Wichita vote: new schedule, at least two new city leaders

The leaves are turning colors and for the first time, Wichita voters will be asked to turn out for an autumn election to pick their City Council.

Voters in half of Wichita will be able to choose a candidate this year. All three seats up for election are contested.

Two council seats – representing northeast Wichita District 1 and central-west District 6 – will change hands after this election no matter who wins.

The incumbents in both districts, Lavonta Williams and Janet Miller, have exhausted their term limits and have to step down.

Nov. 7 will mark the first general election since the state Legislature ordered cities to move voting from the spring to the fall of odd-numbered years. The new schedule mirrors the election calendar the state uses in even-numbered years for presidential and governor races.

Here’s a look at the campaigns and the candidates on the upcoming ballot:

District 1

Just about everyone agrees that this district in northeast Wichita has the marquee matchup of this council campaign season.

Brandon Johnson, a community activist who’s new to city politics, is facing a familiar figure, former Wichita school board member Mike Kinard.

Johnson ran away with the August primary, garnering 52 percent of the vote to Kinard’s 22 percent second-place showing in a four-candidate race.

Johnson is the co-founder and executive director of a group called CORE, which stands for Community Operations Recovery Empowerment.

He’s been particularly active in trying to improve relations between the community and the police department. He cites success in working with Police Chief Gordon Ramsay, including the organization of a community cookout that drew national attention, and is credited with helping defuse tensions between police and black residents.

One of Johnson’s key supporters is civil rights lawyer James Thompson, a Democrat who ran a close race for a congressional seat in a special election earlier this year and is primed for a rematch with Republican Rep. Ron Estes.

Johnson has benefited from a core of volunteers who are part of the “Thompson Army,” many of whom were drawn into political activism by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential run.

Kinard, who was once a candidate for Congress himself, said he hopes to close the gap from the primary by taking his message to voters at their homes, “knocking, walking, and knocking some more.”

In addition to serving on the school board, Kinard has chaired or served on numerous local volunteer boards including the Youth Educational Empowerment Program, the Northeast YMCA, the Urban League, McAdams Park Summer Softball and Wichita-Sedgwick County Weed and Seed.

Both candidates cite economic development of the northeast community as a critical issue. And both support city participation in the restoration of the Dunbar Theatre, a once thriving entertainment venue that they say could spur a renaissance of African-American arts and culture and revive what used to be the heart of the black business district.

One area where they differ is the pool at McAdams Park.

Johnson has been all-in on efforts to save the pool, which was closed by the city in a budget-cutting move and is slated for demolition in favor of a low-maintenance “splash pad for small children.

Kinard said he learned to swim at McAdams and shares nostalgic feelings for the pool. But he said industrial development and changes in the neighborhood have cut the pool off from easy access from much of the community. With declining use, the city is justified in closing the pool and spending the money on other amenities, he said.

District 3

District 3 offers a choice between the incumbent James Clendenin and challenger William Stofer, a community activist familiar for his long, gray beard.

Clendenin is running on his record.

“I’m doing everything I’ve done over the past four years, going to neighborhood meetings, meeting with citizens and making sure we’re addressing the issues as they bring them up,” he said.

Clendenin points with pride at projects done on his watch to catch up on what had been years of neglect in south Wichita.

“We have over the past six years infused a tremendous amount of money into projects in southeast Wichita,” he said.

Those include the purchase of a new train ride at O.J. Watson Park, the opening of a Save-A-Lot grocery store in a space abandoned by Dillon’s on South Broadway, the rebuilding of the Lincoln Street bridge over the Arkansas River and preservation of the John Mack Bridge on Broadway.

He also cites the addition of six new police officers to patrol the South Broadway corridor.

“It really comes down to public safety and infrastructure,” Clendenin said. “Those are two words that mean a whole lot when you drill down. Making sure that our neighborhoods are nice, friendly, safe places to live, and that the roads that lead to our homes are nice, safe and friendly as well.”

He’s hopeful that the development of downtown will eventually spread south along Broadway.

“We have the opportunity to turn it (South Broadway) into a renovated Radiator Springs,” he said, referring to the town in the animated movie “Cars”. “A place where maybe you have some old hotels that are renovated and there’s neon and people want to stay in a nostalgic kind of 50s-style hotel and build kind of a brand around something like that.”

Stofer said his main idea is to relax city regulations and allow for “pop-up markets,” which he said could improve the south-side economy and access to fresh foods at the same time.

The concept would be that people could start their own small agribusinesses, growing fruits and vegetables in their yards and then selling their harvests from the streetside.

“I’d like to start turning some of these vacant lots (in south Wichita) into locations for these startups,” he said.

He also wants the south side to hold more public outdoor entertainment events.

He laments the loss of the Joyland Amusement Park that once attracted people from across Wichita to the south side. Although Joyland’s not coming back, having more smaller events could lure people to explore the regions south of Kellogg, he said.

“I want it (the south side) to be a destination for the city,” he said.

District 6

District 6 will have two candidates on the ballot, although one isn’t actively running and tried to withdraw.

Sybil Strum, who frequently attends and speaks on multiple topics at council meetings, entered the race.

But she said she couldn’t raise any money to campaign and she’s gotten in trouble with the state Governmental Ethics Commission for not filing campaign finance forms.

Strum said she called the commission and told them she was withdrawing from the race, asking that the commission waive the potential fine for not filing the finance report, which she said she didn’t know about.

Her name remains on the ballot because she missed the deadline to withdraw, said Tabitha Lehman, Sedgwick County election commissioner.

Strum’s quasi-withdrawal appears to create a clear path to the council for Cindy Claycomb.

Claycomb works as an assistant to Wichita State University president John Bardo and a professor of marketing.

She’s heavily involved in city affairs, serving as the chairwoman of the city’s Park Board and a member of the District Advisory Board, which advises the current council member, Miller.

Claycomb also is chairwoman of the board of the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. and a board member with the Greater Wichita Partnership and the Botanica gardens.

She said as a council member she would continue to support partnerships with local universities and trade schools to train workers for Wichita businesses, work to make it easier for small businesses to do business, and encourage entrepreneurship.

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Wichita vote: new schedule, at least two new city leaders."