Category: Kansas Legislature

Kansas legislators to hold second round of redistricting town hall meetings in November

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Kansas lawmakers announced Tuesday they will hold a second round of town hall meetings to gather public input on the redistricting process, but they won’t attend the meetings in person.

The House and Senate Committees on Redistricting will hold four meetings late next month, organized by congressional district. Kansans may attend one of the various locations set up in cities across the state or join legislators online to provide testimony virtually.

All committee members will attend via the web.

Republican leaders scheduled 14 town halls in August to gather opinions about how political boundaries should be redrawn for 2022. The schedule was announced on a Friday night just nine days before the first of the meetings, most of which took place during the work day. Full U.S. Census data hadn’t been released yet.

Democrats, election advocates and speakers at the forums complained about the process and asked for a new round of town halls.

“It’s important to remember that redistricting is a multi-year process that starts with these town halls to get a gauge on what Kansans want,” said House Speaker Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, in an August statement. “Additional public input will be needed.”

All of the meetings in the second round will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Kansans can provide in-person testimony for the 2nd District on Nov. 22 in Atchison, Ottawa, Independence or on Native American reservations; the 1st District on Nov. 23 in Emporia, Great Bend, Liberal or McPherson; the 4th District on Nov. 29 in Newton or El Dorado; and the 3rd District on Nov. 30 in Bonner Springs or Stilwell.

Those wishing to testify must notify the Kansas Legislative Research Department at least 24 hours in advance. Kansans may also submit written testimony.

Sen. Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said she hoped there would be guidelines for the redistricting process in place before the next round to provide further clarity for the public on the goals of redistricting.

“I think we got a good direction from those original town halls, and several are wanting to know, what is the criteria that we’re looking for? What are we holding ourselves accountable to as we’re redrawing these maps?” Sykes said during a meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council.

“Your feelings and hopes are duly noted,” said Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, in response.

The value of having these town halls is diluted without guidelines in place, said Davis Hammett, CEO and president of Loud Light. He said it is currently unclear what Kansans should be testifying about.

“I’m very concerned and I think those questions need to be answered,” Hammet said. “Why should someone testify, right? That’s what needs to be clarified. Why haven’t these basic things been addressed yet?”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/10/26/kansas-legislators-to-host-second-round-of-redistricting-town-hall-meetings-in-november/

Kansas senator makes plea deal in DUI case after driving wrong direction on I-70

GOP’s Suellentrop avoids felony conviction, agrees to serve 48 hours in jail

by Tim Carpenter and Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Sen. Gene Suellentrop entered a no contest plea to two misdemeanor charges Monday that stemmed from an incident in March in which he drove for miles in the wrong direction on Interstate 70 before being stopped by a Kansas Highway Patrol officer.

Suellentrop, a Wichita Republican who was forced out of his role as the Kansas Senate’s majority leader following his arrest, agreed to a deal that avoided conviction on a felony charge, including the pending count of eluding police. The plea agreement with prosecutors led Judge Jason Geier to find Suellentrop guilty of driving under the influence and of reckless driving.

Suellentrop acknowledged the evidence would prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. According to the KHP officer’s charging affidavit, he was driving at speeds approaching 100 mph while fleeing through Topeka, and multiple vehicles swerved to avoid head-on collisions. When he was finally stopped, he reeked of alcohol and struggled to speak.

“There are many lessons to be learned in circumstances such as these, and I can assure you I’ve learned my share,” Suellentrop told the court before sentencing. “I take full responsibility for my actions, and I apologize for my actions. You will not see me in this court or any other court of law on any similar infractions whatsoever.”

Suellentrop is required by state law to serve 48 hours in the Shawnee County Jail. His incarceration is set to begin at noon Nov. 18.

The judge suspended a six-month sentence for the DUI conviction and 90 days for reckless driving and ordered Suellentrop to serve one year of probation. Suellentrop also has to participate in eight therapy sessions and take a substance abuse class. Eventually, he will be eligible to have the convictions expunged from his record, the judge said.

Although the judge has the authority to reject the terms of a plea deal, Geier said it was the court’s policy to accept any agreement reached between the prosecutor’s office and a defense attorney.

“I know this case has garnered a lot of attention — media attention and attention from the public,” Geier said. “I’m not allowed ethically to consider any of those outside influences.”

After taken into custody March 16, Suellentrop was verbally abusive to law enforcement officers attempting to test his blood alcohol level. He called the arresting officer a “donut boy,” the officer wrote in his report. Suellentrop bragged that he could beat the officer in a fight because he played sports competitively in high school.”

He refused to voluntarily take a breath test, and a search warrant had to be obtained to compel the senator to give a blood sample for testing. That produced a reading of 0.17%, far above the legal limit of 0.08% in Kansas to legally operate a vehicle.

Suellentrop’s attorney, Tom Lemon, told the court he had produced a transcript from video of Suellentrop’s arrest. The transcript doesn’t include “salacious” language that got people’s attention. The attorney didn’t specify which words he was referring to.

“He was, frankly, what I would expect for a 69-year-old intoxicated man dealing with a younger trooper,” Lemon said.

Lemon said his client had drank too much and wasn’t aware he was being followed by police.

“As he stands here in front of you, he’s a 69-year-old man who doesn’t have any criminal history,” Lemon said. “I mean, he’s a parent, he’s a husband, he’s a father, he’s a grandfather, he’s a business owner. All other aspects of his life are in good shape. But it was a very, very, bad mistake that he made.”

“I say all these things not as an excuse or to divert anything,” the attorney continued, “but for mitigation purposes, judge. Because of the place that he holds, he’s not down the hall in the DUI docket today with every other DUI case.”

Wichita residents Jane Byrnes and Michael McCortle attended the hearing and were disappointed to see Suellentrop evade felony conviction.

“A felony is considerably different than this little tap on the arm,” Byrnes said.

McCortle, a constituent of the senator, said he deserves better representation.

“We were hoping to witness equal justice here today, what anybody else would have gotten,” McCortle said.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/10/25/suellentrop-makes-plea-deal-in-dui-case-after-driving-wrong-direction-on-i-70/.

Kansas lawmakers want to challenge a COVID-19 vaccine policy that doesn’t exist yet

by Abigail Censky, KCUR and Kansas News Service

Republicans in Kansas are intent on pushing back against a forthcoming federal vaccine policy for private employers. The only problem? It isn’t written yet. But the politics of a non-existent policy are benefiting both sides.

Kansas Republicans opposing COVID-19 vaccine requirements are pushing ahead with an effort to sidestep a federal vaccine mandate that hasn’t yet been written. GOP members in the Legislature created a special committee to look for ways to fight President Joe Biden’s proposed policy, which they see as an egregious overreach of government.

“I hope that it will open some eyes in the community,” said state Sen. Mike Thompson, a former meteorologist who circulated misinformation and cast doubt on the efficacy of vaccines and masks throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve got a lot of folks who are reaching out to us,” he said, “begging us for help.”

It’s the latest move by Republicans to challenge public health policies aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus as the state comes down from a summer surge in cases fueled by the delta variant. The new committee was formed the day Gov. Laura Kelly ordered flags be flown half-staff in honor of the 6,024 Kansans who’ve died of COVID-19 and before the final federal policy has been published.

In the coming weeks, the nine Republicans will likely overpower the committee’s three, not yet appointed, Democrats to determine if it’s possible to thwart an impending federal vaccine mandate.

Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation are also mounting several legislative challenges, and the state’s Republican attorney general has sworn he’ll challenge the policy. However, there’s one very large problem: the fine print of the policy mandating employers with more than 100 employees to require vaccinations or regular testing doesn’t exist yet.

Some lawmakers wanted a special session to fight the mandate, but Republican Senate President Ty Masterson said it might be premature.

“Even if there were a special session, what we would do is we would have a committee meeting hearings, right?” he said when lawmakers formed the committee.

A special legislative session could cost Kansas taxpayers up to $65,000 dollars a day.

“It’s a little bit of cart and the horse,” Masterson said of calling lawmakers back to Topeka when there are still questions surrounding what the policy will look like.


“All of that’s a little bit up in the air right now,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer with the Association of State and Territorial Health Professionals.

“If this is framed as what we call a preemptive policy,” he said, “then states may be very limited in being able to do any laws of their own about this.”

Only one state, Montana, bans private employers from requiring employees to be vaccinated, and a Montana legal firm is currently challenging the law. Similar legislation in Kansas failed to pass the state Senate earlier this year.

According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, vaccination mandates for state workers are banned in eight states, but state employees are required to be vaccinated in 19 states.

The uncertainty about the vaccine mandate hasn’t stopped Kansas Republicans in Washington from producing a flurry of legislation ahead of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration publishing its emergency temporary standard.

Sen. Roger Marshall introduced an amendment, which failed along party lines, attempting to block the government from using any federal funds to enforce COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Rep. Tracey Mann also introduced a bill attempting to block OSHA from creating any temporary emergency standards around vaccines, and Rep. Ron Estes has announced he plans to introduce a bill to guarantee religious exemptions under the emergency standard.

Mann and Estes have also signed onto a letter urging Biden to drop the policy. Attorneys general in 24 states, including Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, also vowed to challenge the policy once it’s written.

Yet congressional Republicans may be bound by the same constraints as state lawmakers if the federal policy is written to prevent loopholes. The administration could also be slow walking the rolling out of an official policy while companies begin to take action.

“That could be part of the tactic,” Plescia said, “just stall the implementation for so long that, by the time it clears, the time to do this has passed.”

As an example, the new CEO of Cerner Corp., David Feinberg, instituted a vaccine mandate for the Kansas City area’s largest private employer in early October.

Retired labor attorney Charles Gordon posited in the Wall Street Journal that a policy that never arrives, “may prove more useful as a Sword of Damocles than a real requirement.”

The very idea of challenging the policy is also politically expedient for Republicans. Polling from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates a majority of Americans support Biden’s potential vaccine mandate or regular testing for private employers, but 6 in 10 Republicans oppose the policy.

Plescia is worried in states like Kansas, the Legislature could threaten long-standing public health policies. A challenge to COVID-19 mandates could open Pandora’s box, weakening popular public health rules like child vaccination requirements in schools or other public health policies.

“From what we’ve seen recently with a lot of other curtailing of public health powers,” Plescia said, “we are concerned about this. It could be the thin edge of a wedge in some states.”

Jim McLean of the Kansas News Service contributed to this story.
Abigail Censky is the political reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @AbigailCensky or email her at abigailcensky (at) kcur (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-10-07/kansas-lawmakers-want-to-challenge-a-covid-19-vaccine-policy-that-doesnt-exist-yet