Labor leader and retired car dealer round out race for Wichita City Council seat

Three Wichita City Council races will be decided in November’s election, but just one of those — District 4 in southwest Wichita — has enough candidates to appear on the Aug. 1 primary ballot.

Judy Pierce, president of the Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation, and Alan Oliver, a retired car salesman, filed on June 1 to join Dalton Glasscock and Bentley Blubaugh. Two of the four will advance to the general election.

Pierce, the only registered Democrat in the race, has spent 20 years at the helm of the labor federation, a body with representation from roughly 30 unions that surveys and educates members on issues important to workers and families.

“I feel sorry for the underdogs. You work, you collect pay from work, and there are still people out there now working that are not getting paid a living wage,” said Pierce, 75, who hired on at Beechcraft at a rate of $1.81 the day after her 18th birthday in 1965.

Neither she nor Oliver have run for public office before. Oliver, a Republican, said he was encouraged by friends with elected experience who told him he has the right “morals, values and character” for the job.

“I was a car dealer in town for 42 years, and I’m just looking to make some changes to the way things are done here,” said Oliver, 63, who listed infrastructure as one of his top priorities.

“These streets need a lot of work,” he said. “I do some part-time Uber driving, and as an Uber driver, if you’re out on the streets, you very well know what streets — especially in my area — need some major work done on them.”

Pierce said she’s displeased with the status quo at City Hall and would like to see Robert Layton removed from his position as city manager.

“I don’t think he’s doing his job,” Pierce said.

“I think he has a lot of things that he needs to get fixed, and one of them is working with the people that they hire — getting them to work right, paying them right. I mean, you just can’t expect people to work hard everyday and not pay them enough that they can live.”

The City Council voted in 2021 to raise the minimum wage for city workers to $15 an hour. Pierce said she supports further raises.

Oliver said that as a council member, he would support the use of city incentives, including industrial revenue bonds and tax increment financing, to lure new employers to the city.

“In the last year or two, they’re bringing in some IT companies and what have you, but we need to be stronger at that. We need to step up our game,” Oliver said.

“I feel like we’re being overlooked by a lot of major companies from coming here. We’re in the heart of the country. It’s easy to get to and from some place, and I just think that we need to step up our game as far as attracting new businesses.”

Pierce said the City Council spends too much time catering to businesses. She said she would oppose future efforts to outsource more city services to the private sector.

“Over the past 14 years, I have watched as the services of the city become smaller and more privatized,” Pierce said. “This can be seen in our parks department regarding the mowing of our parks and their general upkeep . . . The recent privatization of Century II is another shining example of city government lessening their obligation and turning over city assets to private industry.”

Oliver said citizens should hold City Hall to the highest standard of transparency.

“I think it’s all-encompassing,” Oliver said. “There’s a lot of things that we need to be more forthright on and be able to be more transparent on.”

Pressed for specifics, he pointed to the Wichita Police Department, noting that past scandals have eroded trust with the public.

Both candidates said they have not yet read the Jensen Hughes report, a third-party cultural assessment of the police department that was released in March.