Wyandotte County voters oust public utility board member while reelecting another
Wyandotte County residents on Tuesday reelected one member of the Board of Public Utilities as they replaced a different incumbent, according to unofficial results.
Brett Parker, who served in the Kansas House from 2017 to 2021, defeated incumbent Jeff Bryant, who has been the board’s District 3 member since 2011. Parker came out on top more than 400 votes in a race that totaled about 3,000 votes.
Meanwhile, voters reelected BPU member Rose Mulvany Henry, who has served in the At‐Large Position 3 since 2019, by more than 3,000 votes in a race that totaled nearly 11,000 cast ballots.
The election came months after the board voted 4-2 to increase water and electric rates. Residents rallied against the increases, with some saying it could put them or their neighbors out on the streets. Bryant voted yes for the increases; Henry voted no.
The results mean two new faces are joining the six-member publicly owned utility board, known as the BPU, which provides electricity and water across Wyandotte County.
Parker, a former teacher and union representative for Kansas teachers, has said he wants to keep rates as low as possible for ratepayers and move toward long-term sustainable energy sources.
He has suggested BPU “aggressively” pursue grants and stop charging “the highest rates to the lowest users.”
The other new face is Stevie Wakes Sr., who ran against Alex Sanchez for District 1 in KCK’s northeast region. Wakes, who has been a pastor for 35 years, works as an administrative support specialist at the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office.
During the campaign, Wakes vowed to work with county commissioners to remove a UG fee from ratepayers’ bills that, if left unpaid, can leave them without water or electricity.
“People are hurting in Wyandotte County as a result of the charges to live there,” he said.
That PILOT fee, which stands for payment in lieu of taxes, helps the Unified Government manage revenue losses from property taxes that are not collected from the BPU, since the municipal utility is tax exempt. The money is used to help fund city operations.
The fee, added to BPU bills more than a decade ago, is higher than comparable utility company fees across the U.S.
Reelected to the board was Mulvany Henry, who sat on a PILOT reduction task force that pushed for fee exemptions for residents of a certain age and income, or who are disabled.
At one forum, Mulvany Henry noted that BPU has a poor reputation, employment practice challenges and a “transparency problem.” There have been incremental improvements in customer service, but more needs to be done, she said.
“It’s not good enough,” she said.
