Bob Knight was too hard on himself in telling The Eagle last week why he won’t run for mayor in 2007 after all: “We don’t need a retread.” During Knight’s quarter century of public service to the city of Wichita, more often than not as mayor, he showed an uncommon ability to get things done, especially in partnership with the late City Manager Chris Cherches — an impression that gets stronger with every report of dysfunction out of the current City Hall. Still, Knight’s point about city leadership needing fresh faces has merit. Even with Mayor Carlos Mayans and City Council member Carl Brewer in the mayoral race, voters and the public debate could benefit from additional choices. Civic- and business-minded Wichitans need apply.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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30 Comments
I am wondering why this posting is focused only the mayoral race? Aren’t there three City Council seats up this spring also? And School Board too.
It seems the mayoral race is the one that is showing the most interest. Mayans is a loose cannon and needs to be replaced. Isn’t your brother-in-law running against Carlos? I think Carl Brewer is an excellent candidate with the resources to unseat Mayans. People need to remember that Carlos Mayans was part of the far right cult while in the legislature. Why would he change as mayor?I’d vote for almost anyone before I’d vote for Carlos Mayans
Kelly: You are correct. In addition to Mayor Carlos Mayans being up for election in the April NON-PARTISAN general election, three of the six city councilman positions are up for election. These are Paul Gray, Sue Schlapp and Bob Martz. Bob Martz is “term limited,” that is he cannot run again.
Three council people will continue on for two more years, Carl Brewer, Jim Skelton and Sharon Feary.
If Carl Brewer runs for mayor and wins, he would then resign his council position and would have to be replaced somehow. I’m not sure how this would be done. Precinct people would NOT make the selection in this non-partisan situation. Perhaps a selection by the remaining councilmen from candidates who live in Brewer’s council district. Of course, if Brewer loses the mayor’s race, he would continue on in his councilman position since it doesn’t expire for two more years.
In the case of the school board, four members are up for election but I’m not sure which ones at this point. As a heads up for prospective school board candidates, school board members meet for long hours at their regular and special meetings for no pay.
Deadline for filing as candidates for these positions is noon on January 23 according to a flyer I have from the Election Office.
Regarding our city and county elected positions, I have changed my mind over the years. I now feel these terms should be for two years rather than four years to make these people more accountable to voters.
Regarding both city and county governments, a hundred member blue ribbon citizens panel needs to examine the form/structure of each to modernize and get more citizen participation of which there is very little presently.
Wichita currently has a strong city manager, weak mayor and council/commission form of government, archaic structure that needs to be modernized.
Skelton, Harding, Gramke and Jefferson are up for election on the USD 259 Board.
Carl Brewer can give the Council and this City the real leadership it so desparately needs. He has proven himself a leader while being a tank company commaner, now retired, in the Kansas Nat’l Guard, and went through Officer Candidate School. He has been a manager at Boeing – now Spirit – and knows also how important is teamwork. As a Councilman responsible for one district, his leadership/teambuilding abilities have not become widely known to the electorate. But the voting public DOES KNOW how sadly lacking the current mayor is in both these qualities. And unlike the current mayor, Carl is not a public servant because he needs a source of income.
Mayans is a bit of a clown. Pushing his own version of religion; presiding over that farce of a self congratulatory BTK ‘press conference” (that went on so long, most of the main stream media left); acrimony and divisiveness in the council; ill fated (and misguided) attempt to tell WSU to re-instate football; etc.
The guy is a misguided clown.
I would like to see someone in the category of Russ Meyer, former CEO of Cessna, serve as mayor of Wichita for one term to bring together Wichita/Sedgwick citizens in a unified approach to a program of civic improvements.
At the present time, the out of town “hired guns” are spending Wichita blind with minimal intellectual agreement on the direction Wichita needs to go.
I have met Carl Brewer and respect the experiences he brings to the table. But, frankly, I believe he needs to remain in his city council position for the next two years and not confuse the all-important and critical Wichita mayors race.
I assume that you knew, J-Wink, that Russ Meyer has endorsed Carl Brewer? If interested, you can read Russ Meyer’s speech on Brewer’s website http://www.electcarlbrewer.com – given while introducing Brewer at his press conference announcing his campaign.
Thanks Kelly, Interesting — I didn’t know that.
Although I think Brewer is the better choice, he will have a tough time getting elected. Mayans will sweep the Hispanic vote. With the dismal turnout that comes with city elections, and Mayans campaign warchest, it will be difficult for Brewer to beat.
I disagree with Jwink. Manager/Council form of government is the superior and most progressive forms of government.
Joe Williams: Your statement is like saying the human race is the superior form of life on the face of the earth … but obviously there are lots of kinds of humans.
Same way with forms of government. There are two kinds of problems with government — the structure of the organization and the people involved in it.
Back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, some larger cities actually had two houses in their city council, that is a bi-cameral city council like Congress. Kansas City, Mo. was one.
Structurally, there are several kinds of city governments. One was the old commission form (with street commissioner, water commissioner, finance commissioner with the mayor elected from that group). Then there was the mayor and council form (used in a lot of smaller communities and some large ones). And, thirdly, some form of city administrator/manager.
Wichita was one of the first cities to adopt a city manager with its city commission form of government back in the 1920’s. Wichita’s mayor was selected from one of the commissioners for a one year term I believe. Mayor Knight was elected that way in his early terms.However, many local governments have restructured their organizations to provide for more citizen input and to provide for a stronger elected mayor. Kansas City, Kansas and Olathe, Kansas, and Jackson County (Kansas City), Missouri are examples.
There are lots of problems with our Wichita city government structure that needs fix’un.
I seriously doubt that Mayans will sweep the Latino vote. He might sweep, however, the pro-reinstate-WSU-football vote. As for warchests, I guess we’ll see what those respective totals are when end-ot-the-year reports must be filed around Jan. 10.
Knight Knight Knight, the SOB encouraged those Summer of Mercy kooks from our ugly past. He is in bed with every rich indian in the midwest. He’s got the public demeanor of a wax figure. Fuck him and the horse he rode out on. If he had any more power we would be pulling slots in the freeging boathouse.
I disagree with you JWink! Cities need to be ran by professionals and not by an electorate who is agenda and ideologically driven.
Absolute Democracy or Mob Rule will impeed progress and lead to political factions and nothing will get done. We shouldn’t let the Jwink’s of our community decide on what and how to run a city. You let people who have experience and the educational background run the day to day operations. We don’t need the Jwink’s getting in the way. It’s not a progressive way to run a city.
Those cities you have mentioned are stalled in progress and cannot move.
When you have the electorate in charge, it makes for bad government. The electorate is meant as a check and balance to governments, not the control of.
Take for example the 17 Amendment of the Constitution. It was a devestation to our Republican and it was passed by leftist Democrats of that era, because they wanted to manipulate people for power and this is done by popular vote.
Now states have not a single representative in the US Government. Senators used to be selected by State Legislators who picked their best and brightest to represent the State’s interest. Now Senators are elected by the people and we get the Brownbacks, Kennedys, Reids and so on. Just a very bad batch of Senators on both sides of the isle.
No! We need a strong manager form of government. The people should only check and have input, not run and control the government.
That is the progressive and most efficient way of running government.
What ever happened to Matt Goolsby (sp?)? I think he would make a very interesting alternative. Knight and Brewer both seem to be connected strongly to “business as usual”; interestingly Knight is a Republican and Brewer a Democrat. Party lines here seem meaningless.
Joe Williams: If I am deciphering your remarks correctly, you favor a non-political, dictatorship or perhaps a Royal King of municipal government. Apparently you feel the taxpayers are too dumb to decide how to spend their own hard-earned tax dollars. Joe, you would seem to prefer that an out-of-town dictator rule WITHOUT direction from an elected city council to establish policy and provide oversight of how our tax dollars are spent.
Joe, do you pay any taxes? Are you a property owner or do you rent?
I seem to recall you telling me at the WE Blog meetup at the Wichita Eagle, that you were finishing up college and might join the military to do your patriotic duty. What happened to that plan?
Sorry, Joe, I know you want to talk the talk as a hard core, right wing facist fellow but when it gets to walking the walk, you are somewhere out on the left margin.
But keep trying.
I would have to strongly disagree with you, Joe. Our government is a represeantative democracy and the people need to have as much direct input as possible.
We already have a “good old boy” network in place as it is – lobbyists, senior party officials, etc., and less direct involvement by the electorate would only lead to more corruption and less responsiveness by the government.
The solution to the problem is to get more of the populous involved, more informed and greater voter turn out.
No! Not a dictatorship! A Representative Democracy.I don’t think you understand WSClark what a Representative Democracy is.
Let me school you!
Representative democracy is a form of democracy founded on the exercise of popular sovereignty by the people’s representatives. The representatives supposedly act in the people’s interest, but not as their proxy representative—i.e., not necessarily always according to wishes, but with enough authority to exercise initiative in the face of changing circumstances. It is often contrasted with direct democracy, where representatives are absent or only proxy representatives.
In other words! We elect people to represent us; Not have the representives do what we tell them to do.
You think by electing somebody you want the people, the JWinks pull the chains on their throat and do exactly what they want them to do? That is too dictatorial and chaotic. We choose people to represent us and many times they act on the best interest of our city, state, congressional district or whatever. Unpopular decisions must be done. But when it comes to managing a city, you don’t leave that to politicans. You leave that up to professional managers. Such as our Manager/Council form of government.
And JWINK! You are SO WRONG about me! You didn’t hear any of that from me. No! I’m a full fledge tax paying home owner and do not deduct charitable donations on my taxes. I’m a college graduate from WSU in Political Science and that was several years ago when I graduates, so when we met you weren’t talking to me, so that affords me much more credibility and knowledge of political systems than you. So who ever you met that told you those things that you though was me, wasn’t me!
So since you are so wrong about people and can’t remember anything, I would suggest next time not to think about who I am! Because I’m much more than you ever believe me to be. You won’t find a kinder, more passionate, giving person. You think I’m just a heartless bastard! Well! Think again! You’re always wrong about people.
How many of you donated to the Share the Season charity link that the WE editors posted up? Hmm?
Joe Williams: You said, “When it comes to managing a city, you wouldn’t leave that to politicians … you would leave that up to professional managers.”
Joe, surely you don’t mean that? You must secretly be a “theocrat,” one who believes in a priestly class of leaders with devine authority. Or perhaps a monarchist, one who believes in rule by a hereditary constitutional sovereign.
Joe, are you combining that position with your often stated desire to take gold and silver from the many who work hard for their acquisitions and hand them over by the truck load to the few, the money changers of our times.
Joe, please confirm that is your position or I will refuse to believe you, Joe Williams, can be so callous to your fellow man.
And regarding your claim that I did not talk to you at the WE blogger meetup because the one I met must not have been you even though he said he was you and introduced himself with your name. So that person must have been trolling your identity, a fake Joe Williams, an imposter. Joe, I’m glad to hear that arrogant troll was not you.
Joe Williams, How can you be a college graduate in political science when in an earlier comment you said “Brewer will have a tough time getting elected, Mayans will sweep the Hispanic vote”?There is only some 40,000 in the city as of the last census and most of them are not legal to vote.The only reason Mayans was elected was because of the poor choices of candidates running for that office in the primary.The problem with the political system is at its source, the primary election rules of who can vote under what party.It is nice to know what fakery people will do to save their dishonesty.
Kelly, we all know Carl Brewer is your brother in law.Mayans will win, mostly because people hate the Good Old Boy Network worse than they hate him. Brewer is as GOBN as you can get.For a lot of people it may be a case of holding your nose and accepting what you feel is the lesser of two evils, but until we get rid of a few more people on the 13th floor, Mayans is still the best choice out there so far.
JWink! That happens to me a lot! There is somebody on here that steals my identity and posts under my name quite often. I’ve warn that person several times to stop.
But I don’t get on here everyday, nor check out past blog enteries, so this identity thief could be posting much more often than I ever catch them.
Sometimes I have to post under “The Real Joe Williams”.
Wiseman! Only 54,375 people voted for Mayor in the last election. 40,000 Hispanics that are recorded in a census is a huge number. Many would be eliable and do vote. Illegals aren’t usually tallied in the census, because they are anynomous people and they do not fill out Census Reports.
You also still have the God Squad crowd that loved the move that Mayans tried on porn shops and strip joints.
It’s going to be tough for Brewer. He’s gotta chance, it’s just not going to be easy.
Mr. C – You are wrong about my brother-in-law Carl Brewer. He is not a member of the GOBN. On the other hand, Carl is a gentleman, and has been a behind-the-scene team/coalition builder, so most people have not been aware of his record. I assure you that Carl has never, ever compromised his personal integrity for a donation.
I know you won’t take my word on it. We’ll just have to see him through this election so that he becomes the next mayor, and then he can prove it to you and the other Doubting Thomas’s through his everyday actions.
Merry Christmas to everyone, even Fat Wrinkles or whatever stage name he uses.
Carl is a classy guy, I agree Kelly. Those who think Mayans is going to win an easy re-election probably out to think back about 6 weeks to the general election. People want want change, they want moderation. When you look at Mayan’s term as mayor, you see little moderation. What you do see is more of the same that we saw from Carlos as a state rep. in Topeka. I will be voting for Carl Brewer myself.
“Mayans is still the best choice out there so far.” – Mr. Controversy. Since this is Christmas, let me only say: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Well, lots going on with this discussion. First of all, Mayans remains a formidable candidate not because of the Hispanic vote, but because of his affiliation with the conservative right. The right is organized and they vote. The last city council election, the Hispanic vote couldn’t even get Richard Lopez out of the primary in the 6th District. Typically, only around 20-30 percent of all registered voters vote in city council elections; hence, “organized and they vote” means that the conservatives can control the electon. They did with Mayans and Schlapp last election and supported Gray as well. Secondly, the current form of government is representative government. “We” voted them in and they represent us. We do not need “professional” staff determining the interests of the city so toss that idea. While the staff is professional, they more often than not set their own agenda than listening to “the people.” Thirdly, I laugh when people talk about the GOBN. Why do you think that there is a GOBN in the first place? Because the GOBN survives political change. The GOBN knows how to play politics. Whether it’s Carl or Carlos or someone else, the GOBN will be there in the end. BTW, for the most part, the GOBN as many you refer to, is for the most part just people who know the ends and outs of city hall. Admittedly, there are those that do take advantage of city hall, but that’s a story for another day. Lastly, Carl is not a shoo in by any stretch of the imagine; however, he can win. Carl is an excellent listener and is thoughtful. I’m hopeful that he’ll become a stronger presence and leader for the community.
Merry Christmas all!
Personally I hope Carlos remains your mayor. You did all of us who work in the Long Term Care Industry a favor when you elected him. He went after us like a rabid dog. He trotted out the worst he could find about the industry and portrayed those of us who do this work as evil and money mongers. I hope he never goes back to the legislature because he is a pig. He is nothing but the worst kind of politician. So keep him out of my hair!
One of the issues that should be debated up front is gaming. In the summer of 05 the county punted on giving the people a vote on this issue and I believe it cost more than a few Commission members and area legislators their jobs.
We have an opportunity to vote on gaming in Wichita during this election, but only if someone has the political courage to bring the issue forward for debate.
Any ideas on how to do this?
“Brewer is as GOBN as you can get.”
-mrcontroversy__________________________________
Perhaps you could elaborate on a few instances that come to mind?
truthiness, IMHO, gaming for Sedgwick County/Wichita is a dead issue; too late, in other words. The time to decide this was in the 2000-2002 time frame; while I was a supporter of the concept at the time, I am of a mind that we need to move on.