Top Stories Wichita

BY Conor Shine

The Wichita Eagle

Better training and increased accountability are the goals of a series of proposed changes to Wichita’s inflatable amusement ride ordinance.

The changes, which the City Council will vote on Tuesday, will establish more specific requirements for ride inspections and companies that rent inflatables will also be required to provide detailed instructions on safety and operation to
renters.

Concerns about how inflatable rides are regulated arose after the death of a 5-year-old boy who fell from an inflatable ride in March.

Wichita superintendent of central inspection Kurt Schroeder said the changes will fill in gaps in the current ordinance and increase the responsibilities for both companies and renters to ensure the rides are used safely.

“We wanted to make sure the ordinance was beefed up,” he said. “Everybody takes on some more

accountability in terms of making sure things are operated safely.”

Under the current ordinance, the training requirements apply only to employees of companies renting the rides and only one state- or industry-licensed inspection is required per year.

Jay Jones, owner of Kids Fun USA, said the updates are good. He said his company won’t have to change its operations much because it inspects its inflatables before and after events and provides training on proper operation.

Most accidents occur because of operator error, he said, and the updated rules will help ensure more uniform safety and operation practices.

“When the units are used the way they are intended, they are safe,” he said. “The (companies) that take it seriously have already been doing these things.”

Jones did have a concern with a change requiring staff from the inflatable companies to operate the rides at private events like school or church fundraisers. He said he is worried that the extra cost would burden the renters.

These concerns were addressed by clarifying definitions in the ordinance and allowing event staff to operate the rides if they receive training from the inflatable company, Schroeder said.

The amended ordinance will also require serious injuries from inflatable accidents to be reported to emergency services, the city and the ride’s manufacturer.

Increased penalties and fines for violations are also included in the changes.

Reach Conor Shine at 316-269-6752 or cshine@wichitaeagle.com.

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BY BECCY TANNER

The Wichita Eagle

In the opening scene of his new documentary on the Flint Hills, director and cinematographer John O’Hara begins with a view of the ocean.

It is, after all, the way Kansas began millions of years ago, O’Hara said in an interview about his film, “Return to PrairyErth.”

The next scenes are the grasses and hills of Chase County, and the sounds are the voice and footsteps of William Least Heat-Moon walking the backroads of the world-famous Kansas county.

Call it deep mapping.

Nearly two decades ago, Heat-Moon published “PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country,” which quickly became a bestseller.

Readers were enthralled with Heat-Moon’s “deep map” style of weaving the geography, archeology, history, folklore and interviews with Chase County residents into his book.

The documentary is scheduled to be shown next Saturday at Pioneer Bluffs, near Matfield Green. The celebration includes an appearance by Heat-Moon.

“We’ve been getting a huge response from people — a lot of phone calls and e-mails from people who want to know about it,” said Lynn Smith, executive director of the Pioneer Bluffs Foundation. “This will be the largest event we’ve
ever had.”

Visitors may want to spend the day in Chase County next Saturday, Smith said. A self-guided brochure to “Sites of PrairyErth” will be made available at Chase County businesses and the Chamber of Commerce.

But the majority of attention will be on the documentary, which examines the Flint Hills through all four seasons along with the people and places of Heat-Moon’s book.

There are scenes of gurgling creeks and the fish who swim them, a 90-foot waterfall, and close-ups of thorny locust trees, a species — along with red cedar trees — long considered villains to the prairie way of life.

There’s prairie chickens drumming, wildflowers in bloom and long-distance views of clouds and the sun dancing in shadows and light on the prairie.

The documentary looks at Jane Koger, a gritty fourth-generation rancher who runs Homestead Ranch, a 4,000-acre ranch in Chase County.

In the documentary, Heat-Moon tells Koger: “I thought you would be the leader in trying to show these people how ranching and sustainability had gone and embraced certain environmental practices.”

And indeed, she became just that.

Koger was featured in Vogue magazine shortly before the book was published. Cynthia Penney, the New York City writer from Vogue, had read an excerpt of the Heat-Moon book and called her. Koger told her: “You need to understand, I’m
not tall and blonde.”

The book and readers from Vogue, and all the attention that followed, prompted Koger to start a guest program on her ranch, which also led to her initiating the annual Symphony in the Flint Hills concert.

Most importantly, it caused her to look at the preservation and conservation of the prairie. In the documentary, Koger talks about that transformation.

“During that time, I changed from seeing cattle as the main focus to the natural resources,” Koger said. “We talk about are you going to sacrifice an ecosystem for the sake of this product — of beef. Is a quarter-pounder really worth
losing all your prairie chickens over? I don’t think so.”

Koger still maintains her ranch while serving as the board president of Pioneer Bluffs, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate the history and experiences of the tallgrass prairie.

“What Pioneer Bluffs has done as a foundation is start uncovering that ‘deep map,’ ” Koger said. “We are building a new community here based on deep roots.

“That’s what Heat-Moon’s book was about. It’s a need to know where you are coming from and what history is — to inform you about the future.”

O’Hara said he is hopeful the documentary will eventually be shown in other venues such as on public television and at area film festivals.

“I hope it takes what Heat-Moon started and advances it since so many things have changed since then,” he said.

“A lot of people think Chase County still lives in a time warp. It is, from an environmental standpoint, one of the most advanced places there is in the whole country.

“One of the ideas I want people to get is that the environmental battles may rage on all over the country, but not in Chase County. Both sides, the environmentalists and the ranchers, have come together and figured it out.”

Call it deep-mapping.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.

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By JOHN HANNA

Associated Press

TOPEKA — Campaign finance reports covering April through June suggest four candidates remain serious contenders for the Republican nomination in the 1st Congressional District of western and central Kansas.

The primary election is Aug. 3.

Three of the state’s four U.S. House seats are open. Not only is Dennis Moore retiring, but Republican Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt are giving up the 1st and 4th District seats to run for the U.S. Senate.

In the 1st District, state Sen. Tim Huelskamp of Fowler has led a field of six GOP candidates in total fundraising, though not in the last quarter. He’s raised nearly $816,000 in his campaign, including $134,000 in the last quarter.

He ended June with nearly $392,000 in campaign cash, which is significantly more than the other candidates and an advantage in the final weeks of the campaign. He also picked up the National Rifle Association’s endorsement Friday.

But the race remains competitive. State. Sen. Jim Barnett of Emporia raised $174,000 during the quarter, and Salina commercial real estate salesman Tracey Mann raised almost $173,000. Former congressional aide Rob Wasinger of
Cottonwood Falls raised $161,000.

The two other GOP candidates are Sue Boldra, a Hays educator who raised about $9,400 during the last quarter, and Marck Cobb, a Galva attorney and retired Air Force officer whose report wasn’t available.

The only Democrat running in the 1st District is former Salina Mayor Alan Jilka, who raised about $21,000 during the last quarter.

In the Kansas City area’s 3rd District, retiring Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore’s wife, Stephene, raised $352,000 for her campaign to succeed him.

Democrats expect her to win their party’s nomination easily over Prairie Village writer Thomas Scherer. He reported raising only about $3,600 during the last quarter.

Nine GOP candidates are running in the 3rd District, though Republicans generally see Kansas House Appropriations Committee Chairman Kevin Yoder of Overland Park as the leader. He raised $293,000 in the last quarter to push his total
for the campaign to almost $804,000.

The only incumbent U.S. House member running for re-election is Republican Lynn Jenkins in the 2nd District of eastern Kansas.

Jenkins, from Topeka, reported raising almost $161,000 in the last quarter, more than eight times as much as her primary challenger, state Sen. Dennis Pyle of Hiawatha. Pyle’s total for the quarter was about $19,000.

Reports weren’t available for the three Democratic candidates, none of whom are as well-known as Jenkins.

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BY dion lefler

The Wichita Eagle

Candidates across the country have been inspired to run for public office by the tea party movement.

And although it comes with a twist on the theme, the same can be said of Robert Tillman, a retired court services officer making a bid for the Democratic nomination in the 4th Congressional District.

Tillman said he had thought about running since mid-2008. But his decision was cemented when he saw Confederate flags being waved at the April 15, 2009, tea party demonstration near Mid-Continent Airport.

Tillman pointed out that Kansas had been a Union state and the flag “represents segregation in Kansas, and to most African-Americans.”

He said he also was offended by the tea party’s “derogatory signs about President Obama, taxation and America.”

“I thought somebody should do something about it,” he said.

At a time when the president’s approval rating is low and many Democratic candidates in Republican-leaning districts are running away from him, Tillman says, “I support him 100 percent.”

He said he wants to go to Washington to help Obama’s efforts to improve the economy, regulate banking, and reform health care and immigration.

“He has a tough job, and he cannot do it alone,” Tillman said. “He needs our support.”

Tillman said he’s been watching a lot of C-SPAN to learn how Congress works and what he sees is Republicans “out to get President Obama any way they can.”

Case in point, according to Tillman, is congressional reaction to the Gulf oil spill. Capitol Hill Republicans have blasted the president from both sides, saying that he didn’t do enough about the spill while also saying he has been too tough
with BP, the company whose damaged well caused the problem.

“It’s BP’s responsibility to fix the oil leak, not the president’s,” Tillman said. “Whatever he (Obama) does, he’s going to be criticized by someone, mostly the Republicans.”

But Tillman also faults some Democrats in Congress for not uniting behind the president like the Republicans have united against him.

Some Democrats are “afraid to come out and support him as our party leader,” Tillman said. “I am not afraid.”

Economy, jobs are key

The biggest issues are the economy and jobs, Tillman said. He strongly supports further extension of unemployment benefits that Republican representatives have been blocking.

Tillman, who has three bachelor’s degrees and a master’s in sociology — all from Wichita State University — is a strong supporter of schools and job retraining programs.

“I believe that many of the old jobs are not coming back,” he said. “We need to educate ourselves out of this crisis.”

He said he bears no ill will toward rank-and-file Republicans — they’re suffering in the recession, too.

But he said he is deeply disappointed in their leaders for opposing “all the major things that would help people.”

“I don’t see how they can do that and continue to get away with it.”

As for the president’s performance, “I think he’s doing an excellent job on all fronts. I intend to help him do better,” Tillman said.

Fundraising challenge

To get there, Tillman will need a lot of help himself.

His opponent in the Democratic primary, state Rep. Raj Goyle, D-Wichita, has backing from most of the party structure and has raised about $1 million.

Tillman said he has raised less than $5,000 and would probably be heavily outspent in a general election by whoever emerges from the five-candidate Republican primary.

Tillman said he expected that all along.

“People who are unemployed and underemployed and have bill collectors calling, those are the people I’m trying to help,” he said. “They don’t have the funds to make those kinds of contributions.”

He said his underfunded campaign might resonate with poor and middle-class voters having to do more with less in their own lives.

However, “With all that being said, send money right away,” he added, chuckling.

He’s tried to make up for lack of money for mass media by making personal appearances at service clubs, party meetings and other get-togethers around the district.

He owns a distinctive and memorable vehicle, a shiny black 2000 Prowler roadster, which he drives to campaign appearances and in parades.

Longtime Wichitan

Tillman appears to be well-liked even in the opposition camp.

State Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, is a strong supporter of Goyle.

But she said she also admires Tillman for his commitment to community service, particularly in her northeast Wichita district.

He’s served on community boards including the United Way, the NAACP, the Regional Prevention Center, Project Freedom and the local chapter of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice.

He also served on a committee to establish a credit union in northeast Wichita and on a multiagency task force on reintegrating prisoners into the community.

Tillman, 64, has served as a Democratic precinct committeeman. But until his 2007 retirement, he was blocked from seeking higher office by rules governing court employees.

Born in Boley, Okla., Tillman has been a resident of Wichita since 1961.

His working career started in aircraft plants.

From there, he moved to a job as an assistant teacher in special education with Holy Family Center. He also has worked as an administrative aide for the city of Wichita and for Sedgwick County as a “teaching parent” at the Lake Afton Boys
Ranch.

He became a court services officer in 1981.

Tillman’s wife, Linda, is a principal in the Wichita school district.

Tillman acknowledges his candidacy is a long shot, but in this very strange political year, some long shots have paid off.

In South Carolina, unknown candidate Alvin Greene came out of nowhere to win the Democratic nomination for Senate in a shocking upset of a well-funded and party-backed opponent.

“I thought about that,” Tillman said. “It gave me a glimmer of hope I have a chance.”

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

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BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle

Like you might dip into your savings to get through lean times, Sedgwick County would use about $14 million of its “rainy day” reserves to avoid tax increases, cuts in services and layoffs under its
manager’s recommended $415 million budget for next year.

Manager William Buchanan presented his proposal Wednesday to commissioners.

The budget does not raise property taxes, something commissioners — including those running for re-election — have been adamant about.

Buchanan’s plan also does not cut core services or call for job reductions or furloughs among the county’s roughly 3,000 employees.

The budget includes a 4 percent pool for staff raises, about $6.2 million. Buchanan has suggested the county wait until fall to decide whether, when and how much to reward employees with merit raises. That way the county can respond
appropriately to the economy, he said.

The county’s budget outlook stands in contrast to City Manager Robert Layton’s proposed $519 million budget for Wichita, which eliminates about 65 positions and calls for furloughs for many
city employees. The city would eliminate four school resource officer positions, reduce public hours at police substations, and cut the city’s reforestation program in half.

Buchanan said a deliberate approach to saving for a rainy day allows the county to weather bad economic times.

He called dipping into reserves a “short-term solution to a short-term problem.”

“That’s what it’s there for,” he said. “In the last several years, we’ve not had any deficits. We’ve had surpluses.”

Vote is Aug. 11

Commissioners will vote on Buchanan’s proposed budget Aug. 11.

Board member Gwen Welshimer expressed concern about the plan for a 4 percent pool for staff raises.

Welshimer said when Buchanan recommended last year that the county close the pavilions at the Kansas Coliseum complex, the public thought commissioners were making that suggestion. She said she didn’t want the public to think
commissioners are asking for 4 percent raises.

“I think back to another time when we had a county manager present a budget and it had something in it about closing down the pavilions,” she said. “And at that time, what the manager recommended in his budget was a surprise to us, but
that suddenly became something that the public thought we were doing.

“Maybe we had better discuss that subject and amend this budget today.”

But Commissioner Tim Norton cautioned Welshimer that the board shouldn’t vote to amend anything in Buchanan’s proposal before the upcoming public hearings.

Public scrutiny is necessary “before we start making too many decisions,” Norton said. “We have plenty of time to hammer what I think we all believe about this. The truth is we’ve just been presented the budget just today. We all need to read
it, look at it a little bit more and listen to public input.”

The budget for this year did not award raises for employees who make more than $75,000 a year, which included Buchanan and commissioners, and gave 2 percent across-the-board raises for staff who make less than $75,000.

Chairman Karl Peterjohn said he would not support a pay increase for elected officials.

“I really don’t believe in these economic times any elected official should receive a pay increase,” he said. “And when I say that, I mean any elected official, regardless of what level of government, I’m not just referring to the county here.”

Budget details

Buchanan’s proposed budget adds 5.5 employee positions, including two 911 dispatchers who will focus on quality assurance.

His budget also includes $700,000 to address jail inmates who have mental illnesses. The sheriff has asked for a mental health pod at the jail that could hold 49 inmates. Placing mentally ill inmates in the same area of the jail could help
better manage them and keep them from coming back, sheriff’s officials say.

The budget also adds money to a program, Project Access, that provides medical services for low-income residents.

The county also would put $120,000 in Comcare grants toward the Child Advocacy Center. The center helps about 2,500 children each year who are victims of sexual and physical abuse or Internet crimes.

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.

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BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle

Two Sedgwick County commissioners recently asked an independent auditor to dig into a mix-up involving paramedics’ salaries without consulting the other three commissioners or voting in public to do
so.

That has irked their colleagues.

The county has not received the bill for the audit requested by commissioners Kelly Parks and Karl Peterjohn, but chief financial officer Chris Chronis said he expects to get one. The county’s finance department estimated the review could cost
about $900.

Peterjohn said he thought the problem — involving the way paramedics’ hours were calculated — carried a big enough price tag to justify a closer look.

But commissioner Dave Unruh voiced his frustration Tuesday about not being involved in the decision.

The request for an independent audit, he said, “seems like something we should have all known about. There was no vote to spend the money.”

In an interview later, Unruh added: “I don’t think that’s the way government is supposed to work.”

Under state law, county commissioners are supposed to conduct business as a board. Individual members can’t bind the county to contracts.

The county has a contract with Allen, Gibbs & Houlik, a Wichita CPA firm, to conduct an annual audit.

Parks and Peterjohn told Unruh that they thought the review would fall under the county’s contract. But the review by Mark Dick, executive vice president of Allen, Gibbs & Houlik, was outside the scope of the annual audit, Chronis said.

Peterjohn apologized to his fellow board members Tuesday.

He said after the meeting that both he and Parks had some concerns about the problem, which dated back to 2007.

County staff recently discovered that personnel costs for EMS salaries were being calculated at a work week of 40 hours. EMS staff work 42 hours a week.

Instead of calculating their salaries based on 2,184 hours annually, the county was budgeting salaries based on 2,080 hours. Paramedics got paid what they were supposed to, but it cost the county more than was budgeted.

No one noticed the problem before, Chronis said in a June 26 e-mail, because savings from staff turnover absorbed the extra hours.

But this year, people are holding onto their jobs because of the economy, and the turnover rate is low. So the cost of the extra hours was noticeable.

Chronis and his staff have estimated that personnel expenses for EMS workers will be more than $300,000 higher than budgeted for this year.

Peterjohn said that amount was high enough for him to request a review.

“It raised some questions on whether we had exposure anywhere else,” he said.

Peterjohn, who is chairman of the board, said he didn’t consult all of his colleagues or ask for a vote because he didn’t think there would be a cost incurred. He also said he thought it was necessary to act fast because the county is preparing its
budget for next year.

In a July 6 letter to Peterjohn, Dick wrote “the error appears to be an isolated incident and is not a systemic problem . . . “

He attached the e-mail about the problem he had received from Chronis and said Chronis’ explanation was a “thorough description of the cause of the error.”

Unruh said he didn’t understand why Parks and Peterjohn would think the review would be free.

“Anytime when I’ve called a professional person, the minute the phone rings,” the clock starts ticking, he said.

Commissioners Tim Norton and Gwen Welshimer said they also didn’t know about Parks and Peterjohn’s request for a review.

Norton said it caused him “some heartburn.”

Welshimer said, “I think we just made something out of something that didn’t need to have something made out of it.”

The audit was not the first time individual commissioners have directed outside companies to perform work.

Welshimer asked jail consultant Justice Concepts Inc. to travel to Labette County to tour a former state prison, work later determined to be outside the firm’s contract.

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.

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naacp convention welcomes special guest

By Steve Kraske

Kansas City Star

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —First lady Michelle Obama told the NAACP Convention meeting in Kansas City on Monday that the time had come for dramatic changes to the diets of African-Americans
and young people across the country.

Obama, pushing her “Let’s Move” initiative designed to attack childhood obesity, said the scourge of overeating threatens the nation’s future.

One in every three children in this country is overweight or obese, Obama said.

“We need to take this issue seriously,” she said — as seriously as the need for better schools, a halt to gun violence and the threat of AIDS.

The nation is confronting what she called a “perfect storm” of “bad habits and unhealthy decisions” that have led to skyrocketing rates of diabetes and other weight-related conditions.

The economic gains that the NAACP and other groups have fought for over the decades will be lost if today’s young people grow into adults who lack the energy to be good performers on the job, she said.

“It is going to take all of us working together to lead healthier lives right from the beginning,” Obama said.

Obama spoke four days after her husband was in town to promote green jobs and raise money for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Robin Carnahan.

She took particular aim at what she called “food deserts” or areas in major cities that are bereft of major supermarkets. The result is that too many inner-city residents pay higher prices for basic grocery items at convenience stores.

“We’ve got to eliminate food deserts within this country within seven years,” she said.

To that end, she advocates a bill that will provide $400 million a year in seed funding to attract major supermarkets to poor neighborhoods.

But she said government can only do so much and that the responsibility for healthier eating rests with the nation’s moms and dads.

“Dessert,” she said, “is not a right.”

naacp convention welcomes special guest

By Steve Kraske

Kansas City Star

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —First lady Michelle Obama told the NAACP Convention meeting in Kansas City on Monday that the time had come for dramatic changes to the diets of African-Americans
and young people across the country.

Obama, pushing her “Let’s Move” initiative designed to attack childhood obesity, said the scourge of overeating threatens the nation’s future.

One in every three children in this country is overweight or obese, Obama said.

“We need to take this issue seriously,” she said — as seriously as the need for better schools, a halt to gun violence and the threat of AIDS.

The nation is confronting what she called a “perfect storm” of “bad habits and unhealthy decisions” that have led to skyrocketing rates of diabetes and other weight-related conditions.

The economic gains that the NAACP and other groups have fought for over the decades will be lost if today’s young people grow into adults who lack the energy to be good performers on the job, she said.

“It is going to take all of us working together to lead healthier lives right from the beginning,” Obama said.

Obama spoke four days after her husband was in town to promote green jobs and raise money for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Robin Carnahan.

She took particular aim at what she called “food deserts” or areas in major cities that are bereft of major supermarkets. The result is that too many inner-city residents pay higher prices for basic grocery items at convenience stores.

“We’ve got to eliminate food deserts within this country within seven years,” she said.

To that end, she advocates a bill that will provide $400 million a year in seed funding to attract major supermarkets to poor neighborhoods.

But she said government can only do so much and that the responsibility for healthier eating rests with the nation’s moms and dads.

“Dessert,” she said, “is not a right.”

BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle

Candidates for Sedgwick County Commission say they won’t look to property owners for help paying the bills at a time when revenue is on the decline and expenses are up.

The county projects that property taxes — its biggest revenue source — will be down $2.2 million this year due in large part to delinquencies.

At the same time, investment income is projected to be down $3.2 million; local sales and use taxes are expected to be down almost 4 percent to $24.3 million; and mortgage registration fees are projected to be down by about $850,000.

Some candidates say they’d like to replace all or part of property taxes with a sales tax.

Republican Richard Ranzau, running for Kelly Parks’ District 4 seat on the board, says he likes the idea of sales taxes and user fees better than property taxes.

“If you raise property taxes, it can make a recession last longer and can cause a recession to become a depression,” he said.

He also thinks voters should get the chance to weigh in on tax increases.

Ranzau believes that residents would vote for increases “if it’s a real need and people have seen their government work in a fiscally conservative manner.”

Not allowing people to vote on increases out of fear they would never approve one “underestimates the intelligence of voters,” Ranzau said. “It’s not like they never pass school bonds.”

Republican Dion Avello, who is running for Gwen Welshimer’s District 5 seat, said he’s talked to some county officials about replacing some property taxes with a sales tax.

But he said he didn’t think doing away with property taxes would be realistic.

“You’ve got to have a base,” he said.

Republican District 5 candidate Chuck Warren said he is not interested in pursuing a sales tax.

“Sales tax hurts businesses, and that would be one of the last places that I would go to,” he said. “If the people want to vote for a sales tax for a special project, that is one thing, but I’m not interested in a sales tax for the general budget.”

Other candidates say they’re open to discussing a sales tax.

District 5 Republican candidate Jim Skelton said the county would have to look at

all the possible impacts and pitfalls of a sales tax.

“I’m open to any discussion that would be beneficial to the community,” he said.

District 1 Democratic candidate Juanita Blackmon said that because not everyone who uses county services is a property owner, a sales tax might make more sense.

District 4 Democratic candidate Sharon Fearey noted that with a sales tax, “you also get money from people who don’t live in the county, which is always a good thing.”

But she said sales taxes can be regressive when applied to “the basic staples of life” such as food.

“I would want us to look at that, too,” Fearey said, “and make sure we’re not putting people right on the edge in further financial difficulty.”

District 1 Democratic candidate Betty Arnold said she hadn’t given much consideration to property vs. sales tax.

“There’d have to be a lot of conversation to make that workable to make sure each level of government is able to maintain operationally speaking,” she said. “The county is in a unique position out of all the governments to not be hurting that
much. There is a very good reserve there. That does not mean we should not be wise and good stewards over money.”

District 4 Republican candidate Lucy Burtnett said she’s “more than willing to listen” to arguments for a sales tax but said it was not something she had researched.

“If revenue continues on the trend it is, then we’ll probably have to cut something,” she said.

District 4 Democratic candidate Oletha Faust-Goudeau said she also had not focused on sales taxes as part of her campaign.

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.

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BY Dion Lefler

The Wichita Eagle

To listen to the Mike Pompeo campaign, you might think that Wink Hartman should be running for Congress on Florida’s Gold Coast.

And listening to the Hartman campaign, you might get the idea Pompeo should be running for mayor of Mexicali.

As the race for the Republican nomination in Kansas’ 4th District nears its Aug. 3 finale, Pompeo and Hartman, have increasingly questioned each other’s credentials as Kansans.

Hartman and Pompeo are pounding each other in television ads and virtually ignoring the other three candidates — small-business owner Jim Anderson, engineer/rancher Paij Rutschman and state Sen. Jean Schodorf.

Pompeo has sought to portray Hartman as an opportunist who renounced the state of his birth to take advantage of a Florida property tax break — and then lied to voters when he claimed to be a lifelong Kansan.

Hartman, meanwhile, paints Pompeo as a Washington carpetbagger who helped start Thayer Aerospace 12 years ago and then shipped Kansas aircraft jobs to Mexico.

Hartman bristles at the charge that he abandoned Kansas. He calls his $4 million Florida seaside house a “vacation home” and says Pompeo has no right to question where he and his wife choose to go on vacation.

Pompeo gets about as irritated

over Hartman’s claim that he shipped local work to Mexico. Pompeo said his company started a small plant in Mexicali in reaction to a client’s contractual demands — a move that created about 20 jobs south of the border and 40 to 50
in Wichita.

Hartman’s residency

Hartman has had ties to Florida that go beyond casual vacation trips and on at least three occasions filed papers declaring residence there.

But he also maintained some aspects of his residency in Kansas.

He provided The Eagle with documents indicating he did not take advantage of Florida’s tax code — the state has no income tax — to avoid paying Kansas state taxes.

Hartman showed The Eagle his K-40 Kansas state tax forms from 1991 through 2009. He covered up the amounts of his income and taxes, which are not public record, but the forms all indicated he filed as a Kansas resident.

Officials of the Kansas Department of Revenue said they could not verify any information about Hartman’s tax filings because of confidentiality provisions in the law.

Records obtained from the Florida Secretary of State’s Office show he registered to vote there in June 2002, and voted in 2006 and 2008.

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher told The Eagle and the Palm Beach Post last month that Hartman was still on the rolls as an active Florida voter.

That information turned out to be incorrect. Hartman is listed as “inactive” on Florida voting rolls, according to both the Secretary of State’s office and a Certification of Registration from Bucher’s office dated April 12.

Hartman reregistered to vote in Kansas on July 23, 2009, six weeks before declaring his candidacy for Congress.

Hartman also has held a Florida driver’s license, as shown by a 1998 DUI citation in Wichita. The period he held that license could not be verified because of a federal law barring public access to driving records.

Property records from the Palm Beach County Appraiser’s office show that from 2006 to 2009, he received a “homestead exemption” on his Florida property, an oceanfront home in Highland Beach which he bought for $4 million in May 2005.

Under Florida law, the exemption allows permanent residents not to pay property tax on the first $50,000 of their home’s appraised value, which in Hartman’s case now stands at $3.8 million.

Applicants are required to fill out a “declaration of domicile” and provide a Florida driver’s license and/or voter registration as proof of residency.

After the Palm Beach Post’s article, officials in the county appraiser’s office sent Hartman a letter dated June 17 asking him to file a Homestead Exemption Withdrawal Form if he had changed his residency.

Hartman said he was surprised by that because he had not applied for the exemption for this year.

Palm Beach County exemption director Pat Poston said Florida law does require annual renewal of the exemption. Palm Beach County accomplishes that by sending a card to the homeowner.

Hartman’s card was returned unused, marked by the Post Office as “temporarily away,” so his exemption would have been continued if no further action had been taken, Poston said.

Palm Beach County tax records show that Hartman paid $73,038, $65,459 and $69,814 in property taxes in 2009, 2008 and 2007. The value of the exemption was “about $1,000, no more than that,” Poston said.

In Kansas, Hartman owns a house on four acres of farm property near Rose Hill, valued at $591,000. Sedgwick County appraisal records indicate he paid about $7,850 in property tax each of the last three years.

While it is not possible to say for sure how Hartman split time between Florida and Kansas, he has remained an active member of Wichita’s business community and social scene, regularly appearing in Eagle stories about business, social and
political events.

He was active in the movement to save the recently reopened Wichita Boathouse and donated $13,000 to the unsuccessful opposition to a USD 259 school bond in 2008.

In 1990, he bought out his father’s interest in the family oil business, Hartman Oil, making him the sole owner of the company.

By 2002, he had made acquisitions that tripled its production and he also has expanded the business to include oilfield services and trucking.

In the last five years, Hartman has been a partner in developing the Chester’s Chophouse and Jimmy’s Egg restaurants in Wichita, started the Wichita Wild indoor football team and built the $19 million Hartman Arena near Park City.

Hartman said he has always considered Kansas his home and his working life proves it.

“I never left Kansas,” he said. “Look at all the businesses I created here when I was supposedly somewhere else.”

Pompeo and Mexicali

Not much documentation is available to confirm or refute Hartman’s assertions about Pompeo and the Mexicali jobs.

Thayer Aerospace, which was bought by a private equity firm in 2006 and renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace, was and remains a privately held company. Details of its business operations do not have to be revealed publicly.

What is known is that while Pompeo was chief executive of the company, it established a small manufacturing facility in Mexicali.

According to a 2007 Baja California aerospace business directory, the Thayer plant in Mexicali employed 20 workers, manufacturing metal holders and clamps and repairing aircraft parts.

Part of the evidence the Hartman campaign cites to back up its allegation that Kansas work was sent to Mexico is a help-wanted listing from a trade publication.

The listing said the company had “state of the art equipment and sophisticated systems for manufacturing metal components used in structural airframes.”

It also said “In Feb. 2007, they expect to start building machinery for Boeing aircraft. They also plan to build another facility in Mexicali.”

Campaign officials for Hartman were unable to provide the original source of the listing. Spokesman Scott Paradise said the person who discovered it is no longer associated with the campaign and could not be reached.

Pompeo campaign officials acknowledge that some manufacturing equipment was moved from Wichita to Mexicali.

A campaign spokesman said only three pieces of equipment were moved. Two of those had been in storage and were not in use, while the third was an older machine that was replaced with new apparatus moved to Wichita from Thayer’s
plant in St. Louis.

Hartman’s original ad on the issue of Mexico jobs featured ominous piano music and an unseen male announcer asserting that Pompeo “took Kansas jobs to Mexico. That’s right, took Kansas jobs to Mexico.”

Pompeo has disputed Hartman’s ads in a flash page statement on his website.

“When Thayer Aerospace was awarded a contract that created dozens of new jobs in Wichita, the customer required that up to two dozen contract employees be hired in Mexico,” the statement said. “No jobs were ’shipped’ to Mexico.”

Pompeo amplified on that in an interview this week with The Eagle’s editorial board.

“I had an opportunity to win some work that would grow jobs here in Kansas and I took it,” he said. “Alongside that, we were asked to create under the contract a facility down in Mexicali, Mexico, and we did. I can’t recall if we had eight or
10 or nine or 12 folks that ended up going down to Mexico…

“We hired 12 folks that lived down there in the Mexicali area and we grew 40 or 50 jobs here in Kansas to do that. I’m proud of it. I’d do it again.”

Pompeo campaign manager Rodger Woods said Saturday that the client who wanted the jobs in Mexicali must remain confidential under terms of the contract.

After Hartman’s ad was questioned by a local television station, the campaign dialed back the rhetoric a bit, changing the assertion to “Pompeo created Kansas’s jobs in Mexico.”

That same ad quoted Pompeo as saying —”We don’t have sufficient expertise here in Wichita” — and linked that to the decision to create the Mexicali plant.

Pompeo did say those words, but in an unrelated setting years before Thayer’s Mexicali plant was on the drawing board.

The quote comes from a 2001 interview with Pompeo for a report called “Clusters of Innovation Initiative.” The report, by Harvard professor Michael E. Porter, analyzed potential growth areas in the Wichita economy.

One suggestion was that Wichita aircraft industry should add to its traditional strengths in metalwork and machining “with an emphasis on firms that supply more complex systems and materials that require highly skilled workers who are
paid high salaries.”

The full paragraph containing Pompeo’s quote read: “A problem with this complex supplier recruitment strategy, said Thayer’s Pompeo, is that there is a limited labor force that specializes in areas related to some of the complex suppliers.
‘We don’t have sufficient expertise here in Wichita,’ said Pompeo.”

Contributing: Fred Mann of The Eagle Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

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