At a time when local governments’ reliance on consultants was under scrutiny, Sedgwick County Manager Bill Buchanan courted trouble by tapping a consultant to help county staff negotiate a deal with preferred arena management company SMG, then by taking three weeks to tell county commissioners about the small-dollar consultant deal. Now, commissioners want to review and possibly revise the county’s purchasing, hiring and consulting policies. “It’s clear to me the commission needs a lot more information up front,” Buchanan said. He might have said “this commission” — because the rethinking about what has been business as usual at the county seems to be emanating mostly from new Commissioner Gwen Welshimer.
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10 Comments
Congratulations to new County Commissioners, Gwen Welsheimer, former Kansas legislator, and Kelly Parks, former chief of police of Valley Center. Both are stretching their political wings and showing a degree of independence on the Sedgwick County Commission, positions that have been clearly needed for some time.
I agree JWink! Now we need to replace the others who are part of our many problems. Are we allowed to hope people are paying more attention and our local “leaders” will be held accountable?
Just a hint:
BB’S POWER IS IN THE “CONSENT AGENDA” — ITEMS THAT DON’T HAVE TO BE DISCUSSED AT OPEN MEETINGS UNLESS ONE OF THE ELECTED BOARD MEMBERS WANTS THAT ITEM DISCUSSED.
IF YOU WANT TO CLIP THE WINGS OF THE COUNTY MANAGER, START ASKING ABOUT ONE OR TWO “CONSENT” ITEMS AT EVERY MEETING!
(This will have the deterent effect of making the Manager think twice about putting anything on the consent agenda in the first place.)
Of course, county manager “BB” now has a thin majority of ONE between keeping his job and asking, “Would you like fries with that?”
Only one thing left to do, Hire a consultant to determine if too many outside consultants are being hired!
Dang! I thought this was gonna be about Pat Buchannon and I was aimin to unload!
I’d like to add a bit of a different perspective to the consultant flap. There are times when expertise is needed that is not on staff. So, hiring an outsider can be good. Also, that gives a fresh perspective. However, are there no qualified people in south-central Kansas? Why do they always seem to be from out-of-town? I’d like to see public decisions made by people who will live with the consequences of those decisions.
I want to know what happened to the city consultants? While this serves the purpose of stirring the pot; this consultant appears to have been needed. Why would we not want the people negotiating the contract with this company to have enough information and insight into the process as possible? Is this fiscally conservative Gwen Welshimer really the same free-spending liberal who had no regard for our taxes as a legislator?
KUDOS to Welshimer for being the catalyst for forcing people to rethink the logic of continuing to do business as usual just because it’s always been done a certain way. This is the very philosophy a group of concerned citizens tried to emphasis during the February 14 commission meeting. If MAPC and the BoCC continue to review and approve sand extractions on a case-by-case basis instead of a county-wide basis, they will not see the full impact their decisions are having on the county as a whole. In other words, it may require a change in the thought process in order to see the bigger picture as to how many sand pits are already operating, their location for density purposes, and confirming whether or not there is a valid and local economic need to approve additional mining of a natural resource.It is refreshing to see an elected official challenge the norm in an effort to maintain the confidence and trust of the public, and I admire her dedication and tenacity.
Full and Fair Disclosure:Welshimer beat me once. It was and is a Democrat District, not anything for me or any other Republican who has lost to Welshimer to be ashamed of. Even so, to save you the trouble of bringing it up, I do so myself.
Welshimer is not always right, but I do admire her guts. However, BB plays dirty and she better be careful!
Remember when the Late Great Jan Kennedy was raked over the coals for hiring a consultant. Former County Treasurer Jan Kennedy, a Democrat, was absolutely within her rights to hire an outside consultant. The person she hired was the person who WROTE the Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles computer program.
Kennedy could not find anyone else who had the knowledge of this person. It was not practical to put this person on her staff, since she only had one project for him to research.Kennedy told the Manager, the County Counselor and the Commissioners, more than once, that she was going to do what she did.At least two Commissioners told Kennedy to quit wasting their time on the matter and do it, since she had the authority to do it without their consent.
It was County Manager BB that kept taking shots at Kennedy.
The Eagle is equally at fault for its shabby treatment of Jan Kennedy. I told the Eagle countless times, through many different avenues, that the Eagle was wrong on the Kennedy story. Not one word of my defense of Jan Kennedy ever made it into print.The Eagle even brought up Kennedy’s trumped up troubles when it reported her death!
I am a witness to Jan Kennedy telling other officials of her plans.
The County Counselor was asked, directly, if he saw anything wrong with Kennedy’s plans. He NEVER told Jan Kennedy that there were any legal issues involved that might get her in trouble.
Then BB unloaded on Jan, with leaked, false information, about this issue and other issues.
Of coarse, the Manager was still mad at Jan Kennedy and other officials for blocking his failed power-grab.
Remember when BB wanted to take over the Register of Deeds, Clerk and Treasurer’s offices?
The checks and balances in the system are there for a reason. There are about 105 taxing authorities in Sedgwick County. Any money that can’t be distributed due to math errors, rounding errors, etc, stays with the County. This is a BIG conflict of interest.
Anyway, if Kennedy was wrong to hire a consultant, I can’t see how any consultant can be justified.
I think consultants are sometimes a good idea, but the actions of the Eagle and County Officials like BB are very suspect.