Ranzau’s comments about Spirit still rankle some

Looking back on it, Sedgwick County Commissioner Richard Ranzau admits that he should have remained calmer Wednesday when he called a Spirit AeroSystems executive’s comments “insulting.”

And Spirit, on Thursday, downplayed any hard feelings from the exchange. But while community leaders also tried to publicly smooth over the incident, privately there was plenty of shock and dismay that a top local official publicly traded sharp words with the city’s largest employer.

The encounter happened Wednesday during a four-hour budget hearing at the county courthouse. The county proposes cutting $100,000 from its contribution to Wichita Area Technical College.

After two speakers representing the college spoke, Spirit’s director of global human resources, Suzanne Scott, stepped to the microphone. She said that the college is critical to training Spirit’s growing workforce.

Spirit recently offered to hire 200 people, she said, but they need to go through sheet metal training at WATC before they are employable. That’s just one example of how the college supports the aircraft industry’s workforce needs, she said, maintaining that its budget should be increased, not cut.

She added that Spirit also hires aircraft engineers and that maintaining a high quality of life is key to attracting them. She asked that proposed cuts to the Sedgwick County Zoo and Exploration Place be replaced.

“We can’t afford to have the county work against us,” she said.

That got Ranzau mad. Although he never raised his voice, he said the County Commission – and by extension, the county taxpayers – supports Spirit plenty.

Ranzau is known as a staunch small-government conservative, one of three on the five-member commission. Wednesday’s exchange is the latest in a string of decisions to cut participation in economic development by the commission majority.

The county contributed $793,000 to WATC this year and would lower that to $693,000 with the proposed cut. It also pays about $3.2 million a year in debt for WATC’s campus on North Webb Road, Ranzau said Thursday.

It also grants Spirit AeroSystems property tax abatements and industrial revenue bonds pretty much every time it asks, he said Thursday. Anytime the county cuts the company’s taxes it means the county taxpayers are subsidizing Spirit.

And, he said, Spirit recently ended a $360,000 lease of space at WATC’s Southside Center that the company used for training. That money would have supported the college.

Spirit’s profits are up, Ranzau said. If it wants WATC to have more money for training, why doesn’t it replace the $100,000 or even the $360,000 itself?

“Sorry, but do not come tell me that the taxpayers are working against you,” he said at Wednesday’s hearing.

A ‘great partnership’

On Thursday, many local officials tried to ease the conflict, some by refusing to comment.

Even Ranzau has tried to defuse it, saying he called Scott during lunch Wednesday to apologize, saying he hadn’t meant to direct his criticism at her personally. He said he supports Spirit and appreciates what it does, but he doesn’t take back anything he said about the company.

“I probably should have remained a little more calm and said it a little differently, but there are lot of people who have a sense of entitlement to other people’s money and it just pisses me off,” he said.

Spirit reacted to the exchange on Thursday with a statement: “Spirit has had a great partnership with Sedgwick County over our 10 year history, to the benefit of all involved. We look forward to continuing to work together.”

Commissioner Jim Howell said Thursday that he largely supports Ranzau’s feelings that the $100,000 cut is tiny, about 0.5 percent of WATC’s $19.8 million general fund, although he said he would have been a little friendlier in handling the objections of Spirit officials.

“Can an organization contract by 0.5 percent and not notice it?” Howell said. “I think so.”

Still unhappy

But County Commissioner Dave Unruh said Thursday he has heard that company executives are still unhappy about the exchange.

“There is a sense of unbelief that someone in such a critical place for the economic health of the community would make such a direct challenge to them and the way they do business,” Unruh said.

Unruh said the company is the region’s biggest employer and biggest taxpayer. Local governments should work to make sure the company is happy and interested in expanding here.

Jon Rosell, chairman of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, agreed, saying local leaders must remember who drives the local economy.

“I think we would want to bend over backwards on what is important to them, and making sure they are successful,” he said. “When they are successful, we are successful.”

When asked whether he had had any conversations with Spirit officials about the testy exchange, he said he had no comment.

Sheree Utash, president of WATC, said that “it’s probably not in the best interest of the community to mix budget discussions with business decisions,” and that the cut would introduce “staffing challenges.”

Jeff Turner, the former CEO of Spirit who now leads a regional economic development effort, said that whether people in the area realize it, communities globally are actively recruiting Wichita’s aviation companies to relocate.

“Our community has to be focused on keeping these companies that provide jobs, and doing whatever we can to support them,” he said. “If we’re doing things other than that, I don’t think we’re doing the right things.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2015 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Ranzau’s comments about Spirit still rankle some."