Wichita hires Whipple’s former campaign manager to serve as assistant to the mayor

The Wichita city manager’s office has hired Brandon Whipple’s 2019 campaign manager Casey Yingling to be the mayor’s assistant.

A local attorney and former Kansas Democratic Party secretary, Yingling will be paid $75,000 a year to conduct nonpartisan city policy research and coordinate community engagement efforts.

Council member Bryan Frye, a Republican, accused Whipple of meddling in the hiring process, an assertion Whipple dismissed as “baseless” and “insulting.”

Frye filed a complaint Thursday asking the city’s Ethics Advisory Board to investigate the issue.

“Mayor Whipple used political patronage by openly advocating for Casey Yingling to be hired as assistant to the mayor. This is improper interest,” states the complaint, which The Eagle obtained Friday. “Furthermore, he interfered with the hiring process by participating in the interview of Ms. Yingling on 2/16/22. The integrity of the process is called into question by his actions.”

Pam Pennington, the city’s senior HR specialist, said Yingling’s hiring “followed the standard practice of all city hires.”

“The job was posted online, we received five applicants, all candidates were invited for testing and were then vetted internally before conducting interviews with a panel of staff,” Pennington said.

Yingling said she has stepped away from her law practice and political consulting firm Ad Astra Group to focus on public service.

“Political operative, operator — it’s a pretty simplistic term, I think, for the work that I’ve done in the past,” Yingling said. “Bottom line, I’m a lawyer and I’m a policy person.”

Unlike in many major cities, Wichita mayors aren’t allowed to appoint their own assistants. Of the 50 largest cities in the U.S., only Wichita, Virginia Beach, Bakersfield and Arlington have no chief of staff or comparable position.

But previous mayoral assistants in Wichita have had political connections to the city’s top executive.

Current city spokesperson Megan Lovely held the assistant role under Mayor Jeff Longwell. She was hired after volunteering on Longwell’s 2015 campaign and moved to the communications division following Whipple’s victory over the Republican incumbent.

Campaign finance records show former Mayor Carl Brewer’s assistant Virdena Gilkey was reimbursed for providing advertising services to Brewer’s campaign in 2007.

Ethics and politics

The Ethics Advisory Board, which can censure officials or fine them up to $1,000 for serious violations, was created as part of the ethics reform policy championed by Whipple following Wichita Eagle investigations into unethical behavior by local elected officials.

“When his campaign is paying someone to work for him and then he’s directly involved with getting that person hired to be his assistant, that takes it to a different level,” Frye said.

“He advocated for her directly, and to me, that is cronyism.”

Whipple said he did no such thing, contending that it’s “sexist” to insinuate Yingling couldn’t earn the job on her own merits and characterizing Frye’s complaint as “a politically motivated attempt to get attention.”

“When Bryan Frye [hires] his community outreach person, he will be in the room during the interview process to ask questions,” Whipple said.

“It’s not like this is someone who got a contract because they knew who I was. This is someone who applied, went through the interview process — has done that twice now.”

The city manager’s office also hired Yingling to assist Whipple during the transition period after he was elected.

“She was hired to help me with the transition and we were led to believe that she was going to take Megan’s position,” Whipple said.

Instead, the city shuffled existing staff and Janet Johnson assumed the role. She has since announced her retirement, prompting the city to reopen the position.

Frye said his concern stems from a provision in the new ethics code stating that city officials shall “refrain from expressing an improper interest in the hiring process.”

District 1 council member Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, said he understands why hiring the mayor’s former campaign director could raise ethical questions. He said partisan tensions are still high after an election season that saw Democrats claim a working majority on the council.

“I do see where people would be concerned, especially after some high-profile races that just happened and everyone was involved in,” Johnson said.

Assistant City Manager Donte Martin, who officially hired Yingling, did not respond to repeated requests for comment this week.

The Ethics Advisory Board has yet to formally meet since it was formed in May 2021. The board still has at least one vacancy and has not provided the council with potential candidates to fill the empty ethics officer position.

Mayor’s assistant responsibilities

As mayor’s assistant, Yingling said she plans to read contracts, talk through policy proposals and work with city department heads to optimize government operations.

“The more that the city takes on beyond ribbon-cutting, that takes more effort and research, so I’ll play a role in that,” Yingling said.

“I have some unique experience to help the council and the mayor be more active in reviewing things that come before the council.”

Whipple said he may tap Yingling to facilitate an outside review of City Manager Bob Layton’s job performance — “pretty much ‘How’s Bob doing?’”

The city council voted unanimously in January to give Layton two years of retroactive raises totaling $18,000. Layton, who became manager in 2009, serves at the pleasure of the seven-person council, which has shifted to Democratic control since the manager received a raise.

“This is one of the most important decisions that the council makes but we don’t really have data on it,” Whipple said. “The only person that we get information from is Bob, the manager. ‘Hey Bob, how are you doing running the city?’ It’s like my students grading their own papers.”

Whipple said Yingling, who served on Sedgwick County’s redistricting board, will help organize a similar process when the city gets to the business of redrawing district borders. Other job responsibilities will include reviewing city ordinances and setting up town halls.

Yingling’s $75,000-a-year salary is nearly $26,000 more than City Council members make annually. The mayor’s salary is $113,626.

Yingling said her new role is a distinctly apolitical one.

“That’s part of being a full-time employee with the city. I view it as frankly a step away from a career that I was having, to do public service,” Yingling said.

Yingling co-founded the political marketing company Ad Astra Group LLC with her husband Levi Henry in 2016. Secretary of State filings show Henry incorporated a new Ad Astra company in February without her.

This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 4:19 AM.