City Council members discuss proclamation process changes

Wichita City Council members talked Tuesday about how to move forward with issuing proclamations, finding some common ground but disagreeing about whether proclamations should be sponsored.

The conversation came after Wichita Mayor Lily Wu did not read a proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility at a meeting last month, which prompted several ethics complaints.

“If that proclamation wouldn’t happen, we wouldn’t even be talking about the process today,” council member Brandon Johnson said.

The city’s charter ordinance explains that the mayor has several duties, including presiding over council meetings and signing all resolutions and proclamations.

During the discussion Tuesday, Wu suggested that language about the mayor toward the end of proclamations instead mention the city council.

The proclamations have read “Now, therefore, be it resolved, that I, Lily Wu, mayor of the city of Wichita, along with the Wichita City Council do hereby proclaim…”

The change suggested by Wu would instead say “Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wichita City Council…” The mayor’s signature line would still be included.

“This is a double opportunity, I guess, to have the mayor have a lot more recognition when I don’t believe the mayor needs to have extra recognition,” Wu said of the current phrasing coupled with her signature line, “but rather, the Wichita City Council’s majority voted to proclaim this day to be whatever it is.”

That change had already been applied to proclamations issued at Tuesday’s meeting.

Council member Maggie Ballard disagreed with that change being made without council discussion or approval.

“I don’t necessarily have a problem with it,” Ballard said. “I don’t like those changes being made before we had the conversation today.”

No binding action was taken during the conversation. The council directed staff to make several other changes, including having the mayor hand sign all proclamations that are read during council meetings.

Wu said proclamations have been electronically signed during her tenure.

The council also directed staff to begin adding how council members voted on proclamations that were submitted to them to the consent agenda at each weekly meeting.

Council disagrees on sponsorship of proclamations

Council members disagreed, though, on whether an organization could or should request a specific council member to sponsor proclamations.

That sponsorship would have included helping the requesting organization make edits on a proclamation.

Some council members disagreed with sponsorship and saw it as a barrier for some proclamations to be recognized.

“Just because, again, you may not know the particular person or find the council member, but that doesn’t mean that your request isn’t any more valid,” council member Mike Hoheisel said.

Wichita City Manager Bob Layton said during the meeting that internal changes on how proclamations would be handled are also being made.

Currently, approved proclamations are submitted to the mayor by paper the week before they are read at a council meeting. The mayor, or their assistant, makes edits by hand and submits it to a city staffer to be changed.

Those edits will all be tracked electronically now as a result of how the Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation was handled.

Wu says she would have signed transgender proclamation

Wu has said consistently that her name and signature line were removed from the proclamation because of a “clerical error.”

She now says she would have signed it.

“I would sign if it passed by majority, just like I, again, did not deny or abstain from signing a document,” Wu said.

Council member J.V. Johnston repeated what the mayor has said about not issuing proclamations that single out specific groups of people.

“Sometimes I think if we give publicity to something, it gives more reason for the haters to act,” Johnston said.

Wu would not comment further about the proclamation after the meeting, citing the ethics complaints that have been filed against her.

Her assistant also would not answer questions, saying she had to get to a meeting.

A staff member who works in the city council offices and sent the email to council members to vote on whether the proclamation should be read also would not comment.

The suggested changes will be voted on by council members at a meeting later this year.

This story was originally published April 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM.