Former City Hall lobbyist accuses Wichita of violating protest rights at golf course

A former lobbyist for the city of Wichita has filed a complaint with the district attorney’s office, claiming the city’s golf director squelched the First Amendment rights of citizens who were protesting the closure of L.W. Clapp Golf Course on Friday.

The complaint filed Monday by Dale Goter alleges that Troy Hendricks, the city’s golf division director, illegally removed flyers from cars parked at Clapp during a Friday tournament held to celebrate the last day of business for the 65-year-old course.

Goter backed up his allegation with a self-shot phone video in which Hendricks says he removed the flyers and appears to concede he didn’t have a right to do that.

After Goter questioned the legality of the action, Hendricks gave the protesters permission to put the flyers back.

Hendricks did not return a message left at his office seeking comment.

The official city position is that the flyers were illegal advertising and that city workers could remove them if they chose to.

Citing financial shortfalls at Clapp, the Park Board voted last year to shut it down and convert it into a more conventional park.

The flyers at issue were headlined “Who killed L.W. Clapp?”

They asserted that mismanagement, “woefully inadequate” marketing and overspending on the city’s newer Auburn Hills Golf Course were the real reasons the golf system got into trouble.

The flyers listed contact information for City Council members and urged residents to call them in an effort to reopen the course.

Goter was the city’s director of legislative affairs from 2006 to 2014, acting as City Hall’s chief lobbyist at the Kansas Capitol and performing some public relations duties.

Since leaving City Hall, he has become an active critic of management of the city’s golf system and a leader of an ad-hoc group that fought the Clapp closure.

He said he thinks the act of removing flyers that criticize city management is the equivalent of gathering up free newspapers or other publications distributed around town.

“The right to free speech is not limited to the mainstream news media, but extends to each and every citizen in our community,” Goter wrote in his complaint to District Attorney Marc Bennett. “If this action by the government is tolerated, there can be no assurance that the rights to free expression by the citizens of Wichita are protected by the provisions of the U.S. Constitution.”

Late Monday, Bennett released a statement to The Eagle saying the complaint is outside his jurisdiction.

“... We are not empowered to investigate or prosecute federal constitutional rights violations,” Bennett’s statement said. “A civil action in federal court or a complaint to the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division may provide a remedy.”

In a response to Eagle questions, the city said that Goter and the protesters were “free to distribute his pamphlets and other information to attendees at the event in a way that is consistent with City ordinances.”

“These ordinances prohibit the placement of literature on the windshields of vehicles parked in City parking lots,” said the response from the city’s legal department, conveyed by e-mail through spokeswoman Elyse Mohler. “Park staff was complying with these ordinances.”

The ordinances cited by the city deal specifically with advertising, and include political candidate and church ads.

Goter responded that he doesn’t think that ordinance applies to noncommercial protest of city government action.

“There’s no way in hell that’s an advertisement,” he said. “If they can’t understand the difference between advertising and an editorial, they need to go back to civics 101. If that’s their position on civic discourse, we’re all in trouble.”

City Manager Robert Layton said staff was operating under their understanding of what the regulations are.

But he added “It’s an exercise in judgment.”

“I probably in the future would want to err on the side of being careful and maybe allowing that (leafletting) to occur,” Layton added. “This is something that I think is worthy of reviewing in the future.”

The City Council had kept Clapp operating for the past year until public input could be gathered on what park amenities should be considered to replace the golf course.

That process generated a long list of ideas including a dog-friendly bar and grill, an elevated rope course, a sledding hill and ponds with paddle boat rentals.

Following passage of the annual budget next week, those recommendations and others are expected to be turned over to a consultant who will create a master plan for the park.

Goter said he plans to address the council on the issues at Clapp during the budget public hearing Tuesday.

This story was originally published August 5, 2019 at 6:58 PM.