Wyandotte County mayors announce task force that could reshape KCK’s unified government
The mayors of Kansas City, Kansas, Edwardsville and Bonner Springs on Wednesday announced plans to form a task force that could reshape Wyandotte County’s consolidated government structure.
Edwardsville Mayor Carolyn Caiharr said a “citizen-focused” group will begin neighborhood discussions in November to hear resident concerns about the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, which consolidated in 1997.
“What has served you well over the last 25 years, and what improvements need to be made?” Caiharr asked during a press conference outside Memorial Hall in downtown KCK. “We are not only looking for complaints, but solutions.”
The group will consider recommendations for governmental change, which will then be sent to the Unified Government’s 11-member Board of Commissioners. That could include de-consolidating the governments of KCK and Wyandotte County.
The mayors offered few details about who might serve on the task force and when the group’s work will be completed. It’s unclear, for example, when the first neighborhood meeting will be. The elected officials, who did not take questions on camera, also did not specify what kind of changes they hope to see, with Caiharr saying she wanted to hear first from residents.
Tyrone Garner, the CEO and mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, said time and time again he hears residents want change and a “government that they believe in.” Garner, who was sworn in in late 2021, said people believe the Unified Government is bloated, uncontrollable and unaccountable to voters.
Calling Wednesday a defining moment in Wyandotte County, Garner painted a dire picture of the Unified Government and rattled off a host of concerns, including the UG’s $1 billion in debt, auditors’ reports indicating “decades of potential mismanagement” and what he called a weak mayor-commission structure. The UG, he said, is on a pathway to bankruptcy as early as 2026.
“Overburdened taxpayers,” he continued. “Crumbling infrastructure; disheartening poverty throughout this town; excessive blight; shameful acts of disinvestment; historic redlining; customer service shortfalls; rampant questions many have posed of continued cronyism; nepotism; and a Unified Government on a pathway to complete financial ruin that I inherited with this community.”
In 1997, voters approved unifying the governments of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County. Residents of Edwardsville and Bonner Springs voted against it. The two cities have their own city governments, while the UG provides county services.
The Board of Commissioners, the UG’s governing body, is made up of Garner and 10 commissioners elected to represent residents in various districts. The board sets county policy and adopts the annual budget, among other things.
Garner noted he has vetoed tax raises, but has been overridden by a majority of the commission. That happened last month, with Garner accusing commissioners who voted against him of ignoring the pleas of “countless residents” demanding tax relief.
The mayor said he and his staff have had to “battle relentlessly” against an organizational culture and bureaucracy in the UG.
“Every manner of obstruction, undermining — take your pick — has been throw at us,” Garner said, surrounded by more than two dozen supporters.
Consolidation, he added, appears to have created a “bigger machine” than the one unification sought to replace.
Community members are “worn out” from unmet promises of consolidation, which aimed to bring about a more efficient and cost-effective government, Caiharr said. Those goals “have not come to fruition” a quarter of a century later, she said.
“The consolidation muddied the waters of accountability of our tax dollars,” she said, standing at a podium next to Garner and Bonner Springs Mayor Jeff Harrington.
Approached after the press conference, Caiharr said she did not want to offer solutions before the neighborhood discussions, adding that additional information will be coming about the task force.
“The goal is to find places throughout Wyandotte County to make these meetings accessible to folks in all part of the county,” she said.
People who want to follow updates on the group can do so on a Facebook page called Unified Residents of Wyandotte County.
This story was originally published October 11, 2023 at 12:35 PM.
