Police, animal shelter main winners in Wichita budget. Private company to run Century II

After six hours of public comment and debate, Wichita City Council approved its annual budget without any major changes.

The Wichita Police Department got a multi-million-dollar increase while the rest of the city budget was cut by millions of dollars, despite dozens of opposition speakers and weeks of protests calling for cuts to the police budget and more spending on social services.

The city is facing a $50 million shortfall over the next two-and-a-half years.

After two public hearings where more than 60 speakers implored the council to make changes to the budget, only one change was made.

The city moved to keep its stray drop-off program at the Wichita Animal Shelter by increasing shelter fees, lowering the amount of time the shelter will keep unclaimed pets and cutting the budget for animal food.

The City Council signed off on cutting 29 city jobs and privatizing management of Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center, a measure that is projected to save $5.7 million over the next two-and-half years.

“All the feedback from the public, no changes,” a frustrated Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple said.

Whipple’s efforts to change the budget failed without support from the rest of the council.

He asked to delay a decision on privatizing Century II until 2021 when the city will likely have a better idea of the demand for the facility. None of the other council members would second his motion, meaning it couldn’t be debated or voted on.

He also pushed to adopt a lobbying policy by next year’s budget hearing after a secret lobbying campaign killed one of his proposals over the weekend, he said. The policy would have required anyone lobbying City Council members on behalf of an organization to influence a decision before the city to register and report that activity.

“An interest group called members of the council and defeated (my proposal) before I was able to actually talk about it, which is fine,” Whipple said. “It’s just (that) in the Legislature that’s lobbying, and I think it’s important that we get folks to make their intentions known by actually having a database of those who want to influence policy on behalf of an organization.”

Instead, City Council member Brandon Johnson proposed deferring that discussion to an ethics workshop within 45 to 60 days. No binding action is taken at those meetings.

Century II

The future of Century II has been one of the most contentious issues in city government after a study partially funded by the city called for tearing it down.

Despite pushback from the city, a Save Century II group successfully fought to have Century II registered as a historic building and gathered more than 17,000 signatures to force a vote on demolishing or otherwise diminishing city-owned historically or architecturally significant buildings.

The city sued the organizers of the initiative petition and have asked a Sedgwick County judge to toss out the petition. A decision hasn’t been made.

Save Century II organizers see privatization of management as a way for the city to sidestep taking care of the building.

John Todd, a real estate developer, activist and one of the group’s organizers, said the move is a “red flag.”

“The market timing is wrong to sign a long-term management agreement on Century II or any other publicly-owned building,” he said.

“Many of us view it as little more than a smooth political maneuver to circumvent a future vote of the people related to Century II and other important buildings downtown.”

Celeste Racette, one of the organizers, has consistently criticized the city for deferring maintenance at Century II.

Millions of dollars that were supposed to go towards Century II renovations and repairs has instead gone to Visit Wichita, the city’s visitors bureau, Racette said. That money comes out of the Tourism and Convention Fund that is funded with a 6% tax on hotel stays, a Century II-funding arrangement established by the city for upkeep of the building.

The city collects more than $7 million a year in that fund. Approximately 40% of the money goes to Visit Wichita, with more available through the account’s contingency funds if the organization meets certain goals. Visit Wichita also receives money from the city’s Tourism Business Improvement District fund, a 2.75 percent tourism fee added to hotel stays.

The City Council last month earmarked $250,000 a year for the next 10 years for a new a heating, ventilation and air conditioning rooftop unit on Expo Hall, hot and cold water circulation pumps replacements, and to fix other mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural problems.

Privatization plans for Century II will become clearer in the next few months as the city develops a request for proposals and evaluates any potential managers of the building.

Police increase

Although the question of increasing police funding was never in any serious jeopardy — a majority of the City Council said before the meeting that they were in favor of the multi-million-dollar increase in police funding — roughly 200 pro-police demonstrators held a rally on the Century II lawn during the meeting.

Dozens of people called for the City Council to give at least a portion of the police department’s budget increase to social services.

Ashley Christy, of Wichita, said the city would ultimately save money by investing in proactive solutions to the city’s rising violent crime problem instead of hiring more police officers.

“The city would save money by investing in community programs to address the roots of problems like homelessness, addiction and mental health outreach instead of merely reacting to them,” Christy said. “We would actually free up police officers to focus on actual policing.”

Several others spoke in favor of the police department during the meeting, although some speakers in favor of defunding the police said the pro-police speakers showed up because City Council members solicited them to provide support for a decision they already planned to make.

In turn, many in the pro-police crowd characterized the “defund police” movement as a Marxist organization funded by billionaire George Soros.

William Stout, a former law enforcement officer for the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, rejected the idea of social workers taking on the responsibilities of police officers and said he’s “disgusted even by the words defunding the police.”

“Law enforcement is charged with enforcing the law, not with enforcing your feelings,” Stout said. “If you’re upset about the way law enforcement does things, then by all means take that up with the individual law enforcement officer, or hopefully their supervisor, but don’t try to disband or defund the police because you don’t like the actions of one individual.”

Jack Johnson, a Wichita resident, said the pro-police crowd wasn’t there because they truly supported policing.

“The people that are here in support of the over-bloated police budget are not happy with what the police do for them. They’re happy with what the police do to others,” Johnson said.

The City Council made no changes to the police budget and unanimously approved a $99 million budget for the police department.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Visit Wichita received a majority of the city’s tourism and convention fund money. It receives approximately 40%.

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 6:19 PM.