1-24-22 City Council Precap—Welcome to the 60’s!
Welcome to the first installment of my deep dive into everything Shawnee government. The next meeting of the Shawnee City Council will be held on Monday, January 24th at 6pm. The full agenda can be found here: https://cityofshawnee.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=733
Apologies, but this post is LONG. I used bold headers so you can skim to important parts.
As a reminder, I am a former member of the governing body. I will do my best to provide insights and clear explanations on complex topics. But, in the end, unless I am quoting someone else, any opinions expressed are my own. I welcome your feedback and questions at llb4shawnee@gmail.com
Here are a few of the topics that will be of interest to our residents. You may want to consider submitting a public comment or two. Instructions for doing so appear at the end of this post.
LANDSCAPING: For those living in Western Shawnee, the contract for roundabout landscaping (Monticello and Clear Creek Pkwy, and Johnson Drive towards K-7) is being presented. This project was approved for the 2022 budget and there is funding available. The project includes landscaping as well as the addition of concrete footings for the potential future inclusion of public art pieces. You may have heard me talk before about how this was the direct result of resident requests, and the City is working with USD232 to potentially have student led and created sculptures on display. I strongly encourage you to reach out to your council member directly, or to submit a public comment if you support this project.
75TH STREET/ PUBLIC ART AND BEAUTIFICATION On the other side of the city is the contract for the 75th street improvements. 75th street includes some of the oldest residential and commercial buildings in the city. In addition, Southern Star Gas has a major site there. Like downtown, the 75th street corridor will need significant planning and investment in order to stave off vacant and dilapidated buildings. The city engaged in a strategic planning process for this project that involved input from many community members. One thing we heard repeatedly was the need for screening of the Southern Star Pipeline, as it is currently surrounded by a legally required chain link and barbed wire fence. … similar to a prison. (Clarification 1/24/21: To be clear, there is a shorter wooden privacy fence in front of the chain link but the barbed wire is clearly visible above it along with the top of the fence. I recommend looking at a google Earth image for 11103 W. 75th St for a visual). The city negotiated a $200k commitment from Southern Star for the construction of a decorative screening wall (approximately 1/3 of the total cost). What the wall will look like exactly is unclear, but it may include options for future public art (such as a mural) or may include materials that are naturally decorative.
The current council has expressed reluctance to move forward with the screening wall portion of the project. They question the value of spending money on something they see as strictly decorative. I fully supported the screening wall when I was on the council. First, it was what our community members asked for. Second, it is hard to see how developers would want to come to an area (new road or not) where a giant chain link fence so dominates the surrounding aesthetics.
If you are in favor of beautification, public art, or live/work near 75th street and just want to see it look nicer after we invest millions into a new road, then I strongly encourage you to reach out to the governing body and let them know.
LEGISLATIVE AGENDA Finally, the governing body is considering the annual legislative agenda. The purpose of the legislative agenda is to give direction to staff on where our community stands on various issues that are governed at the state and federal levels. For instance, in the past, the state legislative agenda has included a request for the state to ensure that the city receives a % of any internet sales taxes that are collected for purchases made in Shawnee. Once included on the agenda, staff will work directly with our state and federal legislature to advocate our position.
There are four documents total that comprise the legislative agenda. First are the external legislative platforms for both state and federal. These documents are fairly short and include the things that the city staff and the governing body believe are the most important for the safety and overall well-being of our community. These documents will be shared with our state and federal legislative delegations in hopes that they will either take actions that are favorable to the city, or stop things that would be unfavorable.
The second two documents are more interesting. These are known as the “staff direction” documents for the state and federal legislative agendas. These are intended to be internal working documents for our staff. Essentially, city staff will actively pursue the topics that are on the legislative agenda. But, the items on the staff direction document are things that staff will only submit testimony on IF they come up. Things may end up on this list because the governing body either doesn’t think they are that important OR they are divisive and there was disagreement amongst governing body members as to whether they should be included. I want to draw your attention to four items on the staff direction lists.
A. FAIR HOUSING: Councilmember Gillette requested to add changes to the Fair Housing Act to the federal and state agendas. This request is happening because there is a group home that is being built in a Shawnee neighborhood that will house individuals with special needs. This is a protected activity (both at the state and federal level) and there are no zoning laws that can prevent it. To be frank, the neighbors are understandably frustrated with the lack of control that their neighborhood or the city have with this project. There are building codes that are enforced, but the use itself is protected.
There are things about this situation that I sympathize with. But, I am skeptical of the idea that the solution is to change the Fair Housing Act. The request specifically says that the reasons for the change are to bring local control back to housing considerations in order to protect our suburban (single family) homeowners. For those of you who are still following along. . . . This is exactly what cities said when they would not allow people of certain races, or unmarried couples to live in their borders. The Fair Housing Act was created for good reasons that I am afraid are still valid. Individually (and some in their official capacity), several of these council members have shown that they are willing to control and restrict the liberties of some of our residents as they enforce what are ostensibly moral codes. I am not saying the Fair Housing Act is perfect, but I am concerned with the idea that local control is the best answer to these issues.
B. PARTISAN ELECTIONS: Councilmember Gillette requested that the Council remove the language stating that the City of Shawnee supports non-partisan municipal elections citing the fact that most people asked him his political affiliation when he was knocking doors. Johnson County has always had non-partisan elections for local offices. Primarily, these include City Councils, and Johnson County Board of Commissioners. It also includes school boards and Water One. These elections are typically held as “odd year” or “off year” elections.
As a former Councilmember, I can say with certainty that political affiliation does not help someone be a better representative for their community. One of the reasons is that national political parties do not have platforms that are nuanced and specific enough to address local issues. Platitudes about whether taxes are a bad thing only go so far when you are faced with eroding stormwater systems. The beauty of local government is that its effects are closest to the people. We live in a wonderfully diverse community. Our residents have different and competing thoughts on a lot of issues that affect local government. These are not things that directly align with R or D platforms. It is the role of our representatives to attempt to hear those opinions and balance them with the overall needs of the community at large.
We have already seen some members of the community campaign as members of a political party. To me, this also sends the message that they are beholden to their party leaders and not the community members they serve. On a personal note, I have probably knocked twice as many doors as Councilmember Gillette during my two elections in Shawnee. I was asked about my political affiliation, but I would say it happened in about 1/4 or less of interactions. People were much more interested in talking to me about real issues facing the city, not the letter behind my name. This is not the direction we want to head.
C. WEED: Councilmember Thomas requested that a change be made to the wording that was included in last year’s staff direction memo regarding marijuana. The old version did not take a position on whether the city was for or against medicinal or recreational marijuana, but asked for the state to consider the impact on law enforcement, zoning, and state and local taxes when making their decision. Council member Thomas requested that the new language read “the City DOES NOT (emphasis added) support marijuana legislation or legalization of any kind, medical or recreational.
My concern with this change is that it did not appear to be driven by any research or data to show the impact that marijuana legislation would have on our city. There was no attempt to determine whether such legislation would be supported by our residents (regardless of impact to the city). There was no statement from our own Shawnee Police Department on how legalizing marijuana could impact their ability to serve our community. There was no financial analysis to determine if sales of medical marijuana in Shawnee would generate a significant amount of revenue. I am not suggesting that any one of these pieces of information should have been relied on entirely, but they all should have been asked before making the bold statement that the City of Shawnee (the governing body on behalf of our residents) does not support marijuana legalization under any circumstance.
D. TRANSGENDER ATHLETES: Councilmember Thomas requested that the following be added to the staff direction: Transgender Sports Participants—“The City of Shawnee does not support transgender sports in the State of Kansas. Having biological males competing as biological girls is ruining girls sports at all levels of competition.”
I have several concerns about adding this to our legislative platform (even in the Staff Direction memo), but I will focus on just three.
First, the city should not take a stance on this at all because it is divisive and is not something that is important to the safety well-being of our community at-large. Second, this statement is contrary to the spirit of our non-discrimination ordinance, and that is a bad precedent. Finally, this stance and any legislation that may come of it could be harmful to our community’s bottom line. We have seen that major sports companies and advertisers do not want to do business in states with these kinds of discriminatory stances. In addition, a major part of our strategic vision is the “Valley of Champions,” an area of the city that we hope will attract major sports tournaments. Tournament organizers don’t want to be told who may play in their games. Even on an “internal document,” this is a bad look for our city.
When I think about the proposed changes to the legislative platform, I can’t help but to think of Tracy Turnblatt crooning “Welcome to the 60’s” in Hairspray. While Tracy’s vision of the 60’s was one of hope for great social change, what I see is a decade with no housing protections, “Reefer Madness” propaganda, and a world where our LGBTQI+ citizens were still beaten, jailed, and even executed for their “illicit acts.” This rhetoric used by our elected officials has a real impact on our communities.
If you have opinions about any of the above, I encourage you to share with the Council. You may contact the entire governing body by e-mail, an individual council member by e-mail, or make a written or oral public comment. Public comments must be received by Monday morning and become part of the public record. If you want to speak in person, you should sign up ahead of time. To make a written public comment or sign up to speak, click on this link:
You may e-mail the full governing body at governingbody@cityofshawnee.org. E-mails do not become part of the public record.
Thank you to everyone for sticking with me.