The Kansas City Star endorses in Wyandotte County mayoral race | Opinion

Wyandotte County residents face a critical choice Nov. 4. They will select a new mayor and CEO for the Unified Government, including Kansas City, Kansas, and several surrounding communities.

The UG has had three one-term mayors in the last 12 years. Mark Holland and David Alvey sought reelection and lost; Tyrone Garner decided not to run again.

This lack of continuity has cost Wyandotte Countians. Critical needs and problems — high taxes, poor health, declining housing stock, the threat of crime and corruption — have gone unsolved.

At the same time, there are also new opportunities. The Chiefs or the Royals might move to the county. Data center proposals are on the table. Crime is down.

This election is a chance to start over, with fresh faces and new approaches. Wyandotte County cannot afford another failed mayor.

Now the good news: both candidates in the race, Christal Watson and Rose Mulvany Henry, are smart, well-qualified candidates. We endorsed both in the primary, and both have run solid campaigns for the general election.

Mulvany Henry is an attorney and has sat on the Board of Public Utilities, giving her a critical understanding of how the county’s electricity and water concerns can be integrated with development planning. Watson is the director of the nonprofit Kansas City Kansas School Foundation For Excellence. She once worked for former KCK Mayor David Alvey, giving her needed experience at City Hall.

We believe Rose Henry is a slightly better choice than Christal Watson. Today, Henry earns our endorsement.

Trust, communication

Both candidates showed a firm grasp of the issues when meeting with the editorial board. Both identified communication and trust as foundational issues for the next mayor, and her relationship with the UG Commission.

“It starts with respectful dialogue and respectful communication,” Henry told us. Watson made that point, too: “If we … can’t be on the same page and have buy-in with the commissioners, the mayor won’t be effective, right?”

That’s right. The next mayor must focus on finding broad consensus with commissioners, quickly. Another year of infighting and distrust will further harm the Wyandotte County community.

But there are concrete problems, too, that can’t be solved with better communication, as important as that is. It requires a solid agenda. Here, we think Henry has a firmer grasp on the challenges the UG must address.

“If we don’t have (some) additional development that we can bring to the northeast … I will consider my four years a failure,” Henry said. That means housing, economic development, infrastructure improvements and business retention, for starters.

The next mayor and CEO must be relentless in expanding prosperity to every corner of the Wyandotte County community. We think Henry can be that mayor.

Watson’s four-year plan is good, but seems more focused on data-gathering and outcome measurements than concrete goals. We know from WyCo’s history that its leader must build consensus, and Watson can do that, but we question whether she will create a much-needed path to the future.

Property taxes, development

Henry and Watson agree, correctly, that property taxes are far too high in Wyandotte County. The remedy, both suggest, is action from state lawmakers. Henry supports targeted tax reductions or tax freezes for older residents.

Fixing property taxes problems, and providing new housing options, should be job one for the next mayor. Again, Henry seems more grounded on these concerns than her opponent.

When asked, Watson told us few constituents have complained to her about crime problems in Wyandotte County. In any case, the next mayor must work to reduce crime — and erase the stigma of corruption from the police department. (Watson specifically applauded Chief Carl Oakman for his work.)

Watson told us her experience in the UG would help her organize the government in her first months on the job. “I have strategically laid this out, thought very long and hard about the kind of people that need to be in office for us to be effective,” she said.

Henry told us her private sector experience as a lawyer, and a member of the BPU board, would provide insights on performance and cost-awareness. “I have a 30-year track record of having to deliver results,” she said. “I’m known as a fixer. And you know, as an attorney, I was trained to be analytical, but I was trained to solve problems.”

There are many problems in Wyandotte County that will need her attention.

Yet there is the chance of progress, too: Targeted redevelopment, tax relief, a concentration on health and schools and crime reduction are all possibilities. A lack of scandal would be good, too.

There’s been a small wrinkle in the campaigns of both candidates : unproven allegations posted on Facebook that Watson has shown unethical behavior in her foundation and that its finances are shaky. Watson addressed both on Facebook to our satisfaction. Henry told us the criticism did not come from her campaign, and Watson’s critic told us he posted without Henry’s knowledge.

We think Wyandotte County voters have two great choices on Nov. 4.

On balance, though, Rose Henry is in the best position to reach those goals, and we endorse her election as mayor and CEO of the Unified Government.