FYI: Kansas State Board of Education member Ken Willard (in photo), who heads the board’s subcommittee that supposedly oversees member travel, defended the two trips to be taken this fall by Connie Morris, who was defeated in her re-election bid. Morris’ travel “is not an issue as far as I’m concerned,” Willard told Harris News Service. “We have a policy in place, and we have a board member who’s a lightning rod and anything she does is questioned.” But is it asking too much to make sure that trips have some benefit to the board and to public schools, given that taxpayers are footing the bills? One of Morris’ planned trips will occur after her last board meeting, and the other will examine such pressing educational issues as how mental-health screening affects gun-ownership rights.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- XXX on Open thread 11/23
- george on Open thread 11/23
- sursum on Let immigrants run
- littlejohn on Health care reform would save state money
- littlejohn on Health care reform would save state money
- ANTI on Let immigrants run
- ANTI on Open thread 11/23
- gster on Open thread 11/23
- LonnythePlumber on Health care reform would save state money
- aldenrw on Let immigrants run
18 Comments
Maybe Connie Morris has threatend to file a lawsuit if she doesn’t get her free trips?
She can’t fund the trips herself. All her money will be poured into her doomed to fail write in campaign.
Willard should be thinking about saving his own neck instead of defending Morris. I hope he gets the boot in November.
After her term, she can fade to darkness and hopefully be forgotten, except in terms of never electing anyone of her ilk again. Let her rape the taxpayers one more time, then dunk her in the arkansas polluted river.
Here’s the Harris new service article:
TOPEKA – State school board member Ken Willard, R-Hutchinson, defends a board policy that allows fellow member Connie Morris to take an eight-day trip to Washington, D.C., just as she is about to leave office in December.”I don’t think it needs to be changed,” Willard said Wednesday. “I think the policy is sound.”But his election opponent and another candidate running for Morris’ board seat say they’d like to see the rules revamped regarding tax-funded travel.Reached by phone, Morris declined to specify what the meetings would cover during the Dec. 16-23 trip.Her travel reimbursement request submitted to the board listed “multiple meetings with immigration, education organizations and elected officials.”Willard, who is chairman of the board’s subcommittee that reviews travel requests, said he and other members never asked what the trip would entail.The policy offers “pretty broad latitude so that anyone can attend any conference that’s helpful,” he said.He said Morris, R-St. Francis, had a set amount of travel funds and had the right to use them throughout her term.”She was elected for four years. We wouldn’t question any other board member. I don’t know why we’d give her any different treatment. We don’t have any reason to not trust her.”But Morris’ travel last year did raise a public outcry after she billed taxpayers for six nights in a $339 room at a Miami Beach resort while traveling to a nearby conference.Morris later repaid the state nearly $3,000 for the $4,000 trip, keeping what she had received for her state salary and the conference registration.Board members soon undertook a review of their travel policy but left it unchanged.This year’s Washington trip will follow another board-funded trip that Morris plans to a Minnesota conference in October. The conference, held by the group EdWatch, features topics such as “why universal pre-school is a bad idea” and a luncheon speaker from Gun Owners of America discussing mental health screening.Each member of Kansas’ state board has a set amount available for travel. Morris, for example, was allotted $6,137 for July through December this year. The amount does not include the reimbursement members receive for travel to and from board meetings.Board policy guidelines state that each member may attend one national meeting and one regional meeting of a national organization per year. But a subsequent section on “discretionary attendance” allows each member to attend any meeting not specified under the guidelines as long as the board pre-approves it. It also bars travel for partisan political events or activities.Willard said his subcommittee frequently receives non-specific requests from board members.Morris’ travel “is not an issue as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “We have a policy in place and we have a board member who’s a lightning rod and anything she does is questioned.”Willard and Morris have sided with the board’s conservative majority on several contentious issues. Willard’s wife, Deanna, contributed $100 to Morris’ unsuccessful campaign to win re-election in August.Jack Wempe, Willard’s opponent in the upcoming general election, said he was surprised the board felt it had to accept the travel request.”It would seem the policy needs to be adjusted,” said Wempe, a former legislator from Lyons.”I don’t intend to run a negative campaign so I will not be bringing it up,” he added. “That’s been my intention all along. I want to focus on what I would do if elected.”Sally Cauble, a Liberal Republican who beat Morris in the August primary, said it might not be so much a problem of board policy as of board ethics.”I don’t believe a candidate should travel when they know they’re going off the board,” she said. “I’d love to go to something like that, but I don’t expect the state to pay for it. We need to keep in mind the money we’re spending is not our own, it’s the taxpayers’. And will this meeting benefit the taxpayers?”Tim Cruz, a Garden City Democrat who is Cauble’s opponent in November’s general election, said the policy should be revised.”How’s she going to bring that back to the board?” he said of the Washington trip that will occur after Morris’ last board meeting.”I would feel a lot more comfortable if she spent eight days of travel visiting with our school districts and superintendents,” Cruz said. “She still has a lot of opportunity to do a lot of good for District 5.”
“She was elected for four years. We wouldn’t question any other board member. I don’t know why we’d give her any different treatment. We don’t have any reason to not trust her.”
Yeah, we trust her like a wolf gaurding the sheep.
” . . . we have a board member who’s a lightning rod and anything she does is questioned.”
DUH, Willard. Connie’s the one who tried to rip us off last year with her junket to the Miami resort. Yer damn right we’ll question her travel expenses.
The bigger question is – why isn’t WILLARD questioning her expenses? How come he keeps excusing her outrageous behavior? Isn’t this the guy who keeps bleating about “values” and “morals?”
Vote Willard off the island too. He’s as crooked as Morris if he thinks our tax $$$ should keep paying for her bogus trips.
“This year’s Washington trip will follow another board-funded trip that Morris plans to a Minnesota conference in October. The conference, held by the group EdWatch, features topics such as ‘why universal pre-school is a bad idea’ and a luncheon speaker from Gun Owners of America discussing mental health screening.”Of course, it’s a bad idea! It may help the children to grow to be well-adjusted adults. We, after all, don’t believe in caring for post-natal foetuses.
What a second here. If Morris is going to be bye-bye from the Board after this year. Why in the hell would they fund Morris trips for “education purposes”, when she will no longer be on the board to use anything she learn (if anything) from those seminars and meetings. You’re just wasting taxpayers money for something to get a free vacation.
The Board is pretty much adjorned until next year. Why still invest in Connie Morris?
This sucks!
And what do Gun Owners of America have to do with ANY damn thing that sweet Coniie needs to be concerned with?
Gosh Joe, the folks who approved Connie’s travel are… wait for it… REPUBLICANS.
heheheheheheheh
so much for the party of fiscal responsibility.
With Tom Delay and Connie Morris, they are more likely the party of wasting money on personal vacations.
And they back each other’s theft.
As church lady would say “how conveeeeeeeenient.”
Boot Willard.
Oh, and Connie, ckd, et al reading this…
…it only gives us more ammunition to defeat the conster in any FUTURE political races.
You can bet, we havent heard the last of this lying hypocrit. Her ego will not allow her to gracefully exit the political stage. She doesnt even have the good sense to be ashamed.
She will run for something again. She loves having the last word.
Too bad for her, the voters are the ones with the REAL last word.
Maybe she can go into business with terry fox as his travel voucher and financial management consultant.
heheheheheheheheheh
Ya know, maybe con con’s write in campaign will go better once the church goers get their “motivation” next Sunday.
Eh Cindy Duckett?
Joe:”You’re just wasting taxpayers money for something to get a free vacation.”
But Joe… she’s a Republican, so she clearly won’t stoop as low as the other party in doing crooked stuff, right? [/sarcasm]
Willard’s opponent is on the wrong track, this outrage SHOULD be tied around Willard’s neck.
A beautiful example of far-right Republican values.
Why not look at legislators the same way. Many of them that lose in a primary, general or announce they will not seek re-election continue to serve on committees during the summer and fall. They also travel to conferences around the country.
Why doesn’t the Eagle ask questions about those?
J-W Editorials
Monday, September 18, 2006
On Wednesday, Kansas State Board of Education Member Connie Morris received approval for two state-funded trips, including a visit to Washington, D.C., from Dec. 16-23, less that two weeks before she is scheduled to leave office. The stated purpose of her trip isn’t even to attend any sort of organized conference but to have multiple meetings with immigration and education organizations and other elected officials.What Morris plans to do with whatever information she gleans from these meetings is a mystery. The St. Francis Republican was defeated in her party’s primary for her school board seat and has said she doesn’t plan a write-in campaign, so her trip clearly isn’t intended to benefit the state. That leaves only a couple of possibilities, both of which are unfair to Kansas taxpayers.One possibility is that Morris is using the state’s dollars to pursue her personal agenda related to immigration and education issues. Morris made news early in her term with her announcement that the state shouldn’t pay to educate the children of illegal immigrants in the state.The other possibility is that Morris simply wants to take a couple of trips on the taxpayers’ dime. In addition to the Washington trip, she has scheduled an Oct. 13-14 trip to Bloomington, Minn., to attend a conference of a group called EdWatch, Education For A FREE Nation. The topics to be discussed at that meeting also seem right up Morris’ ideological alley. They include how international baccalaureate undermines American citizenship and how mental health screening affects gun ownership rights.continued….
“Why not look at legislators the same way. Many of them that lose in a primary, general or announce they will not seek re-election continue to serve on committees during the summer and fall. They also travel to conferences around the country.
Why doesn’t the Eagle ask questions about those?”
Indeed STS, why dont they?
Could it be because most of them are… wait for it…. REPUBLICANS?
heheheheh. I’d love such an investigation. I wonder which party has more legislators taking personal junkets on the taxpayer and lobbiest dime?
Oh, and STS?
I LOVE your “two wrongs must make it right” attitude.
hee heee hee hee.
I’m surprised sts didnt say “Bill Clinton did it too!”
heheheheh
The legies have no ethics or morals so that makes it ok for con con to rip off the taxpayers?
hee hee hee hee. SO much for the party of fiscal and personal responsibility.
STS new motto:
“Vote for Connie! She isnt as bad as thekansas legislature!”
heheheheheheh