‘It just doesn’t look good’: Wyandotte County utility chief’s pay quickly rises $100K
The contract Bill Johnson signed upon becoming general manager of the Board of Public Utilities in 2019 guaranteed him a salary of $270,000, with an annual 3% increase.
His paychecks these days far exceed that amount, though. In 2021, Johnson earned $337,000. And last week he secured an even larger pay bump for himself.
By a 4-2 vote on Nov. 2, the board of the Wyandotte County electric and water utility approved a two-year contract extension for Johnson that will go into effect on the first of the year. Johnson will receive $349,226 in 2023 and $366,687 in 2024 — an increase of nearly $100,000 after five years on the job.
Johnson’s “raise over the next two years is larger than what the average citizen of Wyandotte County makes in a year,” said board member David Haley, who voted “no” along with Rose Mulvany Henry. “To juxtapose that against the high utility bills that residents face — it just doesn’t look good. This is a county of 160,000 people. It’s phenomenal to think a utility serving a community of our size is trying to pay that size of salary.”
Mulvany Henry told The Star she was troubled by a recent survey showing more than 50% of BPU employees said the utility’s work culture needed improvement. The Star reported in July that five racial discrimination lawsuits have been brought against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, by current or former BPU employees since the beginning of 2021.
“That (survey) resonated with me,” said Mulvany Henry, who was elected to the board in 2019. “This is a community-owned asset. If you have an issue with culture, especially at an organization that offers strong pay and benefits, to me that sounds like we have people who aren’t leading from the top. The buck has to stop somewhere.”
Haley said he was not sure who proposed Johnson’s raise. Mulvany Henry said she received the contract extension from Johnson himself. BPU spokesman David Mehlhaff told The Star the contract was discussed in a closed executive session but did not answer a question about who originally drew up the terms.
Haley, who is the newest BPU board member, elected in 2021, told The Star he believes Johnson is doing an “excellent job” as general manager of the publicly owned utility and was in favor of extending his contract. But he felt the size of Johnson’s salary was incongruous with what others in the county are being paid. The interim county administrator makes $250,000, he noted, while BPU board members like Haley are paid only $950 per month — an amount that hasn’t been raised since 2004.
Haley, who is also a Kansas state senator, added: “I think because I’ve only been here for a year, I look at things with fresher eyes than others, so I’ve not yet been co-opted to adopt the mantra that everything is running with the efficiency some at the BPU suggest it is. To me, I’m here to represent the people, the ratepayers. And there doesn’t seem to be that same regard among most of the board when it comes to evaluating our expenses. Some board members are, frankly, checked out.”
The four board members who supported Johnson’s raise and contract extension were Robert Milan Sr., who has served on the BPU board since 1991; Mary Gonzales, who has served since 2001; Jeff Bryant, who has served since 2011; and Tom Groneman, who has served since 2013.
High utility bills have long been a grievance among Wyandotte County ratepayers, and during his 2021 campaign for mayor, Tyrone Garner said an independent audit of the BPU was necessary to locate inefficiencies and “bring relief to the people of Wyandotte County.”
Nearly a year into his tenure as mayor, no such audit has been done. Garner told The Star this week that a BPU audit remains a priority, though he would first like to see an audit of the entire Unified Government.
“Then once we get past that in a way that’s satisfactory to myself and the (UG) commission and the public, then that’s when I really want to look at the BPU and the concerns the community has with what might be going on over there,” Garner said. “You hear people complain about it (BPU) all over. We have a very large percentage of people living at or below the poverty rate in Wyandotte County, nearly 20%, and we have to do better at capturing revenue without doing it on the backs of the poor.”
Asked whether he thought Johnson’s raise was appropriate, Garner said, “They (BPU) have a board that was elected by the people. So I’d like to leave that question up to the voters. They need to decide for themselves whether the decisions the board members are making are acceptable. I want voters to pay attention, because decisions are being made for the community but not always with the community.”
Johnson has been with the BPU for 43 years. Prior to becoming general manager in 2019, he was the utility’s manager of electric operations and technology.
