’s statement, I noticed the same theme of collectivism that permeates some of the speeches of our governor Kathleen Sebelius. It’s the language he used — “Wichitans need to determine our future by coming together to hope and to dream,” “expand on that excitement as we come together,” and “together, we can produce results” — that causes me to fear loss of entrepreneurship and individualism as we rely on an expansionist city government for everything from economic development to arts and leisure activities.

    We really need to question the need for a council like this. The members are drawn from the same group of civic leaders who are involved in other big-government efforts like Visioneering Wichita. It’s likely this council will come up with recommendations that more taxpayer money be poured into downtown. I can also see the call for more public-private partnerships.

    The announcement from the city, with meeting times and locations, is at Downtown Steering Council Named. You can read the mayor’s statement there. Wichita Eagle coverage is at New group to focus on future of downtown Wichita.

  • Wichita City Arts tech studio proposed

    Randy Roebuck, in a presentation at the Wichita city council workshop, promoted the idea of a “digital oasis” in Wichita. It would be a place where people can go to get free help with technologies such as cell phones and computers.

    He told of how an Apple Genius Bar does things like this. Council member Jim Skelton asked who runs an Apple Genius Bar? Apple Computer Corporation, of course.

    Later council member Paul Gray continued with questions based on Skelton’s. Why not an Apple Genius Bar in Wichita? Why is the city competing with private business? City officials insist they are not trying to compete with private business. Instead, it’s a resource for training and education.

    Council member Jeff Longwell said this idea is “on the right path,” as long as it doesn’t cost a lot.

    Lavonta Williams said this will attract a different group of people to downtown Wichita. She said it’s something we need.

    Mayor Carl Brewer mentioned that not everyone who would want to use a facility like this might not be able to afford its cost. He didn’t mention that someone else should pay for them, but that’s what this program will do.

    “It’s part of creating an environment where we have everything that anybody could possibly want. … If the private sector’s really wanting to get out there and they’re willing to invest their dollars and they want to start their business, we should let them.”

    This illustrates the mayor’s — and several other council members’ — vision of an expansive city government, providing for citizen needs all the way through arts, entertainment, and now computer tech support.

    Then there’s the mayor’s language that we (Wichita city government) should let the private sector do something. I really hope the mayor misspoke here.

    This is a bad idea. It seems to me that there may be people in Wichita city hall with too much time on their hands if they have time to come up with ideas like this.

    View the video of the portion of the city council workshop where this presentation was made by clicking on Wichita city council workshop, March 24, 2009.

    The slides shown to the council members aren’t available on the city’s website, to my knowledge. I captured them from video, and they may be viewed by clicking on Wichita City Arts tech studio presentation.

    Read Wichita Eagle reporting by clicking on Cyber Alliance plans to offer free technical training. reporting on KWCH is at Wichita Considers “Digital Oasis”.

  • Articles of Interest

    Education reform, downtown Wichita arena, Kansas smoking ban, downtown developers

    Education’s Ground Zero (Nicholas D. Kristof in The New York Times) Describes the efforts of Washington D.C. public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee to reform the system. She’s fired one-third of the principals. Kristof reminds us of the importance of teachers: “The reform camp is driven partly by research suggesting that great teachers are far more important to student learning than class size, school resources or anything else. One study suggests that if black kids could get teachers from the profession’s most effective quartile for four years in a row, the achievement gap would disappear.” In Wichita, however, USD 259 is taking the opposite approach.

    Intrust Bank Arena management contract unusual, but not necessarily bad (Bill Wilson in the Wichita Eagle) Explores the nature of the arrangement between Sedgwick County and SMG as compared to other arenas. “The bottom line for these officials: Sedgwick County has a good deal with SMG, but has a responsibility to closely monitor the arena’s performance for taxpayers who paid for the building with a sales tax increase.” More coverage of related issues is Wichita downtown arena contract seems to require Sedgwick County approval.

    Details of Intrust Bank Arena contract with Thunder are a secret (Bill Wilson in the Wichita Eagle) This is an earlier story, interesting for the confusion it raises or exposes, I’m not sure which. Reported in the story: “The arena’s financial performance would be monitored by the county through what [Sedgwick County assistant manager Ron] Holt characterized as limited records access. But [Sedgwick County Commissioner Gwen] Welshimer said she didn’t know how the county would track the arena’s financial performance. ‘We don’t have any access to their books that I know of,’ she said.” Read the county’s contract with SMG, however, and you learn that SMG will maintain accounting records, have them audited, and give Sedgwick County access to them “upon reasonable advance notice.” Also, the county has the right to audit the records at any time.

    Why state smoking ban seems inevitable Rhonda Holman in the Wichita Eagle Editorial Blog) In this post, Wichita Eagle editorialist Rhonda Holman makes explicit the connection between state-paid health care and the state’s interest in controlling behavior: “That’s [passing the statewide smoking ban] the only responsible action the Legislature can take, given the increasing cost burden of smoking-related illnesses on the state …” If the state (that includes the U.S. Federal government) starts taking responsibility for more health care, smoking bans are just the start of state meddling in behavior.

    Minnesota Guys ready to start face-lifts of downtown Wichita buildings (Bill Wilson in Wichita Eagle) Real Development starts work on the improvement of facades of some of its buildings. In the article developer Michael Elzufon manages to use the word “iconic” twice. This article doesn’t tell how these improvements are paid for: a confusing arrangement where the city loans money and recoups it in special assessment taxes. A hefty development fee is being paid to the developers, which allows them to profit for fixing up their own buildings. But they’ll pay that back in the form of the special taxes — or will they? It’s hard to tell where the money is going in these agreements. This benefits developers like Elzufon and politicians on the Wichita city council, as if citizens knew what was really going on, they wouldn’t be happy.

  • Cornejo & Sons campaign contributions history

    A recent Wichita Eagle news story jogged readers’ memories about the company that’s the target of the story, Cornejo & Sons, Inc., and their campaign contributions a few years back. The company asked some of its employees to make campaign contributions, and then the employees were reimbursed. That’s illegal.

    A Wichita Eagle story from April 27, 2003 states: “A former administrative assistant for the Cornejo & Sons construction firm says company executives sought campaign donations from employees and then walked around the office illegally reimbursing workers with stacks of $50 and $100 bills.”

    In this story, Ron Cornejo, the company president, denied the making the reimbursements.

    But two days later the Eagle reported: “The president of Cornejo & Sons admitted Monday that the construction firm reimbursed employees who donated money to pro-landfill candidates for Wichita mayor and Sedgwick County Commission — a practice that violates state law. Company president Ron Cornejo issued a statement saying that he and his company are cooperating with state ethics investigators and gathering data on the contributions that were made by the employees in 2002 and 2003.”

    The next day Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston announced the launching of a criminal investigation.

    On August 21, 2003, according to Eagle reporting, “the state ethics commission fined Wichita-based Cornejo & Sons Inc. $15,000.” An Eagle editorial called this “a slap on the wrist.”

    All candidates who received the money — a mix of Wichita mayoral, city council, and Sedgwick county commission candidates, one still in office — were cleared of any wrongdoing by the ethics commission. I couldn’t find any news stories about the result of the DA’s investigation, so I inquired at the office. But it appears that no charges were ever filed.

    It’s thought that the contributions were supporting Cornejo’s substantial contracts with the City of Wichita, and also the company’s effort to gain approval to build a landfill near Furley. The construction landfill that’s the subject of the recent Eagle article wasn’t mentioned as the motivating factor for these contributions.

  • YMCA – Wichita conflict of interest

    A local non-profit organization, held in high esteem, seeks to purchase property owned by the City of Wichita. So what’s the problem?

    During his State of the City address for 2009, Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer revealed his plan for a partnership between the city and the YMCA. So far this partnership has revealed itself in the city’s plan to sell some city-owned land at First and Waco Streets to the YMCA.

    Council members Jeff Longwell and Sharon Fearey were appointed to represent the city in negotiations.

    The problem is that Longwell is a member of the advisory board for the northwest branch YMCA. This is possibly a conflict of interest. It certainly is the appearance of a conflict of interest, and for that reason, Longwell should step away from the negotiations.

    At the same time, the YMCA should request that Longwell be replaced with another council member.

    I’m not accusing the YMCA of any wrongdoing.

    I’m also not accusing council member Longwell of any wrongdoing.

    But I’ve talked to several elected officials and many citizens about this, and only one has thought there wasn’t a problem with this arrangement.

    This is especially confounding to me in that I’m sure there is probably no actual conflict of interest — at least as these things go — but its appearance is beyond doubt in the minds of most citizens.

    A representative of the YMCA told me that the board Longwell serves on is an advisory board with no decision-making authority.

    I asked Longwell if he could understand how people might think there is a conflict of interest, and he said he could appreciate that position. He added that’s why there is more than one city council member representing the city, and, of course, it takes four votes on the council to take any action.

    Furthermore, he told me that he was out of town and missed a meeting, so he hasn’t been present at the negotiations.

    I’ve talked with several people who have reminded me of the good things the YMCA does for Wichita and the surrounding area.

    So why can’t the YMCA and the city conduct these negotiations in a way that eliminates even the slightest whiff of any appearance of a conflict of interest?

    People are wondering, especially when it is likely that the land will be sold for much less than what some believe it to be worth.

  • Articles of Interest

    American exceptionalism, longer school days, landfill violations, Kansas vs. Missouri, open government.

    The Europe Syndrome and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism (Charles Murray in The American) “Drive through rural Sweden, as I did a few years ago. In every town was a beautiful Lutheran church, freshly painted, on meticulously tended grounds, all subsidized by the Swedish government. And the churches are empty. Including on Sundays.” There’s a difference between Europe and America, Murray tells us. Another difference is work as vocation, or work as necessary evil. There are also some changes coming in our understanding of humans. For example, consider the “equality premise,” which is the basis of political correctness, affirmative action, and much of the Democratic Party’s proposed legislation. Murray predicts that within a decade, no one will be defending this premise. There’s also what Murray calls the “New Man” premise, which says that “human beings are malleable through the right government interventions.” Murray says we are learning that this is nonsense. This is just the start of what you can learn in this fascinating article.

    President Obama’s call for longer school days raises questions (Suzanne Perez Tobias in the Wichita Eagle) Should kids be in school longer? No matter what decision is made, it will be one-size-fits-all.

    Cornejo landfill along K-15 taller than permitted (Brent D. Wistrom in the Wichita Eagle) Is a politically-connected businessman allowed to violate agreements with the City of Wichita? Do neighbors have a legitimate complaint? I’ve been told a class action lawsuit may be in the works. The Eagle article contains links to documents. Many comments left to this article indicate that citizens are not happy with this situation.

    Kansas to lose $1.4 million in taxes every year when store moves 100 feet into Missouri (Kansas Meadowlark) “A QuikTrip plans to spend millions of dollars and ‘move’ 100 feet from Kansas to Missouri.”

    Open government fuels democracy (Randy Brown in the Wichita Eagle) Brown lays out the case for open government, and cites instances where Kansas governments are not being open or transparent. In particular, USD 259, the Wichita school district has problems. There will be an event: a “public forum ‘The Power of Open Government: What Citizens Can do’ Sunday at 3 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway in downtown Wichita. The forum will be telecast live on KAKE-TV, Channel 10.” I’ll be there.

  • Kansas Smoking Ban Conflicts Wichita’s

    Here’s a letter the Wichita Eagle printed from Wichita businessman Craig Gabel.

    There are many reasons to oppose more smoking bans. The posts Testimony Opposing Kansas Smoking Ban, Haze Surrounds Wichita Smoking Ban, Property Rights Should Control Kansas Smoking Decisions, and It’s Not the Same as Pee In the Swimming Pool supply some background.

    The issue that Craig mentions is important. Just last year some establishments such as his spent a great deal of money to install the equipment necessary to conform to the smoking ban that Wichita passes. Now, if a comprehensive ban passes at the state level, this investment is lost. There needs to be some provision for these businesses to be exempted or compensated.

    By the way, did you know that the state exempted itself from the smoking ban when it appeared that it might hurt the state’s pocketbook? See Kansas Exempts Itself from Onerous Regulation.

    Charlie Claycomb has compared a smoking section in a restaurant to a urination section in a swimming pool. Claycomb needs to come and speak with those of us who have spent thousands of dollars remodeling our restaurants this past year to comply with the city of Wichita’s smoking ordinance.

    If lawmakers don’t want smoking, they should have the guts to outlaw smoking everywhere, as well as the sale of cigarettes. They know that if they did, their tenure in office would be limited to the next election. We don’t need any more liberal politicians pushing special-interest agendas and eating away at our personal freedoms “for our own good.”

    CRAIG GABEL
    Wichita