From the Fidelity Bank Foundation Studio, PBS Kansas Presents the Wichita Mayoral Debate.

Here is your moderator, Susan Peters.

And a good evening to you all.

We are so happy you have joined us for this 90 minute debate hosted by PBS Kansas In Association with the Wichita Eagle, KSN and KAKE News.

It is your chance to make a side by side comparison of the candidates competing in the August 1st primary election for Wichita mayor.

Of course, consider tonight their ideas, their experience, their demeanor, the attributes that you think are important in a Wichita mayor and a mayor that will lead our city into the future.

Our panel of journalists and I will ask questions.

The panel consists of Dion Lefler of the Wichita Eagle, Pilar Pedraza of KAKE News, and Craig Andres from KSN News.

Our rules, we're going to make it simple for you tonight, folks.

They are very simple.

Each candidate gets one minute to answer a question.

Now, in addition, he or she will get a 30 second rebuttal.

If he or she is mentioned in a previous candidate's answer.

Seven of the nine candidates are with us tonight on the primary.

There are nine candidates on the primary ballot.

Seven of them are with us tonight.

Two of them are not here.

Tom Kane, who did not accept our invitation, and Anthony Gallardo, who has a family emergency.

Now, as a reminder, the top two vote getters in the August primary will square off in the November election for Wichita's next mayor.

But until then, it is a rather crowded field.

And as you can see, we have seven candidates here tonight.

We are going to begin with a 30 second opening statement from each candidate to tell us a little bit about themselves.

And then a bell will ring when time is up.

So if you hear a little bell, that means time is up.

We're not being rude.

We just have to keep this because there are seven candidates here tonight.

We all want them to get in their answers.

So let's begin with a 30 second opening statement from each candidate, and we're going to begin with incumbent Mayor Brandon Whipple.

Well, thank you so much, and thank you, viewers for participating and watching this debate today.

My name is Brandon Whipple.

It's been an honor to be the mayor the last four years.

Well, we guided the city through the largest public health budget and also economic crisis we've seen in over a lifetime.

And I'm proud to say that we're on the other side of that in Wichita is now leading the state in economic growth and development.

Our budget is balanced.

We're creating more opportunities not just for us, but just as importantly, for the next generation and for our children.

And I'm running for reelection to build upon that success, to make a Wichita that our kids are worthy that's worthy of our kids to inherit.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor Whipple.

Next, we're going to hear from city councilman Brian Frye.

Thank you.

Hello, Wichita.

I'm fighting for your public safety, you and your family.

You know, Wichita needs a mayor who will fight and support our police and not against them.

Earlier today, Wichita Police Department graduated nine new officers.

Yet we still have over 90 vacancies as your next mayor.

I will work towards solving this staffing crisis and making sure that Wichita is moving forward for a safer and stronger community for everyone.

Thank you.

Next, a former journalist, Lily Wu.

For 30 years have called Wichita my home.

For more than 20 years, I've been a local volunteer and leader.

And for the past 12 years, as your local reporter, I've been sharing your story and listening to you.

I'm Lily Wu, and I'm running for mayor because I love Wichita and I'm the political outsider and bridge builder who will bring a new energy and fresh perspective to the mayor's office.

My vision is rooted in public safety, growing our economy, restoring trust in city hall, and building a united community.

Thank you.

Next, a former city councilman, Jared Cerullo.

Good evening.

My name is Jared Cerullo.

I'm running for two reasons.

I believe my experience has culminated in this opportunity for a fresh, new, honest, ethical leadership at City Hall.

We currently have a police department that is in crisis mode, 97 officers short.

If you factor in all of the officers that could retire, that ballooned to 140.

We must focus on public safety.

We must restore the and repair the relationship between the mayor's office and the police department.

And I'm the only candidate fighting to bring in a new city manager.

We need change at the top from the mayor's office to the city manager's office.

Thank you.

Next.

Activist Celeste Racette.

I'm Celeste Racette.

And I was born and raised in Wichita.

I'm a fourth generation Kansan.

I love Wichita.

During the past four years, I've found numerous city financial problems, development deals that haven't paid as promised.

And I want to change that.

Wichitans don't trust City Hall, so I want to make a difference.

I'm the only candidate with accounting skills such as an accounting degree, an MBA, and I have also served with the FDIC as a bank examiner and fraud investigator.

I'm going to look out for your money and I will make sure we are trusted by you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, Julie Rose Stroud.

My name is Julie Rose Stroud.

Environmental Health and Safety Professional.

I was born here and raised in Wichita, Kansas, right downtown by the next to the river.

I have federal, state and local government experience.

I know what it's like to work as a janitor and work your way up to be a manager.

I've done a lot of things in between, and that's why I understand the pain and the challenges that you all face today.

And I forgot what I was going to say, but, oh, I believe in you.

You can do it.

You.

Thank you, Julie.

And last but not least, Sheila Davis.

Sheila.

My name is Sheila Davis Rainman.

And my concern is the homelessness.

I would like to build a 24 hour homeless center that where they can work on their math, English job skills and they want to go outside.

They'd be in that outside room.

I also like to work on a family center on each side of town, and I also like to work on a community property called Widget Clairsville, where they will work on their English math, business skills and job training.

Thank you very much.

30 seconds from each of the seven candidates.

Thank you.

Our debate tonight is being sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

So they get the first question in tonight's debate.

And it is, if elected, how will you prioritize the major issues facing the city of Wichita?

Now, we all know that there are several major issues facing our city today.

The League of Women Voters would like you to prioritize each one and then say how you will change that problem and change that issue.

So we're going to go in this order.

Our first one goes to Julie Stroud.

Julie.

Thank you.

Environmental, health and Safety.

I will ensure that the environment is taken care of, that your health and your safety, our number one.

I believe that it is extremely important to ensure that our rights as human beings, all of us human beings, are equally and are equal and taken care of.

I also would like to ensure that everyone is encouraged to speak up and all voices will be heard regardless of what you look like or where you come from.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie.

Celeste Racette, youre next.

All right.

Thank you.

So the priorities for the city of Wichita is first, we need to be good stewards of taxpayer funds.

I know some of you are struggling with fixed overhead with your home ownership and property tax bills.

I'd like to hold that at a revenue neutral state and not increase taxes either by the mill levy or by your assessed value.

So taxpayer funds, number one.

Second, quality of life.

We have a lot of issues involving quality of life, and that's going to be my next priority with neighborhood pools, parks that are taking care of amenities such as good streets, great roads, street lighting and also the last one, public safety and adequate police force that's going to be there to protect you.

To respond to 911.

And to be there to assist with community resource officers that may be in your neighborhood area.

We've pulled three of them off to serve as foot patrol officers.

We actually need this good dialog between the community and the police officers.

And so that's the last one, is to have public safety, because I've heard that from you all when I've been out on my neighborhood tours.

So thank you.

Brian Frye is next.

So what are your priorities and how would you fix them?

Okay.

Well, thank you for the question.

You know, knocking on doors and visiting neighbors, I hear the number one concern is public safety.

People are worried about do we have enough police officers to meet the the violence, the rise in violence that we have in our community.

And we clearly don't.

There is a staffing crisis and which does not alone.

We've seen this across the country.

It's gotten worse in the last month.

And we need to address that immediately.

And we, fortunately, have a budget surplus that would allow us to do that responsibly and reasonably.

Second is the budget making sure that we're being good stewards of your tax dollars.

It's simple.

It's realigning our priorities with yours, making sure that we're spending the money based on what your needs are.

And we only get there by listening to you.

You know, I have to balance my budget at home, and we do the same with your money.

Finally, it's infrastructure, making sure that we're taking care of simple things like water treatment plant and our roads, making sure that we're properly maintaining them and taking care of them.

Thank you, Brian.

Brandon Whipple is next.

Thanks for the question.

Just like my colleagues have just said, public safety, of course, is front of most voters minds.

I'm glad that as mayor, I've been able to have more public engagement sessions than mayors in the past, including online sessions, to really figure out exactly what voters want out of their city.

And it's not just throwing money at the problem.

It's actually being strategic with the problem.

What folks might not know is when I first came in as mayor, our police department was funded at $90 million.

Today, it's fine at $120 million.

We have had more police officers on my watch as mayor at the beginning of every year than the beginning of every year before I was mayor.

And that's because we're making those strategic investments.

We also got to invest in our firefighters.

And I'm proud to say that on my watch, we were able to get them a contract they deserve so they could actually get the money that they deserve by fighting fires and saving lives.

And of course, we've made a record investments in public works to make sure that our streets are safe.

So those are some of the top some of the top issues.

But, of course, economic development, ensuring that we have the jobs of tomorrow so we can keep our kids right here in Wichita when they're ready to meet their calling.

In this world.

Lily Wu is next.

There are four key priorities.

The first is ensuring public safety.

Right now, the Wichita Police Department and the mayor's office have a fractured relationship and we need to rebuild that.

Not only that, we also have a relationship that needs to be restored with our community.

And that's another aspect of as mayor that I would work on.

The second is about strengthening our economy.

We need to make sure that Wichita becomes the best city in America to start and grow a business.

So we need a mayor who is a leader and ambassador and promoter of Wichita.

Third, we need to restore trust in city hall.

We need to make sure that city hall is transparent and communicating with clear, concise and ongoing communication.

And so how are we going to do all of this?

We're going to do this by building a united community.

We need to work together all in one team.

The number one issue, though, the number one priority is ensuring public safety.

That includes police, fire, infrastructure, water.

These are all things that local government needs to focus on.

Next, Jared Cerullo.

As I mentioned a little bit in my opening statement, I believe priority number one has to be bringing in a new city manager.

The average tenure of a city manager for a city our size is 6 to 7 years.

The current city manager, Bob Layton, has been here 14.

It's just time for a fresh face with fresh ideas.

If you look at economic development numbers, business growth, population, our U.S. Census numbers in 2020 were terrible.

The city of Wichita grew by only 1% in ten years.

The census has done every decade.

Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Colorado Springs.

They grow by 1% every single year.

What is holding Wichita back?

I believe it's bad leadership.

We need to get back to the basics.

After we bring in a new city manager, we obviously have to focus on public safety, as I mentioned again at the top.

We have a crisis within the Wichita Police Department right now, restoring trust in city hall.

The city's own survey that was done in late 2022 showed only about 28% of a random 500 people trusted city government.

That's unacceptable.

Sheila, you are next.

Sheila Davis.

Police training.

I think the police should have some medical background like in medicine and disorders and a little bit of home health aide.

Also raises for the police, fire department and the nurses.

Also, we should have more police and city get togethers with the community to know what's going on, but also have fun.

Also with the mental health, some people have problems getting mental health.

There should be different ways for people to get mental health like a therapy dog or something like that.

Legalizing Marijuana Teacher Raises.

I think if we legalize marijuana, we'll have more revenue in the downtown area and tax it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Our first question from our panel tonight, second question of the night is going to come from Dion Lefler of the Wichita Eagle.

Dion.

Thank you, Susan.

The city has privatized numerous services and facilities in these past few years.

Please provide an example where you believe privatization has worked and an example where you think it hasn't performed as expected.

And are there any programs that have been farmed out that you would like to see returned to city control?

The first one to answer that question will be Sheila Davis.

I think when we tell our citizens about business training like we do the kids, we should tell the adults too, because everyone doesn't qualify for a loan.

So we should tell people more about business grants to better themselves and how they get more people to start.

Businesses downtown and on their own and in their community, teach people how to do more than one business.

Thank you.

All right.

Next is Jared Cerullo.

Well, while I served on in 2021, I voted in the affirmative to privatize the operations of Century II.

The management of Century II is currently being operated and managed by the same company that operates Intrust Bank Arena.

I do believe that situation is working.

It's still very young to answer the question where it has not worked.

We currently have an ice center that is crumbling and nonfunctional, closed to the public and that is not acceptable.

We had a previous prior council in previous years that quite frankly, structured a deal to line their friends pockets.

Sweetheart deals have to end at City Hall.

Our council gave a ten year agreement to a local family to run the ice center, leaving the city completely defenseless.

And now we're paying the price for it.

Privatization has not worked at the ice center because we cannot continue to line our friends and business associates pockets with these deals.

Sweetheart deals have to end.

Lily Wu is next.

Privatization and finding efficiencies is a is important.

But when something doesn't work like the ice center, which was something that the community was not open enough to understand because the local government wasn't transparent enough in that deal.

We need to make sure that communicating those deals need to must be communicated well, transparent.

But what has worked is Century IIs privatization.

I know that our community wants to make sure that they understand how local government works.

As someone who works in news, we know that we need to be clear, concise and transparent, and those are things that we need to provide as local government in order for all of our community members to understand how privatization works and when it doesn't work.

We need to hold those accountable because these are taxpayer dollars that need to be be spent wisely.

Brandon Whipple.

Hey, thanks for the question.

Privatization of services usually works best when the type of services that are outside of city hall.

For example, we took a trial run at hiring a bunch of goats, really.

We privatized the cleanup of some part, particularly some very dangerous areas for lawnmowers to get into.

Also, a lot of poison ivy really wasn't a job that we want.

Folks worked for the city to have to do so.

We privatized with the company to bring in a herd of goats and they did an incredible job.

Also, we utilize privatization where we want to beef up staff or finances.

For example, we will hire third party auditors and utilize accounting staff when we have federal grants coming in or other types of moneys that we need to get on top of, that's temporary income.

Now, when it comes to the stuff that doesn't work, I agree with what was said about the ice rink.

I think it was so important that we followed the will of the public by getting new management.

And I'm proud to say that the folks who basically wrecked the ice rink are now being held accountable because we're taking them to court.

We're going to make sure that we get the taxpayer money back and that money goes back into the ice rink.

Thank you.

Next to answer the questions, Bryan Frye.

Bryan.

Thank you.

An example of where it's worked well is ASM operating Century II.

ASM brings a wide variety of skills and assets.

They operate Intrust bank arena, so they've been able to not only lower our operating costs, but they've been able to bring in a variety of shows and events.

And so that's working very well.

Early on, the ice center worked well, but over time it's changed and it lost a lot of its ability to manage it effectively.

One other area I would point to is outsourced mowing.

Several years ago, the city used to take care of all of the public areas and mowing, and we outsource that.

And I think you've seen much taller grass and weeds and that adds to the desirability of our community.

And so I think we need to get a better handle and hold those contractors and that outsourcing more accountable.

Celeste Racette.

thank you for the question.

So I would say it's still unknown whether ASM Global's management is Century II is paying off or not, because I've already heard that they're charging more for water.

They took the parking meters down and they put in an app with a $5 minimum.

So I'm not going to make a decision one way or another on Century II.

What did work is when we sold the Hyatt Hotel to Phil Ruffin.

Now we did take a $12 million loss and he is scraping revenue out of Century II for food and beverage services, which we should renegotiate.

But the city should not have been in the business to be a hotelier.

The one program that I feel like has not worked out and there was complete transparency is the Wichita Ice Center.

There was a petition signed by 2000 people that said, please get rid of them.

They're tearing down the Wichita Ice Center.

And I actually spoke with several of the ice center folks before city council, and we were not listened to.

It took until the end of the contract to get new management.

And in the meantime, when they moved out, they were allowed to rip the carpet off the floor, tear the lockers doors off, and steal appliances from ice center.

A bad deal all around.

All right.

Julie.

Too much and too often.

I'm gonna let that out.

Right now, we need to partner with our schools, utilize the work that can be done by students while they are in an educational program, and invest in developing our youth and young adults to do these services that we are spending large amounts of money to contract out.

And then also local.

Many local, Hispanic or Latin owned businesses, due to a lack of translation services, are not able to take part in those biddings that happen when the contracts are being dealt it out.

And then that would in itself build all corners of our city to uplift everyone, regardless of what you look like or where you came from.

Let me see, especially in regards to long term services that happen over time, right?

We don't want to contract this out when we can build something within our city government that's going to.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Julie Stroud.

Our next questioner is Pilar Pedraza of KAKE News.

She has the next question for you.

The Wichita Police Department has had a troubled few years from spats between the previous chief and the city manager to the Jensen Hughes report.

So from your perspective, do you believe the police department is now headed in the right direction and how, as mayor, do you foster the department heading in the correct direction while at the same time dealing with a staffing shortage.

They have there and we would there is a rise in violent crime, but there's also a rise in non violent crime as well as many of your candidates.

So I would just add the rise in nonviolent crime too.

How do you fix that and fix the relationship with the Wichita Police Department?

Celeste, you're first.

Thank you for the question.

Pilar, That's a good question.

So unfortunately, there is a troubled relationship with the Wichita Police Department, and I'm not going to say who is responsible, but I have read the Jensen Report, and part of the problem has been this bickering that's occurred between city council and certain elected officials and our men and women in blue.

So that has to we have to treat them with respect.

I've worked with the FBI, I've worked with law enforcement when I was with the FDIC.

And we have to respect our law enforcement at the same time, there needs to be controls at the top of people that have such unchecked power.

And I suggested when we were interviewing Wichita Police Chief Sullivan that we install a whistle blower hotline.

And the whistleblower hotline is something I'm familiar with when I was working for fraud investigations, and it allows someone internally in the department to roll their complaint outside of the Wichita Police Department to get help without retribution.

And I've asked repeatedly for a whistleblower hotline to be installed.

Violence interrupter.

Domestic violence is another problem.

Thank you.

I know we don't like that bell ringing.

Bryan Frye youre next.

Thank you, Pilar.

I believe that begins with having a good civil open relationship between city management, city council and the union, working together to find the middle ground, making sure that there's respect given and respect taken.

You know, we all have positions that we want to stake out and we want to work to support our respective sides.

But if we're not finding that common ground to begin with, we're never going to find the solutions, the Jensen Hughes report also established that we need to develop a mission statement for our police department.

And what are those actions and goals as a department that we're going to work towards and everyone on that staff needs to know what those goals are.

What is that mission, how we're working every day to make this a safer community.

That's where it begins.

And getting people at the table together to figure out what those goals and mission is.

You know, we have had some issues.

It's been tough.

But I think there's an opportunity with Chief Sullivan, the leadership, to help make us better and safer.

Thank you, Bryan.

And as you know, we have had issues.

Brandon Whipple, you are next.

The role of the mayor is not to be a pseudo police chief.

The role of the mayor isn't to tell the WPD what to do.

The role of the mayor is as to WPD, what do you need?

What are you need to be successful?

And I'm glad that on my watch we have contributed over 30 million more dollars to our police department.

They're the best paid right now that they've ever been.

They have more staff, more access to technology than they have in the past.

And we are down about 40 officers from where we were in the beginning of the year.

And we're going to make up for it because Chief Sullivan has the right plan moving forward.

I believe in his plan.

I believe in his leadership team.

And I want to make sure that they are supported the entirety of the way for the entirety of my term.

Now, as we continue to fight crime, we have to also fight the variables that cause crime.

When petty crime goes up, there's an indication that also means that, sadly, drug use is going up.

That's why on my watch we were able to use harm reduction strategies to help those who are struggling with addiction.

Because we've got to be smart about crime, not just tough with crime, and thats something that we have been able to do again by making strategic investments.

Thank you, Mr. Whipple.

Lily Wu.

Our streets are less safe.

That is the number one concern that Wichitans say to me as I knock on the doors of our community members, priority number one has always been ensuring public safety.

And that has been my priority since I've launched this campaign.

And I'm glad to be the first one to really go after and explaining that we have a police shortage that now has increased to nearly 100 police officers and next year, 100 more officers will be eligible for retirement.

So we have a recruitment and retention problem.

What we need to do first and foremost is repair the relationship between the mayor's office and the Wichita Police Department.

That is the first priority because right now the chief needs to know what we can do immediately to help with recruitment and retention within the police department.

Second, we need to repair the relationship between the police department and the community.

I know from neighbors they want community policing officers, but we're taking away those officers when we have a shortage right now.

Jared Cerullo, youre next.

The Jensen Hughes report was troubling in many aspects.

I recognize that there may be a culture problem within the ranks of our police department.

I have not met the new police chief yet, Chief Sullivan.

I'm confident in his leadership and I look forward to being able to meet with him and repair that relationship between the mayor's office and the police department.

I was also proud to have received the endorsement of the FOP in my 2021 City Council race.

I've been talking about the public safety crisis since day one.

I've been meeting with police officers, rank and file police officers since January, since I launched my campaign, I've been meeting with the leadership of the Fraternal Order of Police, and I'm thankful that other candidates are now finally ringing that bill and talking about that subject.

We are moving community police officers off the street.

These are the officers that are trying to prevent crime, working with our kids, our youth in their programs, things like that.

We are faced with such a shortage right now that so many of those CP officers are vacant because they have to go answer calls on the street.

Sheila Davis, you're next.

I think the way to solve the crime is to up minimum wage to $18 an hour.

That will cut down on the petty theft and give people more opportunity to start their businesses.

And as and for the city getting along with the police, they should have more events where they could get together and get to know each other on a more personal level.

Invite the community in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sheila and Julie Stroud, you are last to answer this question.

Where I was taking notes here.

Okay, we need to establish a culture.

It is all of our responsibility to keep our city safe.

Right?

There needs to be a morning meeting, a morning safety meeting where everybody in the city joins me.

Then us we you on camera join to this meeting.

Definitely.

Police are going to be there.

Police will talk about the safety events that happen every single day this morning.

So we all are aware of what's happening and what's going on with the city.

We need to be aware of everything.

The 29th & Gold contamination, these individuals were hurt, their health were impacted.

The city dropped the ball, the state dropped the ball.

The federal government dropped the ball.

The railroad who took responsibility dropped the ball.

We cannot ignore as a city when part of us is hurt, we have to recognize that and bring justice to them.

Likewise, everyone in the community and is held.

That's done.

We're going to have a problem.

So I ask all of us to look into one another as if it was you in those shoes, as if she is your neighbor.

I am your neighbor.

You are my family.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie Craig Andres of KSN has the next question.

Craig.

Thank you, Susan.

I appreciate it.

We've seen a lot of high profile violent crime issues recently.

We've seen other.

Crime issues come up that are not violent crime.

We've heard the stories about people afraid to come into Wichita late at night.

We've heard the stories about people specifically afraid to go to Old Town.

Now, aside from the Old Town issues that we've seen, describe for me specifically what you would do to fight violent.

Crime in our city and what specific steps would you take to do this?

We, as Jared said, specifics would be very much appreciated, not only for the violent crime, but even nonviolent crime that has gone up dramatically, some say very dramatically in our city.

So if you could deal with specifics, I'd be great to Jared Cerullo, youre first with this.

Specifically, we must raise the pay for our police officers.

I am thankful that the city of Wichita focused on firefighters last year and the firefighters did receive a significant raise.

We're headed the right direction with our fire department.

We need to head the right direction with our police department because if you look at salaries from Wichita to other cities of comparable size, the city of Wichita pays to train many police officers that stay with us.

For only a year or two and go somewhere else very quickly because they know if they stay ten or 20 years at another department like Oklahoma City or Tulsa or Colorado Springs, they know they're going to make 40 or $50,000 a year more when they reach that rank of sergeant or lieutenant or even higher.

We must focus on raising the pay because we can't focus on violent crime.

Right now with 97 vacancies, we cannot focus on violent crime.

When police officers are going from call to call, to call to call, they're worn out.

And it's it's got to be focused on priority number one.

Lily Wu specifics about how you would fight crime in Wichita.

As a reporter.

For the past 12 years, I've had the chance to talk to victims as well as those who have committed the crimes.

And I can tell you that it is sad that we have lost respect for one another.

We've lost respect for life.

We've also lost respect for each other as neighbors.

And we need to get back to restoring not just trust, but also accountability.

Those actions, whether violent or nonviolent, need to be created at the bottom of our community, bottom up solutions where we as neighbors help one another figure out how to value each other and respect one another.

I'm proud to say that Sheriff Jeff Easter endorsed my candidacy for mayor because he believes in a new approach to looking at these community wide problems.

For the past 12 years, violent crime has been increasing, and that means our community is hurting and we need new smart solutions to combat crime.

And I'm proud to say that we can do this together because we're doing it slowly.

Thank you.

Lily.

Specifics, Brandon Whipple.

Yeah, guys.

Honestly, I think it's a very political answer to say we're just gonna throw money at it on my watch.

We have increased the police budget by $30 million.

And the reason why we haven't seen, I guess, as much a as much feedback from that is because it's not just about money, it's actually about fighting the variables that cause violence as well.

We got to really support the chief when it comes to installing a community wide community policing program where people are in their building relationships with citizens so that they can restore that trust and make sure that folks feel comfortable talking to our officers.

We also got to take the fentanyl crisis head on, and I don't mean a PR stunt or doing commercials, I mean actually utilizing harm reduction strategies that help people who are addicted to fentanyl be able to get the help they need so they don't have to turn to petty crime.

And then, of course, we got to invest in our youth.

We have to invest in programs that help youth who might be involved or possibly walking down the wrong path in life, find other opportunities.

And if we can and if we can invest in our youth, invest in our communities, then we can make sure that next generation doesn't feel like they have to turn to crime specifics.

Brian Frye Okay, great.

I love hearing solutions set up just talking about the problem because we know there is a problem, there is a crisis.

One of the things that the city has done is using federal money to create a violence interrupter program where we're actually going to be able to go into the community, find out what is causing the crime figure out how to work with the neighborhoods.

On crime prevention strategies.

We've seen successful programs in higher crime cities, children's experiences, and in Philadelphia, and bringing this type of strategy to this community, using community service officers to free up time so that our patrol officers can increase their beats and get out more in the neighborhoods, develop a career pipeline for high school and college students.

So we're getting them into the law enforcement career early and an exposure to our Wichita Police Department.

And third or lastly, focusing on neighborhoods, our youth, our recreation centers, developing programs after school where they're engaged with our law enforcement.

Thank you, Celeste Racette.

Do you have specifics as well?

I sure do.

Thank you for the question.

So we talked about the violence interrupter program, but unfortunately, only 1% of those funds have been spent.

So it's a great program.

I've studied it.

Let's get those ARPA funds out there.

Homelessness contributes to part of this problem too.

And that's a solution that I don't think we've cooperatively worked on with the Sedgwick County.

And I think one thing that would help with the homeless situation where we ourselves have experienced it when we've been downtown planning flowers around Joan of Arc or a prize Woodard Park is there has been homeless.

Maybe they have mental issues, maybe they have substance addiction.

But a program we haven't looked at that's currently working in San Antonio, Texas, is called One Rise.

And I want to cooperate with Sedgwick County and look into that program.

We also got on CNN, unfortunately for the shoplifting, we know we need more community engagement.

We've also had an increase in the illiterate population of Wichita, has gone from 42,000, doubled to almost 80.

So there's so many interrelated issues we've got to address and work together on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie Stroud, you're next.

I grew up in I'm sorry for interrupting.

I grew up in the city of Wichita, right down downtown next to the river.

I've seen a lot of the crimes happening ever since a young age.

I've always been, you know, looking out and staying aware of what's going on.

But definitely the morning meeting that I mentioned where we investigate every single violent crime that has occurred and we rank them by risk based and definitely the fentanyl crisis.

We need to invest more money in mental health and social services.

We have to children are in schools for 8 hours a day with an adult.

And a lot of times that's the one solid adult they have in their life, especially in the neighborhoods that have the most highest crime rates.

We need to invest in our teachers.

We have to ensure that these children in these areas and know that there's something outside that they can obtain in life and that it doesn't matter where you come from or what's around you, that you can level up and you can be the best that you can be.

Thank you, Julie.

And last to answer this question is Sheila Davis.

Sheila.

I think when it comes to crime, we should lower the standards for job training program.

Why people are trying to get in the job training program, pay them before they get in, as in with the crime issue, the police and fire per the fire department and nurses and teachers need more pay.

I think $80,000 a year with free medical would be fine.

I think if we legalize marijuana, we should be able to do that and then tax it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Celeste.

Ah, thank you, Sheila.

Celeste had mentioned a problem that kind of coincides with the crime issue has something to do with the crime issue, and that is homelessness.

And that is our next question from our panelists, Dion Leffler.

Diane, thank you, Susan.

Since the city renovated Naftzger Park and made it less hospitable for our homeless residents, the homeless population has largely shifted to other areas, notably to areas around Second Street and parts of Old Town.

What specifically would you do to help solve growing problem of homeless people living on our streets without just chasing them into some other part of the city?

Thank you, Diane.

Once again, Diane mentioned specifics, and we'd appreciate it if the candidates would mention specifics as well to help curb the homeless problem.

Julie Stroud, you are first.

I would work continue the work with the task force and I would insist that we have measurable goals and the current items that we do have that we make them even more, oh, narrowed them down.

You make them more specific.

Then mentioning Naftzger Park, I probably didn't pronounce that right.

I apologize.

We would have events where we invited the homeless, fed them, talk to them, ask them what their dreams were.

Because when it comes right down to it, at one point in time, I would have to say that every single person would have a dream, right?

So and we need to get into our schools, like I said, and talk with the students and ensure our youth and our young adults who are at those risk situations where they need help, that they know they can obtain help, and that we are here for them and we believe in them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie.

Celeste Racette, youre next.

Thank you.

So thank you for the question.

As I was mentioning before, we have seen this problem firsthand when we've been downtown with the volunteers gardening to beautify Wichita.

We've seen a man with a knife and he was stabbing the ground repeatedly thinking it was his yard.

A long knife.

We called the heart team, which is the homeless outreach team, and they were so overwhelmed they wanted to know if this man was actually hurting somebody.

And I can imagine with 23 encampments throughout Wichita that they really have the resources they need when there's violence on the streets with the homeless.

Needless to say, there is a solution.

Sedgwick County and the city of Wichita needs to cooperate.

And when I was in the financial industry, I was a team leader numerous times or worked with FDIC teams.

We need to collaboratively cooperate.

And one rise is a program in San Antonio, Texas, that has one location for the mental hospital, which was just approved with Sedgwick County Mental Hospital.

There's a place for counseling, for substance addiction.

There's affordable or places for housing for them to be housed.

One rise is the solution to this problem.

Thank you.

Thank you, Celeste.

Bryan Frye, youre next to answer this question about homelessness.

Thank you, Susan.

So I believe Wichita is a compassionate community and we simply can't be intolerant of the homeless and be tolerant of homelessness.

The simple answer for homelessness is affordable housing and providing a shelter, a roof for someone's head.

Currently, we don't have enough facilities in the city and we've seen a growth in homelessness because of COVID.

Fortunately, COVID might be our answer.

With federal dollars that we've received from ARPA, we have about 14 and a half million dollars to build affordable housing shelters for families, for homeless women.

We're going to be able to build a non congregate low barrier shelter that we currently don't have in this city.

We'll be able to have a navigation center so that there are all resources that someone who is experiencing homelessness will be able to come to one center and get the help they need.

Similar to the Haven for Hope in San Antonio.

And this is something that we have an RFP, a request for proposal on the street right now.

All right, thank you.

Bryan Frye, Brandon Whipple.

Look, I'm just going to put out there.

It's actually I think, hurtful when we associate folks who are experiencing chronic homelessness with either criminology or violence where we make them out to be criminals.

The reality is the majority of these folks suffer from a diagnosable mental health condition or a substance substance abuse issue.

And then, sadly, over half of them suffer from one of the two or four, both of that.

So as we move forward, we've got to actually address the variables that cause people to be chronically homeless, which means investing more in mental health.

The one stop shop that my colleague on City Council just mentioned, something that we have in the works.

It's the best practice.

It's going to make sure that people can show up and get the wraparound services that they need and also get themselves a voucher and into housing.

And we actually just collaborated with our partners of the United Way to say that we will get to functional zero when it comes to homelessness for veterans.

Because if you defended our nation in uniform, you should not have to sleep on the streets that you once protected.

So as we move forward, we've got to make sure we're following best practices.

We got to make sure we're working with our community partners, and we've got to make sure we're actually following best practices.

Lily Wu, you're next.

Let's start with some facts.

Under 600 homeless were counted four years ago.

This year, that number has increased to 702.

During current administrations, that could be leading on that effort.

They have not.

That's why we need change.

What we need with homeless in our in our community is care and compassion.

And we do need to work on the root cause of they're suffering from, which is illnesses.

We do need to provide that, but we also need to provide collaborative efforts.

Nonprofits are doing a great job trying to provide those services.

Local government at the state sorry at the Sedgwick County and local levels are trying to also be at the table.

And now we're seeing businesses trying to be part of that solution.

I also encourage the faith based community to also be at the table as someone who is a outsider.

I want to be the collaborative mayor that will bring these four groups together to help solve homelessness in our community.

Since she mentioned current administration, I'm going to offer Brandon Whipple a 30 second rebuttal and possibly Brian Frye a 30 second rebuttal.

Thank you.

And I appreciate that, because it says as a name, if we're named, we get it to rebuttal.

And if you say the mayor's office, I think I should be able to rebuttal.

On my watch, we invested more in homelessness and homelessness prevention than the last 20 years combined.

We worked with the Wichita Family Shelter to make or family services to make sure that they got $1.2 million with the federal funds that came into the city.

So they could leverage that to $7 million so they could buy a new hotel and convert that into shelter.

For women who are survivors of domestic violence.

We are doing what we can when it comes to following the best practices, but it's an absolute lie to say that we're not taking the lead on this.

We're taking it more so than any city has done in the past history of Wichita.

Bryan, would you like 30 seconds?

Yes, thank you.

I would also like to add that over the last four years, the city has invested more resources in mental health and substance abuse programs.

That is something that I have seen when I've done the point in time count for the United Way and getting resources and help to people in their moment of crisis is an investment that we as a community need to make.

We started the Act One program in 2019, which puts a law enforcement officer, a mental health worker and an EMT on the scene of someone experiencing a mental health crisis.

All right.

Thank you.

Jared Cerullo, your next to answer this question.

Thank you, Susan.

When I served on the council in 2021, I was proud to support spending $5 billion of the city's ARPA money, which is federal pandemic relief money to support Sedgwick County's one Stop Shop.

We are working on it.

The city and the county are working on it.

I will continue that relationship with the county, working on the one stop shop that will allow chronically homeless people to have a one place to go to attack those problems.

As as the mayor said, he's right.

Many times the the problem lies in mental illness and substance abuse.

We have to provide services for people to attack those root causes.

One other thing that I would say is if the city is providing if if providing the housing is the answer, then why isn't the city providing its housing right now?

The city of Wichita currently has 300 in its inventory.

300 single family homes in its inventory that are empty and falling, dilapidated to entire neighborhoods in the city of Wichita are not being utilized and they're falling in disrepair.

It's unacceptable.

Sheila Davis When it comes to homelessness, I think we need to change the rules of because they have times they have to be in.

I think it's six five in the morning, the time they have to be out.

I think if we change that and just work on finding them a permanent place to stay, where they get a forward rent, where it could be affordable.

I know there has to be some kind of more funding out there that could house them and give them the help they need with housing and medical.

They can work on substance abuse if they have or mental illness.

Some people are probably homeless because of they lost a job doing, you know, or stuff like that.

I just think there needs to be more more funding and maybe a hotel.

The the whole the the the whole that the homeless like a hotel that would hold like 3 to 500 of them and then some kind of city grant or something to help them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sheila Pilar Pedraza has our next from our panel.

Pilar Well, a decade ago, the city of Wichita was winning awards for its transparency, at least as far as its website went.

And the ability to access information about the city.

Obviously, things have changed since then.

There have been a lot of concerns from unfulfilled public records requests to various other issues, not to mention sweetheart deals that many of you have talked about.

Every almost everybody up here so far has mentioned concerns about transparency.

My question is, what to you does it mean for the city to be transparent?

And what are the reasonable limits that you believe should be placed on that?

Brandon Whipple, you're going to be the first one to answer this question.

Excellent.

Well, I appreciate the question.

And transparency has to be front and foremost when it comes to not only ensuring that taxpayers can follow the money, but but really to make sure that we're building trust.

On my watch, we've taken advantage of our technology making sure that every meeting is not only being recorded and available, but also streaming live.

We've been able to take feedback from folks from on all the different platforms to make sure that, frankly, that we aren't just giving you information.

We're actually learning about how people are responding to our programs.

So transparency to me isn't just getting information out there, is developing a two way discussion with folks.

So we know that we're actually hitting the goals for the programs that we're putting on.

And if we're not, then we've got to make sure that we're making those changes and transparency in addition to just getting information out, is bringing people to the table who utilize our services so that we can have them help us better those services.

And I'm proud that as mayor, we've been able to bring people to the table who traditionally were left outside of the room.

And in my next term, I'm going to make sure that we build upon that.

But again, we've got to keep moving forward, and it's something that just can't be fixed in the first term.

I think that we can still build upon our success in the next term.

All right, Lily Wu, you're next.

First and foremost, I'm against cronyism, backroom deals, sweetheart deals and any insider deals.

As a reporter, I've had the opportunity to share the facts, report and reveal truth, and be transparent in how I've gotten to that truth while also holding public officials accountable.

Those are the same skills I will bring to the mayor's office.

First and foremost, we need to make sure that if there are any deals that happen, they need to be transparent.

They need to be fiscally responsible.

And they need to hold people accountable.

How are we going to do all of this?

By having clear, concise and ongoing communication.

That is the role of local government so that taxpayers know how the government prioritizes projects and how your tax dollars are being spent.

As mayor, I will make sure that we will restore trust in City Hall by ending all.

Sweetheart deals.

Bryan Frye, youre next.

Thank you.

I'm still waiting to hear about one of these sweetheart deals that I was involved with.

A surprising this accusation happens all the time.

You know, certainly open lines of communication is what needs to happen.

Better opportunities for people to engage with their elected officials.

District advisory boards, civic engagement academy.

Civic Citizen Police Academy.

These are all opportunities for you to learn more about your government.

Certainly having evening meetings when we have a budget proposal, when we did the baseball development deal, we had evening meetings.

So making sure that we're using every line of communication, whether it's social media website and certainly our local media as well, being as open and transparent and inviting, making sure that people know City Hall is theirs and they have access to us.

24 seven.

All right, Jared Cerullo, your next to answer this question, sweetheart deals.

Well, first and foremost, specifically attacking the problem.

Put the city's checkbook on the website.

Sedgwick County did it 3 to 4 years ago.

Wichita should do it now.

Wichita should have done it years ago.

Put the checkbook right on the website and allow you to go straight to the Wichita City website and see how every dollar of your taxpayer money is spent.

I was shocked to see the city's own survey in late 2020 to found that out of 500 random residents that were surveyed, only 27% of residents felt that their city government was being open and transparent with them.

That's unacceptable.

Follow the money.

Campaign finance reports are due in three days, and when I file my campaign finance report, you'll see that I have not accepted a single dime from anybody in this community.

I'm funding my own campaign.

I'm spending my own money because I think it's worth it.

Follow the money and you'll find where those sweetheart deals are coming in.

Celeste Racette.

Thank you for the question.

It's so interesting because I would not be standing before you today if the city had not been so hidden and so nontransparent.

When the $1.2 billion Riverfront Master Legacy deal was presented, I was kicked out of the meeting and they said it was not public and there was no citizen comment.

So here I am four years later, promising to do better in city government.

And of all the candidates here that talk about the problems, who stood up in front of city council and addressed these repeatedly?

I talked about the Wichita Ice Center rink.

I filed a core of freedom of information, and it looked like the Genesis Gyms had been making all their payments in ten years when actually there was only one.

I talked about groundwater contamination in 2019 and spoke about the two that are identified and no one said a word.

And come to find out, there was a third one at 29th and Grove.

I also talked about that there was a problem with no internal auditor for three years.

That's the internal auditor for those who don't follow that.

And there hadn't been one for three years.

I speak out all the time.

Sheila Davis, you're next with this question.

I don't know too much about sweetheart deals, but I think that that shouldn't be going on.

I think if someone was working for a city and they need more money or want more money, they should get another job, work for it, or fundraise or apply for a grant or start a side business on the side.

Honestly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Julie Stroud.

Government transparency, highly important.

Probably one of the most important aspects of any government position that can exist, right?

The government exists to do right by the people.

Right.

So that morning meeting that I told you that everyone needs to be a part of.

I work for the city, of which time the drinking water laboratory.

And I'm going to let you know that the culture within the city of Wichita is problematic.

People feel as though they are not supported.

They cannot voice their concerns.

Not everyone, but it's there.

We need to improve that.

We need to ensure that the city workers are able to speak up and let us know as a community what's going on.

It's 2023.

We can bring items to the table.

We do not need to hide.

No decision.

Every every decision, every decision is made in the public eye.

The city needs translators to ensure that there is no one left out in the direction of our city based upon language.

We need a mayor outside meeting, speaking, encouraging people to join our city council meetings, to speak up.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much, Julie.

I think a lot of the panel is concerned about transparency, as are a lot of our citizens.

May maybe I could give 30 seconds to each of you to talk about transparency in terms of when bids are left and contracts are given, at times they're given to some organization in the sky with no names under it.

And so they're given to the such and such development corporation, and there are no names under that corporation.

I guess my question is, would you be in favor of mandating that the members of that corporation, who's ever going to benefit from those dollars be named?

I guess, Julie, you'd be first.

Definitely.

We got organizations that are just being selected to do different contracts and we need to know as a city who they are.

And this hurts our community because when we're making deals with certain industries or businesses or contractors and we leave out, again, the public to help us make those decisions and provide their input.

We our limiting our prosperity and our growth within this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Celeste.

Would you be in favor of naming names and all these development corporation?

Absolutely.

When the 18 properties that were bought in Delano and then flipped back to the city for the ball stadium, it was just a name of a corporation.

I would like to know who those principals were.

When we handed out 1.7 million in subsidies to the Riverside TIFF, that was just another corporation, LLC.

I would absolutely like to know their names.

When the Hyatt Hotel had this secret agreement or a sweetheart deal, I'll call it, where they scraped the revenue out of Century II for food and beverage and for meeting room income.

Why aren't we calling out those individuals?

Absolutely.

Let's name them.

Bryan Frye.

thank you.

So.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So.

So every bid goes through a staff screening committee and via our purchasing department where those vendors have to register and be known.

Large capital projects not only have staff, but also city council or mayor representation.

Those are brought to the council.

There are contracts given and shown.

Being able to register and apply for these has to be known and I think staff does a good job of vetting them.

That's what they're there for.

Brandon Whipple Yeah, we've restored the firewall between the elected officials and the folks who are trying to take advantage of the taxpayers.

When it comes to this, we are contracts to make sure that elected officials can hijack the contract on behalf of their donors.

But when it comes to transparency, we've got two people up here who are actually running their campaign completely through dark PAC, dark money, interest groups.

And I just want to know, is Americans for Prosperity going to be transparent about what money they spent on Lily's campaign?

And is Karl Peterjohn's group going to be transparent or what they spent on Celeste's campaign?

Because on Monday you'll see it what I spend who donates me.

You won't see where these guys got their money from.

Who was the first to be named for us or who started without you?

Okay.

Well, go ahead.

Let me start off by saying PAC money is also being utilized by the current administration.

So am I proud to be supported by a pro-freedom organization?

Absolutely.

They're against cronyism.

So I'm going to start off with saying that I am the first to have on my website the link to the donors that will be revealed in a few days.

So it's easy access so that you can all find out who is paying and giving donations.

Remember, there's only a $500 limit per individual, per entity.

Celeste.

Sure.

So in two.

Seconds, you can all have 30 seconds after this.

Celeste, your.

First?

Yes.

I find it extremely ironic.

I supported Whipple with his campaign.

And the first thing he did when he was elected is he turned around and formed a PAC and he put his wife in charge of that PAC, which is a political action committee.

So it's really hypocrisy of the top degree.

And that's why I'm running for mayor is he so disappointed me with his lack of maturity and understanding that he himself would have the nerve to call someone out when he's got a PAC, as do Karl Peterjohn.

What he does is his own.

He worked with me on Save a Century II.

Brian Frye.

I didn't think I was named.

Actually, I think it was.

Yeah, I don't have a I.

Think he responded he.

Responded.

You get a response next and then Brandon.

Yes.

It's between a political action committee that actually puts all the donors and all the expenses up under the Kansas Ethics Commission website and a dark money interest group that both these candidates are being funded through, that is unlimited spending and unlimited donations.

And the fact is, we've got to keep insiders out of city hall.

And the idea they're going to bankroll these folks and not be transparent is a step backwards.

And as we move forward, if you're going to mention my wife's political action committee, you better know her name.

Her name is Chelsea.

And she is a person of accomplishment.

She is a doctoral student and she has spent more time interacting with voters than anyone on this.

On this panel.

Celeste wanted to mention that she has no PAC as well.

Dark money interests here.

We're going to have Jared answer this question next.

Go ahead, Jared.

For a minute.

A minute.

Okay.

I really I have not answered this.

I have not answered this question.

I do agree with Celeste.

It is that it is hypocrisy of the highest degree for the incumbent administration, the incumbent mayor of the city of Wichita, to accuse other candidates of using dark money.

Is it true?

It may be, but he did it, too.

In 2021, he used his PAC, his two PACs, to defeat me by 80 votes in my council race in order to get his friend on the city council.

That friend is continuing to serve on the city council.

Right now.

I don't think we should be putting our friends on the city council.

We should be putting knowledgeable, competent people on the city council.

Mayor Absolutely did use his own PAC money that he created to fund my opponent's campaign in 2021.

Unacceptable.

Sheila.

Yes.

About you know, Sheila was not mentioned.

All right.

She gets it.

Yes, go ahead.

About bids.

Like if I don't know too much about it, but if a company makes a bid and they make a couple bids, I was wondering, does a city has like laws were like if they have too many bids, could they give that bid to a small business?

Also, the other thing, I just thought it would be brave to run for campaign.

I'm called Sheila Davis Rainman.

I'm called that because I do a lot of things on my own.

I never think if I have enough for this or that, I just whatever little bit money I do, I just do.

And I do everything independently.

Thank you.

Sheila Davis Rainman.

Julie.

Let's see.

What was I going to say?

Dark money.

I don't have any dark money.

I'm going to do the right thing.

Right I can.

What am I going to say here?

I'm not going to read this.

I would never be involved in dark money because I care more about you than I do my own, than I do a dollar right.

And I feel that, oh, I love you, Wichita.

We need equality.

We need unity to solve problems and prosper and we cannot do that when we are making deals behind the back or doing things not upfront and transparent, where only a certain individuals get to unfavorable, know favorably, I guess by the city government, prosper up while many other areas of our community do not get those same advantages to move up and to help the city.

Sorry.

Thank you very much, Joy.

Our next question is from Craig Andres.

From our panel.

Craig, thank you, Susan.

Wichita is a big city.

We're not New York, we're not L.A., we're not.

Boston or Chicago.

But this is a big city.

It's not a small town.

It's got a very big budget.

So let's talk audit here.

Would you recommend more audits of city spending?

Would you recommend more odds of tax breaks to developers.

Funded.

By our tax dollars?

First, to answer this question would be Sheila Davis.

Sheila.

I would probably do more tax breaks, especially on the housing, taxes.

I think more tax breaks would save the city some money.

Or instead of making taxes go up every year, just have a rule where it could only go up so much.

Then it just stays right there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sheila.

Lily Wu.

Your next with this question.

Let's start off again with some facts.

The operating budget is about $320 million, so about 70% of that goes to police, fire, public works.

What we need to do is to figure out how to be more efficient.

So we do need an outside audit to see how local government is operationally working right now.

We need to find efficiencies from those inefficiencies that are currently happening.

That is how we're going to get out of a looming budget deficit that has been created in the future years.

What we need to do is also look, in this current budget, there are 15 departments out of the 17 that all had increases in their budgets.

Only the Library and HR did not.

So we need to look and see where we can be more efficient.

And yes, we do need to make sure that we need to have an outside audit and to mention your tax breaks.

Again, I'm going to be very clear that we need transparency.

We need people to be held accountable.

And we need to have to make sure that it's fiscally responsible in order for us to move forward with any deals.

Jared Cerullo, youre next.

Yes, I absolutely support more openness and transparency, more audits among city government.

I was proud in 2021 while I served on the council to reject a $10 million tax giveaway to Topgolf.

Did I want Topgolf to come to Wichita?

Absolutely.

Yes, I did.

But the simple facts are those company executives were not truthful, were not with the city government when they told us they needed $10 million to.

Make that project work.

That vote passed on a 4 to 3 margin with current members Brandon Whipple and Bryan Frye voting in favor of giving away $10 million of your money.

And now we're faced with a significant budget crisis in 2025, when that $10 million would have come in very useful.

And a council, our council in 2021, I'm saddened to say, gave that money away.

Top Golf did not need that money.

The city of Wichita taxpayers deserved to have that money.

Brandon, you're next if you want to.

I would love to.

You know, to my colleagues here who claim that we're still in a budget crisis.

I wish that they would update the paperwork since March.

In the last couple of weeks, we've actually had revised numbers and we are actually budget has been balanced out 2027, which is an amazing thing, by the way, as we move forward.

Also, just last Tuesday, we accepted the third party audit of all of our finances over at the city of Wichita.

We had a clean opinion.

So on my watch we are actually making sure that we have third party audits come in.

And I'm proud to say there was mention that.

Hey, for a few years we went without an auditor.

We hired an internal auditor on my watch and we're able to utilize her to be to go and find corruption and make sure that if things aren't balanced, that we'd get them back in order.

So again, as we move forward, we got to make sure that we build upon the success we have.

We have a clean audit that came out Tuesday.

Our budget is balanced.

Please, for the love of God, go check the latest when it comes to our budget documents and make sure that you are also seeing the great work that auditors she is discovering issues and solve those issues and bringing those issues to the council when she needs more support.

All right, thank you, Bryan Frye.

The issue of audits.

Thank you.

And I'm pleased to say that we did have an independent audit done recently and a clean bill of health.

There were no typos.

There were no wording errors.

The financial picture was solid and with no meaningful discoveries.

No.

Have there been typos in the past?

Yes.

But there were no financial mistakes.

That's what an independent auditor looks and finds.

We hired an internal auditor and actually got the advice of someone who I trust in this world to help draft that job description.

We have clawbacks and required ROIs for development activity.

Star bond revenue is only revenue that is generated because of the success of that business.

They have to create that revenue in order for them to capture the star bond revenue.

They're not there.

They don't get any money.

So we do have programs and clawbacks and safety checks to make sure we're being responsible with your tax dollars.

Julie Stroud, you're next.

I work for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment as an environmental compliance regulatory specialist.

I did many audits.

Auditing is essential.

I'm 9001 and 9000 ISO trained, which is in regards to quality.

Say what you do and do what you say.

Auditing is essential to ensure our goals and plans are accomplished.

Including contractor audits.

We do.

We need to do our part to ensure that the selection of the contractors is accomplished with our contracted with their contract.

Select Selection.

Standard operating procedure that will be developed with you.

Your input city which is when the end the fiscal year is here.

We should encourage those allocations that we should not encourage wasteful spending, but instead invest those dollars into small and local businesses and youth startups.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julie and Celeste.

Your last to answer this.

Thank you.

So I'm the only candidate who can stand before you and say, I understand auditing.

I was a certified internal auditor.

I was a chief internal auditor.

I was an FDIC bank examiner.

And unfortunately, there's a lot of misrepresentation.

So I want to make it very clear we did not have an internal auditor working inside the city for three years, even though on our financial statements it said that that internal auditor was reviewing contracts over $150,000.

If you don't have an internal auditor, those contracts aren't being reviewed.

And that was an administrative regulation that the city was violating.

And I spoke about it and yes, we just recently got an auditor, but we didn't have one.

We give out handouts to developers.

The Riverside TIFF 1.7 million should have been special assessments.

We called something storm water utilities that was actually debt on the Fairfield Inn and Water Walk.

I don't know about you, but storm water, utilities and a private hotel.

Doesn't make any sense.

So thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Candidates clearly transparency within city government, audits of city government and transparency with contracts that are lent and and bonds that are lot for developers.

Clearly huge issue in Wichita.

And hopefully later on, we can all discuss more of this.

We're running out of time tonight, though, so we've got to get to one last issue.

And it's from the League of Women Voters once again that they are a sponsor.

These of this debate tonight.

So we wanted to let them in on a couple of questions and a big question the League of Women Voters had tonight is what specific would you do to combat the growing mental health crisis in our city, which also, of course, leads crime and leads to homelessness?

What can we do to help the mentally ill of our community?

And if we could get specifics on how dollars could be spent, where they would come from and what they would go to, that would be great.

So the first one to answer this question is going to be Jared Cerullo.

Thank you.

Fight the growing mental health crisis.

The simple fact is, is the Wichita city of Wichita does not have a health department.

The city Wichita does is does not have anything to do.

Sedgwick County has those responsibilities.

That doesn't mean the city of Wichita should not be a good facilitator and a good compassionate worker to help solve the problem.

And again, I go back to the $5 million of ARPA money from the city of Wichita that I supported giving from the city's ARPA money to Sedgwick County to help fund the one stop shop that Sedgwick County is charge of.

But other than other than funding and working with Sedgwick County, our partners and our state partners, our federal partners as well, there are grants that we must go after in trying to help solve the problem.

But work collaboration with Sedgwick County is going to be the biggest help.

All right, Sheila Davis, you are next to answer this question.

The solve the mental illness problem.

I think we should give give people who need mental illness, you know, mental health, what they should do it different in a fun way.

Like if they like going to, you know, have their counseling session at McDonald's, if they like makeup or dine with whatever they like, we should we need to have some grants to help with mental health, but we need to do it different, more nicer, more classier and just do it with a more kind and caring heart.

You know, get to know the person first, you know, talk to them about solving their problems.

Tell them how to solve that problem instead of keep talking about the problem year after year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sheila.

Julie Stroud, Mental Health.

I would bring more mental health professionals here by paying them more money.

I would tax plastic bags and use those that money for the funding of mental health.

I would help raise the minimum wage by increasing the wages within the city government and therefore encouraging other businesses to do the same because if not, their workers will be leaving to work for the city government.

And I would work in our youth again the 8 hours a day that they're in the public school system.

We have to ensure that if they need help, that they receive help.

We need to work with our young adults who and ensure that they know we have services there.

Work with nonprofits who are dedicated to mental health, especially in our youth and, lower socioeconomic areas.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie.

Celeste, what would you do to promote mental health services in the city?

Sure.

It is absolutely a growing problem.

We see it all the time.

And as I said before, when I went to the Orpheum and heard Mary Theroux present this program that I know Sedgwick County has started looking into, and I applaud them for that.

The city needs to work with Sedgwick County and wherever they put their mental hospital, we need to then establish housing counseling for the mentally ill. And also this was an interesting idea, but a garden area, because Hippocrates said that nature is the best healer.

So we need to set the one rise program up that came from San Antonio, Texas, to find the funding.

We've got to stop the special interests and the handouts.

Riverside TIFF I've mentioned several of them.

The Hyatt Hotel and the revenue that they get, the ball stadium and the fees that they've charged for people who go to the ball stadium.

There are so many ways we have misspent taxpayer money that should be wisely spent towards the mental health, the homeless, public safety, quality of life.

And as an accountant and an MBA and a certified internal, that is one thing I will bring to the table.

Thank you.

All right, Brandon Whipple, you are next.

What would you do to promote more mental health services in the city?

I just want to say that on my watch, we have never handed out a cash incentive to any developer.

And I hope that folks understand that as we continue the conversation.

Yeah, we've beefed up ICT one into ICT 2.0, which is our response team teamed up with the county making sure that folks who are in a crisis can actually get the help that they need more more days of the week.

We've also integrated mental health professionals into our law enforcement because sadly, most of the time, people will call on our officers to come out to a mental health crisis.

And they aren't mental health experts, they're police officers.

We want them out there fighting crime.

So now we're giving them the ability to actually call out a mental health expert so that that expert can give the person the services that they need.

And we also teamed up with CU Medical Center after their psychiatrist program.

We're the only city that's done this to help them with scholarships so we can grow more psychiatrists right here in Wichita.

And in return, they're going to come in and help train our first responders when it comes to dealing and serving mental health situations even better.

Kansas Sadly, we are at the we are at the bottom of the list when it comes to mental health.

And in Wichita, we could do better by serving our community.

All right.

Lily Wu promoting mental health services in our city.

I know many in our community are suffering from isolation, from just the suffering, from post COVID and also the divisiveness that has started in the top parts of leadership that has dwindled down into our community and a lot of our community members need to know that there are resources out there from nonprofit organizations.

We need to create better awareness and greater awareness of these resources.

As someone who went on police ride alongs this spring, a majority of the calls that we went to were mental health calls, and police officers are not social workers.

So we need to get back to where we need to be right now, which is focusing on public safety and mental health is part of public safety.

So we need to put our efforts back on that.

We also need to make sure that today and right now, July is minority mental Health Awareness Month.

So we need to make sure that our community members know about the organizations both at the city and county level, as well as the nonprofit level that are available to them.

All right.

And Bryan Frye, youre last to answer this question about mental health services.

Thank you.

So Wichita is on the cusp of doing something world class to really address this mental health situation.

Partnering with Wichita State and CU School of Medicine.

We're going to be able to create a education and research campus in the heart of downtown, partnering with Sedgwick County and Comm Care to educate the next generation of students and mental health workers.

We've lobbied in Topeka for this state mental health hospital to be located in the Wichita area.

The mayor mentioned ICT two, three, four and five additional units out there on the streets, helping people in their moment of crisis and embedding social and mental health workers with so that there is a compassionate response rather than just putting someone in jail.

I think this community is too good for just old solutions.

And I think the opportunity we have before us right now will be a game changer.

And we can make our mark in the rest of the country with how we address mental health and substance abuse issues going forward.

All right, thank you, Bryan Frye.

Unfortunately, we are running out of time for more questions, however, because we have enough time, we have 7 minutes now.

We are going to expand the last 30 seconds of your closing statements to one minute.

Don't have time for another question, but we do have time to expand closing statements from 30 seconds to one minute.

So, Brandon Whipple, you are first with your closing statement.

All right.

I don't know if I got a full minute, but I just want to thank you both for being here, engaging not only online, but also watching us on television, making sure that you are active in paying attention to this important election and its election is so important.

Again, Wichita, we have turned a page in the COVID economy.

We're finally leading a say in economic growth and development.

We have more opportunity for our young people than we had in the past.

And we're making the right investments.

We're investing in public safety, including our fire department, our police department and public works in record amounts.

We have a $20 million rainy day fund, which means that if for some reason there's a hiccup in the economy, can keep these services going so that folks can still get what they expect out of the city.

Now, in my next term, I want to build upon this success.

I want to make sure we take on tough challenges because what we do in the next four years is going to determine the trajectory of our city over the next 30 years.

And I want to make sure that when my boys AJ Tristan and Julian, I know you watch and I love you guys, that when my boys look back in this moment when they're my age, that they actually see that we took advantage of this moment, that we were able to produce more opportunities for them because it's not about us.

It's about make sure our next generation can reach their calling here in our city.

Thank you, Brandon Whipple.

Bryan Frye, you are next with your one minute closing statement.

Thank you to the Media and League of Women Voters for this opportunity.

It's important to share with our public why we're running for mayor.

I'm a lifelong witch, ten and devoted servant leader who has spent my entire career here in Wichita moving it forward.

I've served government.

I've served in business, nonprofit, and I'm a small business owner.

My goals are simple.

Let's keep Wichita safe.

Let's protect your taxpayer dollars and let's move Wichita forward.

Again, I think we have amazing opportunity right now, but it's going to take someone with focus and dedication and the ability to hit ground running on day one because he's been in the position, working on solutions, talking to people, finding out the solutions that they need to make Wichita the best it can be.

Thank you, Bryan Frye.

Lily Wu, you are next with closing statement.

I want to start off by saying thank you for believing in a trustworthy, principled individual.

The donors who have given and who have also endorsed our pro-business pro safety, pro freedom organizations.

There are also individuals that are hard working Americans in our community, from job creators to educators to working class families like my own mom and dad, a hairstylist and a cook whom I want to make proud.

So thank you, Mom and Dad, for making the sacrifice to come to America so that I could have this opportunity.

I am the political outsider and bridge builder who will bring a new energy and a fresh perspective to the mayor's.

My focus will be on public safety, on restoring trust in city hall and strengthening our economy and building a united community.

Because as mayor, I will promise you this.

I will work with anyone who wants it.

Improve our city, bring our community together, find common ground, and make Wichita proud.

Jared Cerullo, you are next.

I'll keep this short and sweet.

My name is Jared Cerullo.

I'm a lifelong Wichita resident.

I care very deeply.

I would go back to my comments earlier.

Follow the money.

There are a lot of dynamics that are involved in this current mayor's race.

I am the only candidate that has not accepted a dime from LLC any business owner.

I am not going to owe anybody a favor.

Once I am elected mayor of the city of Wichita, I'd be grateful to have your support.

I believe my experience stands out as a journalist being a confident and unbiased over your taxpayer spending for more than 25 years.

I've served on the District Advisory Board for my district in southeast Wichita for five years before I was selected by the Council to serve an unexpired term for a council member who resigned.

We must return honesty and integrity to City Hall.

Please do not postpone your return to good, honest government if you give me your vote.

I promise to give you honest and ethical leadership.

Thank you.

Celeste Racette.

Thank you.

Thank you.

To PBS and the League of Women Voters and also for the reporters with their great questions.

I've been a lifelong Wichita and a fourth generation Kansan.

I'm a mother, a wife, a grandmother.

And I'm the only candidate before you with accounting skills and the background to have to be able to stand before you and say there have been insider deals, there have been taxpayer handouts.

And that is one thing I absolutely will do.

I pledge to you I will be the taxpayer's watchdog.

As mayor of Wichita, my role model would be my father, who back in the sixties was a servant leader of Wichita and with others bipartisan support.

He did so much to do this.

The Wichita Art Museum, the Native American Museum, to do century two, to do the former public library, to do the Cheney conduit that provides water to the city.

This is the type of servant leadership I'm hoping to bring to Wichita, and I would appreciate your vote on August 1st.

I'm Celeste Racette, and I love the city of Wichita.

Julie Stroud.

Thank you.

I was born raised in Wichita, Kansas.

I graduated from West High five months, pregnant.

I haven't made the best decisions, but every decision I've ever made, I've owned up to I stepped up to the plate and I did what I needed to do to move on with in life.

I'm an environmental, health and safety professional.

At one time, I worked as a janitor.

I moved up the career ladder to be in a position where I can protect other people and ensure our environment, our resources are reserved for us to live together.

I come from middle class and I spent a large amount of my time in poverty, so I know what it's like to not be heard.

I know what it's like to not be seen.

I know what it's like.

Be told, sit down.

That's where you belong and I don't want to listen to you.

And that's not going to fly here.

I'm here to tell you as mayor, to be that I believe in that you can do it.

It is possible we can work together and as a city, as a team.

I love you.

Thank you, Julie.

Sheila Davis, your closing statement.

If it if elected mayor, I plan on only taking half of my pay.

I don't know what mayors make, but I plan to give that half to the homeless to set them up in hotels.

We're going on legalizing marijuana.

We're working on putting the homeless up instead of for like a few hours or a few months, putting them up for four or five years, making sure they have what they need, making sure they work on their mental in a fun and safe environment.

To plan on visiting my Richard Clearview property, which is a community where the homeless can stay there and regular people can stay there and separate headquarters and work on job skills, computer skills, business and computer.

Just plan on working, on getting the police city to get along better.

They have parties and stuff and thank you.

Thank you, Sheila Davis, we are out of time, PBS Kansas, very happy to bring you this first debate of the mayoral race for 2023.

We want to thank the candidates, our panel of journalists here and from the Wichita Eagle from KSN and KAKE News and especially, we want to thank the League of Women Voters for being our sponsor tonight.

If the past is any indication, only one in voters will go to the polls for the primary on August 1st.

We encourage you to make that number higher.

Go to the polls.

The primary election is August 1st and we encourage you to vote.

Thank you for watching.

Have a great evening.