Wichita’s ethics board meets for the first time in 7 months, hasn’t reviewed complaints

Wichita’s Ethics Advisory Board held its first public meeting in seven months Wednesday evening but did not take up any of the four complaints lodged since the City Council adopted an ethics policy in May 2021.

The seven-member board can censure city officials and fine them up to $1,000 per violation under the ethics policy, which sets gift limits for elected and appointed city officials for the first time in city history. But that policy says the board can’t evaluate potential violations until an ethics officer is named.

The council on Tuesday agreed to pay Wichita State’s Public Policy and Management Center $24,600 to recommend revisions to clarify the policy and vet complaints on an interim basis until an ethics officer is named.

There were nine applicants for the unpaid ethics officer position, Assistant City Manager Donte Martin said. Three recommendations were forwarded to the council in May.

“Prior to the city council beginning its consideration of the three applicants, staff determined that one candidate had moved away from Wichita so was no longer eligible,” Martin said. “Also, another applicant was ineligible due to policy requirements. There was some political affiliations that barred the candidate from serving in the ethics officer position.”

The final candidate was interested only in a paid position, he said, and staff determined there were no other qualified applicants.

“Depending on the recommendation that comes back from PPMC and the ethics advisory board, we may very well be coming back to city council asking for funding for the position if that’s the recommendation,” Martin told the council.

PPMC Senior Management Consultant Kathy Sexton chaired Wednesday’s meeting, where board members began working to propose clarifications to the ethics policy, including what level of political involvement should preclude someone from serving on the board.

Sexton told The Eagle that the board will meet monthly moving forward and begin taking up ethics complaints by January or February.

Under the ethics policy, complaints are to be vetted by the ethics officer and outside legal counsel to determine if they should be dismissed for being frivolous or groundless before the board considers them. The city council voted Tuesday to temporarily suspend the provision requiring the ethics officer to screen complaints, allowing PPMC and a local law firm to fulfill the duty.

“The original policy anticipated the use of outside council,” Martin said. “The law department’s budget includes funding for the outside council, and talking with the budget officer for the law department, we believe it can be funded within existing resources.”

Staff estimated in 2021 that the ethics advisory board would cost between $10,000 and $20,000 annually.

Only one of four ethics complaints has been made public. The Eagle obtained that complaint through an open records request after council member Bryan Frye filed it in March.

Frye accused Mayor Brandon Whipple of meddling in the hiring process when the city tapped Casey Yingling, his 2019 campaign manager, to be the mayor’s assistant. Previous mayor’s assistants have had political connections to the city’s top executive, but Frye said Whipple crossed the line by “openly advocating” for Yingling, who was one of five applicants.

The city’s senior HR specialist told The Eagle that Yingling’s hiring followed the standard practice of all city hires, and Whipple dismissed Frye’s accusations as “baseless” and “politically motivated.”

Whipple, who championed the ethics policy, is up for re-election in 2023.

This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 8:27 PM.