KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
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Board of Public Utilities customers want answers about why the PILOT fee is still on their bills almost a month after the missed October 1 deadline to remove the fee.
William Rogers said he wasn’t aware of complaints about the BPU not removing the PILOT fee until he went to give public comments on a different issue at a Wyandotte County Board of Commissioners meeting.
“I personally am not one of them citizens to have a complaint,” Rogers said. “What I have a complaint is that the mayor’s not working with the commissioners. He’s not informing them, he’s not keeping them up to date.”
Rogers watched KSHB 41 stories about the BPU PILOT fee issue, including a story where I uncovered the BPU email warning Kansas City, Kansas, Mayor Tyrone Garner and Wyandotte County Administrator David Johnston the October 1 deadline was unrealistic.
“And then the mayor said he was shocked to find out through social media," Rogers laughed. "No you didn’t, Mayor. You found out in that email. C'mon man, I'm smarter than that.”
Garner said in a phone interview on Oct. 18 that he was trying to clear up confusion on the fee.
The mayor, who has refused in-person interviews on this topic and will only talk to us by phone, said he was confident the PILOT fee would be removed.
“I rely on our administrator and our staff for the Unified Government to advise me on things,” Garner said.
Rogers did something on Monday we’ve been unable to do since this news broke — he went to the ninth floor of city hall to meet with the mayor.
He took documents containing his property tax and BPU PILOT fee data with him.
Rogers said he wanted to his own public records to support his statements.
“I want to tell him that it's okay to make a mistake,” Rogers said. “It's okay that you and the administrator jumped the gun. But right now, you’re creating division in this community and that needs to stop. How to fix it? That’s his job right? He’s the mayor.”
It’s been nearly a month since the October 1 deadline from Johnston.
"When they just said it was going to disappear October 1, even myself thought, 'Yeah, it ain’t never gonna just drop off like that,'" Rogers said. "The mayor and the county administrator just kind of ran with this by themselves."
Between August and October, there have been commission meetings with public comment sessions.
But since the news about the fee not coming off, there’s been no platform for customers to ask about the PILOT fee fiasco.
There was a special Unified Government meeting on October 17, but there was no public comment portion. There was also an October 19 town hall for Wyandotte County officials, but questions were submitted ahead of time, and the Q&A at the end had a time limit.
"It's not us against them, but they’re starting to make it out like that, and that’s bad business for Wyandotte County," Rogers said. "Personally, I think we’re better than that."
I’ve gotten multiple questions from viewers since we started covering the PILOT fee problems.
After the interview with Rogers, the mayor’s office called me to answer a few of the viewer questions I sent the mayor's office Monday morning.
The questions I had time to ask Mayor Garner in our 15-minute phone conversation are below:
Who sets the agenda?
The agenda is sent from clerk’s office to mayor and commissioners. It’s is set by a combination of staff and the mayor with occasional commission input. It then goes to the clerk, and she puts everything together before sending to the mayor and commissioners. Legal reviews the agenda if needed.
Do commissioners have the meeting agenda in time to ask informed questions?
The mayor said he would love if he and commissioners would have a week to two weeks to review meeting agendas.
“That’s been a challenge since I’ve been mayor,” Garner said. “Sometimes, it’s a day, sometimes items come out day of, so it depends.”
The agenda is usually set the Friday of Monday before the commission meets and by Tuesday, that information is available to the publice.
That's the average time frame for release of the meeting agenda.
If residents pay a PILOT fee or they increase the amount in the rate structure, how is it different than paying the same, but calling it something different?
“The biggest thing for me, when I ran for mayor, and one of the things that I’ve advocated for is, it’s a work in progress,” Garner said. “Residents are telling me that they have a problem with not having a real utility bill. We’re talking, not just BPU, but we’re talking about via trash, via stormwater, via sewer, all these other fees that are attached to the BPU bill. A lot of residents have problems with that. The PILOT is another one of those deals. When someone gets cut off, they’re getting cut off from all these other add-on's that over decades, leaders here at the city decided to put on people’s utility bills.”
Do you feel like you’ve answered all the questions residents have? Will there be other opportunities for residents to comment [on the PILOT]?
“That’s my goal,” Garner said. “One of the things I can say — I’m proud of just as being mayor is listening to the people in saying ‘Mayor, we would like to have an outlet to be able to talk to you and the commission and other leaders about our concerns. One thing that I came up with was Mayor Tyrone Tuesdays. I have listening tours. And then the biggest thing is, I have open mics, consistent open mics, where people can come and talk about issues.”
The mayor’s office told me they will send email responses to remaining viewer questions, and we will publish those when we receive them.
The next joint meeting of the Unified Government and the Board of Public Utilities is 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30.