Long-serving Kansas senator fired from BPU board over alleged insurance fraud
Wyandotte County’s Board of Public Utilities fired its board president after officials discovered he violated ethics policy by allegedly using his position for private gain.
State Sen. David Haley, president of Wyandotte County’s local public utilities board, was removed as acting president at the end of a two-hour meeting Tuesday evening. The board instated member Tom Groneman in his place as president.
An investigation from the local government’s ethics commission found evidence that Haley intentionally used his office to get health insurance benefits since 2021 for his long-term partner, without first providing the documentation of a common law marriage that would be required to do that. He allegedly wrote his partner’s name down as his spouse.
This means Haley’s partner allegedly collected insurance benefits that should not have been paid out.
Haley maintained that he was upfront about his relationship status and said at least two former employees gave him approval to include his partner on those forms without providing that additional documentation. Fellow board members said they had a hard time believing that.
Misty Brown, ethics administrator, told board members that in her investigation, those employees — Bill Johnson, the BPU’s former general manager and Andrea Cunningham, the former benefits manager — denied ever giving Haley those special privileges.
“You can take the word of those others, but I would not have done that,” he said, meaning he wouldn’t have included his partner in his benefits plan had he not gotten prior approval to do so.
The BPU, which is also a branch of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, told The Star Wednesday that it could not comment further on the case given it is now a legal matter.
Haley, who has held roles in the Kansas Legislature for about 30 years and served in his state senate seat since 2001, is the longest serving member of the Kansas Senate. He joined the BPU board as an at-large member in 2021.
He told board members he was concerned about what this incident would mean for his reputation after years of public service.
“Google me,” Haley said. “There’s no history in all my time of anyone suggesting I’ve done anything untoward, ever, in all of my elected years. So, there becomes a smear, a mark on my name that should not be there because I didn’t do anything.”
Haley called the investigation a good exercise in practicing ethics, but said he found it “distasteful.”
He left the room ahead of the board’s unanimous vote to censure him and returned ahead of their unanimous vote to remove him from his role as board president.
