Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: The New Council, Part 2

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What a City Council Majority in a Mid-Sized City Can Do

Read Part 1 HERE

Last week I wrote in a political-sciencey vein about the significance and implications (mostly positive, I think, but also partly negative) of the new Democratic majority which the very–if not officially–partisan city elections of 2021 gave Wichita. This week I want to throw out some ideas regarding what that city council majority could and, I think, should do. I write this fully aware that the limits upon their possible actions, even beyond whatever disagreements may derail their supposedly shared partisan priorities, are pretty significant. Leaving aside the restrictions regularly placed upon the cities of Kansas by our state’s officially affirmed but only rarely enforced principle of “Home Rule”, there is also the fact that under Wichita’s council-manager system (as opposed to the strong-mayor system which most of our peer cities have embraced), the ability to research new concerns, respond to citizen complaints, or act in a genuinely representative capacity towards the constituents in their districts is constrained by the simple fact that it is the city manager, and the staff which works for him, that handles the essential details of the city’s budget, the implementation rules for city policies, and the specific direction of city resources. This means the council can propose, debate, table, ratify, or oppose, but not, in any truly active sense, govern.

Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: The New Council, Part 1

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The Potential of, and the Problems with, Wichita’s (More) Partisan Future

There’s been a lot of talk about the “new Democratic majority” on the city council that officially took power on Monday night. WSU professor Chase Billingham, in particular, observed last August what the consequences of the November elections might mean should they go the way Mayor Whipple wanted them to (which they did). In a long Facebook post on Monday, Billingham considered a relatively small-stakes fight during last week’s council agenda review meeting in ways that makes his observations from last year seem pretty prescient: namely, that with three–presumably reliable–Democratic votes on the council, Mayor Whipple appears both capable and willing to pursue agenda items that he previously knew he wouldn’t have the votes to push forward. And he wants the Republicans on the council–who have long enjoyed an unstated and basically uncontested majority on the council but are now in the minority–to know it. So is the business of the city council, or the way it conducts business, about to radically change, and if so, how should the people of Wichita feel about that?

Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: Some Notes on the First Mayoral Debate

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The story of Tuesday night’s debate is one of offense and defense. For better or worse, Mayor Jeff Longwell–at least at this early point in the race, and at least on the basis on this remarkably well-attended debate (Roxy’s was absolutely packed) — is running entirely on defending his record of the last four years. With the exception of one very slight snark about how the city’s budgets always balance, unlike the state’s (where his challenger Brandon Whipple has served in the Kansas House since 2013), the mayor never attacked Whipple at all. Whereas Whipple went on the attack frequently. Though not always effectively; there were points where Whipple could have forced out into the open some important differences between the candidates, but chose not to, and there were other points where he picked fights over pretty unimportant, even silly stuff.

Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: Why the Partisanship of Wichita’s Mayoral Race is a Good Thing

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The party differences between Mayor Longwell (who kicked off his campaign while surrounded by all sorts of Republican notables) and Brandon Whipple (who has served as a Democrat representing south Wichita in the Kansas House of Representatives since 2013) are pretty obvious, and seem likely to shape the race all the way up to Election Day. This is, to my mind, a good thing.

Feature Stories

Mistaking Identity For Ideology

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Well before Clarence Thomas joined the Reagan administration; before Benedict Arnold switched to King George’s side; even before Romeo forsook the Montagues, solitary human beings found reasons to separate themselves from their tribal identity.

Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: Expanding Medicaid a Mayoral Issue

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At a recent mayoral candidate
forum focused on matters of health, those in attendance had the opportunity to
listen to seven of the nine individuals running for mayor (Mark Gietzen and
Joshua Atkinson were no shows) respond to questions about water quality, local
mental health facilities, funding for transit and other transportation
alternatives, Wichita’s own Community Health Improvement Plan, and more. Most
of it was informative, but little of it, in my view, provided any points of
distinction between the six men and one woman on the stage. There was, however,
one exception. When a question was asked
whether, as mayor, any of the candidates would join with numerous other local
and state groups and organizations in pushing the Kansas state government to accept
the Medicaid expansion provided under the Affordable Care Act (a priority of
Governor Laura Kelly which almost certainly would have happened during the last
session if Kansas Senate majority leader Susan Wagle hadn’t refused to allow
the matter to come up for a vote), five of the candidates–Brock Booker, Ian
Demory, Amy Lyon, Lyndy Wells, and Brandon Whipple–expressed strong support for
expansion, one–Marty Mork–strongly denounced the idea, and one–Mayor Jeff
Longwell–punted, saying that he couldn’t settle the argument over expansion as
a city leader, so instead preferred to focus his attention on finding local
sources of funding for Wichita-area hospitals and the like. Depending on your political
preferences, you might find yourself on the (I think entirely wise and
responsible) side of the majority of the candidates, or you might find yourself
on the (I think ideologically blinkered and unreasonable) side of Mr. Mork.