UG charter ordinance subcommittee review underway

The Unified Government’s Charter Ordinance Subcommittee on Tuesday went over the ordinance line by line to determine what areas committee members wanted to work on.

Topics that came up during the review included who had the actual authority over employees and the administrator – the mayor, administrator or the commission, or all? Whether the administrator or interim administrator should be required to live in Wyandotte County?

Also, how many commissioners are needed to make the decision to appoint or dismiss the administrator, what is the meaning of majority in this phrasing?

These issues may be addressed at future meetings, according to subcommittee leaders.

The subcommittee is made up only of UG Commissioners at this time. They include UG Commissioners Tom Burroughs, Chuck Stites, Mike Kane, Gayle Townsend and Angela Markley.

Commissioner Mike Kane expressed his opinion that the interim county administrator ought to be required to live in Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas, Bonner Springs or Edwardsville, in the same residency rules applying to other employees.

The UG is paying the interim administrator a serious amount of money and after they get through this temporary situation they’re in now, they shouldn’t put themselves in this situation again, he said.

He also said needing a super-majority has tied the commission’s hands for a long time, and he favored a simple majority vote of the commission.

Kane said the community and commission should have more involvement in picking the administrator. The commission should be more involved than in the past, he said. There was agreement from the subcommittee members that since the mayor has to have the votes for the new administrator, the commission should have some input to make educated decisions leading to enough votes to pass.

Commissioner Stites asked about the commission being provided with more information about the administrator’s proposed contract before it goes through, so that they would know if the contract terms are within line for the size of the city.

Many other issues from the review were discussed Tuesday. They also discussed old language left in the charter ordinance from the mid-1990s that may no longer apply today.

There were no decisions made at the Tuesday meeting. In the future, according to Burroughs, the subcommittee will take up some concerns of the community about the charter ordinance.

In the audience on Tuesday were Mary Gonzales, BPU board president; and former Mayor Carol Marinovich, according to subcommittee leaders.

University of Kansas faculty, academic staff prepare for vote on forming collective bargaining unit

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Faculty and academic staff at the University of Kansas are organizing ahead of a secret-ballot vote on formation of a collective bargaining unit to represent 1,500 people on the main campus in Lawrence and a satellite campus in Johnson County.

The union would be known as the United Academics of the University of Kansas and be affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors.

One factor contributing to the movement at KU was approval by the Kansas Board of Regents of an expedited process enabling the six public universities in the system for dismissal of tenured faculty and other academic employees.

KU officials declined to make use of the policy, but Emporia State University relied on it to terminate 33 employees.

“KU has long enjoyed high rankings for academics and recognition as a premier research university, but that status is at risk,” said Lisa-Marie Wright, an associate teaching professor in the sociology department. “Faculty and academic staff need a voice in decisions, especially when the student experience is at stake.”

Berl Oakley, a distinguished professor in molecular biosciences, said a labor union would strive to “retain outstanding teachers and researchers that provide the quality of education our students deserve.”

The KU union would represent full-time and part-time tenured and non-tenured-track faculty; teaching, research, clinical and online professors; lecturers; curators; librarians; scientists who conduct grant-funded research and other categories of faculty and academic staff. Graduate teaching assistants at KU unionized in the mid-1990s after winning a dispute about whether they were state employees.

Issues of concern among the KU faculty organizers included the policy on firing tenured faculty as well as reliance on short-term contracts for teaching faculty, stagnant wages and a decline in state funding of the university.

In Kansas, faculty unions exist at Pittsburg State University, Fort Hays State University and Johnson County Community College.

More than 300,000 faculty and staff at universities across the country belong to unions affiliated with AFT and AAUP.

In California on Monday, thousands of teaching assistants, researchers and other workers in the University of California system went on strike to amplify demands for pay increases. The students and employees involved are represented by the United Automobile Workers.

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/briefs/ku-faculty-academic-staff-prepare-for-vote-on-forming-collective-bargaining-unit/

Today’s public meetings

Special school board meeting today

A special board meeting of the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the offices of McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips law firm, 10 E. Cambridge Circle Drive, Suite 300, Kansas City, Kansas. It is open to the public.

The agenda includes the human resources report and recommendations; an executive closed session to discuss matters of nonelected personnel; and possible board discussion on legislative priorities, facilities committee and camera community forum. A review of the solicitation policy BBC is on the agenda. Also on the agenda is professional development for the board by Dr. Marcia Weseman.

UG Arts subcommittee to meet today

The Unified Government’s Public Arts and Placemaking Subcommittee is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, virtually and at the fifth floor conference room at City Hall, 701 N. 7th St., Kansas City, Kansas. Topics on the agenda include meeting expectations, determining their subcommittee’s work, evaluation, a toolbox inventory of what they need and next steps.

The public may watch in the conference room or virtually online at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89543655808?pwd=K05kV0IwdVgwTEdQNEtrbUI0ajc2dz09. The meeting ID is 895 4365 5808 and the passcode is 525881.

BPU to meet tonight

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16.

The work session at 5 p.m. will be followed by a regular meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Topics on the agenda for the 5 p.m. meeting include a board update, general manager update, the 2023 budget plan for capital improvements and a discussion of redistricting for the BPU in Wyandotte County.

Also, the regular session at 6 p.m. Wednesday will have several topics on the agenda:

Public comment time will be followed by general manager and staff reports. A risk management policy resolution, water operations benchmarking and miscellaneous comments are on the agenda, along with board comments.

The public may call in to listen to the BPU meetings on their telephones, or the public may access the internet and click on a Zoom meeting button.

To join the Zoom meeting on the internet, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84523139724.

Those listening by telephone may call toll-free 1-888-475-4499. The meeting ID number is 845 2313 9724.

The board meeting information packet is available to the public at this link:
https://www.bpu.com/Portals/0/pdf/board-information-packet-11-16-22.pdf.


To see a story about this meeting, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/bpu-scheduled-to-meet-wednesday-3/