Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s conflicting orders on reopening after COVID-19 add to chaos
One legislator is calling it “chaotic” and “a crisis of confidence” that is causing unrest across Kansas.
Last Friday, the state wasn’t far enough along its COVID-19 path for a Phase 2 reopening of the economy, according to Gov. Laura Kelly. So she announced “Phase 1.5.” By Tuesday, she’d oddly concluded Kansas had come far enough that Phase 2 could not only be implemented, but actually accelerated.
Confused? Fazed by so many phases? You’re in good company. Most everyone is dizzy following Gov. Laura Kelly’s lurching, oscillating rules for reopening the state’s economy — including top legislative leaders, who were left completely out of the loop this week.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were, ironically enough, hearing testimony from Kelly’s chief of staff Will Lawrence Tuesday afternoon when they had to learn via text messages and Twitter that the governor was changing the rules again already.
“He’d been there for 45 minutes and didn’t feel that he could share with us that the governor was changing course just five days after she’d rolled out 1.5,” says state Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Republican from Louisburg. “We find out about executive orders the way everybody else does — after the fact.
“This unwillingness to share with the legislative body — who was physically here — the business of the state, it impacts our communities.”
While welcome news that Phase 2 was coming Friday after the reopening slowdown a week before, the governor’s about-face had a significant impact on Kelly Hill, part owner of bowling alley Billy’s Ayr Lanes in Liberal. After working hard to prepare to open May 18, then finding out May 15 that Kelly was delaying, Hill drove nearly seven hours one way to testify at Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary meeting. While sitting there listening to testimony by Kelly’s chief of staff, Hill received a text from his father notifying him of the governor’s surprise announcement.
“Her chief of staff is talking,” Hill told The Star. “Why is the first thing out of his mouth not, ‘We’re moving to Phase 2’?”
Though he was glad to see it, the announcement came after Hill had ramped up for opening last week, then quickly ramped back down — and was now sitting in Topeka, hours away from home, and hearing he needed to ramp back up for a Friday opening. He says he could have used the day Tuesday to prepare for that reopening.
How can businesses plan even a few days ahead under these circumstances?
“Right now, what we’re hearing is that it’s very chaotic,” Baumgardner said. “People don’t have certainty when they can and can’t open.”
“I would say it’s nothing less than chaotic,” Hill said. “Ultimately, they’re playing games with people’s lives and their livelihoods. Businesses don’t open and shut on a dime. It’s not like shutting a door.”
“There is just this ongoing theme of a crisis of confidence,” Baumgardner said.
Kelly press secretary Lauren Fitzgerald said the “rapidly evolving nature of the pandemic and finite staff capacity” on occasion requires gubernatorial action before legislative notification. Of course. But in this case, her chief of staff had plenty of time to brief the committee.
Even in the unprecedented uncertainty of the coronavirus crisis, some stability and predictability can be maintained. After navigating the shutdown well and earning deserved praise for her decisive actions , Kelly is making the reopening more helter-skelter than it has to be.
She needs to keep the turbulence to a minimum going forward. The state’s economy is depending on it.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.