No public comment allowed at lawmakers’ public forum

A plan to hold a public forum with no public comments is raising dissension among south-central Kansas lawmakers.

The annual forum at the jury room at the Sedgwick County Courthouse has long been a platform for the general public to ask questions about – and in some cases express disapproval of – state policies ranging from taxes to Medicaid to marijuana reform.

This year, however, there won’t be an open mic for people to address the South Central Kansas Legislative Delegation, according to a delegation Facebook announcement and an e-mail sent to lawmakers by outgoing delegation chairman Sen. Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita.

According to the Facebook post, interaction between the legislators and the public at the Jan. 4 forum will consist of lawmakers answering questions submitted in writing and read to the delegation by O’Donnell. Questions directed to individual lawmakers will not be allowed.

That has rankled at least two Wichita Democratic members of the delegation, incoming House Minority Leader Jim Ward and Rep. John Carmichael.

Ward said the delegation hadn’t been consulted before the decision was made to eliminate public comment and if it had been, he would have opposed it. He said the pre-session forum is a tradition going back at least 30 years.

“It was a unilateral decision by an outgoing legislator to deny the public the chance to engage their representatives,” Ward said. “That’s totally inappropriate.”

Added Carmichael: “Unfortunately, I understand some members of the South Central Kansas Delegation don’t have the courage to face their constituents. And that’s wrong.”

O’Donnell didn’t seek re-election, instead running successfully for a seat on the Sedgwick County Commission. His term as a senator will expire five days after the forum.

Neither O’Donnell, nor Rep. Blake Carpenter, R-Derby, who is collecting the questions in advance of the meeting, returned phone messages seeking comment.

“ I hope you take the time to attend this forum and give the public an opportunity to hear from you based on audience questions,” O’Donnell wrote in his e-mail to lawmakers.

Tearful testimony

An unsigned response from the delegation on its event page said: “Folks do indeed have the opportunity to ‘speak’ at these events by filling out question cards at the event or by submitting questions in advance. This format allows for a MUCH greater variety of topics to be discussed, in previous years the same question would be asked multiple times thus limiting discussion. Our hope is that the new format will be much more open and allow for a more diverse dialog.”

The public forum usually draws a standing-room-only crowd and has been one of a very few opportunities each year for members of the general public in the Wichita area to speak to a large group of lawmakers.

The headline from last year’s forum was tearful testimony from Marcillene Dover, a Wichita State University science-education student who described what it’s like to live with multiple sclerosis without health insurance.

She was seeking expansion of the state’s KanCare Medicaid program, to cover people in situations like hers. The Legislature didn’t act this year, but is expected to consider expanding Medicaid with more moderate legislators in the mix for the upcoming session.

The jury-room forum will be held the day before the lawmakers’ annual meeting at Wichita State University, where local government, school and university leaders will be scheduled for blocks of time to present their organizations’ wish lists for the 2017 legislative session, which begins Jan. 9.

The Wichita Area Association of Realtors is paying for the legislators’ lunches and will have 20 minutes to address the group, according to O’Donnell’s e-mail.

Ward said the system was specifically designed for legislators to be able to hear from both the general public and institutions, to get the “full flavor” of what constituents want from their representatives.

‘Undemocratic format’

The announcement of the change at the forum touched off criticism on the delegation’s event page.

“We are not there to merely ‘ask’ questions,” wrote Janice Bradley, an activist with the Peace and Social Justice Center. “Peoples' lives are affected by the laws you pass. Some have researched issues extensively and have information to share with the public and the legislators. With your new undemocratic format, it's only the legislators who get to speak.”

Bradley helped organize the petition campaign last year that led to Wichitans voting to reduce penalties for marijuana possession. That initiative was later overturned by the state Supreme Court and since then, decriminalization efforts have been focused on the Legislature.

An unsigned response from the delegation said: “Janice since we're trying to allow for as many people as possible to ask questions perhaps your more extensive issues would be better addressed after the event or one on one.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2016 at 1:58 PM with the headline "No public comment allowed at lawmakers’ public forum."