Fresh off primary victory, David Dennis touts experience in county race

Retired Air Force Col. David Dennis says the race to represent District 3 on the Sedgwick County Commission comes down to experience.

“I’ve served in leadership roles all up and down the chain,” Dennis said.

After a 29-year career in the U.S. Air Force, Dennis became a teacher and later served as the Kansas State Board of Education chairman. He’s now on the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, which makes zoning recommendations.

Dennis faces Goddard Mayor Marcey Gregory in the Nov. 8 general election. The winner will take the seat now held by Commissioner Karl Peterjohn, whom Dennis defeated by double digits in the August Republican primary.

District 3 includes large parts of west Wichita as well as small cities Goddard, Cheney, Colwich, Garden Plain, Andale, Mount Hope, Bentley and Viola that are scattered across the western half of the county.

Dennis criticizes the current commission majority, made up of Peterjohn and Commissioners Richard Ranzau and Jim Howell. He says they are too ideologically driven and do not listen to residents and the county’s advisory boards.

After the primary, Dennis is working to pivot his attention to Gregory, who is also a critic of the commission majority.

“Before, we were pretty well campaigning against the majority, and now we have to focus on a new opponent,” Dennis said. “We’re not taking her for granted, by any means. She’s a formidable opponent.”

‘A history of service’

Dennis grew up in Great Bend. He began a career in the U.S. Air Force in 1968 after graduating from Fort Hays State University.

In the 1990s, he managed teams that were part of the effort to dismantle nuclear facilities in the former Soviet Union. Dennis says that experience taught him how to work with pretty much anyone.

“The first word out of every one of their mouths when we tried to negotiate something was ‘nyet,’ ” Dennis said, referring to the Russian word for “no.” “I thought that was a great way to end my career.”

After he retired from the Air Force in 1997, Dennis and his family settled down in Wichita, on the west side. He taught business and computer classes at North High School.

“I’ve been involved in our community ever since we moved here,” Dennis said. “If you look at everything I’ve done, it’s a history of service.”

Dennis served one term on the state board of education from 2009 to 2013, when “we stopped arguing about evolution.” He was chairman for two of those years.

He ran for a Wichita City Council seat and lost in 2007. But he was appointed to the joint city-county planning commission by Jeff Longwell, who is now mayor.

Longwell and City Council members Pete Meitzner and Bryan Frye endorsed Dennis in the waning days of the primary this year, saying Dennis would dramatically boost city-county relations.

“We will continue to have a culture of gridlock if we don’t change the makeup of that county commission,” Longwell said. “David Dennis would change all of that.”

“He’s very analytical. He’s very calm and respectful,” Meitzner said.

‘Against the majority’

Dennis decided to run for the Sedgwick County Commission as a Republican alternative to the current majority of Howell, Peterjohn and Ranzau.

Those commissioners want to limit the county’s debt, focus on core government services like roads and public safety and reduce government spending on services that can be provided in the private sector. The majority approved a 2016 budget last summer that turned away from borrowing for road and bridge maintenance and made cuts to the arts, economic development, recreation and the county health department.

Commissioners Tim Norton and Dave Unruh voted against that budget and tend to be more supportive of participating in economic development coalitions and public health programs and of using bonds to pay for capital projects.

The 2017 budget cycle was less contentious – only Ranzau voted against the final budget.

County staff members in August called the debate about bond financing a “non-issue” because the projects were not large enough to be paid for with bonds. But Dennis still criticizes the majority’s choice to pay for road and bridge projects through its cash reserves instead of borrowing by issuing bonds.

“They’ve removed one tool from the tool box,” Dennis said. “By moving away from the ability to bond, that still put a stress on the budget.”

Dennis said the county should not have deregulated wastewater inspections in home sales in the unincorporated areas of the county.

“It’s basically now buyer beware,” Dennis said. “Buyers are going to have to be well-informed that that’s not being inspected.”

Dennis, a member of the National Rifle Association, says he probably would have voted for the county’s new gun lockers in the courthouse lobby.

“I want to make sure that whatever they do is safe for the public and safe for those that are carrying the weapons,” Dennis said.

The Sedgwick County Zoo became a critical issue in the District 3 primary. Dennis blasted Peterjohn in mailers and forums for his support of a county proposal to boost county power on the zoo board.

That proposal has taken a backseat to a funding fix that would fund the zoo based on a set mill levy tied to the growth in the tax base. Dennis said he had doubts about the proposal.

“It’s a fixed amount. As the zoo grows, is that fixed amount going to grow?” Dennis asked.

‘Work across lines’

Dennis will not endorse anyone in the District 2 race between Norton, a Democrat, and Republican Michael O’Donnell, a state senator and former Wichita City Council member.

“I’ll run my race, and I’ll let them run their race,” Dennis said. “If we’re truly able to work across lines, it doesn’t matter who you’re working with.”

Dennis said he hopes the general election is a more positive campaign than the primary, in which Peterjohn called him a “crony capitalist” and Dennis called Peterjohn a “former special-interest lobbyist.”

But Dennis did note Goddard has raised the mill levy while Gregory has been mayor. Gregory says a mill levy increase shortly after she became mayor in 2007 was necessary to pay for public works and police officers.

“I don’t plan on any kind of property tax increases,” Dennis said. “(And) I’m very proud that I’m a lifelong Republican; never been anything else.”

Dennis says he will likely vote along similar lines with Unruh. But he was still a critic of the divide on the commission.

“What we’ve had over the last few years is kind of a disservice to the citizens,” Dennis said. “We’ve worried about this 3-2 majority for too long.”

This story was originally published October 15, 2016 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Fresh off primary victory, David Dennis touts experience in county race."