Endorsements for Wichita mayor, Wichita City Council, Wichita school board, marijuana ballot question

The following are The Eagle editorial board’s recommendations for the April 7 general election for Wichita mayor, Wichita City Council and Wichita school board, and for the marijuana ballot question. We offer these recommendations as information to consider as you make up your own mind about the candidates and issues.

Wichita mayor

Jeff Longwell is narrowly the best choice to succeed Carl Brewer as Wichita mayor, both because of Longwell’s knowledge and experience in government and, frankly, because of the bad decisions his opponent has made during the campaign.

Longwell, the owner of a Wichita printing company, has spent the past 20 years in public service. He served 12 years on the Maize school board and the past eight years on the Wichita City Council. As a result, he understands how government operates and the difficult challenges facing this community.

As a City Council member, Longwell has been an effective and dedicated representative, directing resources to fixing flooding and traffic issues in his northwest Wichita district. But he also has maintained a citywide focus, supporting efforts to redevelop downtown and other priorities.

His priorities as mayor would include reforming economic development. He opposes cash incentives to businesses and wants to focus on infrastructure and growing business clusters.

Longwell was the only City Council member to oppose putting the sales tax initiative on last November’s ballot, though he supports many of its goals. He wants state help on Wichita’s water plan, and he is interested in voting on whether to raise the sales tax by 0.1 cent to support public transportation.

Public safety, including community faith in police officers, also is a priority. He supports body cameras, the community policing philosophy, and hiring more officers.

Longwell has been very involved in regional planning and cooperation, having served on the executive committee of the Regional Economic Area Partnership. This regional outlook is important for south-central Kansas to compete for jobs and use its resources efficiently.

Longwell says he is “passionate and dedicated and not afraid of hard work to move us forward.”

The editorial board recommended Sam Williams during the primary, but he has made too many bad decisions during the campaign for the board to recommend him this election.

Williams wrongly listed himself as a certified public accountant on campaign material, then fumbled his response to the mistake. He also refused during the primary to say whether he supported the city’s sales tax initiative. After that election, he told a Republican group that he voted against it, but two prominent businessmen say that Williams told them last November that he supported it. Williams denies that, but in another bad move he questioned the motives and integrity of the businessmen and Longwell.

Then, in his worst decision, Williams released a highly misleading campaign commercial and mailer suggesting that Longwell was corrupt. When asked by the editorial board about his commercial, Williams claimed that he wasn’t saying Longwell was unethical but was merely putting out information to let the public decide. At the same time, Williams said that campaign contributions would not influence how he would vote.

Williams has impressive credentials. He retired last year after a long career as chief financial officer at Sullivan Higdon and Sink advertising agency. He also has chaired the boards of the Quivira Council of Boy Scouts of America, Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, Wichita Downtown Development Corp. and Envision.

If he wins, his business and civic experience could bring a fresh perspective to city government that might help bridge the trust gap that exists between the City Council and some citizens and businesses.

Williams clearly loves Wichita and wants to help it grow and succeed. But his pledge to be a leader who will “bring people together” is hard to reconcile with his negative campaigning and bad decisions.

Wichita City Council

District 2

One-term council member Pete Meitzner is the clear choice in this far-east Wichita district, because of his business perspective, his understanding of the city’s infrastructure and economic challenges, and his ability to work productively with others. Meitzner, managing partner of a consulting firm, also has shown strong leadership in his work toward bringing back passenger rail. He dislikes publicly funded incentives but, unlike many candidates this cycle, recognizes they are necessary if Wichita is to recruit business.

His challenger is Jim Price, who lost a primary for the Kansas House last summer. Two criminal convictions, a bankruptcy and other legal problems make him a poor fit for public office.

District 4

After two years on the council, including one as vice mayor, Jeff Blubaugh has earned a full term representing this southwest Wichita district. His experience in real estate and aviation has been valuable on the job, motivating his push for strategic planning and a performance evaluation of the city manager. He has concluded that City Hall makes it too hard to do business in Wichita. He sees great potential for the city’s economy in promoting exports and in Wichita State University’s innovation campus and industry clusters study. Blubaugh is a good advocate for his district’s needs, including basics like street paving.

The other candidate is Josh Shorter, a member of the District 4 Advisory Board and executive at a manufacturing firm who has only lived in the district a year. He wants the city to focus on basics and be more transparent, and he thinks downtown development is “wasteful spending.”

District 5

The best choice in this northwest Wichita district is Bryan Frye, whose service on the Wichita park board and District 5 Advisory Board and other community involvement give him valuable insight into the city’s needs. Frye, director of marketing at KAKE-TV, counts the “beyond maxed-out” Westlink Branch Library and a pending police substation as district issues in need of advocacy. He seems eager to help the city assure its future water supply and tackle the other basics of infrastructure and transit, as well as promote more accountability and openness at City Hall.

Gary Bond, who works in sales and marketing, is the other candidate to succeed Jeff Longwell. Bond says local government needs people “with morals, values and common sense” and favors focusing on infrastructure and other spending basics.

Wichita school board

At-large representative

Incumbent Sheril Logan is an outstanding school board member and the clear choice in this at-large race. Logan, who is currently board president, is a former teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and assistant dean in the College of Education at Wichita State University. She understands the district and school budgets better than about anyone else. But her passion, she said, is ensuring that all kids receive an excellent education.

As a board member, Logan tries to listen to people, collect information, then make a decision that is best for the district. Sometimes this has been painful, such as decisions to close schools. She wanted to keep Southeast High School open and build a new high school, as planned for in the 2008 bond issue, but state funding cuts made that impossible.

Though the school district is facing more funding cuts, Logan wants to keep the focus on student achievement. She wants to make sure achievement goes up and behavior problems go down in schools.

Michael Capps owns a technology firm in Wichita and has been an active parent in the school district. He wants to change how the district spends money to make sure it puts students and teachers first. He faults the district for not planning for the “worst-case scenario” on the bond issue, and he wants to make board meetings and spending more open and transparent.

District 4

Though there are two candidates on the ballot for District 4, only Joshua Blick is campaigning. Blick has served as president of a school parent-teacher association and has been a board member for several city and civic groups. He pledges “to stand up for our students’ needs” and wants to form more partnerships with businesses. Current board member Jeffery Davis is on the ballot only because he was unable to withdraw. He does not want to be re-elected and has endorsed Blick.

Marijuana ballot question

The waste of dollars and lives by mass incarceration of marijuana users justifies change, in Wichita, the state and nationwide. That’s surely why activists had no trouble finding the 3,000 signatures needed to push the Wichita City Council into either passing a relaxed possession ordinance outright or passing the question onto voters. The council opted to put it on the April 7 election ballot, which will ask voters whether they want to make a $50 fine the penalty for a first-offense conviction for possession of 32 grams or less of marijuana and/or drug paraphernalia by those 21 or older. It might well pass, giving an indication of where Wichita stands on marijuana laws. But because the proposed ordinance conflicts with multiple state laws and has drawn a threat of legal action by Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the editorial board recommends a “no” vote. The proper place for reform of marijuana laws is in Topeka.

This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Endorsements for Wichita mayor, Wichita City Council, Wichita school board, marijuana ballot question."