Views
Opinion column
by Murrel Bland
David C. Toland’s goal is for the Kansas Department of Commerce to move at the speed of business, not the speed of government.
Toland, who is secretary of the Kansas Commerce Department, was the featured speaker at the Congressional Forum Friday, May 15. Because of the coronavirus epidemic, the meeting was held as a teleconference. The forum is a committee of the Kansas City, Kansas, Area Chamber of Commerce.
Toland, who was appointed to the job by Gov. Laura Kelly last January, has been busy rebuilding the Commerce Department. He is filling positions that have been vacant for some time. Toland said the agency now has business recruiters in Chicago, Los Angles, Dallas, New York City and Springfield, Missouri. He said that Kansas is a good place to do business because of a lower operating cost and its central location. He also said the agency is recruiting in the international marketplace.
Toland praised Kansas banks for aggressively assisting the Paycheck Protection Program, an effort that the Small Business Administration directed. Kanas businesses received more than $5.1 billion that helped small businesses keep their employees during the downturn that the coronavirus caused.
Toland also praised the cooperative efforts of the Wyandotte Economic Development Council in its effort to help existing business and recruit new firms.
Toland’s appointment was not without controversy. He served as treasurer of Gov. Kelly’s election campaign committee. In March, conservative senators opposed his nomination because of his leadership of Thrive Allen County, a health advocacy and economic development agency in Iola, Kansas. Usually appointments by the governor face little opposition.
Kansans for Life, an anti-abortion organization, opposed Toland’s appointment. Thrive Allen County received a grant from the Dr. George Tiller Fund to help pregnant women stop smoking. Toland supporters stressed that none of the funds paid for abortion services.
Before coming to Iola, Toland worked for Mayor Anthony Williams of Washington, D.C., in planning and economic development positions.
Toland received his undergraduate degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He is a seventh generation Kansan. He and his wife Beth, a KU alumna, are the parents of a daughter Caroline and a son William.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.