Candidates for Wichita school board discuss past financial, legal issues

Two candidates running for the Wichita Board of Education this spring have had financial and legal troubles in the past.

Michael Capps, who is running as an at-large candidate, and Joshua Blick, who is running in District 4, have district court records.

Capps, who is running against incumbent Sheril Logan, has had a foreclosure suit filed against him and four tax warrants, mostly related to technology businesses he has owned over the years.

Shortly after Capps completed his service with the Air Force in 2003, he said, he incorporated a business called Frontier Technologies in Bel Aire. The business closed in late 2008, a “combination of the economic downturn and reorganizing the business to focus on what was being successful and shedding what wasn’t,” Capps said.

After the business closed, Capps received a tax warrant for unpaid sales tax from parts of 2007 and 2008. The warrant totaled $20,875.38.

The case was later disposed, according to district court records. Capps said the debt has been satisfied.

“Frontier Technologies had an economic downturn, and we got behind,” Capps said. “Things weren’t paid the way they were supposed to.

“I had a business partner that was responsible for the financial side of the house; I was responsible for operations. I didn’t keep my eye very closely on making sure that our bills and liabilities were being taken care of as they should have been, and so as we closed the business, we did everything in our ability to make sure we satisfied our debts.”

After Frontier Technologies folded, Capps joined former Frontier exec Christian Kentling to form Integrated Technologies of Kansas in 2008. Shortly after, he faced foreclosure in 2009, according to district court records.

Capps said the closing of Frontier and his foreclosure were not related.

“That was during the homeowner modification bubble era,” Capps said. “Whether I got good or bad advice at the time in order to pursue a loan modification, I was kind of put in a position that I was supposed to let the loan go delinquent. I didn’t really feel very good about it, but I did go through home loan modification.”

Capps still lives at the same address and said the liability is “continuing to be taken care of.”

“We’ve been on pretty solid footing as an organization as well as personally since Integrated Technologies restructured,” Capps said.

In 2012, Capps and Integrated Technologies of Kansas received a warrant for unpaid sales tax in 2011. It totaled $13,930.82. Then in 2013, Capps received another warrant for unpaid withholding tax from 2011 and parts of 2012. It totaled $4,575.03.

Both of those warrants were satisfied on March 13, 2014, according to district court records.

Capps said the warrants were a result of “accounting errors.”

“Once we reconciled them with our auditors, we set ourselves up with a payment to make sure that it was taken care of with the IRS,” Capps said.

In 2013, Capps also received a warrant for unpaid individual income taxes for 2011, totaling $1,450.78. The case was dismissed, Capps said, when he was able to provide documentation that he had, in fact, paid those taxes.

Joshua Blick

Blick ran to represent District 4 on the City Council four years ago. Then, when Michael O’Donnell vacated the seat for the Kansas Legislature in 2013, Blick was among candidates considered to fill the position. The City Council eventually chose Jeff Blubaugh.

Blick filed a protection from stalking order against fellow City Council candidate Craig Gabel in 2013 after he said he observed Gabel and his employees sitting outside his house on multiple occasions. Blick also said his car and home were vandalized in 2013.

He hired attorney Stephen Turley to represent him in the case, but after it was postponed for several months, Blick said he told Turley he did not need the legal services anymore.

Turley filed suit against Blick in 2014, saying he owed about $300 in legal fees. Blick said the suit was a result of Turley charging him for time after he split ways with the lawyer.

“The date I released him was further back – it was an overpayment,” Blick said. “They ended up taking it off because I showed him just cause.”

Blick had a small claims suit filed against him in 2013 by Office Aide, which printed his City Council campaign literature and advertisements, he said. Office Aide said he owed about $575 in unpaid printing fees.

Blick said he did not end up paying anything in the suit. He contracted with a private design firm to do all of his advertisements for the 2013 campaign, and it was the firm’s responsibility to pay the printer. Blick said he had already paid the firm.

“They said you should be responsible because your name is on the mailers,” Blick said. “It was kind of like the same thing if you are a restaurant and had something printed and it was the advertising company that did it, and the advertising company didn’t pay, and now they’re coming after the restaurant owner.”

In the school board race, Blick is running against Jeff Davis, who has said he will not actively campaign for the seat.

This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Candidates for Wichita school board discuss past financial, legal issues."