The city’s plan to sell the former Boys & Girls Club building on 21st Street to The Lord’s Diner for a satellite location to feed the needy is on hold for the moment, according to city council member Lavonta Williams, who represents the district.
In recent weeks, Williams met with neighborhood representatives to try to reach a consensus. But that didn’t work out. She hopes to discuss solutions with City Manager Robert Layton on Friday, but said she’s not sure when the council might consider some type of agreement. Read More »
Gov. Parkinson
Gov. Mark Parkinson and state House and Senate leaders joined Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer today in protesting USA Today articles that examine how much federal money goes into general aviation airports. (Read USA Today’s opinion piece here.)
(See our post about Brewer’s protest here. And see aviation reporter Molly McMillin’s post on what aviation trade groups say.)
Follow the jump to read letters from Parkinson and Senate President Morris and House Speaker Mike O’Neal…
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Brewer
The League of Kansas Municipalities delegates voted Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer in as the group’s vice president today, the city announced.
Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach, the group’s previous vice president, became president.
LKM conducts research, provides legal support and lobbies on behalf of cities in Kansas. Brewer had been on the board of directors before being elected vice president. That puts Brewer in line to be president next year.
It appears the massive 1st Congressional District is about to get its first Democratic candidate. Alan Jilka, the former mayor of Salina, plans to announce a run for the seat at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Salina city-county building.
The press release only says Jilka will “announce plans to seek national political office.” But a peek at http://jilkaforcongress.com kind of gives it away.
Jilka, 46, spent 12 years on the Salina City Commission. He also ran an unsuccessful campaign for State Senate in 2004. Incumbent Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, beat him with about 59 percent of the turnout. (View Jilka’s 2004 campaign finance reports.)
No other Democrats have stepped into the heavily Republican race (fill us in if we’ve missed someone). Here’s the GOP field (as we know it today): Sens. Jim Barnett of Emporia and Tim Huelskamp of Fowler; Tracey Mann, a commercial real estate agent from Salina; Rob Wasinger of Cottonwood Falls, former chief of staff to Brownback; Hays educator Sue Boldra; and former Salina Mayor Monte Shadwick.
Sunflower Community Action today plans to press City Manager Robert Layton and Police Chief Norman Williams to buy video cameras that would record police in action.
The group has pushed for dash cameras in cars for years. But this time, they’re asking the city to spend roughly $186,000 generated by drug busts to buy cameras that would mount on a police officer’s uniform. It’s a reaction to police saying that dash cameras only capture about a third of police officers’ interaction with the public.
In an e-mail, Layton told Sunflower that the city plans to release a report in October on the pilot dash camera program it started about a year ago. “Unfortunately, the cameras are taxing our data system and we need to find a way to store and index the information generated by the cameras,” Layton wrote.
Sunflower offered the following links to the on-person cameras:
http://www.psni.police.uk/300709lisburnpolicelaunchheadcamera http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23403984-smile-youre-on-camera-police-to-get-head-cams.do;jsessionid=080B6A8C38069976CA66E9F842F87895
Flags at Wichita City Hall and other city buildings have been lowered to half staff in honor of Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Etheridge, who was killed Monday.
“We’re just really shocked and saddened by what has happened,” Mayor Carl Brewer said in an interview with The Eagle. “It has affected all of our law enforcement agencies.”
Brewer said the city is providing counselors for police officers who were involved in the shootout and others who may be shaken by the violence.
“Every time they make a stop or enter a house, they don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “This demonstrated just how much risk there is.”
Brewer said the city council plans to issue a statement asking the community to embrace Etheridge’s family and pray for them.
“It’s been years since we’ve seen something of this nature happen,” he said. “It’s even more troubling that this is a young man in his 20s with a family.”
Former Assistant City Manager Scott Moore is in for a tough start at his new job as city manager of Peoria, Ill. Like Wichita, Moore’s new city is facing layoffs, pay freezes and a lot of red ink.
“It’s obvious Scott will have a relatively short honeymoon period just from the standpoint that we have a lot more work to do on this budget,” at-large City Councilman George Jacob told the Peoria Journal Star.
For more, see the Journal Star’s story about Moore’s first day.
Tiahrt
City council member Jeff Longwell was quick to divert any praise for the new Cowskin Creek flood reduction project to Bob Martz, the former council member who died while in office in 2007. But he gave Congressman Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, a little love too.
As he introduced Tiahrt, who is running for US Senate in a hot, multi-candidate race, Longwell called Tiahrt his favorite congressman. Then came the pitch.
“I hope I can call him my favorite senator someday,” Longwell said. Read More »
This just in from city hall’s communication office:
“Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer has joined with mayors in Arizona and Iowa in a joint letter of protest over a USA Today article published last week regarding federal funding of airports. The letter, shown below, was issued by the Alliance for Aviation Across American. It notes several major facts that were ignored by the author of the article in the national newspaper.”
The USA Today story has an interactive map that shows Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport had 60 grants worth $131,054,559 in 28 years. The grants, the report says, come mostly from taxes on airline tickets.
Follow the jump to a letter Brewer signed to the newspaper:
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Sedgwick County employees driving on county business will have to pull over or ignore calls to their mobile phones under a new policy approved Wednesday.
First responders such as sheriff’s officers, emergency medical services and firefighters are the only exceptions.
The move is part of an overhaul to a decade-old driving policy, and it comes as more government agencies ban their employees from taking calls while driving.
Sedgwick County’s ban includes cell phones — including hands-free devices — headphones and computers.
It applies to employees driving county-owned and personal vehicles on county business.
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