Kirk Seminoff: They’re leaving the City Council but still wanting to make an impact

I sat for a conversation with term-limited, outgoing City Council members Janet Miller and Lavonta Williams this week. Being an observant reporter, I mentioned both were women and asked what advice they had for Miller’s replacement, Cindy Claycomb, who in January will become the council’s only female member.

Miller mentioned Claycomb has served on plenty of boards and will be fine, then quickly pivoted.

“She is one woman on two local government boards,” Miller said. “That is inadequate. It does not represent our community in any way.”

True, we don’t have an exemplary record of electing women to the City Council and Sedgwick County Commission. Though there has been a woman on the City Council all but two years since Connie Peters was elected in 1973, usually it was just that – a woman.

Two women served on the seven-member council a few times, then there were four years in the late 2000s and early 2010s with three female members.

Still not a majority, and the only time it was close to a majority.

Miller and Williams want to change that.

“What I hope to do over the next few years is to encourage women to consider running for office, to help show them that it’s possible,” Miller said. “That it’s within their grasp to do it, to suggest some things that can help them get there.”

Miller, 52, hadn’t always planned on running for City Council. She had the experience of being Park Board president and a member of several other city advisory boards.

But when Sharon Fearey ran into term limits in District 6, there was no candidate Miller was comfortable with. A feeling of obligation set in.

“Women many times wait until someone asks them to do something. I would count myself in this group,” Miller said. “That’s when we know we’re qualified to do it. It’s a validation that we can do something.

“What I want to encourage women to do is not wait for someone to ask them before they think they’re qualified.”

Williams fit that description. She was 57 when the District 1 seat became available in 2007. Carl Brewer was elected mayor and needed a replacement for his council seat. Brewer asked Williams, who was finishing up her 35th year as a teacher while a member of the District Advisory Board.

“He said why not and I said, ‘Because I’ve already got retirement ready,’ ” she said. “But that didn’t work, and I am very appreciative that he was insistent that I go for this position.”

Williams and Miller now plan to pay it forward.

“Other people see things in you that you might not see, and I think that probably happened for both of us,” Williams said. “That somebody else saw something in us that said, ‘This is what we want you to do.’ ”

They won’t stop with women. The council has usually underrepresented African Americans and Hispanics. Miller’s district includes the heavily Hispanic Nomar District, and she would like to recruit a strong Hispanic candidate for when Claycomb’s term ends.

One other underrepresented part of Wichita on the council: young adults. Brandon Johnson, 31, replaces Williams on Jan. 9. The next-youngest member is James Clendenin at 43.

“Even now, Janet and I are very involved in pushing our young people, millennial age and a little bit older, to start getting involved at that age,” Williams said. “Or as 60-, 70-, 80-year-old people (you) let us decide what your city is going to look like.”

“We never get a good response to that,” Miller said.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 8:28 PM with the headline "Kirk Seminoff: They’re leaving the City Council but still wanting to make an impact."