Wichita City Council fracas over workers furloughed during coronavirus turns ugly

Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple and City Council member Bryan Frye traded barbs Thursday over a decision to furlough 290 city workers during the coronavirus pandemic, with each accusing the other of dishonesty and grandstanding.

Whipple said he disagrees with the furloughs and thinks the City Council should have been more involved in the decision, which was ultimately made by City Manager Robert Layton. He said in a letter to The Wichita Eagle that he would have preferred to make cuts elsewhere, such as the City Council’s travel and lunch budgets.

Multiple council members have criticized Whipple for going public with his proposal, but Frye has been the most outspoken. On Thursday morning, he commented on a Wichita Eagle Facebook post that he’s “disgusted” by Whipple’s approach. He also accused the mayor of trying to take credit for Layton’s ideas.

“Passing these ideas off as his own when the city manager had already suggested them to the council is not right,” Frye said in one posted comment. “Had the Mayor shared his proposal with the council we could have this discussion as a team and reminded him that those cuts were already in motion.”

Whipple said that he voiced his concerns to Layton and other council members about furlough deliberations not being held in public or requiring a council vote and ultimately pushed to make sure the furloughed employees got paid.

He also denied Frye’s allegation that he stole Layton’s ideas.

“It’s a lie,” Whipple said.

The disagreement on the furloughs comes at a time of uncertainty surrounding the city’s finances. The city is facing a multi-million-dollar shortfall this spring as a result of businesses and services forced to close during a statewide stay-at-home order.

The City Council is slated to meet with the city manager on Tuesday to discuss the details during a council retreat.

In a letter submitted to The Eagle earlier this week, Whipple outlined a plan to cut the City Council’s lunch and travel budgets for the remainder of the year to offset any future furloughs as much as possible, challenging his fellow council members to lead by example by sacrificing their own funding to help city workers.

Frye says Layton has already suspended non-essential spending and that Whipple’s ideas had already been part of the conversation.

Whipple questioned why Frye would have complained about being “blindsided” by Whipple’s proposal if it had already been floated to the council. Frye told The Eagle earlier this week that he felt blindsided by Whipple’s proposal and wished he would have shared it with the council before sharing his idea with the public.

Frye attended Whipple’s Thursday morning news conference, but stood in the back and didn’t say anything.

Afterwards, he said he stood by his Facebook statements, which also included: “I’m disgusted he (Whipple) would use the plight of the furloughed workers as unnecessary, dishonest, grandstanding.”

Whipple replied: “It’s hard for me to respond to an accusation of political grandstanding by someone who’s on Facebook political grandstanding.”

“He’s an elected official, he has direct access to me, he can come in my office and we can have a good policy discussion,” Whipple said. ““If he wants to go on a reactionary rant on Facebook, that’s not what leaders do, OK?”

Layton, in an email, said he began discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the city’s operations with the mayor and council in early March and the discussions continued until the furloughs were announced to city employees on Friday of last week.

“Throughout the month, we planned for various scenarios including the temporary closing of facilities and programs,” Layton said. “After the County’s 30 day stay at home notice was issued, we finalized plans for furloughs. As previously noted, the furloughed employees either had no work to perform due to the facility and program closings or their work could not be performed remotely. I visited with each of the City Council Members and the Mayor during this time.

“The one concern expressed during those discussions was the ability of employees to maintain some level of compensation during the furloughs,” he said. “The furlough plan was adjusted to address this concern.”

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 9:17 AM.