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Fridav. March 2. 1973
University Daily Kansan
Commission Race Controversy, Proposals for Reform Make Responsiveness the Focus
At the crux of the issues involved in Tuesday's City Commission primary is a common element: the responsiveness of city government.
Ever since Lawrence's Community Relations Steering Committee reported last September that many citizens considered city government unresponsive, public interest has been directed at determining the validity of the charge.
In recent months the commission has organized town meetings to investigate public sentiment, has announced that a lack of communication between the community and the commission existed and has proposed a Citizen's Advisory Board.
Five town meetings called by the commission drew a total of 112 persons, many of whom expressed a desire for area representation to the commission instead of the current method of electing commissioners at large.
However, attendance at the meetings led members of the commission to believe that there was no substantial public interest in their activities in the struce-ness of the commission.
Last week the commission gave its report on the meetings. Except for
missoner Chuck Fisher, the commissioner said that a change could not be made at this time. Fisher advocated putting the issue on a ballot, preferably by urging citizens to petition for a referendum vote.
The primary election Tuesday should make evident the public's desires. Several of the candidates have partially or totally based their platforms upon the idea that the average Lawrence citizen feels dedicated to by the commission.
To substantiate their stands, these candidates have pointed to commission actions in past months that have aroused a good deal of controversy, such as annexation, sidewalk plans and pay parity for firemen and policemen.
Last September the commission attempted to unilaterally annex a large tract of land in northwest Lawrence. Several citizens formed a group called the Riverside Committee and defeated the annexation in a referendum vote. The committee failed to decide whether the commission should annex property unilaterally or whether it should wait until the property owner requested annexation.
The Candidates
Fourteen candidates have filed for the City Commission race, eight of whom will be eliminated in the primary ballot. They will be a brief biographical sketch of each:
Barkley Clark, 33, 1511 Crescent Road, is associate dean of the University of Kansas School of Law. He is nearing completion of a three-year term on the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission, to which he was appointed in April 1970. He is currently chairman of the planning commission.
Robert Elder, 43, 2636 Arkansas, is a partner of Western Home Builders. A building contractor in Lawrence for 19 years, he is a member of the John Sibley Society.
John Emick, 57, 1200 W. Sixth St., is Lawrence's mayor and a city commissioner. He was first elected to the commission in 1965. He was mayor in 1960 when he underwent surgery and decided not to seek re-election. In 1970 he joined the University of Iowa to take the place of Dr. Robert Hughes. He became mayor again last April.
William Lemesany, 47, 900 Arkansas,
is self-employed as an owner and manager
of apartments. He came to Lawrence
in 1851 as a law student at KU
and practiced law here for ten years.
He has lived in Lawrence for 22 years.
Robert Haralick, 29, 3414 Tiam O'Shanter Drive, is an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Kansas. He received his doctorate in electrical engineering at KU and has lived in Lawrence for 12 years.
Harry Krooger Jr, 34, 352 E.12b, is owner and operator of the Mercantile, 1237 Oread. He attended KU as a graduate student in organic chemistry from 1965 to 1971 and has lived in Lawrence for eight years.
Gene Miller, 40, 305 Arrowhead Drive
is a former Lawrence policeman who is a shift supervisor at DuPont Co. Tecumseh. He is a member of the John Birch Society and has lived in the Lawrence area for 22 years. He has lived in Lawrence since July 1972.
Mike Morrill, 25, 1520 Vermont, is a firewatcher at the Lawrence Paper Co. and is employed by Burns International Security Guards. He was elected as a Republican precinct committeeman in 1968 and was defeated in 1970.
Fred Pence, 40, 415 East 15th Street,
owns and operates the Garden Center,
15th and New York streets. He has
lived in Lawrence for 11 years.
J. R. Pulliam, 44, 721 Tennessee, is owner of Terrill's, 803 Massachusetts. He was elected in 1969 and served as mayor from April 1971 to April 1972. He is also a former member and chairman of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Board.
Gale Pinegar, 30, 148 Minnesota, is self employed in the cabinet business. A former policeman, Pinegar resigned as a patrolman assigned to the detective division in December of 1971. He has lived in Lawrence for 11 years.
Tola Ross, 59, 2026 Orchard Lane is owner and operator of the Baskin-Robins ice cream store. She is a member of the Elks auxiliary and, discounting a five-year absence, has lived in Lawrence since 1946.
Anna Lauren Rusk, 2019 Ohio, has worked in the public relations field in the last 19 years. She and her husband, Jeff, have lived in Lawrence for 19 years.
William Spencer, 28, 3503 West Ninth Court, is president of Competition Sports Cars Inc. He has a master's degree in business administration from KU and has lived in Lawrence for 11 years with a one-year absence.
Barkley Clark
Robert Elder
At any rate, the commission's action caused some citizens to wonder about the responsiveness of the commission to the wishes of the community.
The question rose again when the commission authorized construction of an $85,000 sidewalk network for a large area in west Lawrence last month.
Leaders of a quickly-formed opposition group announced that a protest led by two students was filed if enough signatures were obtained. The opponents said that the commission should have waited until interested citizens had petitioned for the sidewalks to be reopened.
The method employed by the commission, opponents argued, forced opponents of the plan to take the initiative in defeating the installation.
A recent firemen's slowdown also attracted a good deal of public attention. When the city adopted a new pay plan for city employees in January a five per cent increase was given to firemen and a ten per cent increase to policemen.
F forty-nine of the city's 62 firemen responded by beginning a work "slow-down," which primarily involved not doing normal cleanup and maintenance work. The firemen argued that they deserved parity with the policemen and that they should also receive a ten per cent increase.
Speaking through City Manager Buford Watson, the commissioners unanimously supported the pay disparity on the basis that the different jobs involved different qualifications and responsibilities.
The firemen then circulated a petition calling for pay parity. Union representatives said recently that the petition was submitted to the commission, when it was submitted to the commission.
The commission has remained firm on par pay, again leading some citizens to wonder if the city government is indeed responsive.
Growth of Commission, City
Area Representation
A subject that arose frequently at last town meetings organized last winter by the City Commission was whether there were any area representation to the commission.
All five city commissioners are now elected at large. Suggestions were made at the series of meetings to enlarge the commission to seven or nine members, of whom approximately half would be at large candidates. The rest would be atLarge candidates.
The candidates expressed a wide variety of views:
Barkley Clark—said he favored enlarging the commission to seven members, four to be elected by areas and three at large. If all of them were elected by areas, it could lead to ward politics, he said.
Robert Elder—said he favored area representation on the basis that North and East Lawrence should be represented.
John Emick—said he would like to leave it up to the people. If the people want it, it wouldn't be too hard to get a deal. Bring it to a referendum vote, he said.
Harry Kroeger Jr.-mentioned alternatives such as representation by interest groups and vocational groups rather than by geographical groups.
Robert Haralick—said he supported area representation in a four area, one at large arrangement, or possibly a 5-2 arrangement, in reference is who in the chairs, he said.
William Lemesay—said he would continue to support the present plan for city representation unless enough people wanted it the other way.
Gene Miller—indicated he had no strong feelings about the matter one way or another.
Mike Morrill-said he thought that would be a cure worse than the disease (area representation). Such a plan, he said, would result in grymanderning. He also said seven or nine members should have a better number for the commission.
Fred Pence—supported area representation on the basis that such a plan would make it more difficult for any special group to control the commission. More broad-based voting at City Commission meetings would result, he said.
Gale Pinegar—said he supported area representation in a four-district plan, in which one commissioner would be elected. Other commissioners missioners would be elected at large.
J. R. Pullium—said he opposed area representation on the basis that it would lead to partisan politics. He also opposed the idea of adding more commissioners because it would lead to indictments or commissioners “letting matters slide.”
Tola Ross—observed that "the common man and the working man have no one to represent them now on the commission, only big business is currently represented."
Anna Laura Rusk—"There's no need for area representation in this size of city."
William Spencer—said he did not want to see Lawrence split into heterogeneous precincts from a large homogenous group. He said that he had never seen someone with autism, or ginger-mandering sticking to its "ugly head" up somewhere.
Annexation Policy
Last Fall the City Commission attempted to annex a 1780 acre tract in an area northwest of the city. A group of citizens formed the Riverside Committee to vote to a vote and, in a referendum, approved an ordinance deminming the area.
Should the commission wait for a property owner to request annexation of property in all cases, or should the commission occasionally annex property unilaterally as they attempted to do last year?
Barkley Clark—"All annexations of this kind (larger areas) should go through the planning commission and be subject to a public hearing."
Robert Elder—said that all annexation should be initiated by requests of the Commissionary may rely on
John Emick—said annexation couldn't possibly be left up to the property owner although he could always initiate it. He said that occasionally the city would have to initiate annexation just to plan a project. The city would not annex any place it couldn't serve.
Robert Haralick—said the city should have additional facts concerning economic and planning implications of big annexations and that subcommittees of the commission should be formed to research these facts.
Harry Kroeger Jr.-said he favored negotiation with people living on large tracts of land slated for annexation several months before the desired action. After the negotiations the large areas to be taken in under a referendum vote.
William Lemesay—said he approved of annexation by the commission in cases
of city need but said that annexation was done with the peoples' consent when peace arrived.
Gene Miller—said that government must come from the people, that this was "the whole basis of our philosophy." He said that government should come from the property owner.
Mike Morrill—said anxieships should be planned long in advance so that people in the area could plan and be easily hooked into the city's services. Anxiesma is a case by case matter in which one could give an iron-clad rule, he said.
Fred Pence—said he supported annexation by request of the property owner.
Tola Ross—said she was totally against "forced annexation like the one last year." She added that the commission had too much power and shouldn't make such "great sweeping actions" without the consent of the people.
John Emick
J. R. Pullium—said that both types of procedures should be presented, although annexation by request was not the most efficient method.
William Spencer—said he was in favor of letting people alone if they don't own cars. He said the city services and were not paying city taxes, and if they had made plans for their own growth and development on roadways, lands, parks, and sewages.
Gale Pinegar—said that he don't enough about annexation to discuss it and that he thought the problem wouldn't come up.
Robert Haralick
Anna Laura Rusk—indicated that she favored taking "positive action" which would encourage industries to come into Lawrence.
Harry Kroeger Jr.
William Lemesany
Gene Miller
Mike Morrill