Allegations fly at commission meeting on new Sedgwick County headquarters

Sedgwick County commissioners accused one another of various improprieties Wednesday as they battled over what to do about getting new government office space.

Commission Chairman David Dennis accused an unnamed commissioner — later revealed to be Jim Howell — of improperly negotiating with a property owner who is trying to sell his office building to the county.

"It appears an individual commissioner has been in private communications and negotiating about the Riverview Building," Dennis said. "I've only been subpoenaed once in my entire life and that was last fall, when the FBI questioned us about concerns, perceptions that Commissioner (Michael) O'Donnell was working closely with building owners. This goes far beyond that."

Howell confirmed Dennis was talking about him and denied the allegations.

He said he had asked the Riverview Building owner, Tony Utter, for some information via email, but had not taken part in any negotiations, deals or face-to-face talks.

Dennis’ remarks came about an hour after Howell and Commissioner Richard Ranzau had accused commissioners Dennis, O'Donnell and David Unruh of pulling a behind-the-scenes move to put part of the plan in motion without telling them.

They said Dennis went off the prepared agenda to push through a plan to move sheriff’s officers and prosecutors around the courthouse and the jail.

Ranzau called it a "well-orchestrated" move by the majority and asked why he hadn’t been informed. "This is just not the appropriate way to do this," he said.

In the end, the commission put off any decision on replacing the county's headquarters.

Earlier, the commissioners had narrowed it to three options: The Riverview, at 345 Riverview; an office building at 150 N. Main; and adding on to the existing courthouse.

That decision will wait at least until the passage of a budget in August and maybe until January when newly elected commissioners will take office.

The one thing that was decided was to move some sheriff's offices from the second floor of the courthouse to vacant space at the jail and give the vacated courthouse space to the District Attorney’s Office.

The sparring between commissioners takes place against a backdrop of an upcoming election.

Tension also is high because of the recent indictment of O’Donnell on federal charges that he laundered campaign money for personal use and sought to cover it up by filing false spending reports. O'Donnell has pleaded not guilty.

For about the last year, Ranzau has alleged that O’Donnell acted improperly by identifying buildings for commissioners to consider buying as they shuffle the county’s office spaces.

Dennis made it clear that when he was alleging improper negotiations, he wasn’t talking about O’Donnell.

He said what Howell did was worse than what Ranzau accused O’Donnell of doing.

"This was an elected official (Howell) communicating, negotiating, directly with building owners,” Dennis said. “While I'm sure it will be portrayed as trying to get a good deal for the county, the proper channel and process is to direct our staff to do that negotiation so that there is no perception of insider dealing.”

Howell said he had not negotiated anything and that all he did was email the owner to clarify some points in the offer to sell the building.

Howell released the chain of emails himself. They show questions and answers related to the treatment of rent income while the current tenants are still in the building.

“To accuse me that I’m somehow working with developers and real estate people to put together deals and negotiate independently of our staff, in my opinion, is not accurate,” Howell said.

Meanwhile, Howell and Ranzau said they were kept in the dark while the other three moved forward with a plan to move the sheriff's offices from the courthouse to the jail.

That plan is to remodel unused jail space for the sheriff's administrative offices, which will clear some space on the second floor of the courthouse for the District Attorney's Office.

Ranzau and Howell dissented on the vote.

They both said they weren't necessarily against the plan, but didn't like that it was sprung on them without notice and without being put on the agenda.

Dennis brought the matter up for a vote just before the commission took up discussion of getting a new county headquarters. And Dennis said he thought it all fit together.

"I don't agree that this isn't part of (that) agenda item," Dennis said.

He and Unruh said commissioners have discussed moving the sheriff's offices to the jail before, and they showed a PowerPoint slide from a past meeting to prove it.

Unruh said the only change would be in the order of work. Moving the sheriff out of the courthouse and expanding district attorney space was originally scheduled for the end of the project to get a new county headquarters, he said.

This puts it at the beginning, he said.

This story was originally published June 6, 2018 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Allegations fly at commission meeting on new Sedgwick County headquarters."