KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kydale Smith stood behind the mayors of Wyandotte County, Kansas’ three cities Wednesday when they announced plans to evaluate the county’s form of government.
“I feel like they’re really starting to open their ear toward the people,” Smith said.
He grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and works for the Unified Government as a trash collector.
He said being a resident and employee gives him a unique perspective at some issues within the government, like low salaries for employees which force him to work a second job at UPS.
“Working in Wyandotte, with personal experience of nine years, I still can’t get no one to come to work with me,” he said.
Smith wants to establish a type of signing bonus for essential workers like him.
He’ll have a chance to share his opinion beginning next month; the three mayors Smith stood behind Wednesday announced the creation of a “citizen-focused” group to gather feedback from residents on whether the county should modify or abandon the unified form of government.
The group's first meeting will be in November. Details on day, time and location of the meeting will come from a new Facebook group called “Unified Residents of Wyandotte County.”
Voters combined the city of KCK with Wyandotte County in 1997, creating the Unified Government.
People in Bonner Springs and Edwardsville voted not to join the Unified Government, but still rely on the government for certain county services like a health department, sheriff's office and jail.
Tyrone Garner, the current mayor/CEO of the Unified Government, said 25 years since its creation, the unified model is failing its residents.
He said the mayor and elected commissioners aren’t as powerful as the county administrator, mismanagement goes unchecked and debt continues to grow.
“There’s no give, it’s just take, take, take,” said Andrea Dusk, who lives in the Turner neighborhood. “You’re going to get us out here and we won’t be quiet. We won’t shut up.”
She supports changing the government so residents get a bigger voice in what happens. As does Chris Steineger, a former Kansas legislator who supported unification 25 years ago.
“We’re kind of like the Titanic, we’ve already hit the iceberg,” Steineger said. “A lot of people don’t realize quite how bad the situation is, but we need to try to change our form of local government and way of thinking if we want to survive.”
The mayors said there’s no deadline for the group hosting the meetings to bring back a proposal for them to evaluate and vote on.
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