In race for Sedgwick County treasurer, one candidate campaigns for no more elections

One of the candidates for Sedgwick County Treasurer in Tuesday’s election wants to be the last person ever elected to the office.

“I hope to be the last who has to run for this seat,” said Democrat Charity Kennedy, who is campaigning in part on eliminating the role of county treasurer as an elected position and transitioning it to a nonpolitical staff role.

“Imagine a county treasurer who is devoted totally to serving the public instead of worrying about her next election. Right now, after reviewing certain financials of the treasurer’s office, I’m seeing opportunities for more efficient use of taxpayer funds. It’s time we demand a culture of taxpayer trust in Sedgwick County government.”

Kennedy, 42, faces Republican Brandi Baily, who disagrees with eliminating elections for treasurer.

“Shouldn’t the taxpayers have a say over who is overseeing all that tax money coming in, or should five bureaucrats be who is responsible for overseeing the treasurer?” Baily said, referring to a staff position reporting to the county commission.

“The duties and responsibilities of the treasurer, they require such in-depth knowledge and accountability, it shouldn’t matter if it’s appointed or elected,” Baily said. “We should still have the same qualifications.”

The treasurer’s office operates the county’s two vehicle tag offices. It also collects real estate, personal property and other taxes and distributes the money to cities, townships and other taxing authorities. The office has the equivalent of 93 full-time employees. The treasurer is elected to a four-year term and is paid $92,658. The current treasurer, Linda Kizzire, is not seeking re-election.

Neither candidate currently works for the treasurer’s office.

Brandi Baily

Baily, 43, is a veteran accountant in the county’s finance department, as well as a Park City councilwoman.

“I’ve done the financial management for the last 13 years, I’ve done it for 20 years overall,” Baily said. “I know the systems that are being used, so therefore the transition to go into that office would be very smooth.”

Baily said the money collected by other departments still flows through the treasurer’s office.

“There’s billions of dollars that are flowing through that system annually, and you have to be able to know how to reconcile and balance those accounts,” she said. “I’ve worked with the auditors on the treasurer’s office accounts every year since I’ve been with Sedgwick County.”

Baily said she is currently working to correct issues with balancing and reconciling in the office.

“Just this last audit, we found two accounts that were sitting there for over seven years that didn’t have money being distributed out to the improvement districts that they belong to,” Baily said. “... That’s why it’s so important that we have someone in there that understands and knows what to look at and knows how to balance and reconcile.”

Baily said there hasn’t been a treasurer in about 20 years who had financial management experience.

“An engineer, yeah, that’s going to be good to maybe help with the process improvement and changes, but you need to be able to account for things,” she said.

She also pointed to her experience leading people as a member of the Park City City Council.

“People should know that I am passionate about this,” Baily said. “I have wanted to be the county treasurer for a number of years. I am not that politician. Unfortunately, the position I want requires me to run for it and be elected. But I am going to go in here with passion, and I am going to be a treasurer that is going to work with the public.”

Charity Kennedy

Kennedy, 42, is an industrial engineer at an aerospace company with management experience who has also been a math teacher. She called the treasurer the county tax collector, comparing the position to a “manager of managers.”

“I think there is a misconception by the public on what the treasurer’s role is,” Kennedy said. “I do think they think it’s the person that is in charge of the money for the county, and that’s incorrect.”

The county’s financial affairs are managed by the finance department, not the treasurer’s office.

“Some people might think why would an industrial engineer want to be in charge of all the money, or why should we even allow an industrial engineer to be in charge of all the money, especially when she’s the one talking about filling roles on merit and credentials.”

Kennedy described the work of much of the treasurer’s office as processing payments and transactions, equating it to processing parts in the aviation industry. She said the treasurer is more of a people manager and administrator than an accountant.

“From what I have seen of Brandi Baily’s credentials, she does not have any experience managing people,” Kennedy said. “She manages assets for the county as an accountant that is in charge of the investments, but she doesn’t have any experience managing people.”

“Having experience leading and managing people would allow me to be more effective in the role because I know how to build a team, how to get people on board and ready to make changes. I do think that there’s significant improvements that can be made in the treasurer’s office.”

Improving the customer experience

Both candidates are campaigning on improving the customer service and updating technology in the treasurer’s office.

Baily’s strategy to improve customer service would focus on building up employee morale.

“Those employees, there is such little morale in there,” Baily said. “They feel like they are not important to the office. They’re just feel like they’re there, and nobody cares that they’re there.”

Kennedy said the current treasurer systems are “behind the times, somewhat archaic, in terms of the technology that they use and the efficiency that I have seen” elsewhere. She said the system that estimates the wait time needs improvement.

“If we look outside of what we’re used to seeing in our local treasurer’s office or even in government, to what we see in other industries or in other applications, those types of technology can bring convenience to taxpayers,” Kennedy said.

She also wants to eliminate the need for people to go into the office for transactions that can be done online or through the mail.

Both candidates also want to explore using kiosks in more rural parts of the county.

An elected office

Kennedy argues that transitioning the office away from an elected position, as Johnson County has done, would improve efficiencies.

“It first takes someone raising their hand and saying ‘I’m willing to talk about you eliminating my elected role,’ “ she said.

“This idea of having a county treasurer is a relic from before there was technology for electronic bookkeeping ... we’ve updated our bookkeeping processes to stay in line with technology, but we didn’t update our structure, and I don’t think we need a county treasurer.”

Baily said changing an elected treasurer to an administrative office has been more expensive elsewhere.

Having the county manager and the commission oversee the position would create delays.

“Instead of the buck stopping at the treasurer and the treasurer being able to make the decisions on what they want to do to improve the office, if you make it appointed, now you’ve added two more layers of people that you need to go through to get the job done,” Baily said.

She also said it would make it “more bureaucratic and more partisan.”

“The treasurer’s office, in just property taxes, we oversee $600 million in revenue that comes in annually,” Baily said “So should we be required to be accountable to the taxpayers for that $600 million in property tax, or should we be accountable to the BOCC? When you talk about it being partisan, so if it goes to an appointed position, what’s more partisan than the Board of County Commissioners?

Kennedy argued that in case of problems, it would be easier to fire someone who was hired rather than elected. She said she does not expect to keep the job if it were converted to a staff position.

“I don’t want to set up a dynasty so that I have a forever job,” Kennedy said.

“Honestly, I am more of a fixer. In my role at Spirit, I typically go into an area that’s broken and go look at a process that’s broken and work to fix it. I do it in a way that’s sustainable, and I get it on solid ground, then I hand it off to somebody.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2020 at 5:01 AM.