Editor’s note: Reality Check is a Star series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email tips@kcstar.com.
After nearly three decades, should the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, change its consolidated government structure?
That will be a key question posed at neighborhood discussions in the coming weeks after the mayors of KCK, Edwardsville and Bonner Springs announced plans to create a task force to hear resident concerns, and solutions, about the UG. While no meetings have been set, current and former officials are divided on the region’s future, especially over the suggestion that KCK and county could break up.
Mike Jacobi, who was a leader in the consolidation effort in the 1990s, considered the mayors’ plans an “attack on everything” he and others in that movement did. Since KCK and Wyandotte County’s governments unified in 1997, Jacobi said, the region went from being known for its political corruption to one with attractions like the Kansas Speedway in the Village West area.
“The success of Wyandotte County is so overwhelming with unification,” said Jacobi, 77.
At a news conference earlier this month, Tyrone Garner, the CEO and mayor of the Unified Government, gave a grimmer assessment, saying the UG is $1 billion in debt. Standing next to Garner, Edwardsville Mayor Carolyn Caiharr said the goals of consolidation — a more efficient and cost-effective government — have “not come to fruition.”
The mayors were not specific about change they hope to see. Caiharr said she wants to hear from residents first.
Bonner Springs Mayor Jeff Harrington, who did not speak during the press conference, said afterward that he favors whatever is best for his constituents, whether that ends up being dissolving the Unified Government or “reunification.” At times, he said, it seems the UG is focused too much on KCK and not enough on Bonner Springs and Edwardsville.
“The detriment of consolidation has been a disconnect in some of the services that we expect to receive from Wyandotte County,” Harrington said.
Writing on Facebook after the press conference, Commissioner Christian Ramirez, District 3, which includes the Argentine and Rosedale neighborhoods, said he strongly supports updating the Unified Government’s charter to “reflect the times.”
But, Ramirez said, making drastic changes will “destabilize our local economy and create further hardships for our citizens,” especially when considering what he called the UG’s “looming” bankruptcy.
“That is why all egos must take a backseat and we must work together to find fiscally responsible solutions to our budget and pass strategic, stable, and common sense tax and BPU PILOT reform,” Ramirez wrote, referring to a UG fee that appears on bills from the Board of Public Utility, which provides water and electricity.
Why are the governments unified?
In 1997, voters approved unifying the governments of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County. Residents of Edwardsville and Bonner Springs voted against it. The two cities have their own city governments, while the UG provides county services.
The Board of Commissioners, the UG’s governing body, is made up of Garner and 10 commissioners elected to represent residents in various districts. The board sets county policy and adopts the annual budget, among other things.
Consolidation came at a time when residents were fed up with “machine” politics that drew comparisons to Chicago. City and county officials overlapped operations and feuded, pointing fingers at each other for things like rising taxes. While the Kansas City metro grew, about 30,000 residents fled Wyandotte County in the prior decades. One city official at the time described KCK as “dying.”
There was also the reputation for corruption. Jacobi, who formed the political action committee that led to consolidation, with 60% of the vote, recalled sheriff’s deputies guarding illegal casinos and elected officials frequenting topless bars.
In a film for the UG’s 20th anniversary, Carol Marinovich, the government’s first CEO and mayor, said Wyandotte County’s reputation greatly improved after consolidation. The Star could not reach her by phone last week.
“We have seen great dividends, not just in the western portion of our community, but we also see revitalization throughout Kansas City, Kansas,” Marinovich said in the video. “We’re continuing to see all the growth out west starting to ripple eastward.”
Last week, Garner said property taxes have risen about 230% since consolidation. He said Village West is the top tourist attraction in Kansas, but its promises of decreased taxes and growth east, to KCK’s poorest areas, have not been realized.
“Specifically east of (Interstate) 635 in an area that I like to call ‘economic segregated areas’ of this county,” he said, later adding: “You should not have to be powerful, privileged, connected or influential to be relevant or to get anything done in Wyandotte County.”
The UG’s finances have also been of concern to regional officials. Last week, Garner said County Administrator David Johnston is working to push potential “bankruptcy” back to 2028.
“Nevertheless, we are in dire straits when you talk about the finances of this Unified Government,” Garner said.
When Johnston was appointed in March, he was alarmed to see that the UG’s funds were projected to be “in the red” by 2026, he said at a budget meeting in August.
“Not only is that not good news, that sets a lot of other things in motion,” he said at the time, “like state action against the city, and I swore then that’s not going to happen under my watch.”
After seeing negative figures that showed the city could have no general fund reserves in coming years, Johnston said one of his goals was to buy them time and push the “date of concern” out two to three years.
‘Un-Unified Government’
Meanwhile, residents have been begging for relief from rising taxes — an issue likely to be discussed at the planned neighborhood meetings. One resident, Ryan Parker, said at a September commission meeting that he feels as if the UG “has a gun” to his back.
“You don’t give me nothing; you just take from me,” Parker said, calling the UG the “un-Unified Government.”
At the press conference, Garner said auditors’ reports indicate “decades of potential mismanagement” in the UG.
Asked for those reports later, the mayor’s office provided two, one of which was a 2022 organizational assessment by consulting firm Management Partners. It found systemic operational and organizational challenges across the UG.
The firm said consolidation fixed “immediate” financial troubles, but that progress to fully consolidate functions stalled. Among the firm’s recommendations: Consider integrating the utilities board — which is an arm of the UG, but works as its own organization and has its own elected board members — into the UG.
“A truly unified government ... could be significantly nimbler and more responsive and would allow the UG to be more successful achieving its most urgent objective of economic development,” the firm wrote, later noting that the framework for a unified government is already in place.
The Rev. C.L. Bachus, senior pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in KCK, who latched onto the ‘90s unification movement, told The Star he remains “very sold” on the Unified Government structure, even if it needs some incremental changes. He pointed to development like the Legends outlet mall.
“If the Unified Government is not functioning the way that it was originally planned, the problem is more of the fact that we got too many people in the wrong places,” Bachus said. “When you got good leadership, your form of government don’t matter too much.”
But others, like former Republican state Sen. Chris Steineger, who supported consolidation in the ‘90s, now favor reform because of the UG’s “out-of-control” spending and high taxes. He noted the UG is almost 27 years old.
“Who is using the same mobile phone they had 27 years ago?” asked Steineger, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2021, later adding: “We ought to look at our local government again and see if we can do better.”
The task force announced by the mayors is expected to hold its first meeting in November. Residents can follow updates on a Facebook page called the Unified Residents of Wyandotte County.
This story was originally published October 23, 2023 6:00 AM.
