A proposed three-year employment agreement with Topeka firefighters is among matters being considered when city and county elected officials hold their regular meetings this coming week. The city’s mayor and council on Tuesday will consider approving a contract covering the years 2019 through 2021 with Topeka firefighters represented in collective bargaining by Local No. 83 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. The proposed agreement would increase base pay for beginning firefighters this year by 9.8 percent, to $15 an hour from $13.66 an hour, and would otherwise provide pay increases of 2 percent in 2019, 2 percent in 2020 and [...]

Shawnee County Sheriff Brian Hill has wasted no time bringing new ideas to that office. The week after he was sworn in, Hill kicked off a cross-training program aimed at getting street officers better acquainted with the work detectives do. Hill became sheriff April 23 after being chosen by the Shawnee County Republican Precinct Committee to replace Sheriff Herman Jones, who resigned to became superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol. Hill said he has since made a point to talk to the officers who are out working the street. “They have good ideas,” he said. On the day he was sworn [...]

Visit Topeka is starting a new initiative that it hopes will bring more people to Shawnee County. Endorse Topeka encourages community members to connect the Visit Topeka sales team with key decision makers who are responsible for booking large events throughout the region. During a news conference Friday, Visit Topeka Vice President Mike Bell said the idea behind Endorse Topeka is to help community members get involved in helping the quality of life and place in Topeka. “The beauty of Endorse Topeka is it can be about anything,” Bell said. “Everybody belongs to something, so it can be a church function [...]