Overland Park burned taxpayer money covering up severance in police killing of teen
Do you need a permit to burn money in Overland Park? If so, the city government needs to get one, because it’s throwing taxpayers’ dollars on a billowing bonfire.
For some reason, the city hired an outside lawyer to fight The Kansas City Star’s lawsuit that seeks release of a confidential severance agreement with the former police officer who shot and killed 17-year-old John Albers in January 2018. The tragedy happened during what was supposed to be a welfare check on the youth.
Fighting release of the $70,000 agreement with former Officer Clayton Jenison is a complete and ongoing waste of money. The question, in Johnson County District Judge Rhonda K. Mason’s words, is “whether an agreement setting forth the terms and conditions to end employment (i.e. severance agreement) constitutes an ‘employment related agreement.’”
What an asinine question. It’s a costly one as well for Overland Park taxpayers, and perhaps an easy one for the courts: Mason ruled Thursday that the agreement is clearly a public record under the Kansas Open Records Act.
It’s a sure bet that 10 out of 10 people on the street could’ve told the city that an agreement ending one’s employment is “employment-related.”
“It is absurd,” says Star attorney Bernie Rhodes. “It’s been absurd since day one. I don’t understand how it’s been so complicated.”
The city’s position, Rhodes says, is that only an agreement that begins an employment relationship is an “employment-related agreement.” Where in the Milky Way galaxy does that make sense?
The city council’s Public Safety Committee chairman, Paul Lyons, told The Star Editorial Board last week that he wishes the city could release the agreement.
“Now a judge has told them they can,” says Rhodes.
Lyons said Thursday he was waiting on the city attorney’s reaction to the ruling.
An Overland Park spokesman wrote late Thursday that the city will “make a determination soon regarding the city’s next step.” Of course, the city has options besides releasing the agreement as ordered, thanks to the guaranteed flow of tax dollars. It can appeal the ruling. It can even string the case out longer than that — by arguing that it doesn’t owe The Star its attorney fees, and only then appealing the ruling on the severance agreement.
But no other entity in Kansas is fighting release of such a severance agreement. And, in fact, the University of Kansas released former head football coach Les Miles’ agreement the day it was asked for.
“It’s only Overland Park that’s taking this position,” Rhode says.
If such agreements were kept secret, the judge writes in her ruling, “how would the public ever know what amounts have been paid and under what conditions? … One of the fundamental concepts behind Kansas’ open records law is to provide for transparency and accountability in government. If an agency felt that these types of agreements were not subject to disclosure what incentive would there be to use tax dollars responsibly if the amount would never be disclosed?”
“We will be interested to see who in city leadership felt it was appropriate to pay Jenison a severance package and then mislead the public about his separation from Overland Park Police Department,” says Albers’ mother, Sheila Albers, who was thrilled with the latest victory for transparency about her son’s death. “This is disgusting on so many levels.”
Another perverse aspect of the whole affair is that the longer Overland Park fights openness, the more attention it brings to 1) the fact that one of its young residents was killed during a welfare check and 2) the city doesn’t want the world to know how it parted ways with the officer responsible.
Taxpayers are burning money for the privilege of watching the city’s reputation go up in smoke.