Voice For Liberty

Category: Wichita city government

  • Wichita Downtown Revitalization Steering Council Formed

    If you thought Wichita had too many councils, commissions, boards, and advisory councils, get ready for another. At yesterday’s meeting of the Wichita City Council, Mayor Carl Brewer announced the formation of the Wichita Downtown Revitalization Steering Council.

    Reading the mayor’s statement, I noticed the same theme of collectivism that permeates some of the speeches of our governor Kathleen Sebelius. It’s the language he used — “Wichitans need to determine our future by coming together to hope and to dream,” “expand on that excitement as we come together,” and “together, we can produce results” — that causes me to fear loss of entrepreneurship and individualism as we rely on an expansionist city government for everything from economic development to arts and leisure activities.

    We really need to question the need for a council like this. The members are drawn from the same group of civic leaders who are involved in other big-government efforts like Visioneering Wichita. It’s likely this council will come up with recommendations that more taxpayer money be poured into downtown. I can also see the call for more public-private partnerships.

    The announcement from the city, with meeting times and locations, is at Downtown Steering Council Named. You can read the mayor’s statement there. Wichita Eagle coverage is at New group to focus on future of downtown Wichita.

  • Wichita City Arts tech studio proposed

    Randy Roebuck, in a presentation at the Wichita city council workshop, promoted the idea of a “digital oasis” in Wichita. It would be a place where people can go to get free help with technologies such as cell phones and computers.

    He told of how an Apple Genius Bar does things like this. Council member Jim Skelton asked who runs an Apple Genius Bar? Apple Computer Corporation, of course.

    Later council member Paul Gray continued with questions based on Skelton’s. Why not an Apple Genius Bar in Wichita? Why is the city competing with private business? City officials insist they are not trying to compete with private business. Instead, it’s a resource for training and education.

    Council member Jeff Longwell said this idea is “on the right path,” as long as it doesn’t cost a lot.

    Lavonta Williams said this will attract a different group of people to downtown Wichita. She said it’s something we need.

    Mayor Carl Brewer mentioned that not everyone who would want to use a facility like this might not be able to afford its cost. He didn’t mention that someone else should pay for them, but that’s what this program will do.

    “It’s part of creating an environment where we have everything that anybody could possibly want. … If the private sector’s really wanting to get out there and they’re willing to invest their dollars and they want to start their business, we should let them.”

    This illustrates the mayor’s — and several other council members’ — vision of an expansive city government, providing for citizen needs all the way through arts, entertainment, and now computer tech support.

    Then there’s the mayor’s language that we (Wichita city government) should let the private sector do something. I really hope the mayor misspoke here.

    This is a bad idea. It seems to me that there may be people in Wichita city hall with too much time on their hands if they have time to come up with ideas like this.

    View the video of the portion of the city council workshop where this presentation was made by clicking on Wichita city council workshop, March 24, 2009.

    The slides shown to the council members aren’t available on the city’s website, to my knowledge. I captured them from video, and they may be viewed by clicking on Wichita City Arts tech studio presentation.

    Read Wichita Eagle reporting by clicking on Cyber Alliance plans to offer free technical training. reporting on KWCH is at Wichita Considers “Digital Oasis”.

  • Cornejo & Sons campaign contributions history

    A recent Wichita Eagle news story jogged readers’ memories about the company that’s the target of the story, Cornejo & Sons, Inc., and their campaign contributions a few years back. The company asked some of its employees to make campaign contributions, and then the employees were reimbursed. That’s illegal.

    A Wichita Eagle story from April 27, 2003 states: “A former administrative assistant for the Cornejo & Sons construction firm says company executives sought campaign donations from employees and then walked around the office illegally reimbursing workers with stacks of $50 and $100 bills.”

    In this story, Ron Cornejo, the company president, denied the making the reimbursements.

    But two days later the Eagle reported: “The president of Cornejo & Sons admitted Monday that the construction firm reimbursed employees who donated money to pro-landfill candidates for Wichita mayor and Sedgwick County Commission — a practice that violates state law. Company president Ron Cornejo issued a statement saying that he and his company are cooperating with state ethics investigators and gathering data on the contributions that were made by the employees in 2002 and 2003.”

    The next day Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston announced the launching of a criminal investigation.

    On August 21, 2003, according to Eagle reporting, “the state ethics commission fined Wichita-based Cornejo & Sons Inc. $15,000.” An Eagle editorial called this “a slap on the wrist.”

    All candidates who received the money — a mix of Wichita mayoral, city council, and Sedgwick county commission candidates, one still in office — were cleared of any wrongdoing by the ethics commission. I couldn’t find any news stories about the result of the DA’s investigation, so I inquired at the office. But it appears that no charges were ever filed.

    It’s thought that the contributions were supporting Cornejo’s substantial contracts with the City of Wichita, and also the company’s effort to gain approval to build a landfill near Furley. The construction landfill that’s the subject of the recent Eagle article wasn’t mentioned as the motivating factor for these contributions.

  • YMCA – Wichita conflict of interest

    A local non-profit organization, held in high esteem, seeks to purchase property owned by the City of Wichita. So what’s the problem?

    During his State of the City address for 2009, Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer revealed his plan for a partnership between the city and the YMCA. So far this partnership has revealed itself in the city’s plan to sell some city-owned land at First and Waco Streets to the YMCA.

    Council members Jeff Longwell and Sharon Fearey were appointed to represent the city in negotiations.

    The problem is that Longwell is a member of the advisory board for the northwest branch YMCA. This is possibly a conflict of interest. It certainly is the appearance of a conflict of interest, and for that reason, Longwell should step away from the negotiations.

    At the same time, the YMCA should request that Longwell be replaced with another council member.

    I’m not accusing the YMCA of any wrongdoing.

    I’m also not accusing council member Longwell of any wrongdoing.

    But I’ve talked to several elected officials and many citizens about this, and only one has thought there wasn’t a problem with this arrangement.

    This is especially confounding to me in that I’m sure there is probably no actual conflict of interest — at least as these things go — but its appearance is beyond doubt in the minds of most citizens.

    A representative of the YMCA told me that the board Longwell serves on is an advisory board with no decision-making authority.

    I asked Longwell if he could understand how people might think there is a conflict of interest, and he said he could appreciate that position. He added that’s why there is more than one city council member representing the city, and, of course, it takes four votes on the council to take any action.

    Furthermore, he told me that he was out of town and missed a meeting, so he hasn’t been present at the negotiations.

    I’ve talked with several people who have reminded me of the good things the YMCA does for Wichita and the surrounding area.

    So why can’t the YMCA and the city conduct these negotiations in a way that eliminates even the slightest whiff of any appearance of a conflict of interest?

    People are wondering, especially when it is likely that the land will be sold for much less than what some believe it to be worth.

  • KenMar Shopping Center, Funded by Righteousness

    Can the Lord’s work be funded by taxation? If you’re Reverend Kevass Harding, the answer is sure, why not? He might even think it’s his calling.

    Never mind that at its fundamental level, taxation takes money from one person against their will and gives it to another.

    Sure, some people will argue that taxes are “the price we pay for civilization” or something like that. Or they will say that since we all benefit from, say, police and fire protection, we all have to pay taxes.

    Even if true, these rationalizations are a long way from using taxation to support private real estate development. At least these arguments don’t invoke the name of Jesus. But Harding does in order to accomplish through government, in the form of tax increment financing, what he couldn’t through voluntary action. Is this what Jesus would do?

    The Wichita Eagle story KenMar part of pastor’s work in neighborhood tells us of Harding’s belief that “he is doing the Lord’s work, in part, in renovating the run-down KenMar Shopping Center at 13th and Oliver.”

    The story also states “The project is a private, for-profit venture, he said, but it springs in part from his spiritual vocation.”

    This taking of money, shrouded in morality and spirituality, is even more egregious than most. High atop his moral high horse, Harding believes he is doing good for the community. For the entire city, I’m sure he believes.

    Here’s something from another man of religion, C.S. Lewis, reminding us about moral busybodies: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

  • Wichita election watch parties

    There isn’t a whole lot of interest in today’s primary elections in Wichita. None of the school board races had enough candidates to require a primary. Two of the three city council races did, but probably the only district where’s there’s any doubt as to the outcome (at least as far as who will advance to the general election) is district 6, which features Janet Miller, Bob Aldrich, Ken Thomas, and Damon Isaacs. Here’s information about two election night parties that I know of:

    Bob Aldrich: Tuesday, March 3rd at the Wichita Area Builders Association building 730 North Main Street (parking in rear), starting at 6:00PM. Link to Google map.

    Ken Thomas: Tuesday, March 3rd, starting at 6:00PM at Caffe Moderne, 300 N. Mead, Suite 108, Old Town Square Wichita (Behind Rock Paper Scissors). Link to Google map.

    You can get more information about these candidates by clicking on Wichita City and School District Candidate Websites and News Coverage.

  • In Wichita, let’s have economic development for all

    GWEDC crucial to attracting, retaining jobs, says a post by Phillip Brownlee on the Wichita Eagle Editorial Blog. (GWEDC is the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition.)

    There’s probably little doubt that offering incentives to companies to move to Wichita results in some that do. And, as we’ve seen, some Wichita companies are adept at inciting rumors they might move or locate new facilities somewhere else in order to gain some advantage or incentive from local or state (or sometimes both) government.

    Whether these economic development policies are wise is far from settled. Last year the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit released a study examining economic develompent efforts at the state level. This report may be read at Economic Development: Determining the Amounts the State Has Spent on Economic Development Programs and the Economic Impacts on Kansas Counties Executive Summary.

    Some conclusions of interest are these:

    First: “There are a number of problems in trying to assess the effectiveness of economic development programs and activities.” The document elaborates, but the important thing is that when organizations like the GWEDC make grandiose claims, realize that many are only crude estimates formulated to produce the best possible numbers,.

    Second: “Most studies of economic development incentives suggest these incentives don’t have a significant impact on economic growth. The literature we reviewed concluded that, thus far, negative and inconclusive findings are far more numerous than positive findings. Most reviews of economic development assistance find few results are achieved — a theme that audits in Kansas and other states commonly find, as well. Findings of ineffectiveness include promised jobs weren’t created, return on investment is low or negative, and incentives offered weren’t a determining factor.”

    This paragraph hardly requires comment, except to note that professionals in the field of economic development, politicians, and government bureaucrats don’t believe this.

    Third: “The literature also suggests that economic development incentives must be offered to remain competitive with other states.”

    Because the parties identified above believe that incentives work, they want to offer them and will continue to do so. This is true, I believe, in all states.

    So it’s a terrible situation to be in. We have expensive programs that don’t produce their intended goal, but because some very self-interested parties believe they do, we’re stuck with it.

    If Kansas and Wichita wanted to really do something to get noticed, let’s lower taxes for everyone, not just those companies who seek political favor and happen to fit into a situation where they are eligible for one or more of the various incentive plans we have. If we could do this, all companies would benefit.

    Consider the case of Steve Compton, owner of the Eaton Steakhouse in downtown Wichita, as described in my post (with video) At Wichita City Council, Why Are Some Doors Open, and Others Closed?

    Here we have an established Wichita company that is, apparently, facing tough economic conditions. What could help this company? Lower taxes would, without a doubt.

    There would be no need for an organization like GWEDC to tell us this. We wouldn’t need an army of bureaucrats to administer a program to deliver the benefit. There would be no need for Mr. Compton to make campaign contributions to the right politicians. There would be no need to have a debate in city council chambers over the merit of incentives offered to individual firms, one at a time.

    Let’s have a simple policy of lower taxes, and, of course, lower government spending. This will provide immense economic development benefits to everyone.

  • Can Wichita government investment create jobs?

    Recently the president of the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition wrote an op-ed that engaged in a large measure of self-congratulation, while at the same time asking for even more resources. (Vicki Pratt Gerbino: Invest in recruiting, preserving area jobs, February 15, 2009 Wichita Eagle)

    We need to examine whether activities of groups like the GWEDC are really needed and desirable.

    First, Ms. Gerbino states “To date, our public investments have returned more than $2 for each public dollar invested.” Reading this, it sounds like a great deal — local taxpayers put up $1 and get $2 back. But it doesn’t quite work out that way.

    If you read a document at the GWEDC website titled GWEDC Economic Development Activity and Performance Evaluation 1st Half 2008, you’ll learn who really wins: local governments. Here’s what this document says: “To measure public benefit, the GWEDC evaluation model estimates the streams of tax revenues …”

    That’s right. More tax revenue flows to local governments. Somehow this is supposed to be viewed as “return on investment” for the taxpayers. If government were to reduce taxes in response to this increase of revenue, that might be a good return. But that doesn’t happen.

    Some of these programs don’t recognize the cost of providing the benefit. Consider Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRB). The purpose of these bonds is tax abatement, usually property tax, but sometime sales tax too. The company that receives the abatements benefits. But unless the city reduces spending by the amount of the abatement, taxes rise for other taxpayers. This leads to a loss of economic activity — and jobs — somewhere else.

    There are 12 different types of incentive programs listed on the GWEDC’s website. Each has its own set of criteria that companies must meet. It’s likely that each of these programs has administrative overhead that must be paid for, and companies undergo costs when they apply for these programs.

    This has the result of creating two classes of companies: those that are able to take advantage of these incentives, and those who, for whatever reason, can’t use them.

    A better strategy would be to eliminate economic development incentives and the distortions that accompany them. Instead, work to reduce taxes for all companies. People across the country will notice this without an expensive advertising campaign that get lost in the noise created by all the other cities and states competing with taxpayer dollars.

    Besides, for all this economic development to make sense, you have to believe that government is the best judge as to where investment capital should be directed. There’s not much evidence to support this.

  • Wichita Center City TIF Missed Linkage Between “Unrelated” Developers

    A missed linkage between developers involved in a Wichita tax increment financing (TIF) project means progress should be stopped until all facts are known.

    In July, 2007, the City of Wichita considered a development plan (the Center City South Redevelopment District) for a tax increment financing (TIF) district in downtown Wichita. The beneficiary of the TIF financing is Real Development, whose principals are commonly known as the “Minnesota Guys.”

    The report from the City Manager’s office to the council from July 17, 2007 states: “The City will acquire the property within the Project Area from DGL, LLC, an unrelated third party, for a cost not-to-exceed $1,975,000, and convey property to Lofts at Exchange Place, LLC.” (Page 164. The information for this item starts on page 131.)

    The “DGL, LLC” referred to as an “unrelated third party” is actually “DGL Investments, LLC.” We can be sure of this for two reasons: First, there is no “DGL, LLC” registered in either Kansas or Minnesota, but there is “DGL Investments, LLC” registered in both states, although the registration is forfeited in Kansas. Second, the current owner of Exchange Place, according to Sedgwick County records, is DGL Investments, LLC.

    (You may be wondering why I looked for record of this company in Minnesota. Well, these are the “Minnesota Guys” after all.)

    So who are the people behind DGL Investments, LLC? Here’s two clues:

    On a registration form for the Kaufman Building on file at the Kansas State Historical Society, the owner of the building is identified as “DGL Investments, LLC (contact Michael Elzufon – Real Development).” This form is dated November 20, 2006.

    There’s also a lease agreement dated September 1, 2006 between the Kansas Department of Corrections and DGL Investments, LLC, where the contact person is given as “Michael Elzufon – Real Development.”

    (Michael Elzufon is CEO of Real Development, the company that is developing the buildings that are the subject of this TIF district redevelopment plan.)

    It’s true that DGL Investments, LLC is not the same legal entity as the group the city is granting TIF financing to. So what the City Manager’s report says is true — on a technical level.

    But in less than an hour, I was able to find documents that establish a positive linkage between two companies that the city says are unrelated. It’s possible that these documents weren’t available online in July 2007. But there are other ways to discover the linkage between these two companies.

    I don’t know why the city wasn’t aware of this relationship. Wichita’s public information office forwarded my inquiry to someone who could answer my questions, but I’ve not received a response.

    But it appears that one of several things happened. Perhaps city staff wasn’t aware of the connection between DGL Investments, LLC and Real Development. This could have happened though staff’s negligence, or by relying on information provided by Real Development. Or maybe city staff knew of the relationship, but wanted to hide it from the city council and the people of Wichita.

    There could be other possibilities, too. None of them are good.

    So what should the city council do? This matter dates from July 2007, but this TIF district’s development plan was modified in December 2008. To my knowledge, the property has not been transferred, and the city hasn’t sent money to these developers. There is time, and in my opinion, the necessity, to stop progress on this TIF district until this oversight by city staff can be corrected.