County should learn lesson about non-agenda items

Here’s hoping Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Kelly Parks and other commissioners learned a lesson about rushing to approve non-agenda items. The commission last week approved — without prior public notice and with little vetting — an agreement for Heritage Development Group to promote the Kansas Coliseum complex for livestock, rodeo and equine events. This week The Eagle reported that Heritage offered few details in its business plan and that president and CEO Greg Lippincott was recalled in 2007 as trustee of Ryan Township in Sumner County in a dispute about open meetings and records violations and alleged misuse of funds. When contacted by The Eagle, Lippincott said he was too busy to talk about his company’s plans and experience. We can hope the seven-month agreement will be successful for the county and Heritage. And if it isn’t, at least the county hasn’t agreed to pay Heritage anything. Still, it’s embarrassing that the county approved the agreement without knowing more about the company or its plans.

6 Comments

  1. bth
    Posted July 22, 2009 at 8:37 am | Permalink

    Kommisar Kelly likes his backroom deals. Get everything worked out behind closed doors and then spring on on the Commission. That way he gets what he wants and other viewpoints are shut out; we only hear from his little ‘in’ groups.

    The unfortunate thing is that the rest of the Commission lets him get away with it and meekly follow along. Maybe this time at least one of them will ‘grow a pair’ and stand up to Parks.

  2. Politico
    Posted July 22, 2009 at 9:03 am | Permalink

    Kelly Parks is such a fool. His abuse of power is getting out of hand. The other’s going along with him are just as foolish.

    Government should be more open. Enough of the back room deals.

  3. Regular
    Posted July 22, 2009 at 9:03 am | Permalink

    Perhaps they are not eating a proper breakfast before they make decisions? All those pastries might induce hyperactive based decision making. :)

  4. Phantom
    Posted July 22, 2009 at 10:54 am | Permalink

    I knew it! The minute I saw that guy in his cowboy hat, I said “He reminds me of Etheridge, probably another con.”

  5. bth
    Posted July 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm | Permalink

    The rest of the Commission should routinely vote to table Parks wild out-of-the-blue motions for further consideration. Parks method of operation is to get his little cliques together and then blindside the Commission. They should rein him in.

  6. robo
    Posted July 22, 2009 at 9:12 pm | Permalink

    anyonewho votes for this bill should be recalled and obama should be impeached!