‘Wild overreach’: Wichita council member to create own committee on government efficiency

Wichita City Council member Dalton Glasscock wants to create a committee to cut down on spending by city government – much like president-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency.

The committee comes as the city is facing a several million dollar deficit until at least 2028.

“I really want the community to let us know, ‘Hey, these are some suggestions of how we can maybe spend money more efficiently.’ Or, ‘these are regulations that can make small businesses operate more efficiently in the community,’” Glasscock said, “‘And so I may not agree with all the recommendations that people send me, but I want to empower them to help us answer the difficult questions we’re going to have to address.”

Although Glasscock’s committee will look at the city budget as a whole, the group is not an official city advisory board and as it currently stands will advise only Glasscock on the city budget. He is one of seven votes on the council.

Glasscock said he had dozens of people reach out to him about the committee, and will meet with the city manager’s office to discuss how the committee will operate.

The city manager’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the committee and how it might work.

Glasscock is also CEO of Starnes Media Group, which owns a talk radio station in Memphis and produces national broadcasts for Todd Starnes, a former Fox News host.

Starnes’ website recently published an article praising Glasscock for proposing the committee – and for voting against spending half a million dollars on two outdoor restrooms downtown.

During his weekly appearance on Starnes’ podcast, Glasscock called the restroom expenditure a “wild overreach of government” and an example of why he’s putting his committee together.

“This is ludicrous spending from the left, and these are the policies that people get pissed off by,” Glasscock said on the podcast. “I’m mad because this is not how government should be spending money, and it is offensive that we are spending that amount of money on a Port-a-pottie.

“I would say a lot more things today, but I’m going to keep my language clean today.”

The council voted 4-3 to pay for the outdoor restrooms at Naftzger Park and A. Price Woodard Park, with Republican council member Becky Tuttle voting with the three Democrats. During the meeting Tuesday, Tuttle said she had spoken with businesses in the area around Naftzger Park about the restrooms.

“They all said you built a park, you know, and great, but now it’s our burden and people are coming into our facility, and it’s homeless, but it’s also … soccer moms who are there in the park with two little kiddos, and so I’m listening to our business community,” she said.

“It’s not their responsibility to bear the burden of an amenity that we’re not offering in our property.”

In the same podcast, Glasscock said former President Donald Trump was reelected because of government overspending.

“Voters saw the overspending from the federal level, the state level and the local level, and they rejected it. … Elected officials need to wake up, because voters have woken up, and they’re going to wake up year after year because they’re tired of these policies, and they’re tired of liberal policies destroying this country.”

Not all council members were receptive to the idea of a city board specifically for the purpose of finding places to cut the city budget.

“If a council member wants to talk to people about an issue, the budget, get some advice or thoughts from other folks, that’s not a new cause. So I don’t see an issue there,” council member Brandon Johnson said in an interview with The Eagle. “I don’t really think it’s necessary to be an official city advisory board. The public has access to our budget if they want to look at it, line by line.

“In fact, we go out and we ask for people’s thoughts and opinions. We have presentations at district advisory board meetings. I do it at my breakfast as well. We have social media town halls. So we’re always looking to get citizen feedback on the budget and what they think.”