Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple files for re-election; lays out second-term priorities

Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple officially filed to run for re-election on Wednesday, saying he wants to focus his second term on public safety, improving pay for first responders and diversifying the economy.

Whipple, a former Democratic state representative from south Wichita, joins a diverse cast of challengers vying for the top spot on the Wichita City Council. The list of opponents includes Council member Bryan Frye, Save Century II activist and former fraud investigator Celeste Racette, former Council member and radio reporter Jared Cerullo and former TV news reporter Lily Wu.

“We need to aim big and solve big problems,” Whipple said. “We have more of a surplus in our rainy day fund than at any time in our city’s history. It isn’t the time to let our foot off the gas when it comes to growing more opportunities.”

Whipple said the first half of his term was stymied by Spirit AeroSystems layoffs, COVID-19 and a chilly relationship with a majority of the City Council members, whose ethics he had questioned during his campaign.

In 2021, Whipple allies Maggie Ballard and Mike Hoheisel flipped two seats on the council, giving Democrats a majority on the City Council for the first time in decades.

The new majority, with help from conservative members on the council, has taken up police reform, blocked a plan to privatize operations of the city’s golf courses, pushed for more funding on deferred maintenance at Century II and decriminalized marijuana.

At the same time, the city has been flush with cash, boosted by a flood of federal COVID relief aid through the CARES and American Rescue Plan acts and increased property tax collections due to a booming housing market.

The city’s $20 million “rainy day” fund could begin to drain quickly in the next few years, as the city expects budget deficits of more than $18 million in 2025, when the city’s ARPA funds run out, and more than $20 million in each of the three years after that.

“Wichita is experiencing momentum and economic growth that’s unprecedented,” Whipple said. “And I think that we need to finish the job that we started, which means continuing to build upon our progress and just build upon our success. We are in historical territory when it comes to how low our unemployment rate is right now.”

Unemployment in the Wichita area has dropped from more than 18% in April 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, to just over 3% in April 2023, which is better than the national average but mirrors national trends of historically low unemployment rates.

Whipple also tried to take credit for what appears to be a crime-data reporting error by the Wichita Police Department to the FBI.

“We were able to cut crime — violent crime — in half on my watch,” Whipple said at the election office. “We’ve got to continue with our efforts to still make sure that we’re fighting against violent crime.”

Crime, violent or otherwise, was not cut in half during Whipple’s term.

Whipple said he made the statement based on FBI data. His campaign later sent out a news release that repeated the false claim that “our violent crime rate has been cut in half.”

The FBI’s online “Crime Data Explorer,” based on self-reported data sent to the FBI by cities across the country, does show a precipitous drop in Wichita crime from 2020 to 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.

The chart shows crime in Wichita in 2021 was lower than any time in the previous 10 years. But the data submitted by Wichita police for 2021 is incomplete, an Eagle analysis found.

Wichita had 54 homicides in 2021, 46 of which were classified as murders. But the FBI data shows only 22 murders for that year, fewer than half of those reported by the WPD to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. For rapes, the WPD reported 162 to the FBI and 295 to the KBI. The WPD reported 3,518 aggravated assaults to the state and 1,394 to the feds. For robberies, the number reported to the KBI was 367 but the FBI lists only 200 of them.

“I try to make sure every talking point I use has a citation, so if there’s a better source, I’m all over it,” Whipple said in a written statement when challenged about the numbers. “Thanks for pointing it out, I’ll look more into it.”

Whipple laid out a number of priorities for a second term, including finding solutions to end chronic homelessness. Over the last 12 months Wichita spent $140,000 clearing campsites, but officials now say they plan to reverse course on the crackdown on public camping.

“I want to bring homelessness down to functional zero,” Whipple said. “And I want to fix our transportation system because those are two issues that people have been talking about for decades and haven’t been able to get done. We’ve shown this last few years that we can get stuff done that nobody has been able to in the past.”

Whipple said he’s glad there’s a robust field of candidates “because that creates the atmosphere for a lot of good ideas.”

“Right now, to be honest, my competition is myself,” Whipple said. “I strive to be the best I can in everything we do moving forward. I’m focused on what our plan is going to be, how we’re going to execute our plan, both policywise and communicating about the success that we’ve had.”

The primary on Aug. 1 will narrow the field to two candidates, and voters will decide the next mayor on Nov. 7, along with three City Council seats and three Wichita school board seats.

Contributing: Matthew Kelly of The Eagle

This story was originally published May 31, 2023 at 7:42 PM.