Wichita budget sets $15 minimum wage for city workers, draws Harry Potter comparison
The Wichita City Council finalized its $670 million annual budget Tuesday, setting a $15 minimum hourly wage for city employees and putting the Century II Performing Arts Center and the city’s golf system squarely on the path to privatization.
The approval came after a final hearing where union leader Esau Freeman and Mayor Brandon Whipple traded shots over wages, and Save Century II activist Celeste Racette accused Whipple of being too deferential to developers and acting like a character from a Harry Potter novel.
City staff originally projected a $10 million to $11 million shortfall because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that was before a $70 million infusion from the federal American Recovery Plan Act and unexpected increases in sales tax revenues.
That extra money will allow the city to fill a number of positions that have been kept vacant to save money.
The first wave of hiring will include 139 civilian positions, and an additional seven police officers.
The budget vote came shortly after a pointed exchange between Whipple and Freeman, the business manager for Service Employees International Union Local 513.
“Those are the employees that are the little hodgepodges in the rest of the budget after you get done giving all the money to police and fire,”Freeman said. “I don’t think we’ve done a very good job of rewarding the people who kept your water on during this pandemic, who made sure that your sewers didn’t back up and the people that have worked on your streets that the jobs didn’t go to subcontractors.”
Freeman also said if the city doesn’t raise wages across the board, the new $15 minimum will be seen as an insult and lead to “pretty tremendous employment problems.”
Employees “that have been here for four years that are just starting to make $15 an hour now are a little bit concerned that the next person walking in the door’s going to be making $15 an hour,” Freeman said.
Whipple took umbrage at Freeman’s criticism of the $15 an hour starting wage.
“What percentage of your union will likely benefit from that?” Whipple asked. “Do you know off the top of your head?”
Freeman responded that while the union supports the $15 minimum wage, only a small percentage of SEIU workers will actually benefit from it.
“I think there was around 70 to 80 people (in line for raises) and half of them were a whole three cents away from $15 an hour,” Freeman said. The union represents between 800 and 900 workers.
When Whipple pressed Freeman by pointing out that the city is hiring and rehiring people who will be SEIU members in a few months, Freeman replied, “That’s another point of contention, since you asked.”
“When the city takes actions like has a management company come in and take some of their employees off their hands, that does not help Wichita have more living-wage jobs, more benefited jobs,” he said. “It typically reduces the employee’s salary and makes life harder for them.”
Whipple was also a lightning rod for Racette’s criticism.
Racette, who endorsed Whipple in 2019, objected to Whipple telling her and other public speakers last week that they shouldn’t criticize developers by name if they not at the council meeting.
Racette pointed out on Aug. 17 that Fairfield Inn & Suites developer Jim Korroch, who is also chairman of Visit Wichita, has received money from the Transient Guest Tax fund, that otherwise could have been used to upgrade Century II, while also working on the Riverfront Legacy Master Plan, which called for demolishing Century II and building new performing arts and convention centers next to Korroch’s hotel.
In response, Whipple asked Racette and others not to name the developers they criticize.
“I cringe a little when we make any type of attacks against private citizens who aren’t here and utilize this platform to do that,” Whipple said last week. “It technically would be considered a violation of decorum.”
Racette fired back Tuesday, comparing Whipple to a member of the fictional Wizarding World in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, where characters referred to an evil antagonist as “You Know Who” or “He Who Must Not Be Named.”
“If a developer comes to the city asking for taxpayer funds, their name should not be forbidden from being spoken like Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter,” she said Tuesday. “Developer names are part of the city’s public record. Taxpayers want transparency and accountability, not secrecy.”
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 4:45 PM.
