Some local political candidates had financial, legal troubles

Several candidates running for Wichita offices this spring have had legal or financial trouble in the past.

The candidates have faced bankruptcy, tax warrants and lawsuits, according to public records. One has had two criminal convictions.

Following is a rundown by political race.

Mayor

▪ City Council member Lavonta Williams, one of 10 candidates running for mayor, has had multiple tax warrants that have since been paid. Williams, 65, is a retired educator and has been a council member for six years.

In 2003, Williams was issued a tax warrant for unpaid income taxes from 1999, 2000 and 2001 for $865.39.

Another tax warrant from 2004 showed she owed $433.83 in income taxes from 2001.

In March 2007, she had a tax warrant for $1,793.97 from 2003. Later in 2007, she was issued a tax warrant for $11,127.12 from the 2003 and 2004 tax periods.

Williams said the tax warrants came as a result of filing errors at the state level.

“My husband thinks it was because they did not receive our state returns,” Williams said. “In the long run, it was a lot of mistakes both ways. And then interest keeps accruing if it’s not come in.”

She said she uses tax agencies to complete her returns, and she was not made aware of any filing error until she received the warrant.

“It was over and over, constantly going back and forth,” she said. “The person that’s filing it is going to lose, I’ll tell you that. We lost that one.”

After making payments on the amount owed, she decided to pay it all off in one lump sum in March 2010.

“By the time everything was figured in, it was a hefty sum,” she said. “I was paying an enormous amount on a monthly basis ... so I paid it completely off. I think that was the best decision for me.”

Williams was also sued in August 2006 by Kansas Spine Hospital for $1,061.19, but the suit was later dismissed.

The suit occurred because of an insurance mix-up, she said. The hospital was expecting payment from either her primary or secondary insurance plan, and the other plan had paid it without the hospital realizing, she said.

“There was a mix-up in who was paying what,” she said. “During that time, I had three back surgeries in three consecutive days, and that’s what it was.”

▪ Candidate Jennifer Winn, 44, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2004, facing more than $79,000 in debts, The Eagle reported last summer when she was running for governor.

Winn, who owns a landscaping business in Wichita, said she went through a divorce, which left her with no child support and debt. She said her ex-husband moved out of state, making it more difficult to collect support payments she was owed.

“I was not able to keep up, so I filed bankruptcy when I could no longer keep my home,” she said in a previous interview.

“It was very difficult for me, but I’m not ashamed of it, because that’s obviously why we have it in place – for people who get in situations that they can’t get out of.”

▪ Candidate Anthony Rosales, 38, who is the co-owner and operator of Twin Peaks restaurant in east Wichita, was sued in September 2013 by the Turkey Creek Home Owners Association. The suit said Rosales owed $509.51 and $413.28 to the association.

Rosales said the fees stemmed from a dispute he had with the association about where his house was situated in the neighborhood. His property sits at a lower grade than the surrounding houses, which causes rain to accumulate in his backyard, he said.

He said he initially told the association he was not going to pay his dues until the issue was resolved but then decided to drop it and pay the late dues.

City Council, District 2

Candidate Jim Price, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Kansas House last fall, is running against incumbent Pete Meitzner in District 2.

The Eagle previously reported that Price, 43, has two criminal convictions: One for participating in a 1990 gas station robbery and the other for interfering with law enforcement officers investigating his son’s small marijuana-growing operation in 2012.

Price was one of three men charged and convicted in the holdup, in which a Marlin .22 rifle was used. The other two men were given 14-year prison sentences, according to local news reports.

Price pleaded guilty to one felony count of robbery and was sentenced to 120 days of “shock” followed by five years of probation. So-called “shock probation” is a common punishment in Texas for first-time offenders, designed to give them a taste of prison life and, it is hoped, “shock” them into not going back.

Price said he didn’t take an active role in the robbery, hence the lighter sentence.

“I have nothing to hide,” he said in a previous interview. “That’s just it: I would not be running for office if I felt like I had to hide from it.”

He also has had unpaid debts and bad checks related to a failed construction business. Many of those debts were discharged when he filed for bankruptcy in 2004, although he has had at least two judgments against him since then.

▪ Candidate Anthony Mitchell was sued in Sedgwick County District Court in January 2012 for leaving a rental property at Pine Creek Apartments with damages or upaid rent in the amount of $3,540.

Mitchell said he was living in the rental in 2010 before he was laid off from Spirit AeroSystems’ information technology department. He lived on unemployment checks and had a trip to the hospital, he said, which left approximately four months of unpaid rent.

When he got a job in Fort Worth, he said, the amount was paid off.

Mitchell, 37, now works as a computer contractor.

In May 2013, Fitness 2000 health club said he owed about $800 plus and $258 in interest. The incident happened a few years prior to that, he said.

“They ended up suing everyone that I talked to that had a membership there,” he said. “They sent out a notice to several different people and kind of blanketly sued us all.”

He said he thought he had canceled his membership months before, but the gym was still billing him for membership until he received the notice.

Mitchell said he paid off the amount in full.

City Council, District 5

Gary Bond, 57, who is running for the open west Wichita District 5 council seat, has filed for bankruptcy twice in the past 15 years.

Bond first filed for bankruptcy in 2000, seven years after his young daughter Alexis died from cancer in 1993. The family faced medical bills of nearly $100,000, he said.

“When you have medical bills like that, it stresses out the whole budget,” he said. “It just snowballs.”

In 2005, Bond inherited two properties from his late father. He tried to use them as income properties, but they were in a bad neighborhood, and tenants didn’t pay and damaged them, he said.

In the following years, he faced a series of lawsuits and small claims against him. For several years, he was a small-business owner of G-Mack Inc., a contracting company.

From 2007 to 2010, Bond had several disputes for not paying suppliers, according to court records. He says they were all settled.

“Those kind of things happen in business,” he said.

The disputes included a $453 small claims suit for not paying Labor Finders for work to $3,657 for failure to pay window supplier Kan-Am Products, according to court records.

Bond, who is now in marketing and sales at Top Master, a countertop company, said he also received a pay cut in 2008 or 2009 because of the economic downturn, which added to his stressed financial situation.

He was foreclosed on in 2010 and filed for another bankruptcy in 2011.

“I’m not saying I’m perfect,” Bond said. “Everybody struggles. You learn from those struggles, you go forward, you learn and don’t do those things again. But there are also a lot of situations in life beyond your control.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2015 at 8:57 PM with the headline "Some local political candidates had financial, legal troubles."