Did this Johnson County commissioner go on a sightseeing trip during stay-at-home order?
Did a Johnson County commissioner take an out-of-state sightseeing trip last week, against the state’s stay-at-home order and contrary to her own counsel to constituents?
As Kansas and Johnson County residents lost pay, lost work and even lost entire businesses due to the coronavirus shutdown, a friend’s April 8 Facebook post said Johnson County Commissioner Becky Fast had just returned from a trip with the friend to view the sandhill crane migration in Nebraska.
With stay-at-home orders in full effect, Fast’s friend wrote about the just-completed outing and offered assurances that they had practiced “safe companionship.”
Oddly enough, even nonessential out-of-state travel doesn’t violate Johnson County’s stay-at-home order, according to the county manager’s office. But it would violate a state ban, according to the governor’s office.
“All Kansas residents are to stay at home unless traveling for an essential activity, and sightseeing is not an essential activity under the order,” Lauren Fitzgerald, spokeswoman for Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told The Star.
Another government lawyer speaking on background said it’s also possible such a trip could be classified as outdoor recreation, which is allowed.
Regardless, such an outing by Fast would be a slap in the face to residents who rightly believe that they really do need to shelter in place and have been doing so, often to their financial detriment. Such an excursion would be a pathetic display of role modeling during the COVID-19 pandemic. For an elected official who has implored county residents to stay home, it would be a haughty act of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrisy.
Fast denies taking the trip, and claimed to The Star Thursday that she hadn’t seen what her friend wrote about it — even though her friend who put it online tagged her in the post to explicitly get her attention. Fast also argues the friend’s post somehow combines the pair’s activities from last year and this year. That seems implausible as well, given the straightforward nature of the friend’s post, which now appears to have been taken down. It also mentions social distancing, which wasn’t even a wisp of a thought a year ago.
Fast’s friend wrote about the road trip in a Facebook post time-stamped 2:55 a.m. April 8:
“Road trip today to Kearney NE to watch the evening landing of the sandhill cranes on the Platte River,” the post said, accompanied by photos of birds against a striking sunset. “We also practiced safe companionship and both had quarantined for two weeks.”
Incredibly, this week Fast phoned a constituent, Missey Smith, who criticized the trip in her own Facebook post. According to Smith, Fast told her she had been “rude” on social media — and claimed the post about the trip was from a year ago.
Smith said that, at one point in the conversation, she felt threatened by Fast.
“What she said to me was that we should all want to do what’s for the good of the county, and that my husband was a county employee,” Smith told The Star. “And I said, ‘whoa, why are you bringing him up? He has nothing to do with it.’ I explained to her that I perceived that to be a threat.”
Smith says Fast told her it wasn’t intended to be.
If her friend’s post is accurate, Fast arrogantly flouted the state directive to stay at home, which has just been extended to May 3, not to mention her own admonitions to county residents. And she had to figuratively step over the economic devastation being done to her compliant constituents to get to her car for what amounts to a joy ride.
On April 9, just a day after the Facebook post about her out-of-state trip, Johnson County announced the furloughs of more than 260 employees. She knew well the economic consequences of the stay-at-home order that other residents were heeding.
On Facebook Tuesday, Fast quoted another poster who wrote, “#COVID19 doesn’t care about you being incredibly restless. It wants to be a spreader for its survival. Amazing that we’re having these conversations when #COVID19 hasn’t peaked yet. STAY HOME and let those who don’t have that luxury, like healthcare workers, first responders, and others do their jobs!”
In a column March 25, Fast wrote, “During these uncertain times, it’s very important to keep connections alive with your local, state, and federal elected officials to inform them what you are feeling, observing, and thinking.”
Perhaps county residents would like to take her up on that now.
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.