Month: March 2019

The Board of Public Utilities is scheduled to meet for a work session at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, at the BPU offices at 540 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.

On the agenda for the work session are a board update and general manager update, and a Rosedale review.

The BPU will meet for a regular session at 6 p.m. March 20 at the BPU offices, 540 Minnesota Ave. On the agenda are a visitors’ time, an environmental review, Dogwood review, board comments, general manager comments, and an executive session on the general manager search.

Unified Government committees today will hear a proposal for temporary inmate housing agreements, as well as a temporary dispatch center relocation, and a proposal from a resident to decriminalize marijuana.

The UG Public Works and Safety Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Monday, March 18, at the fifth floor meeting room, City Hall, 701 N. 7th St., Kansas City, Kansas. The Administration and Human Services Committee meeting will follow.

The Public Works and Safety Committee will consider a resolution for the temporary housing of inmates. Under the resolution, the UG would enter into inmate housing agreements with Miami, Jackson, Andrew, Leavenworth and Butler counties.

According to agenda information, there has been a continued increase in jail inmate population in Wyandotte County. The resolution would allow the county administrator to enter into agreements that follow a recommended form.

Also on the agenda is an agreement between the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department and the Bonner Springs Police Department for traffic enforcement and limited law enforcement at the Renaissance Festival and the Providence Medical Center Amphitheater in Bonner Springs.

The Public Works and Safety Committee also is scheduled to hear a discussion about the Adopt-a-Spot program, where community groups or individuals would be able to adopt a place in Wyandotte County and keep it cleaned up.

The Administration and Human Services Committee tonight is scheduled to hear an update on the project to renovate the Public Safety Dispatch Center. As part of the renovation, the dispatch center would be temporarily relocated to the Johnson County Dispatch Center.

Also scheduled is an appearance by Murray Anderson Sr., a resident, to request decriminalization of the use of marijuana.

To see an agenda, visit www.wycokck.org/Clerk/Agendas.aspx.

The Kansas Supreme Court has appointed District Judge Robert Burns as chief judge of the 29th Judicial District effective from May 4 through Dec. 31, 2019.

Burns will succeed Judge R. Wayne Lampson, who will retire May 4.

The 29th Judicial District is composed of Wyandotte County.

“We are glad that Judge Burns has agreed to serve as chief judge, providing continuity in capable leadership in the 29th Judicial District,” said Lawton Nuss, chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, in a news release.

Burns was elected a district judge for the 29th Judicial District in 2004.

“I am honored to accept this appointment,” Burns said in a news release. “I look forward to working with our judges, attorneys, clerks, and staff to provide a fair, efficient, and accessible court system in Wyandotte County. I would like to acknowledge and thank Chief Judge Wayne Lampson for the guidance and leadership he has provided to us during his distinguished tenure and wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement.”

A lifelong resident of Kansas City, Kansas, Burns received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1988 and a law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1991.  He is a 1984 graduate of Bishop Ward High School.

He was in private practice from 1991 to 1995 and a legal department attorney for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, from 1996 to 2004. 

Each of Kansas’ 31 judicial districts has a chief judge who, in addition to his or her judicial responsibilities, has general control over case assignments within the district, as well as general supervisory authority over the administrative and clerical functions of the court.