KC Buzz Blog

Web war in Olathe

   Olathe Councilman Bob Montgomery has taken the first shot in the city’s April mayoral election, saying Mayor Mike Copeland might have unfairly used his city-operated Web site.
   In an e-mail to Olathe city mangers and the city attorney Tuesday, Montgomery said he was concerned that allowing Copeland to update the Web site could give the impression he is campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime. Montgomery is not running for any office.
  City spokesman Tim Danneberg said all council members, including mayoral challenger Bev Wittenborn, can add information to their Web site profiles at any time so long as it does not become blatant advertising.
   Wittenborn, who represents the southwest portion of Olathe, said she did not think there was a problem until an e-mail brought it to her attention.
   The mayor’s weekly television show aired on the city’s cable channel and column in the community newsletters were pulled since he announced he would seek another term as mayor — something Danneberg said is spelled out in the city’s code of conduct and practices.
  “We like to err on the side of conservatism” when it comes to current city council members running for office, Danneberg said.
   Copeland said all he added to his Web site was the name of his new son, Joshua, where he lists his wife and two daughters. Joshua was born on Dec. 27, 2006 — the day after Copeland filed for re-election.
   “I’m very proud of my son and did not want him left out,” Copeland said. “You know, if I have another, I’ll add him too.”
   Profiles for each city council member can be found at www.olatheks.org.
  Both Wittenborn and Copeland are operating their own campaign Web sites off of the city’s servers.

Posted by Mike Ekey

No quorum in JoCo

   Johnson County commissioners were unable to gather a quorum for today's special meeting to discuss the next step in the Phill Kline - fired employees situation.
   A meeting may come later in the week.
   It isn't clear what effect, if any, the delay will have on the hearing of the grievances in the case.

Posted by Dave Helling

Fired agency director wants action

    In the span of seven months last year, Gary Blumenthal went from visionary leader of Johnson County Developmental Supports to the unemployment line.

   The JCDS board — serving 500 clients with mental and physical disabilities — let Blumenthal go Sept. 27 saying only that they wanted to take the agency “in a different direction.” Today, Blumenthal says he has a similar job on the East Coast after turning down a job offer from Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to oversee efforts to revamp the state’s sheltered workshops.

   But as he builds a new life, the Kansas native said he still wants Johnson County to pay for what he considered to be shabby treatment. In a Jan. 16 memo to county commissioners, released recently to The Star, Blumenthal said the JCDS board did not support his efforts to hold staff responsible for deficiencies found in a stinging internal audit of the agency under previous leadership.

   Bill Miller, the county’s internal auditor, cited the agency 33 times for lax management and oversight. And it was Blumenthal, the auditor said, who worked quickly to solve the agency’s problems and restore accountability.

   “I do feel that my strong pursuit to correct long standing problems at JCDS such as those cited in the auditor's report and my effort to hold staff accountable was not supported by the board who resented the facts supported by the audit,” Blumenthal wrote in the memo. “I do feel that the county needs to seek recourse to repair the damage done to my family and me; and the county needs to exert its authority over the JCDS board by changing its status to advisory.”

   County commissioners have taken no action on the memo. Chairwoman Annabeth Surbaugh and board attorney Don Jarrett, declined to discuss the “personnel matter.” Earlier, Commissioner Ed Peterson said he endorsed Blumenthal’s vision, but said the probationary employee had a "management style and personality that just didn’t fit the agency very well."

   Blumenthal has forwarded the recent memo to District Attorney Phill Kline and said he would request an investigation. But in an e-mail response this week, Kline states: "I understand your (The Kansas City Star) desire to obtain comment, however, I will not provide one."

   Said Blumenthal: “I do not seek to make this matter any more public than it already is, but I also am disappointed in an absence of accountability by both the JCDS board and the County Commission.”

Posted by Finn Bullers

New D.A. for Johnson County?

   Still smarting from the reversal of fortunes that played itself out between Paul Morrison and Phill Kline, some moderates in Johnson County are expressing their angst in two newly minted, albeit just-in-fun, campaign buttons:

   "Mona Carmack: JoCo's next District Attorney" and "Mona for D.A.: She'll throw the book at criminals."

    The buttons were found circulating near the prime beef at the back of a retirement reception being held at the Overland Park Sheraton for the 18-year County Librarian, who retired Friday.

    Carmack, 66, plans to sew, read, volunteer and hop a flight to Paris when she can snag a cut-rate ticket. But no word on if she really plans to launch a new career prosecuting bad guys.

Posted by Finn Bullers

Hearing set for Kline case

   A court hearing has been scheduled for Monday in the lawsuit filed against Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline by eight fired employees. The hearing, set for 3 p.m., will take place in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., before Judge Kathryn Vratil. The lawsuit was transferred this week from Johnson County District Court to federal court at Kline’s request.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

A tag team in Merriam

   One Merriam City Council seat has attracted seven contestants — two of them husband and wife.
   Pam Bertoncin said she and her husband, Bob Bertoncin, are committed to working as a team for Ward 4. But, she said, they hadn’t yet decided which would vie for the council seat.
    With the filing deadline at noon Tuesday, they both put in their names. The primary election in the race will be Feb. 27. The general election will be April 3.

Posted by Sara Stites

He wants his seat back

   Roger Cooper has filed for election to the same Roeland Park city council seat he resigned from just a few council meetings ago. He will now face two opponents to regain the Ward 2 seat he left in November with no explanation.
   The other contenders are Jennifer Gunby and Robert A. Meyers Jr.
   Roeland Park does not have an appointment process for filling vacant seats, so the spring election will decide who occupies it. The unexpired term will end in April 2009.

Posted by Sara Stites

A one-vote victory is still a victory

   Ronnie Metsker has begun his stint representing District 24 in the Kansas Legislature — an appointment it turns out he only narrowly nabbed.
    Metsker won the post when GOP committee members met in December to choose a replacement for Rep. Ed O’Malley of Roeland Park, who resigned to take a job in Wichita a month after winning reelection.
   But what was not widely known then was how close the election was. Metsker beat his only opponent, Mission Mayor Laura McConwell, 16-15 — with one precinct committee member’s vote unaccounted for, Johnson County Republican Chairman Scott Schwab revealed.
   Metsker, now retired, is former chairman of YouthFront, a Westwood-based organization aimed at bringing youth into a growing relationship with Jesus. He lives in Overland Park and is married to long-time Shawnee Mission school board member Susan Metsker.
   O’Malley told The Star in December that he supported McConwell.
   “I believe Mayor McConwell will be a fantastic state representative,” he said. “I just think it’s a perfect fit for her to continue representing this community but at the state level.”
   Schwab said the face-off wasn’t the “traditional conservative-moderate split.” McConwell — an attorney with political experience — and Metsker — a non-profit leader with a track record for supporting public education — were both “incredibly good candidates for that district,” Schwab said.
   The 24th District covers Mission, part of Roeland Park and part of Overland Park.

Posted by Sara Stites

So sue me

   The seven former prosecutors and chief investigator dismissed by District Attorney Phill Kline filed a lawsuit today against Kline in Johnson County District Court.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Kline won't play

    Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline has decided not to participate in grievance hearings for eight employees dismissed on Monday, a county official said this afternoon. That means the county will not hold the hearings, chief counsel Don Jarrett said. What happens next is up to the affected employees, he said.
   Kline had until noon to say whether he would participate.

Posted by Keith Chrostowski

Kline's salary still under fire

    Before Thursday, Johnson County Commissioner John Segale was willing to support Phill Kline’s $143,000-a-year salary, saying the new district attorney was selected through an agreed upon process that he didn’t want to politicize by cutting the salary.

    But now that Kline’s office has indicated he may not follow the county’s hiring, firing and grievance policies for county employees, Segale said he may be willing to review the salary.

   If Kline doesn’t want to follow the traditional and informal rules by which the district attorney’s office and the county manager’s office have worked together for decades, then the board is not compelled to follow its past practice of paying elected officials what the previous officeholder received, Segale said.

   On Thursday, three county residents urged commissioners to lower Kline’s salary.

   Gussie Pincus of Mission told commissioners that she wanted Kline paid at the low end of the salary range.

   Kathy Berger joined her in addressing the board: “Can we really be telling the constituency of Johnson County that the man evicted from the attorney general’s job is now proudly being proffered a job at a higher salary than the job he was evicted from? Phill Kline might have the job for the next two years, but please do not reward him with an experienced D.A.’s salary. He’s a new hire without the necessary qualifications and he should only be given a salary commensurate with his experience. I ask you all, does anyone else see the outrageous irony here?”

   Sandy Geduldig of Leawood also addressed the board: “Where is the best practice hiring model that the Johnson County Commissioners use, which suggests new hires (beginners), be hired at a tenured employee’s salary rate?  Paul Morrison spent 25 years earning that salary.  Kline is a beginner and should rightly earn a beginner’s salary.”

Posted by Finn Bullers

For Kline, it's high noon in JoCo

   Johnson County commissioners came out of a closed session late this afternoon and gave Phill Kline, the county's newly minted district attorney, until noon Friday to say whether he plans to abide by their hiring and firing practices as others before him have done.

   If he does, then the seven assistant district attorneys and one investigator in the D.A.'s office fired by Kline on Monday have greater leverage in an appeal hearing to fight for their old jobs. County policies state employees can only be fired for cause.

   If Kline does not -- and misses the commission-imposed deadline -- "we will be unable to provide an appeal hearing and we will conclude that the district attorney is acting in his capacity as a state official independent of the policies of the county," commissioners said in a statement released Thursday.

  That's significant because under that scenario, Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison, the fired employees' old boss,  gets to call the shots on their fate.

Posted by Finn Bullers

Wanted: Folks to hold soccer signs

    When you have to pay people to hold up a banner supporting your cause, you know something has got to be wrong with your campaign.

   But that’s exactly what the “Yes on Soccer” campaign did last fall as it tried to get Johnson County voters to back a property tax for two dozen youths soccer fields in Overland Park.

   The campaign spent about $2,000 to hire nine people to hold up a banner at a Chief’s game, new campaign finance reports show. No word on why the soccer supporters and their “grass roots” campaign couldn’t round up enough volunteers to hold up the banner.

   Maybe that was a foreshadowing of things to come. The tax increase went down in flames, getting support from barely more than a third of the voters casting ballots.

   All didn’t come out bad for soccer supporters, though. Some walked away with gifts baskets, costing the campaign about $1,000.

Posted by Brad Cooper