by Mary Rupert
Incumbents are facing challenges in the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, for Board of Public Utilities seats.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, in Wyandotte County. Voters should go to their assigned polling places and bring their driver’s licenses.
The general rule that incumbents have an advantage in local elections did not hold true for all of the BPU candidates in the primary election. State legislators with high name recognition took the lead in two of the three contests.
The incumbent in the at-large, position 3, BPU seat, Norm Scott, did not advance in the six-person primary. The general election will decide whether David Haley, a state senator, or Rose Mulvany Henry, a utility attorney, will be the next BPU member in position 3 at-large. Haley received about 35 percent of the vote to Mulvany Henry’s 23 percent in the primary.
In the primary, Stan Frownfelter, who also is a state representative, received around 200 more votes than incumbent Jeff Bryant in the BPU, 3rd District.
In the BPU’s 1st District, incumbent Bob Milan was the clear winner in the primary, leading with about 62 percent of the vote. La Ron Thompson was second with about 36 percent of the vote.
The candidates discussed the issues at a candidate forum Oct. 15 at Kansas City Kansas Community College. The forum was sponsored by Business West, neighborhood organizations and KCKCC, and can be seen on YouTube.
BPU, at-large, position 3
David Haley, a state senator, is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, who has served in the state Senate and House for about 25 years. He has been involved in real estate development and is a public affairs counsel. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C.
He said there are still many questions left to be answered about the BPU that are not being addressed.
During the past 30 or 40 years, people have run for BPU office and promised transparency, accountability and a sense of reality for more livability, he said. However, often the candidates in the past have not fulfilled those promises.
Why, Haley asked at the candidate forum Oct. 15, are some entities disconnected after a month and a half, while other entities can go years without paying their bills.
At the Oct. 15 forum, Haley said he is against selling the BPU to a private utility. He has been sent several proposals, some which suggest that the ratepayers would be better off with a sale, but he said he agrees with the majority of people who think that the city owning its own utility is a plus.
Rose Mulvany Henry, an attorney who specializes in utility issues and who is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, said she feels she is uniquely qualified for this position. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and a law degree from Washburn University.
She said her priorities were to bring about more accountability, more transparency with the BPU, and to create a culture of safety.
She also said she wants to look at and evaluate the utility rules that apply to ratepayers, and try to improve them where they can. She also would like the BPU to negotiate the union contract on time and early if they can, to bring stability to the employees.
“How I plan to get there is building consensus among the board members, something I have a lot of experience doing,” she said at the candidate forum. “I expect to listen to the ratepayers of Wyandotte County, and I’d like to roll up my sleeves and get to work.”
Mulvany Henry said she does not support the sale of the BPU, and she does not support regulation of the BPU by the Kansas Corporation Commission.
“Unequivocally, I would not be in support of the sale of the BPU,” she said.
BPU, 3rd District
Incumbent Jeff Bryant said when he first ran for the 3rd District, his platform was simple, he just wanted to make sure people’s voices were being heard.
“Working together we can find answers to the questions and concerns we have about the public utility,” he said.
He said he would treat everyone with the respect they deserve and that his goal is to demonstrate public service can still exist in a public servant.
A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Bryant has worked more than three decades for Plastic Packaging, a company in the Muncie area of KCK. His work involves analyzing costs.
Bryant said he would be against selling the BPU to a private utility.
“We currently have a municipal utility that we’re all invested in, we all gain from, the employees of our utility are required to be Kansas City, Kansas, citizens, which means those jobs that are paid above poverty level are paying taxes in Wyandotte County, are held by Kansas City, Kansans,” Bryant said. “I think that’s important. We don’t need to lose more tax dollars and more good-paying jobs out of our city.”
Stan Frownfelter, also running for 3rd District, has been a state legislator for 13 years, with one year left on his term.
He said he has looked at what is going on at the BPU and is not happy with it.
“There are questions that need to be asked, that haven’t been yet, and they need answers for them,” Frownfelter said.
He said he would fight for the BPU and make sure it is around for the next decade or two.
Frownfelter does not support the sale of the BPU to a private utility. He said there is too much invested over generations of people who work there. Also, if the BPU is sold, would the community get what they want out of it, he asked. The BPU currently is the third largest revenue source for the city, and “we couldn’t sell it if we wanted to,” he said.
BPU, 1st District
Incumbent Robert “Bob” Milan has served on the BPU board 28 years, with five different general managers. He is retired from the Department of Labor, where he worked more than 30 years, ending as a federal representative. Milan has been a member of the Northeast Optimist Club and NAACP, and is a past state president of AARP, in 2001.
Milan said the BPU has provided 1,900 street lights worth $5.4 million, 9,000 traffic lights, and 6,000 fire hydrants. The BPU provides $45 million a year to the Unified Government, in addition to services.
Milan does not support the sale of the BPU.
The street lights, traffic lights and fire hydrants BPU provides now would not be available from a private company if the BPU were sold, he said. The city would have to come up with additional resources for them. The BPU has invested its resources to make sure the community has the services it needs, he said, and the profits don’t go to stockholders in Wall Street.
“We must reinvest in our own community, and that’s what public utilities is all about,” Milan said.
LaRon Thompson, also a candidate for the 1st District, said he is running because the time is right and the 1st District deserves honest and consistent representation.
“We’ve seen the same representation for 28 years, I’m 28 years old, and for all of my life we’ve seen the same representation,” Thompson said. “I believe it is time for that to change. It’s time for us to invest in our younger generation, and the leaders of today.”
The mission of the BPU is to focus on the needs of the customers, while improving the quality of life and providing safe, reliable and sustainable utilities, he said.
“I don’t believe the current board or any previous boards have done an adequate job of fulfilling that mission,” he said.
Citing the poverty rate of 34 percent in the the 66101 zip code area, he said the BPU needs to do what it can to ensure the individuals who live in Wyandotte County have a sustainable life.
Thompson, a native of Wyandotte County who serves as a pastor of a church, is in favor of more transparency by streaming BPU board meetings on YouTube or social media.
Thompson said he would not support the sale of the BPU to a private company. That would eliminate the voice of the public, and he said he would not support anything that eliminates the voice of the public in Wyandotte County.
Other issues such as the environment, collecting back payments from the T-Bones, and individual customers who believe that mistakes had been made on their bills were discussed at the forum on Oct. 15. The Oct. 15 forum was sponsored by Business West, KCKCC and neighborhood organizations.
To see a video of a candidate forum with BPU candidates, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWD4FaDy_hM.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, and the polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters should go to their assigned polling places and bring identification such as a driver’s license.
Past stories about the elections in 2019 are found under the category, Election 2019, on the Wyandotte Daily website, at https://wyandotteonline.com/category/election-2019/.
To contact Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].
