Letters on rental registration, police chief search, BB gun club, immigrants, pope and GOP, education outcomes

No proposal on rental registration

Some people have the mistaken impression that the Wichita City Council may be considering a proposal for rental registrations. This is not the case. Here are the facts.

On Tuesday, the Wichita City Council held a workshop about housing policy. Confused in part by news coverage, numerous residents became concerned. We appreciate them reaching out to us.

Though there were many good ideas shared during the staff presentation, when the topic of rental registrations came up, several on the City Council immediately spoke up and advised extreme caution. In fact, there isn’t even an official rental registration proposal before us for consideration.

Staff has been tasked with researching many strategies to ensure safe housing, and local landlords have been involved in this process since its early stages. Regular contact has been maintained between city staff and rental owners to ensure an open dialogue and cooperation during this process.

We also know that current regulations create some confusion. One idea proposed by the city housing department at Tuesday’s workshop was to consider allocating $100,000 per year to assist property owners as they respond to violations and judgments made in environmental court. It would seem counterintuitive to institute additional regulations when we are already challenged with current regulations.

These are challenging times for both property owners and tenants. Regarding housing policy, we should proceed with caution.

Avoid red tape

As a rental property owner, I was concerned to read that the Wichita City Council is considering registration of rental properties (Sept. 23 Eagle).

It is easy to see that such a requirement will lead to additional red tape that only hinders those of us who work hard to provide safe, well-managed housing to renters in the Wichita community.

In the end, law-abiding property owners would be saddled with additional paperwork, inspections and fees that would be passed on to our tenants in the form of increased rent. Meanwhile, the so-called slumlords would have no incentive to participate, and would continue to provide substandard housing to Wichita residents.

I strongly urge the City Council to “proceed with extreme caution,” as Mayor Jeff Longwell has asked. Regulations like this often end up hurting the very people they are intended to help.

Moses was best

Selecting someone to serve as police chief in a large city is a very difficult and complex undertaking. I believe Wichita City Manager Robert Layton was right on target when he entered into a contract with the International Association of Chiefs of Police and included a group of involved citizens to participate in the selection process. Somewhere along the way, something went wrong.

Although the screening committee provided him with the names of three individuals who had been vetted, tested, interviewed and recommended, only one candidate, former Deputy Chief Terri Moses, was still around when it was time to choose. Instead of offering her the position, Layton publicly embarrassed and humiliated her by announcing she did not have the “skill set,” whatever that means, to be Wichita’s chief of police (Sept. 22 Eagle).

To suggest a person with 32 years of police service, who had scratched and clawed her way through the ranks to become the first woman ever to serve as deputy chief of police, lacked the “skill set” to become chief is ludicrous and demeaning.

Now a new search will begin and focus on an “outsider.” It’s apparent Layton wasn’t around when that was tried some years ago. Those close to the department will tell you they are still trying to dig out from the problems caused by that experiment.

In my opinion, Moses was the right person for the right moment.

Allow gun club

It’s a disgrace that the Derby schools superintendent chose to deny the Derby BB Gun Club from using a school building for practices. I don’t know if his motivation was from a liberal PC agenda, paranoia or what, but it certainly wasn’t from doing any research about the sport.

Supervised BB gun practice is much safer than football, basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. Just a few years ago, one of the shooters even won a national championship. How many Derby coaches in other sports can say that?

I’ve known the instructor, Larry Richardson, for at least a couple dozen years, and he’s a good example for our youths to follow. The sport itself promotes safety, discipline and concentration. In fact, I’d bet that every club member he’s coached has become a better student under his influence.

I respectfully request that Derby school board members reconsider the consequences of this decision, and change their minds to allow the 30-year relationship between the club and the school to continue.

Respect immigrants

Unless you are full-blooded Native American, you too are the product of immigration. The Irish, Jews and Germans were discriminated against 100 years ago, as were the boat people 50 years ago, and always, always our neighbors to the South.

To every person who would say, “Stay out – go home,” I say: “Then you come stand in their place and do the dirty work it takes to build a nation.”

We need to find ways to help those willing to do the dirty work to have dignity, a decent wage, an education and the right to vote. I don’t mean a handout but rather a hand up. They at least are willing to work.

If you believe as I do, then stand up and do what you can to support education and fair wages. Do your part to encourage humans to work together for the common good of all.

Improve outcomes

An Eagle editorial praising the Kansas State Board of Education for asking that school funding be increased repeated the tired mantra of “show your support of education by spending more” (“Invest in education,” Sept. 24 Opinion). That’s an institutional focus that ignores outcomes.

Kansas taxpayers invested nearly $2 billion more in K-12 education over the past 10 years, and here’s what we have to show for it:

▪  Only 32 percent of the 2015 graduating class who took the ACT test is considered college-ready in English, reading, math and science.

▪  Only 38 percent of fourth-graders are proficient in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

▪  27 percent of students who graduated from Kansas high schools in 2013 and attended a university in Kansas signed up for remedial training.

These unacceptable outcomes aren’t necessarily anyone’s fault, but they are everyone’s responsibility – especially the Legislature’s – to fix.

The Eagle editorial board should be calling on the State Board of Education to demand cultural change to improve outcomes, rather than simply ask that more money be poured into the system that produced these unacceptable results. Let’s really start putting students first instead of just funding institutions.

Pope and GOP

After listening to Pope Francis’ speech to Congress, I realized that the only thing he agrees with the Republicans on is abortion. On every other issue, he agrees with Democrats – climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Iran deal, concern about unfettered capitalism fostering greed and corruption, helping the poor, the elderly and the disabled, tolerance of gays, concern about the income disparity between the rich and the rest.

Guess we’ll have to change the religious right to the religious left.

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Letters on rental registration, police chief search, BB gun club, immigrants, pope and GOP, education outcomes."