Was WSU project a glimpse of county debates to come?

More than the final 5-0 vote, the Sedgwick County Commission’s lengthy discussion last week of a financing plan to help build Wichita State University’s innovation campus offered a glimpse of the struggle to come on economic development projects at the county if the November election flips control of the commission. While taking care to express their support for WSU and president John Bardo’s bold agenda, Commissioners Richard Ranzau and Karl Peterjohn pushed hard to change the terms, insisting on a formal memorandum of understanding about the use of county mill levy dollars and for 20-year rather than 40-year bonds. If the substitute motion had passed, rather than failing 2-3, WSU would have had to reassess whether the project was still feasible – a setback for Bardo’s goal of getting a $43 million Experiential Building open in May 2016. “The devil is in the details,” Peterjohn fretted at one point. But it wasn’t hard to imagine a conservative commission majority nitpicking details to the point of bedeviling projects important to the local economy. – Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published September 7, 2014 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Was WSU project a glimpse of county debates to come?."