Category: Unified Government Commission

Two Unified Government committees are scheduled to meet Monday night.

The Economic Development and Finance Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, in the fifth floor conference room, Suite 515, City Hall, 701 N. 7th St., Kansas City, Kansas.

The meeting also will be on Zoom.

On the agenda for the EDF meeting will be a resolution authorizing the Board of Public Utilities to obtain a loan from the Kansas Public Water Supply Fund administered by the Kansas Department of Helath and Environment.

Also on the agenda is a resolution amending the Brotherhood Bank multi-purpose commercial project, with a total not to exceed $28 million in industrial revenue bonds for a sales tax exemption at the buildings at 753 State Ave. and 736 Minnesota. The project includes office uses, multi-family units and facilities. KDG LLC is the developer. There are 29 multi-family units in the project. In June 2022 the original resolution was for $12 million in IRBs.

The UG Neighborhood and Community Development Committee meeting will begin after the end of the EDF meeting, in the fifth floor meeting room.

The NCD committee will hear an update on the east-west transit study from the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.

There also are more than 80 Land Bank properties on the NCD agenda for option applications. Also, several Land Bank property transfers are on the agenda.

To see the Land Bank items, visit the meeting agenda at https://www.wycokck.org/Departments/Clerks-Office/Agendas-Minutes.

To connect to the EDF meeting on Zoom, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81807215665?pwd=dUFaM1p2YzFBNHhISVBhR1BCVkc5Zz09.
The passcode is 610969.

To connect to the NCD meeting on Zoom, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81807215665?pwd=dUFaM1p2YzFBNHhISVBhR1BCVkc5Zz09.
The passcode is 610969.

More information about the meetings is at https://www.wycokck.org/Engage-With-Us/Calendar-of-Events/Meetings-Taskforces/Standing-Committee-Meeting-EDF-and-NCD.

The Unified Government Commission approved a resolution at last Thursday’s meeting that will result in a policy discussion on marijuana and sentencing.

According to Misty Brown, UG chief counsel, this effort began with a group of interested individuals discussing how the marijuana laws affected the residents of Wyandotte County. Brown spoke at the Sept. 29 UG meeting.

Their intent was to take away some of the penalties of the law, she said. More work is required by the committee to discuss larger issues, education, treatment and prevention, she said.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez said he completely supported the resolution.

Brown said the original discussion was about reducing penalties for conviction so as not to be overly burdensome to residents. Part of the discussion centered on a $10 fine for the first offense. But a problem, she said, is that the third offense is still a felony. If residents think it is a minor offense and then they are caught in another district, they potentially could have felony convictions on their record.

The committee will be looking at diversion expungement, and ways of making sure a conviction does not ruin someone’s life, she said.

Commissioner Andrew Davis said he supported this resolution. Missouri is heading toward legalization of marijuana, which will have an effect on this community, he said. He said the Kansas Legislature needs to get moving on the issue.

The country seems to be headed toward legalization, along with Missouri, and Colorado already has legalized marijuana, he said.

Mayor Tyrone Garner said the city of Wichita’s elected body has taken action to remove some major penalties involved with marijuana.

While the resolution that passed 9-0 on Sept. 29 by the UG Commission does not specifically support the decriminalization of marijuana outright, it does support developing a policy of education, prevention and treatment surrounding the possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and the sentencing for the offenses. It mentions mitigation of overly burdensome penalties related to marijuana and paraphernalia offenses. It calls for an analysis of surrounding jurisdictions’ approaches to marijuana sentences and an analysis of public health research on the topic.

The policies that are developed by administrators, the mayor or the committee would come back to the UG Commission for review.

In response to President Biden’s announcement Thursday that those who had been convicted in federal court of simple marijuana offenses would be pardoned, and criminalization laws would be renewed, Kansas House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer issued a statement in support of a state effort.

“Here in Kansas, we need to pass medicinal marijuana and decriminalize possession as soon as we can. It’s the right thing to do for the economy, for healthcare patients, for opioid addicts, for retaining young people, for our farmers, for the state’s coffers, and most of all, for people who have been unfairly maligned for simple marijuana possession,”  Sawyer stated.

Kansas Treasurer Lynn Rogers issued a statement that an estimated $42 million in lost tax revenue in Kansas is left on the table each year with the current marijuana laws.

“It is past time for Kansas and the U.S. to end the criminalization of cannabis and recognize the agricultural and medical benefits while freeing up critical resources in law enforcement and justice,” Rogers said. “The Federal Government removing cannabis from the list of schedule 1 narcotics will allow Kansas to make critical changes to banking and enforcement that will free up our economy.”

The Unified Government named a new municipal court administrative judge, Meaghan Shultz, on Thursday.

The Unified Government Commission held interviews with three candidates for the position, Judge Shultz, Judge Brandelyn Nichols-Brajkovic and attorney Joni Cole at Thursday night’s meeting. Then commissioners voted for their selection on paper ballots.

Because it was a 5-4 vote, and six votes were needed to pass it, Mayor Tyrone Garner was then asked to vote, and Shultz received six votes.

Judge Nichols-Brajkovic currently holds the administrative position, and that term is set to expire on Friday, Sept. 30.

The interviews started around 10:30 p.m. Thursday during the UG meeting.

Misty Brown, UG chief legal counsel, said the four-year administrative judge term runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2026. She said the contract could have been renewed, and Mayor Garner chose to reopen the process.

A judicial nominating committee with Commissioners Tom Burroughs, Mike Kane and Angela Markley was convened, Brown said. The UG received eight applications after the position was posted, she added.

Shultz was named a municipal court judge in March 2019. Prior to that, she was a municipal prosecutor for the UG.

Judge Nichols-Brajkovic has been the administrative judge since March 2019. She has been a municipal court judge since 2013.

Now there is another opening on the municipal court, according to Brown. It is Shultz’s unexpired term.

The UG could redo the process to fill the remaining two years in Shultz’s contract, she said. They can either use the same applicant pool or form a new nominating commission, she said.

Brown said municipal court has a list of pro tem judges that they can rotate until they fill the open position on municipal court.

Shultz has a law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in justice systems and psychology from Truman State University.

Foster care, church zoning item

The UG Commission spent hours listening to the proponents and opponents of a proposal to put a church and seven foster care homes on property that was formerly Manion’s auction house at 4411 N. 67th St.

The project had been recommended for denial by the City Planning Commission earlier because of the narrowness of the street, the lack of infrastructure and the character of the neighborhood. The UG Commission’s decision Thursday was to uphold that denial. The UG planning staff had recommended approval of the project.

According to UG officials, the applicant did not really need a zoning change to build the homes or the church, but could go ahead with the project as long as they get the plats approved. There were also zoning changes involved with splitting the property.

Those who were for the project were residents of Johnson and Leavenworth counties, while those who were against it were residents of Kansas City, Kansas. A protest petition from the neighbors was ruled invalid, according to UG planning staff, because it covered 18 percent of the adjacent land area, not 20 percent.

In other action, the UG Commission passed a master plan amendment for the 505 Central Ave. apartment building, along with a resolution of intent to issue $25 million in industrial revenue bonds for the apartment project. There was one resident who was opposed. The project has received a number of approvals previously.

The UG Commission also approved reassigning a resolution of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds for the Village West Apartments III, which has had a change in the ownership structure. It is the same as had previously been approved, according to UG officials.

Thursday was the last meeting for UG Economic Development Director Katharine Carttar, who has served in the position about four and a half years. She was one of three department heads who announced resignations recently. The others were Kathleen von Achen, chief financial officer; and Rob Richardson, former planning director and current development coordination and customer service success director.

Mayor Garner and UG commissioners thanked Carttar, who is married to Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas, for her service. Garner said everyone benefited from her being there.

Bridgette Cobbins, assistant county administrator, said Carttar had been nothing but professional during her tenure.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez thanked her for helping to explain economic development concepts when he was new on the commission. Commissioner Melissa Bynum complimented Carttar’s professionalism and said she was always “super responsive.” Commissioner Brian McKiernan said, “You’re leaving us better than you found us and for that we really appreciate you.”