What’s behind Michael O’Donnell’s resignation from the Sedgwick County Commission
Sedgwick County commissioners said the abrupt resignation of Commissioner Michael O’Donnell Friday came as a surprise to them. But it was quickly explained when the district attorney announced he had uncovered enough evidence to bring legal proceedings to oust O’Donnell from office.
O’Donnell quietly walked away with 2 months left in his current term.
It was that or face formal ouster proceedings over his role in a 2019 campaign video of false allegations against Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple — and a subsequent cover-up attempt where he and two other politicians were heard in an audio recording plotting to frame the chairman of the county Republican Party for their actions.
O’Donnell had already announced he wouldn’t serve a second four-year term on the commission if he pulls out a victory in the election of Nov. 3.
As of Friday, he trailed Democrat Sarah Lopez by 125 votes with the final results to be announced at noon Monday.
Commissioners were informed of O’Donnell’s resignation in a short e-mail late Friday from County Counselor Mike Pepoon, minutes before District Attorney Marc Bennett issued a news release saying that he would have brought ouster proceedings next week if O’Donnell hadn’t stepped down from the commission when he did.
“Commissioner O’Donnell, through counsel, indicated his intent to resign from his position prior to 5:00 p.m. November 13, 2020 effectively terminating the need for official ouster proceedings,” Bennett said in his written statement. “The Office of the District Attorney received confirmation that the Commissioner tendered his resignation before 5:00 p.m. (Friday).”
Bennett said he’ll have more findings in the coming week on two other politicians linked to the 2019 video attack, state Rep. Michael Capps and Wichita City Council member James Clendenin.
Under state law, an ouster differs from a criminal prosecution in two key respects:
▪ An office holder doesn’t have to necessarily commit a crime to be held accountable, only to “willfully engage in misconduct while in office.”
▪ The only penalty is removal from office.
The video that started O’Donnell’s downfall, a campaign ad promoted on Facebook and YouTube, was designed to benefit then-Mayor Jeff Longwell by smearing his opponent, state Rep. Brandon Whipple, with false allegations of sexual harassment of college-age Capitol interns.
The veracity of the video quickly unraveled because the allegations were lifted from a Kansas City Star/Wichita Eagle story about female interns’ complaints of sexual harassment by Republican state senators.
Whipple, then a Democratic member of the state House of Representatives, was not the subject of the interns’ complaints.
Surprise resignation
Although all his fellow commissioners had called for O’Donnell’s resignation, they hadn’t expected him to make any moves before the election certification Monday. And they hadn’t been informed that Bennett was planning to immediately move to oust O’Donnell.
“I got a note from staff that said he (O’Donnell) is resigning as of 5 o’clock this afternoon,” Howell said minutes before 5 on Friday.
Commissioner Lacey Cruse, who frequently sparred with O’Donnell over the county’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, said replacing O’Donnell for the couple of months remaining in his term will be “yet another distraction that is taking away from the attention we should be giving to reducing the spread of COVID-19 in our community.”
Commissioner David Dennis said the board, which typically has five members, will get by. “As long as we have three people, we can govern,” he said.
“I wish Michael well,” Dennis added. “We’ll be praying for him.”
Commission Chairman Pete Meitzner declined comment.
O’Donnell served on the Wichita City Council and the state Senate before winning the coveted commission seat four years ago. With a salary in excess of $96,000 a year, the commission is considered the crown jewel for local politicians.
O’Donnell did not return a phone call from The Eagle. He was quoted in a written statement issued by the county, but did not address the reasons for his abrupt departure from office.
“It has been an honor and privilege to serve in the greatest community and work for the wonderful people of Sedgwick County these last four years,” O’Donnell said in the county statement. “I am proud and humbled by how much we have accomplished, even in unprecedented times, for this region, county, and my district. Thank you to my parents and family, friends, colleagues, and supporters for your love, guidance, and support. I look forward to this next journey in my life.”
If O’Donnell wins the vote count Monday, the now-vacated seat will be filled until the next general election two years from now by someone selected by about two dozen Republican precinct committee members in his 2nd District, which includes Haysville and parts of southwest Sedgwick County.
If Lopez wins, she’ll take the seat on Jan. 10.
But the Republican precinct committee members would still have to name a replacement for O’Donnell for the two months remaining in his current term, a county news release said.
O’Donnell’s made it a close race despite a secretly made audio recording, released 11 days before the election, that captured him plotting with Capps and Clendenin to cover up their role in the false attack ad and instead frame Sedgwick County Republican Party Chairman Dalton Glasscock.
Glasscock was a close friend of O’Donnell and his campaign manager when he ran for commission.
O’Donnell, Capps and Clendenin are currently defendants in a civil defamation lawsuit brought by Whipple primarily to uncover who had attacked him in the ad, which featured paid actresses in silhouette reading from a script of false allegations.
The “Protect Wichita Girls” video was posted to Facebook and YouTube on Oct. 16, 2019, less than three weeks before the mayoral election.
Capps’ former campaign manager Matthew Colborn was quickly identified as the creator of the video and named as the original defendant in Whipple’s lawsuit.
But he was dropped from the mayor’s lawsuit last month after he provided the audio recording that blew the lid off the cover-up.
Eagle reporting had previously linked the three Wichita Republicans to the video in July, but they downplayed their roles, saying they thought they were raising thousands of dollars from Wichita business leaders for a billboard campaign that never materialized.
Colborn’s secretly recorded audio revealed their involvement in the cover-up plot after the video was debunked and backfired.
Longwell, the intended beneficiary of the ad, immediately denounced it as “slimy” and later said it played a major role in his defeat.
O’Donnell again referred to the billboard campaign earlier this month when he launched a third-party lawsuit against Colborn in an attempt to bring the videographer back into the Whipple defamation suit as a defendant.
O’Donnell proposed accusing Whipple of sexually harassing teenage girls in a written list of ideas that he provided Colborn, according to a court filing submitted by O’Donnell’s lawyer. He said in the court filings that O’Donnell is not responsible for the bogus accusation because he thought it would be used on a billboard campaign or Facebook ad, not the video.
Attempts to conceal
Those behind the “Protect Wichita Girls” video went to extraordinary lengths to hide their involvement:
▪ Misled actress — A young Wichita actress who appeared in the video told The Eagle she had neither met nor heard of Whipple when she agreed to be in the ad. She said Colborn paid her $50 and told her she would be in a public service announcement against domestic violence.
▪ Shell company — The ad was promoted on Facebook and YouTube by Protect Wichita’s Girls LLC, an anonymous shell company registered in New Mexico, a state that does not require closely-held businesses to reveal the names of their owners. The company was created on Oct. 10, 2019, six days before the video posted online.
.▪ Charity donations — To conceal the identities of the donors for the video, O’Donnell and Clendenin asked contributors to cut checks to the Fourth and Long Foundation, a nonprofit organization owned and controlled by Capps. The charity was initially set up in 2013 to accept donations for a new football field at Wichita West High School, where Capps was an equipment manager, but the field was never built. Internal Revenue Service records show the charity never raised more than $50,000 in any given year and 501(c)3 nonprofit groups are forbidden by federal law from accepting political donations or spending money to influence elections.
▪ Domain name shield — The same day the video launched online, a Capps-owned company called Krivacy, LLC purchased the domain name “protectwichitagirls.com.” The same day Eagle reporting linked the video to Capps’ downtown Wichita office building, ownership of the domain transferred to a web hosting company that guarantees its customers anonymity.
▪ Framing GOP leaders — After Eagle reporting connected the domain name to Capps’ company, leaders of the Sedgwick County Republican Party called on Capps to resign. Two days later, Capps met with O’Donnell, Clendenin and Colborn to prepare for a radio interview on the John Whitmer radio show. The three officeholders agreed that Capps should try to shift the blame to Glasscock and considered framing County Clerk and former state Republican Chairman Kelly Arnold as well, the Colborn recording revealed.
▪ Public denials — O’Donnell, Capps and Clendenin repeatedly denied involvement in the smear campaign to reporters. When their names surfaced in court documents, O’Donnell and Clendenin admitted to raising money but said they thought it would be used for the nonexistent billboards. Capps also said that the money was supposed to be used for billboard ads. As recently as July, Capps continued to blame Glasscock.
Capps and Clendenin did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The scandal has shaken up the political landscape of the Wichita area, possibly for years to come.
O’Donnell’s resignation follows Capps’ defeat in the August Republican primary by challenger Patrick Penn. Capps will leave office in January when new legislators are seated at the start of the annual session.
Clendenin, whose term runs out next year, could be the last man standing.
He has been censured by the Wichita City Council. And his own district advisory board condemned his actions with a vote of “no confidence.”
But neither body called on him to resign and he’s expressed intent to serve out his term.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
