Witt running for UG Commission, 1st District at large, seat

Janice (Grant) Witt is running for the Unified Government Commission, 1st District at large position.

Witt is the founder and CEO of the Reola Grant Civitan Center, located at the Victory Dodge dealership site on State Avenue, where she assists in charitable efforts in feeding and clothing the needy.

Witt said she is running for office because the “powers that be refuse to acknowledge the desires of the people in this community.”

She said the people’s largest issue is that taxes are too high, and she is in favor of lower taxes. However, she said she is not sure if that is possible, since the government is so much in debt. She said she supports an end to excessive spending by the UG.

Witt said she doubted if some recent developments announced in the community would bring any new jobs here.

There previously had been discussion about reduced taxes when the STAR bonds at Village West are paid off.

“They promised us the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes on BPU bills) is going to go away with the windfall; instead, we get the T-Bones,” Witt said.

“I know that I speak for a huge base of people in Wyandotte County, that have gone unheard,” Witt said. She said she is running to make sure the people are heard.

Witt said she is not a politician and not a community activist, just a community member. She said she did not like all the divisions in the city, and the fighting among the various neighborhoods.

One of her campaign themes is breaking the chains of corruption, greed, favoritism and unfair taxes. She made a reference to Rousseau’s quotation from the Social Contract: “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”

Witt is in her late 40s and has owned small businesses outside of Wyandotte County. She was born and raised in Wyandotte County. She is a graduate of Washington High School and the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Witt helped start a Civitan group for community service in Wyandotte County and served as its president prior to running for public office.

Witt previously ran for the UG Commission, 1st District at large, against Mark Holland. She also ran for the mayor’s office in 2013.

There are seven candidates for UG Commission, 1st District at large, in the primary election, March 3.