Monday marked the beginning of a new era in Wichita city government, as the city council said goodbye to long-serving Republican members Jeff Blubaugh and Bryan Frye and welcomed newly elected Republican members Dalton Glasscock and J.V. Johnston. The biggest shift, though, involved the replacement of one-term Democratic Mayor Brandon Whipple with a much more conservative mayor, Libertarian Lily Wu.
For the past two years, with Whipple at the helm, the city council featured a 4-3 Democratic majority, allowing for the pursuit of a series of (somewhat) progressive policy reforms at City Hall, but also featuring frequent bitter and acrimonious debates during council meetings. With the new council in place, what can Wichitans expect from their city government over the next year or two? While predicting the future is always a perilous exercise, two major changes seem highly likely.
Less fighting, more ‘consensus’
The vast majority of votes in city council meetings are unanimous approvals of the proposals put together by city manager Robert Layton and his staff. Still, the divided votes are the ones that get the most attention. This has been especially true over the past two years, when the debates were often heated.
With the departure of Whipple, who had a knack for getting under his conservative colleagues’ skin, we can expect tempers to cool dramatically. As Wu and several council members (including Democrats) explained in recent interviews with the Wichita Business Journal, the watchword for the next two years will be “consensus.” Wu’s campaign tagline —“All for Wichita”— pointed toward a goal of minimizing the fighting and showing a united front to the public. Glasscock, too, touts his “record of coalition building,” though he wasted no time during his first council meeting in leading the charge to overturn the local campaign finance reform ordinance approved by the Democratic majority late last year.
Of course, “consensus” in a conservative city is likely to reflect consensus around a conservative agenda. A big part of the acrimony over the past two years was that Whipple’s agenda clashed with the traditionally conservative city council ethos. The conservatives on the council — especially Blubaugh and Frye — resisted vocally, and Whipple was unafraid to push back aggressively.
Those antics are likely to cease in the new, consensus-oriented council. The three departing members were the loudest voices on the council, and they have all been replaced by more soft-spoken individuals. While liberal incumbents Maggie Ballard, Mike Hoheisel and Brandon Johnson may raise concerns, none of them has Whipple’s penchant for yelling and provoking conservative ire.
More importantly, policy fights will become increasingly futile for the liberal incumbents. The arguments that took place over the past two years mostly occurred when Whipple was struggling to assemble a four-vote majority against the prevailing conservative backdrop of Layton’s administration. With a solid conservative majority in control now, any such liberal resistance can be easily put down. While all members tout the value of “consensus,” we should expect the conservatives to swiftly and calmly put down any obstacles to the implementation of conservative agenda.
What will that agenda look like?
Investment in police, austerity elsewhere
Hanging over all of city government will be the looming budget shortfall. Thanks in large part to an infusion of federal COVID relief dollars, Wichita’s municipal budget has been in good shape in recent years, and the city expects that budget stability to continue through the next two years. By 2026, though, a substantial deficit is projected, as Layton explained in a recent interview.
A return to conservative governance will mean, first and foremost, that mill levy rate increases are off the table, limiting the city’s ability to raise more revenue. Meanwhile, Wu and the other new members have pledged to invest more in the police department, which already benefited from massive budget increases under Whipple. Given the revenue constraints, and the determination to spend more on police, we can expect austerity measures in other areas of city government.
Wichitans should get ready to hear the phrase “tough decisions” echoed repeatedly by elected officials as they negotiate spending cuts on quality-of-life items such as street repair, parks, and arts and culture projects. Layoffs of some city staff may be forthcoming. While council members will publicly express regrets about the cuts, Layton’s final budget proposals incorporating these austerity measures will likely be approved unanimously.
That will be the true manifestation of “consensus” under this city council.
Chase M. Billingham is an associate professor of sociology at Wichita State University. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
