Congratulations to the Wichita City Council and city officials for deciding to move council workshops to the regular council chambers and televise them on cable Channel 7. The first televised workshop was last week; the public also can tune in at 9:30 a.m. today. These sessions are meant to be less formal and more informational, but they often are the scene of defining debate about key city issues. The need to televise them became more important in 2004, when the council began to use workshops to give blanket approval to consent agendas. More camera time means more transparency for city government. That’s a welcome development.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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9 Comments
This is a great start for opening city government up to the people.
Now they should take it one step further and have at least one city council meeting a month in the evening. Most people work during the day and cannot attend the meetings. The same should occur with the workshops.
That’s cool! I would also like to know the re-play times on channel 7. Just as STS said, people don’t get a chance until the evening time to watch television.
I’ve sat through countless city council meetings. 99% of the time, no one from the general public attends unless they have an agenda item. Will that change if the council meetings are in the evening? It remains to be seen, but I’m skeptical. You might go once, but it ain’t gonna be high on your list of things to do in the evening.
Both the Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commissioners should meet in the late afternoon or evening at least once per month to measure the interest.
Wichita’s USD 259 school board meets at 6 PM generally on alternating Monday evenings. These meetings do draw a lot of attendance depending on the subjects to be discussed.
Actually seeing the real public seated out in the audience at city council and county commission meetings might remind these elected and well paid politicians who is paying their salaries. Maybe they would think a lot more about wasting the taxpayers money.
And if city council people are going to get more camera time and more camera time means “more transparancy for city government,” perhaps the mayor and council people should be made up to look like movie stars or use actual standins by real movie stars (presuming they are still with us). For example:
Mayor Carlos Mayans: Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Carl Brewer: Denzel Washington,
Sue Schlapp: Lauren Bacall,
Jim Skelton: Kevin Costner,
Paul Gray: Billy Bob Thornton,
Bob Martz: Earnest Borgnine,
Sharon Fearey: Sandra Bullock
Or do you have better suggestions? The idea is to actually draw viewers to these deadly boring council meetings.
“(presuming they are still with us)”
Presume no more…
http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/
“Actually seeing the real public seated out in the audience at city council and county commission meetings might remind these elected and well paid politicians who is paying their salaries.”
What do county commissioners make? It seems like I heard it was in the area of $75k per year.Same quesion on the city council members.
Section 99.02.187 Salaries of Mayor and City Council Members
Council Members and Vice Mayor, $29,845 set in 2003 with annual cost of living raises since then.
Mayor, 46,282 set in 2003, with annual cost of living raises since then.
“Well paid”? I could make more than that as a roofer…
Raptor: Regarding salaries of elected officials, one group of local elected officials, the USD 259 school board, does not receive salaries. I think this might be true across Kansas.
In regard to county commissioners, it’s my understanding they also serve as official voting members of other temporary boards, such as township boards, cemetery boards and drainage boards, etc. I don’t have the list for Sedgwick County. But in other counties, I have been told the pay for these services adds significantly to county commissioners’ salaries … plus perks and snacks.
Perhaps a current county commissioner could join this blog to explain how this works.