Wichita mayor cleared in ethics complaint filed by council member running against him

The Wichita Ethics Advisory Board has cleared Mayor Brandon Whipple of any wrongdoing in an ethics complaint filed by City Council member Bryan Frye, who is challenging Whipple in the upcoming mayoral race.

Frye accused Whipple of political patronage and claimed he exerted undue influence over the city’s hiring of Casey Yingling as the mayor’s assistant last year. Frye filed his complaint in March 2022, but the ethics board was unable to decide any cases until earlier this month.

Yingling, a Democratic political consultant and lawyer, worked on Whipple’s campaign in 2019 and briefly worked part time for the city early in 2020. The city hired her full time early last year to a newly created position after a member of the mayor’s support staff announced they were retiring.

In his complaint, Frye claimed Whipple openly advocated for Yingling to be hired and interfered with the hiring process by participating in Yingling’s interview.

The ethics board noted Whipple had advocated for Yingling be hired before the ethics policy was adopted in May 2021 and that he did participate in Yingling’s interview. But those actions did not constitute violations because it’s common practice for elected officials to participate in city employee interviews, the board ruled.

“The evidence provided did not support that the Mayor directly or indirectly interfered in the hiring process or openly advocated for Ms. Yingling” after the ethics policy went into effect in May 2021.

“While Mayor Whipple participated in the interview, HR and management witnesses said other elected officials have participated in interviews for positions, such as their community services representatives, as well as occasionally participating in interviews for key management positions,” the report found.

Frye, in a Friday phone interview, said he is combing through the board’s finding to try to understand how it reached the conclusion that Whipple didn’t violate the city policy. He said he hasn’t decided whether to appeal the decision.

“I am curious why the EAB finds that although Whipple said he wanted to hire Yingling, and he participated in the interviews that ended up with the hiring of Yingling, that doesn’t constitute interfering in the hiring process,” Frye said. “I don’t quite understand that.”

The council’s ethics policy defines patronage as “an official’s act of breaching their official authority to unduly influence the appointment of a person to a City office.” It also mandates that members “refrain from patronage and do not interfere with the hiring process in order to maintain the integrity of that process. Officials should refrain from expressing an improper interest in the hiring process.”

The ethics board found Yingling went through the standard city hiring process and was the only candidate interviewed for the job out of five applicants.

“There were five individuals in the pool of initial applicants,” the report says. “Even fewer were deemed qualified or even partially qualified through the screening process which included a written exam.”

Two finalists, including Yingling, were selected for interviews. The other finalist withdrew on the day of the interview, the report says.

“Ms. Yingling was interviewed by a three-person panel including the Mayor and the two named witnesses, using predetermined interview questions and rating forms that were filled out.”

The other two panelists “denied that the Mayor directly or indirectly interfered in the early 2022 hiring process,” the report says.

Frye said the City Council should consider revising the ethics policy to more clearly define interference.

“Clearly we need to get more precise definitions to avoid this happening again,” Frye said. “At the end of the day, I believe as leaders we should commit to the greatest ethics and transparency, and while his actions may not have violated the letter of the ethics policy as written, I think it certainly violated the spirit of it.”

The ethics board also found the procedures set by the city’s hiring policy were “generally followed with a few exceptions.” No further explanation of the “few exceptions” is included in the report other than “those exceptions do not substantiate an ethical violation by the Mayor.”

“There are exceptions to the hiring process but they won’t specify what they were,” Frye said. “That’s another question I have.”

It’s the second ethics decision to go Whipple’s way this month after the board ruled he did not violate the ethics policy by blocking someone on his personal and campaign Facebook pages. The ethics advisory board has been one of his top initiatives but so far the only complaints taken up by the board have been filed against him.

Whipple demanded an apology.

“We try to provide a positive working environment for our employees, and this type of misguided political gamesmanship is not only a distraction but it’s unfair,” Whipple said in a phone interview. “Our employees don’t sign up to be used as political pawns. And, frankly, Bryan Frye owes Casey (Yingling) an apology.”

Whipple said Yingling is one of his closest policy advisers.

“For the last year she has not only worked for myself but also for the entire city and the council and has done nothing but push forward the needs of the folks in our community,” Whipple said. “And for the last year she has had to do that under the shadow of controversy because one member thought it appropriate to question her qualifications as a way to score political points against me, and that’s sad.”

Frye said his complaint was not meant as a knock on Yingling.

“Look, this was never a question about Ms. Yingling’s qualifications or her credentials,” he said. “It was the actions of the mayor himself that questioned the integrity of the process. Why put yourself into position where the improper influence could even be a possibility?”

Yingling said she’s glad the matter has been settled.

“I’m glad to see this process is working,” Yingling said. “I love serving the city of Wichita and the opportunity to help Mayor Whipple implement his initiatives. I’m happy to move forward from this distraction to the important work of our city.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2023 at 9:54 PM.