From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week.

There is a push to double the paycheck for the state's lowest earners.

A new bill would raise the Kansas minimum wage to $16 an hour.

But business owners warn that could cost jobs.

Also, an $8.3 million verdict as a federal jury finds five officers liable in the death of teenager Cedric Lofton, delivering what the family calls long overdue justice.

But first, misleading mailers and a firefighter in a campaign ad accusations and ethics complaints are abound as the fight over Wichita's sales tax election reaches a boiling point.

That's what we're talking about right now on Kansas Week.

Hello and welcome to Kansas Week.

I'm Jaren Zarrella.

Controversy is swirling around the upcoming sales tax election in Wichita, with misinformation and ethics complaints flying just weeks before voters head to the polls.

The election office is scrambling to correct a mailer from the pro tax group Wichita Forward, which listed the wrong deadline for mail in ballots and incorrect polling hours.

The district attorney is now reviewing whether it intentionally interfered with voters rights.

Meanwhile, the firefighters union is defending a member who appeared in a commercial supporting the tax after accusations that it violated a city ordinance banning employees from political activity while in uniform or using city facilities.

The union president, Ted Bush, says the firefighter was off duty, out of uniform and filmed on a public easement, calling it a fundamental First Amendment right.

Here to talk about this and some of the week's other big stories is Wichita City Councilman JB Johnston.

Wichita Board of Education member Stan.

State Representative Nicole Hazel and Wichita Eagle opinion editor Diane Leffler.

Thank you all for joining us.

Both of you over here are our first time guests.

So thanks for coming on the show.

Javy, I'll start with you.

Since you're on the Wichita City Council, this has been a highly contentious debate.

First off, about the latest accusations the firefighters supposedly in uniform on fire station property.

Do you see this as a problem?

Well, according to Ted Brush, it's not a problem.

And I would agree with them.

I think they should have a First Amendment right to express their opinion.

And I also think it should not be they should not be able to use city property or uniform.

So according to him, they follow the rules.

So, maybe an investigation will show something different, I don't know.

Now, the city Handbook clearly does spell out the employee handbook does spell out, engaging in political activity.

Does this pertain to political activity being a sales tax vote?

You know, I don't know that answer.

I don't think so.

But, some of the people may have a different opinion.

All right.

Diane Lefler, do you have a different opinion?

Well, I, I kind of agree with Jeff, actually, to a, to a degree here that, I think the the firefighters or, you know, any city employee, should have the, should have the ability to speak out on things that, that affect this community.

I wish they would.

In fact, I wish that the city of Wichita would extend that to, actually talking to the press when there are things going on.

Because, you know, having to filter everything through the PR department, is kind of a it's kind of a waste of time.

And, and you don't get the and you don't get the right story.

You know, everything gets lost in translation and or we aren't talking about the important issues anymore.

So I have a a personal side of this.

My wife, for disclosure is a employee of the city of Wichita.

She's a librarian at the downtown library.

She is prohibited from supporting any candidates in city races.

And I've long had an issue with this.

This is something I've talked to council members about.

I've talked to the previous city manager about.

I've threatened to actually introduce legislation in the Kansas Legislature about this.

She cannot support her preferred candidate for city council by walking in parades, by going so far as even putting a campaign sign in her yard.

Which then again violates my First Amendment rights as her husband, because then I can't put a sign for my preferred city council member in my yard because of my wife and her job.

That should change that should absolutely change.

We have cops.

We have firefighters, we have public employees.

The city of Wichita that should be able to donate.

They should be able to support walk in parades.

But campaign signs out for their preferred city candidates.

And that should absolutely change.

I don't believe this firefighter, did anything wrong.

As long as he wasn't using taxpayer money, taxpayer funded facilities, they have an absolute First Amendment right to be involved in this political process, and that should be protected.

I was talking with Brian Frye over the past week who former councilman.

He's been a frequent guest on this show, and he told me the exact same thing when he was running for city council.

He said that he wanted city employees certain city employees, friends, associates, whatever supporters, and they were unable to allow not allowed to put campaign signs in their yard.

Now, how is this any different?

And now should they be able to use the title that they have with the city of Wichita?

Or if it's like a library director with a library director supports the mayor?

No.

Absolutely not.

But in their private capacity, they still retain their First Amendment rights.

And I think that city ordinance should change.

And that's where I think you got to look for that balance.

I remember the 1970s when county employees basically, ran, the election for a county commissioner or the treasurer almost right out of that office.

So that's why some of these rules were set up.

And so there needs to be a good balance between just outright, patronage and, politicking on the job instead of actually doing your job versus, the fact that you do have First Amendment rights.

Yeah.

Just like, you know, teachers are involved in state races all the time.

And they're employees.

Hey, you know, tons of them, but we don't ban that.

You know, we still have I have them out against me all the time.

So it wasn't nearly as so go ahead to the ad where they called everybody communists or.

Yeah, this is this has been and let me let me go back to JB.

Since you're on the city council here, this has been a very contentious, race, for lack of a better word, this contest, I suppose.

But there have been accusations of misrepresentation by the group that is pushing this, and you've been very supportive of this from the very beginning.

Tell me about your support.

Why have you been so supportive?

This passed unanimously.

You're not the only one.

This passed unanimously in the original City Council vote.

Just a few days after it went public.

So why?

Why are you supporting this despite it being rushed so quickly?

Well, Jared, the process maybe is not the best.

And it's a lot of missteps have been made in the marketing campaign.

But if you look at the actual proposal, I'm kind of a budget guy and a budget guy would definitely support this.

It's just good for the city budget.

It balances our our revenue sources between, property tax and sales tax gives us a better balance.

So I think there's a lot of good things about it.

I ran because of the homeless issue.

It definitely supports that, housing, which is the bottleneck to homelessness.

That supports that.

So those are some important issues for me.

That does support.

Am I in favor of everything?

No.

Sure.

I don't love everything, but nobody does.

And from what I'm hearing on the streets a lot is that people say, if you show me a project, if you if you'd say we're going to build a fire station here, we're going to build a police station here, this is what we're going to spend on each project.

They would be supportive.

Nobody wants to say they're against public, safety or or century two.

But to this day, has there been an actual project identified that that we're going to do, or is this just an $850 million blank check?

Well, there has been there has been.

So they took the CIP the next ten years and CIP, the capital improvement program, which we usually bond and pay interest on.

They took that and said, okay, what would happen if we paid cash for that?

We would save 25, $26 million in interest payments, and we could get done sooner and quicker.

And I think that's what the police and fire so much in favor of it, they know it's going to get done.

It's not going to get pushed back in the CIP.

Which chair?

Thanks.

It does happen.

Things get eliminated or push back or something.

So the priorities change on the council.

Like, you know, when I was on the council in 2021, priorities were vastly different.

Stan, last question to you.

Let me.

You're a member of the school board.

Let me ask you this.

How does this favor and the USD two, five, nine has been very, public and, you know, not shy about very likely going out for another bond issue vote in August or November.

I don't know which, but how does this affect what the school district is going to do later this year?

We definitely were I was personally concerned at first when I first heard about this proposal.

And I think I came to the conclusion that, the voters are smart enough to take these two separate issues, take a look at it on their merits.

The city's going to have to make their case.

We're going to have to make our case soon.

And they're not mutually exclusive.

As the voter goes to look at whether how they want to vote on March 3rd, they will have, in the mind that, the city that the school district will have to start improving this the situation we have with our budget as well.

And, I think the voters capable of doing that.

Yeah.

And the school district just announced this past week another school closing and yeah, we had to close a alternate our main alternative high school, Chester Lewis, due to structural damage.

And, this is pretty typical of what happens when your average, school age building is 60 years old.

We have a lot of buildings that are very high up there.

But I agree with J.V., you know, one thing that, we, we both need to do is create flexibility in our general fund so that we can pay our teachers more so we can be more creative with, magnet schools so that we could do a more extensive and intensive summer school.

So, I totally understand where Jv's coming from on creating some flexibility into the general, budget.

And then the simple fact is we again, will be a mill levy neutral proposal.

And that's not to say that you won't pay more if your property values go up.

But I tell you, if you have a declining school district, you'll have the opposite problem of declining property values.

And I don't think any of us want to get into that.

Yeah.

All right.

We'll leave it at that.

Plenty of discussion for sure.

A federal jury has awarded $8.3 million to the family of Cedric Lofton, a Wichita teenager who died in custody in 2021.

Lofton suffered a heart attack after police officers pinned him face down for nearly 40 minutes.

The jury found three officers used excessive excessive force, subjecting the teenager to a prolonged prone restraint even after he stopped resisting.

Jurors also ruled that all five officers present failed to intervene to protect the boy.

During the trial, officers testified they received no training on the dangers of prone restraint and did not know that it could be deadly.

Lawson's brother called the verdict justice, saying it proves that the officers killed his brother.

Sedgwick County says it is reviewing the verdict and discussing its next steps.

Diane Lefler, you've covered this story from the very beginning.

This is heartbreak.

It continues to be heartbreaking.

Nobody wants to see this.

But now it seems like taxpayers are going to have to face a burden here.

Well, it's a burden that should be faced, you know, the this, this, this whole situation was so avoidable that it just, I mean, you know, you hear that we didn't we didn't know that if you knelt on somebody's back for 39 minutes, you could kill them.

I mean, that's ridiculous.

And, you know, and the and the fact is, he shouldn't have ever been there in the first place, because they basically faked the paperwork to take him to Jack instead of taking him to a hospital.

And you know that we cannot, you know, I don't care what it costs.

I don't care what it costs.

Whoever insures the county.

But, you know, we can't accept that kind of behavior from our public officials.

It's it's just not I mean, you know, our law enforcement and public officials are supposed to be protecting us, not killing us.

And, you know, I think the the county has had a chance to settle with the family.

I believe I may be wrong here, but I believe because I know the advocates for Cedric Lofton have been asking the county to settle.

And as far as I know, the county has said no.

But from a from a government guy yourself now, from a city councilman, you're not part of Sedgwick County.

We I realize that, but how how should a local government be proceeding here very cautiously, I assume.

Well, I do have a different perspective.

Go ahead.

The wife of one of the officers, works for me at Guadalupe Clinic.

And so I've got to hear the other side of the story, too.

And there's great remorse and sadness that it happened.

But I'm not sure everything has been brought out.

So it's a very sad situation.

And like Diane said, it's definitely unavoidable.

He should've never been brought there in the first place.

You know, you have a mental episode.

That's not the place.

Not the place for you.

Yeah.

And they're so representative.

We've we've been arguing back and forth for years that police officers and jail facilities should not be handling mental mental illness cases to begin with.

And that's seems to be exactly what happened here.

Yeah.

No, it's definitely I mean, there's an old saying that the biggest mental health hospital in Kansas is the Sedgwick County Jail.

You know, we've we've took in steps the last few years to address that.

We have the new mental health hospital going actually in southwest Wichita, my district and, and, school board member officers district in southwest Wichita, which is a great step.

Now we need to fund it.

Now we need to make sure we even have the staff to staff that.

And that's been really tough to make sure that we have the 300 staffers we need for that.

We're still trying to make steps on the state level.

This was absolutely a tragic case.

A jury of our peers, found that this family was entitled to to that settlement or that money, that $8 million, I believe it was, Cedric County again, has to proceed cautiously.

We'll see if they choose to let this go and pay it out.

But a jury of our peers said that family entitled to that money.

Stan Reeser from it.

Tell me your thoughts here.

From from, a guy who deals with children every day and what you do.

Yeah, I, I concur that this is a tragic situation, and the, finding was probably just, but I think the same way with, representative, Hodges and Council member Johnston is that there are times where, I've been in those negotiations where we've tried to settle lawsuits.

And, there is a balance there between do what's doing right and the fact that, if there's outrageous, dollar amount claims, then it's your responsibility as, as an office holder to come to the best agreement you can come to while at the same time, keeping in mind that you do have to do what's right.

Yeah.

All right.

A Kansas lawmaker is pushing to more than double the state's minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $16.

Democratic Senator Cindy Holsinger introduced the bill this week, arguing Kansas workers are falling behind as neighboring states like Missouri have already raised their rates to $15 or more.

Kansas has not adjusted its minimum wage since 2010, while similar bills have stalled in recent years.

Supporters say rising inflation makes the change urgent.

Opponents, however, warn it could hurt small businesses.

State lawmaker Nicole Hazle tell me your thoughts on this.

I assume you have a different opinion than in representative.

I have somewhat of a different opinion.

I believe having a discussion on the minimum wage does have merit.

I believe it does.

However, doubling it I think, and then some because it goes to 16 and not 15.

That is drastic.

That is drastic.

Our small businesses cannot take that hit.

Nebraska.

I was just reading this morning.

They actually are having a discussion.

They have a 50 I think it's $15 minimum wage.

They're having a discussion that actually go down to 1350 now, for people in a younger age group, teenagers and stuff like that after they've already raised.

Yeah, yeah.

And they kind of go backwards and offer a, hey, if you're younger, you know, you pay again, these are starting jobs.

I do again.

I do believe it has merit.

I think a stair step approach would be a lot better than just going just double, it right off the bat.

But we'll see how those discussions go.

Those bills usually get stalled up.

But I again, I do believe there's some merit and discussion.

It's been 25, 20 or 60, I'm sorry, 15, 16 years since we had that discussion.

But I just think doubling it outright instead of stair step in is dangerous.

Diane.

Go ahead.

I remember when they raised it from 265 to 7 to the current.

Well, that was that was 20 years.

And servers I think that that no it wasn't, it was I thought, you know, the minimum wage in the state was 264 more than the federal the federal role while the state was still low when the feds I think it was under, it was under W they went to 525.

The 725.

Yeah.

George W go ahead.

But but I did know people who were working for less than the federal minimum wage, because if they were not in a job that was in interstate commerce, then, then you can pay them less.

So, you know, some of these local businesses were paying underneath under that, under the federal minimum wage.

But, you know, I remember, I think it was, I think it was Senator Kelsey who said, why are we letting ourselves get beat up over this?

Just raise this.

Yeah, just raise this.

You know, and, it's just about doing it in a responsible way.

Yeah.

JB, you've been a business owner.

Yeah, well, I think the market's already gone there for most people.

Most fast foods now are in that 1314.

Some of them are up to $20 an hour.

Now not everybody is there some city workers that are mowing, mowing grass or golf courses that are still at 12.

And there should be I represent his legacy with him.

It should be raised.

I'm not sure it's good at that high, but the market has already done that to a great degree.

So yeah, Stan, the the issue of minimum wage used to be about beginning workers is now about working poor.

The man who serves my, favorite, breakfast croissant sandwich every morning, walks 30 minutes, every day to work at a fast food restaurant.

It's the best job he can find.

He can.

He is not able to get into this buyer.

The house market that this sales tax would.

Perhaps.

So I think we're losing track of who we're trying to help.

And that is the people as the working poor, it's very clear that, states that have raised their minimum wage, it has not called cause this boogeyman inflation.

So I think it's very responsible when we have neighbors.

You mentioned that.

But Missouri went up to 15.

So we have neighbors surrounding us now and we're still at seven something.

And so I think it's responsible in the Missouri is they did that by voter referendum.

Their legislature didn't pass it.

They have another option, which the legislature doesn't really allow us to do.

Maybe, just later, referendums.

Yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

Our next story, a controversial bill requiring parents to prove their income for free school lunches, is headed to a vote in the Kansas Senate.

The proposal, backed by Senator Doug Shane, aims to crack down on fraud after an audit suggested the program is overpaying millions.

The bill was amended to exempt families who automatically qualify through other programs, but school officials say it's still unworkable.

Wichita Public Schools warns it would turn nutrition departments into auditing firms, requiring impossible amounts of paperwork within the first few days of school.

Opponents fear the extra hurdles would cause eligible children to go hungry.

Stan, tell me your thoughts here when the school district is talking about this.

Sure.

Outright.

Well, first off, let me make very clear.

Every child in the Wichita public schools is going to get fed, even if they have not paid, even if they're behind in what they owe, if they are free and reduced, obviously they're going to get, a line.

So every child gets fed out with the Wichita public schools and we do not do shame, meal shaming, meaning that if you're behind in your payments or you don't can't pay at all or you're, you know, you get a different meal than your brethren does.

We do not do that.

So that's in regard we do already have free meals.

The the issue comes down to how do we pay for it in the most effective way?

For, our taxpayers representative, this this isn't gone to the House yet.

This is starting in the Senate, from what I understand.

So it passes in the Senate.

It will go to the House.

Are you in favor of this?

Do you think this is an invasion of privacy?

No.

I think it's something we take out.

We had an audit that did show that there was a decent amount of fraud within this.

I appreciate, school board members, researchers.

As he said about the school, I just full disclosure, growing up, I was on I was on free and reduced lunch in schools, and I appreciate the perspective that there's no meal shaming, food shaming.

Everybody's going to get said, one piece that's lost in this.

It wasn't mentioned.

I don't know if it's in this proposal or a different proposal, but Senator Shane actually has another proposal.

So do away with the reduced fees and bump the free lunch up all the way to the even the reduced piece and fill that gap here.

And I believe it's it may be in this bill.

It may be a standalone bill.

But that's another proposal is that is just get rid of the reduced part.

And just if you qualify for free or reduced, you're on Mac or free.

And it's.

Yeah.

And I'm glad you brought up the auditing process because we do the same thing to receive that federal dollars to reimburse us, we have to do an audit.

And it's a 3% we have to look at, we have we have 46,000 students.

37,000 of our students are on free and reduced lunch.

We have to audit 3% of those.

And what we found, is very few errors.

The, when, the Kansas Legislature did a, audit of this whole issue in 2006, they also found that there was very few discrepancies.

It's almost looks like this is a, an attempt to look for a problem.

And we're concerned about that, and we we cannot afford any unfounded mandates to to turn our nutrition into an auditing process.

Yeah.

Diane.

Anything go.

A long time ago, when my kids were little and I was a much younger man, I found out that our daytime babysitter was taking the kids to the park to get the free lunch.

She had a son of her own.

They were eligible.

My kids, obviously not.

So I went over to the park superintendent and I said, look, you know, I just found out that our babysitter has been taking the kids over here getting the free lunch, and he he said something very wise to me.

He said I could set up a system to ensure who's eligible and who isn't.

But if I did that, I wouldn't have any money to buy food.

So I would rather pay for food for kids than I would for bureaucracy to check everybody's paperwork.

Yeah, yeah.

Call me point.

Yeah.

I think sometimes we have to get we have to be aware that maybe the solution is worse than the problem and cost more.

Right.

And call me.

Exactly right.

A Republican led committee in Topeka is now recommending steep budget cuts for Kansas, its largest universities.

This plan would slash operating grants by 2.5% for Ku, K-State and Wichita State.

Freeze tuition and reduce need based student aid by more than $2 million.

It also withholds $12 million unless schools can prove they've removed critical race theory and dye from their curriculum.

Democrats slammed the move as a gut punch and ideological punishment.

Committee chair Adam Turk called it a necessary compromise to meet spending targets set by House Speaker Dan Hawkins.

Stan, tell me your thoughts on this one.

Another controversial one here.

Well, I, what about 40s?

We like to support our our, friends in higher education, and, I, I think eventually the Kansas public supports, public education.

They support higher learning, and they want the Kansas legislature to be as reasonable as they can be on the whole topic.

Representative.

Yeah.

So we we put out a mandate this year.

We need to get our spending under control in this state.

We need to, we we made some good subs last year.

This year we're trying to reduce the budget by about $200 million.

We have seen enrollment fall, and our universities year after year after year.

You know, no one likes going in and just slashing.

Nobody likes it.

But when we're trying to reduce our budget and our spending by 200 million, every, every option has to be on the table.

I'm a big supporter of Wichita State.

My son goes to Wichita State.

But every option really has to be on the table.

Diane, I saw you shaking your head.

Then why link it to die?

I mean, if it's just a matter of budget cuts, then let's.

So the the political.

So the 21 million that's held on for they go to the LC 15 seconds, they'll get that money.

That 2.5% cut.

Is that a flat cut.

It's not tied to die or anything.

All right.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to Davey Johnson Stan Reeser, Nicole Hazel and Diane Leffler for being here.

Thanks to cake for sharing your video with us.

I'm Jaron Cirillo.

We'll see you again next week.