by Mary Rupert
While most of the candidates for the Unified Government, 1st District at large, position found some common ground in support of tax relief, there were some differences in experience and the changes the candidates want to make if elected.
More than 30 people attended the candidates’ forum Feb. 19 at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center, 1310 N. 10th St., Kansas City, Kan. It was sponsored by the Historic Northeast Midtown Association. It was a bitterly cold evening, it snowed a little in the afternoon, and the forum was at the same time as a UG public hearing on the budget, possibly affecting the turnout at the forum. The primary election is Tuesday, March 3.
Five of the seven candidates attended the forum. Missing from the candidate forum were two of the seven candidates, Mark Gilstrap, a former state senator, and Tamika Pledger, a community activist. None of the other candidates mentioned their absence.
What the candidates would do if elected
Nathan Barnes was a UG commissioner from the 1st District for 18 years, before he gave up his seat to run for mayor in 2013, and he is a business owner. He said if he is elected, he favors tax relief, and he would not be in favor of more extensions to the STAR (sales tax revenue) bonds. He said some of the savings from the STAR bonds already is being spent, and he would vote for tax relief as part of that.
Barnes said the reasons many commissioners in the past voted for economic development projects was that they were supposed to have provided tax relief. He said there had been too many promises made that were not kept. Barnes also said he would like to stop the tearing down of so many houses in the northeast area, saying he would rather that they be renovated.
Christal Watson, the president of the Kansas Black Chamber of Commerce and an elected member of the Kansas City, Kan., Board of Education, said if elected, she would like to help people here find jobs, and increase efforts to train and employ people in the community.
She also said she favored doing more to help the public schools in the community, especially with cutbacks from the state. She supports talking with businesses, whose employees will be paying less in income taxes, about using some of those savings to help the community.
In addition, Watson said she favors tax relief, and she also said she would like to see some additional money that is freed up after the STAR bonds are paid off going to help nonprofits and neighborhood groups that provide service to the community, and improve parks and recreation programs for youth.
Melissa Bynum, the executive director of the Shepherd’s Center, who has 20 years of service with community agencies, said she would concentrate on partnerships.
“Partnerships is how we solve problems in this community,” Bynum said. She would build partnerships with the community into the UG’s strategic plan.
Also, Bynum said the UG’s strategic plan talks about a desire to reduce taxes. She said she would like to add real, concrete steps the UG could do right now, not wait a few years, to reduce property taxes. She said she has heard people talk about their high property taxes, from east to west.
LaVert Murray, who retired after 37 years with the UG, where he was the community development director, said he favored a policy of no new taxes and no tax growth. He said with the current state situation, the local community may have to bear the burden.
“We have not achieved balance in this community,” Murray said about the location of economic development projects. “We must look for innovative and creative ways to achieve balance as we go about the task of building this city.”
Murray said when additional funds are available from the STAR bonds, he would favor a good portion of it applied to tax relief. He also would favor economic development in the northeast area.
Janice Witt, the founder of the Reola Grant Civitan Center, which helps the needy, said everyone should stop talking about tax relief, and start doing it.
“The first thing I would do is recognize, here is the voice of the people,” she said. People have been saying they need less taxes, as well as less corruption, less greed, and less favoritism, she said.
“I’m sick of hearing the northeast versus the west,” Witt said. “It is an unfair comparison.… We have got to unify in more than a name in this community,” she said.
Witt said she did not expect there to be any funds available when the STAR bonds are paid off, because the community is already in debt.
Working with the other commissioners
The candidates also offered their views on how they would get five other commissioners to agree on their projects.
Murray said he would try to convince the others that it is the right thing to do, and he would not make any quid pro quo agreements.
Watson said she would get the facts, share them, and show how the project could be beneficial in a positive, unemotional way.
Bynum said she had experience with bringing people together in neighborhood groups that would apply. In analyzing problems, they brought people to the table, looked at the top issues, began problem solving and looked at available resources to address them, she said.
Barnes talked about the need to have a serious conversation about race in the county, and said he had taken other commissioners on a bus tour of the 1st District to see some of the problems first-hand.
Witt said that change follows leadership, and the way the leadership goes is the way the commissioners go. She said lying has to end and has to be called out. “I am not afraid to be negative,” she said. “You can’t fix it if you don’t call it out.”
Witt added that if the people at the top treat the staff with respect, then the staff would treat the community with respect.
Healthy campus
On the topic of the mayor’s healthy campus plan for downtown Kansas City, Kan., Witt said the community didn’t need more initiatives, it needs something done.
“Those in power have dropped us into a hole that we just have to claw our way out of, and you can’t do that by taking on big issues like the healthy campus,” she said. If the UG builds a healthy campus, that’s money that could have gone to bring more households to Wyandotte County, she said. Witt said she didn’t see the healthy campus as a viable project.
People need food and cannot be healthy without food, and the northeast area does not have a grocery store, she said. She pointed out the southeast area recently got two grocery stores, while the northeast did not get any. Witt said the community didn’t need initiatives and more walkways, it needed to get food to the children. Witt also said access to her free food distribution program for the needy, which she and her husband paid for, was stopped by the UG.
Barnes is in favor of the healthy campus plan. However, he said this project may come at the expense of people who need it the most.
Barnes pointed out that a report said the top preferred location for the grocery store was 18th and Parallel, but the second location, 10th and State, was chosen instead.
He is in favor of the overall concept of the project, but there are parts of it that he does not really like. It should not be at the sacrifice of the people who need it the most, “and that’s what I’m seeing right now,” he said.
Murray said he supported the healthy campus and agrees that the “food desert” in the northeast area needs to be addressed. However, he said “the devil’s in the details.”
Most likely the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center may be eliminated and make way for a new YMCA facility, he said.
Murray said while he supports the YMCA, he was concerned that some people in the community would not be able to afford to go to the Y, while the use of the recreation center was free. The grocery store is on the fringe of the area of where it is needed. In general, he supports the idea of the healthy campus, he said.
Bynum said she supported the healthy campus, although “we can all find pieces we do not love.”
She said she was concerned that there would be a community improvement district necessary to support the healthy campus. This would mean the sales tax would increase in part of the downtown area. The additional sales tax would be a “regressive form of taxation,” she said.
At the same time, “the concept of a brand new grocery store with a new Y campus is exciting to me,” Bynum said.
Watson said to support the healthy campus initiative, she would continue to work and build relationships and partner with the health care facilities and support services that are there.
The grocery store and fitness center can contribute to health, Watson said, and there are some programs in the community that could be engaged more in the healthy campus initiative, and make sure they have adequate resources and funding to support it.
The mayor’s diversity task force
On the topic of the mayor’s diversity task force, the candidates mostly were in agreement about a need for it.
Witt said part of the reason there was such a large discrepancy between the number of minority UG employees and the minority percentage of the community was there was so much nepotism in the hiring processes of the city. She favors a change in that.
She said people have been talking about the lack of diversity for a number of years, and they need to do something about it, not just talk about it.
Barnes said he had previously pointed out these diversity issues and for some time was a “lone ranger” in bringing them up.
He helped start the cadet program with the police and fire departments, he said, which recruited minority candidates.
Murray said he believed Mayor Mark Holland was right in his current initiative to change the racial makeup of the fire and police departments.
He said more Kansas City, Kan., residents need to be hired in the jobs that are available in the community. He is in favor of more programs that would bring about diversity in government and in the community.
“When we look at these issues of diversity, whether we’re talking about the police department, the fire department or sheriff’s department, I think we have to face them head on. I think that’s what’s happening now,” Bynum said.
There is particularly an effort in the sheriff’s department and police department to try to right something that hasn’t been righted in a long time, she said. She said the UG might be able to take a lesson from the Kansas City, Kan., school’s police force, which was recently built from scratch, and has a diverse makeup.
Watson said the more diversity that exists, the better off the community.
“It’s unfortunate that we don’t’ see enough diversity in some of those public safety areas, but I do believe this – we are headed in the right direction,” Watson said. People are working together on the task force to try to come up with solutions, she said.
“At least that’s a start,” Watson said. “As long as we continue to move forward, I think that there’s opportunity for that to change and there’s opportunity for more people of color to obtain those jobs and positions.”
Experience
Barnes said the UG commissioner at large position would require someone to hit the ground running, and with his 18 years of experience on the commission in the city and county government, he had the ability to do just that. There is a learning curve for other candidates, he believes. He said residents should vote for someone who knows the history and will make them keep their promises of yesterday.
The other candidates also talked about their experience.
Murray cited his 37 years of working with the Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County governments, in which he was in charge of several large economic development projects, he developed some of the UG’s programs, and he understands the workings of the local government. He is trained in public administration and has taken graduate-level courses in finance, he said.
Bynum discussed her community service experience in working with various groups in the community during the past 20 years. She is a past board chair of the Downtown Shareholders. She also is a past executive director of the Leavenworth Road Association, a neighborhood group, and has experience working with neighborhood leaders and other community officials. In her work with neighborhood groups, she has experience in problem-solving.
Watson cited her experience as an elected member of the Kansas City, Kan., Board of Education, and she also is a trained facilitator in conflict resolution. At a former position with the United Way, she worked with Study Circles, where community members worked together to find solutions.
Witt was one of the founders of the local Civitan community service organization in Kansas City, Kan., is a past owner of small businesses in other counties, and most recently has experience in helping the needy in this community. She said it wasn’t important for a candidate to have experience on the UG Commission, adding, “the worst thing is to continue to ride a dead horse.”
Gilstrap, who did not attend the forum, is a former city treasurer who retired recently from the UG. He is a former state senator from the 5th District. He is the former Wyandotte County Republican Party chairman.
Pledger, who also did not attend, is a community activist.
Other forums
There are some other forums or opportunities scheduled to meet the candidates.
The Wyandotte County Third Saturday Democratic Breakfast will meet this Saturday, Feb. 21, at Kansas City Kansas Community College, 7250 State Ave. The meeting will be in Room 2325-2326, located in the bottom floor of the Jewell Building. Democratic candidates will be invited to speak. The program begins at 9:15 a.m., with the breakfast starting earlier. For more details, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/democrats-to-meet-saturday-5/.
The Armourdale Renewal Association will hold a candidate forum from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Armourdale Recreation Center, 730 Osage, Kansas City, Kan. Candidates must call ahead to register.
Other stories about the UG Commissioner, 1st District at large, race:
https://wyandotteonline.com/seven-candidates-file-for-vacant-ug-seat/
https://wyandotteonline.com/watson-files-for-ug-1st-district-at-large-seat/
https://wyandotteonline.com/barnes-files-for-1st-district-at-large-ug-seat/
https://wyandotteonline.com/gilstrap-files-for-ug-commission-1st-district-at-large-seat/
https://wyandotteonline.com/witt-running-for-ug-commission-1st-district-at-large-seat/
https://wyandotteonline.com/murray-running-for-ug-commission-1st-district-at-large-seat/
https://wyandotteonline.com/mayor-comments-on-border-war-over-economic-development-at-lra-meeting/
https://wyandotteonline.com/pledger-to-remain-on-ballot-election-commissioner-says/
