Municipal News & Jobs

Recent political advertisements from a Wichita organization are raising questions from the public about their legality. Wichita Forward, the group that introduced a citywide 1% sales tax proposal that will go before voters next month, is at the center of the controversy. On Tuesday, a complaint was filed alleging that one of the group’s ads may violate election or ethics laws by using a city employee in campaign messaging. The commercial features Wichita firefighters standing at what appears to be a fire station, along with several vehicles moving around the area. It includes a message from a firefighter named Warren, who focuses on how the sales tax could affect the fire department if it passes.
Read more: KSN-TV

The City of Wichita has renewed the Water Conservation Rebate Program for another year. On Monday, the city announced it has allocated $125,000 for rebates for customers who make purchases to help them save water. New this year is the inclusion of drought-tolerant grasses and shrubs.
Read more: KSN-TV

Incorrect information was sent to some Wichita voters, raising concerns about confusion, trust, and turnout ahead of the city-wide 1% sales tax vote. Wichita Forward, the organization that brought the sales tax to the council, circulated a mailer that included an advance ballot application listing the wrong deadline and time to vote. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett held a news conference on Tuesday. On Monday, KSN heard from the League of Women Voters and the Sedgwick County district attorney about why accuracy matters and when a mistake could become a legal issue.
Read more: KSN-TV

Chuck Negron, a founding member of Three Dog Night whose lead vocals powered a string of hits including “Joy to the World," “One” and “An Old Fashioned Love Song” for one of the top rock acts of the late 1960s and early ’70s, died Monday. He was 83. He died of complications from heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to his publicist Zach Farnum.
Read more: KSNT 27 News

There are important meetings Tuesday night regarding the future home of the Chiefs. Late in December, the team announced they planned to build a new stadium in the western portion of Wyandotte County, near I-70 and I-435. If you want to weigh in on the city giving back some of its future sales tax revenue back to paying off the stadium development, you need to show up to Kansas City, Kansas, City Hall for Tuesday night’s meeting that starts at 5:30 p.m. The commission won’t vote on this issue until Thursday at 5:30 pm, but after talking with Unified Government of Wyandotte County Administrator David Johnston Monday, he wants the state and the local sales tax increment to be a much smaller portion of the county.
Read more: KSNT 27 News

USD 244 Burlington has a new superintendent. Donalyn Biehler was chosen as the district’s new leader last week. She currently leads USD 487 Herington. Biehler replaces Craig Marshall, who is retiring after 10 years leading the district. She officially begins her new duties July 1.
Read more: KVOE

Removing the ban on three dog breeds considered to be aggressive went nowhere at Monday night’s city council meeting. Police Chief Aaron Slater proposed lifting the ban on pit bulls and Rottweilers about a month ago. Council members did not see the need, and since the policy was not changing, no vote was needed.
Read more: Marion County RECORD

After interviewing outside candidates for its new superintendent Renwick USD 267 realized it had the right person at home as the district announced Friday that Assistant Superintendent Lacee Sell will become superintendent of Renwick USD 267 on July 1. Sell joined the school district last summer. She previously served as superintendent of Chapman USD 473 for five years and Clinton County R-IIII School District in Plattsburg, Mo., for three years. She also has been a system alignment and collaboration specialist with Kansas Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and Alignment, associate superintendent with Geary County USD 475, and executive director of teaching and learning with Manhattan-Ogden USD 383. “The board is certain in our choice of Mrs. Lacee Sell and confident that, under her leadership, Renwick will continue to be recognized as an exceptionally strong school district for academics as well as extracurricular activities,” Board of Education President Mark McFadden said in the announcement. “Our board is extremely proud of Renwick and the culture, values, and history on which we are built. We believe Lacee will be an excellent steward for Renwick moving forward.”
Read more: The Hutchinson Tribune

Everyone who spoke at Monday’s Yates Center City Council meeting was unanimous in saying they support law enforcement. But paths diverged when discussion turned to how much the city should pay to maintain its own police force. Monday’s 2-hour discussion was the first after a pair of mid-January Council meetings, during the first a split Council voted to greatly downsize the department; and a special meeting one night later to undo that decision. Anticipating a large crowd for follow-up debate, the city moved Monday’s meeting from City Hall to Yates Center Town Hall to accommodate a large crowd. Roughly 70 attended.
Read more: The Iola Register

Iolan Braxton Curry, who graduated from PSU in December with a degree in graphic communications, provided the winning submission in a community billboard contest. Braxton Curry graduated from Pittsburg State University in December, having earned a bachelor of science degree in graphic communications. It didn’t take her long to make her first mark in her post-college career. The Iola native’s design was picked this week by Iola’s Community Involvement Task Force-PRIDE members as the winner in a citywide billboard drawing contest. Curry’s design is a relatively simple one, with the word “IOLA” written in thick block letters, with each letter illustrating various community attractions, including imagery of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, the courthouse clock, Iola’s trails and the downtown business district.
Read more: The Iola Register

Southwest Kansas might take a big step toward water conservation in ways previously thought to be impossible. Groundwater Management District 3, headquartered in Garden City, is looking for feedback from local farmers on its plan to use less water for crop irrigation in the region. A discussion on proposed water cuts recently attracted farmers from counties across the southwest part of the state, who filled a small community building. Trevor Ahring, civil engineer for the district, told the sea of Kansas State University baseball caps and flannel shirts the details of the plan – all with the objective of easing the strain on the Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from South Dakota to Texas. “Our goals are to stabilize the aquifer over the course of 20 years; that’s a 27.7% reduction in use in this area,” Ahring said. For the first time, the groundwater management district is proposing potentially significant water cuts, reducing water pumping by 5% each year for the next 20 years. Farmers are ready to do the work, but these kinds of changes are not going to come easy, and there is still a lot of pushback.
Read more: The Iola Register

Iola’s newly established land bank is open for business. This bank is not a financial institution in a traditional sense. You can’t go in and ask for a loan, or even make a deposit. In fact, its only “assets” will be vacant lots, with the intention of filling them with new homes or businesses. The City of Iola Land Bank announced last week it is now accepting residential properties for donation. There are a few notable stipulations, said Matt Rehder, city administrator. For one, the land must be vacant with no structures, and at least 50 feet by 100 feet. The current owners must have a clear title, and must be up to date on property taxes. Secondly, the land must be donated. The city has no such thing as a “land bank” budget, Rehder noted, and thus will not be able to pay for any pieces of land. Similarly, the city would donate the property to prospective developers.
Read more: The Iola Register

The Manhattan Urban Area Planning Board has advanced new clarifications on Riley County’s short-term rental regulations, aiming to make enforcement more consistent and less subjective. The decision attempts to clarify vague wording with how county staff interpret when a 500-foot separation distance between units can be waived, so that decisions are based on clear standards and not arbitrary in nature. Short-term rental regulations have been in place since Riley County adopted its updated land-development regulations in 2022. County counselor Jacob Hansen told the planning board Monday that staff didn’t have any clear direction on when and how to interpret when a waiver should be granted.
Read more: themercury.com

Synopsis: K.S.A. 2-611 mandates that county residents elect the members of county extension councils. Because this statute concerns elections, counties may not invoke their home rule authority to exempt themselves from it.
Read more: Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2026-3

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

The Kansas Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a long-running dispute over an amended planned unit development application by the Riley County Commission, which Prairiewood Holdings LLC has appealed. The dispute centers on whether a protest petition from neighboring landowners has met the legal threshold under state law. The county board initially ruled the protest petition did not apply because the project was only a PUD and not a rezoning. The Court of Appeals disagreed, holding that because the amendment increased building square footage by more than 1% county regulations required the same process as a rezoning, including allowing protest petitions.
Read more: News Radio KMAN

The organizer of a petition against an agreement between the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said this week more than 200 people had signed the petition and that she hoped to speak with Sheriff David Falletti about the issue. “That’s all I want is a conversation that will hopefully lead to change,” Kaitlin Hicks said. “Sheriff Falletti has done a lot of really great things for our county and I have a lot of respect for him. Do I deeply, deeply disagree with the action the Sheriff’s department has made regarding this issue? Yes. Do I think it’s harmful to our county? Yes. However, I still respect him and I am thankful for his years of service.” The sheriff’s department signed an agreement with ICE in March that authorizes it to serve 48-hour detainers on behalf of ICE for people held in the Cowley County Jail, although Falletti said this week the jail had not implemented the practice because it had not yet received training to do so.
Read more: www.ctnewsonline.com

County officials say they are ready to take legal enforcement action against several property owners who have not complied with sanitation code regulations of wastewater lagoons. During the Jan. 29 County Commission meeting, Lyon County Counselor Molly Priest said that after having given notices to a number of property owners in the county, four or five had taken “little to no steps” towards compliance — mainly to do with fencing and vegetation issues — and could face Class C misdemeanor cases.
Read more: www.emporiagazette.com

The Olathe City Council is set to vote on a plan to use tax pledges to repay STAR bonds for the construction of a new Kansas City Chiefs team headquarters and practice facility, estimated to cost around $300 million.
Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports

We could know as early as next week the exact location of a new Chiefs domed stadium in Wyandotte County. The Unified Government (UG) said a public hearing on the project will be held in the near future, but the date for that has not been set. The public hearing comes before the UG Commission must vote to approve allowing incremental sales tax growth in the stadium and surrounding district to be used to help pay off the Sales Tax and Revenue or STAR Bonds. The commission must vote by Feb. 20.
Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV

The only thing missing was fateful “spaghetti western” music blaring from the sky. An impromptu snowball fight broke out on Jan. 28 between kids and members of the Newton Police Department in Military Park which resulted in heavy casualties for Newton PD. According to Chief Craig Dunlavy, the kids challenged members of the police department to the frozen water war in the afternoon and the department immediately accepted. “Who can resist a good snowball fight?” Dunlavy said. “Some of us in the office just went out, ‘let’s go have a little fun,’ we haven’t had snow in a while. We underestimated them, though.”
Read more: Harvey County Now

All through 2025, Halstead’s new industrial park speculative building sat empty. Mayor Gary Faelber wants to get someone into it by bringing in the assistance of a realtor. He told the council he was looking for a consensus to list the building with a realtor at the council’s meeting on January 28. The council discussed that possibility and agreed to meet with a realtor at a future date. City Manager Ethan Reimer confirmed that the building had been shown and that it’s available to all realtors through the LOIS (LocationOne) system, which is specific to commercial and industrial properties.
Read more: Harvey County Now

Individual retail investors (including their separately managed accounts), and their mutual fund proxies hold about 70% of outstanding municipal bonds according to MSRB data (MSRB-Muni-Facts.pdf).  ETFs, representing 4% of the market, comprise the fastest growing segment. Banks (including credit unions), held about 9% of outstanding municipal securities through Q3 2025, a 19% decline since 2022. Although insurance companies hold 9% of outstanding municipal bonds, their portfolio allocations to the asset class have been declining.
Read more: Bond Buyer

The report is called the Douglas County EV Readiness Report. It was produced by the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization and the city and county sustainability departments, and its goal is to support future planning for EV infrastructure as more electric cars get on the road.
Read more: LJWorld

A neighborhood squawk over chickens may be scratched — for now. The owner of eight hens and two roosters have rehomed the animals, but still faces a Valley Center Municipal Court hearing for potentially violating city ordinance. Meanwhile, others in the neighborhood around 63rd North and Sullivan on the south side of the city may have chickens or roosters that are disturbing the peace.
Read more: Ark Valley News

Fearing rising utility costs, job losses and privacy violations, residents have blocked or delayed data-center projects around the country.
Read more: Wall Street Journal

A Kansas native, Stiles has served in city governments in his home state for nearly 20 years, and is excited about the opportunity to take on this new challenge at the county level.
Read more: Salina Journal

Synopsis: K.S.A. 12-16,140 and 12-16,141 obligate state and local law enforcement officers to cooperate with federal immigration officials and to honor ICE detainer requests on the basis of such cooperation. State and local law enforcement officers are also authorized to arrest illegal aliens in cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Read more: Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2026-2

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

Lawrence has already fallen short of its 2025 goal for fully powering municipal operations with renewable energy, and city staff say this, along with other targets, is unrealistic and lacks a clear path on how to achieve them. Now, staff want to recommend repealing an ordinance passed in 2020 outlining all of these goals.
Read more: LJWorld.com

Why is Hillsboro Industries in Newton? Housing, for one. Last week, local elected officials, city staff, business owners and others involved in economic development heard from and asked questions to a panel including GAF VP Tommy Richardson and Hillsboro Industries CEO Michael Gerkin. Both individuals answered the question about what made Newton attractive to their companies. “Newton had a strategic plan, and Newton’s doing housing,” he said. Gerkin said the lack of available housing made them begin to look outside of Hillsboro, where the company began. As part of their search, they traveled up and down I-135, considering a location.
Read more: Harvey County Now

Panasonic is exploring a potential shift at its De Soto battery plant as electric-vehicle sales slow and artificial intelligence data centers create new energy storage opportunities.
Read more: Kansas City Business Journal

On Tuesday, the House Elections Committee held hearings on House Bill 2452, a proposal to increase accountability in local government by moving all Kansas elections to even-numbered years. Currently, most local elections are held in odd-numbered years, often seeing voter turnout below 20 percent and even falling into the single digits in many communities. The bill aims to boost participation and ensure elected officials are accountable to a broader electorate. Chairman Pat Proctor noted that a previous effort to move local elections from spring to November in odd years failed to increase turnout, with some areas still seeing fewer than 10 percent of voters participating. Proctor also said he believes the measure could help address one of Kansas’s biggest challenges- rapidly rising property taxes- by giving more voters a say in local government decisions.
Read more: KCLY Radio

Organizers released the route map for this year’s Biking Across Kansas on Saturday. The annual group bike ride from one end of the state to the other will take place in June. This year’s route will travel from the Colorado border to the Missouri border on a southern path. The route mainly travels along U.S. Highway 160 Highway, with some deviations onto U.S. 56, U.S. 400 and other highways along the way.
Read more: KSN-TV

City of Lawrence staff will make recommendations to commissioners to repeal a 2020 renewable energy ordinance and instate a new resolution aiming to attain climate neutrality by 2050, which would be tied to a countywide climate plan. Kathy Richardson, the city’s sustainability director, said that climate neutrality is defined by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding greenhouse gas use in government operations and throughout the community. This would mean Lawrence has a net-zero emission level. The resolution hasn’t been drafted yet, as staff members want to first gauge commissioners’ interest in pursuing a revised project while sunsetting the ordinance. 
Read more: The Lawrence Times

Six viral diseases — including COVID-19, the flu and norovirus — have been found at high concentrations in Lawrence wastewater as Kansas communities face peak flu season. COVID-19, influenza A and B, RSV, human metapneumovirus, and norovirus have all been detected at high concentrations in Lawrence wastewater within the last three weeks. Wastewater data indicates trends of illnesses spreading within a community but does not correlate to exact case numbers, with doctors saying it’s normal to see high concentrations of respiratory illness during flu season. “Wastewater data does not measure individual cases, but it provides a reliable picture of how much virus is circulating in a community,” said Veronica White, preparedness and epidemiology coordinator for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health. “This data captures viral genetic material shed by everyone using the sewer system. One factor that may be contributing to the higher concentrations of respiratory viruses seen in Lawrence’s wastewater is its larger population.”
Read more: The Lawrence Times

Humanities Kansas announces the five Kansas museums participating in “History Makers: The Future is Now,” an innovative statewide strategic planning initiative for rural museums from Humanities Kansas. Inspired by American’s 250th, “History Makers” recognizes the importance of local history in telling America’s stories. Franklin County Historical Society in Ottawa; Lincoln County Historical Society in Lincoln; Miners Hall Museum in Franklin; Scott County Historical Society in Scott City; and Wabaunsee County Historical Society in Alma; were selected through a competitive process to participate in the year-long initiative. As part of “History Makers,” the five museums will participate in statewide and local meetings with Carla Patterson, a nonprofit cultural consultant specializing in rural museums, and create a plan with tools to address the needs ahead.
Read more: Dodge City Daily Globe

As the countdown to the World Cup in Kansas City continues, business owners, cities, and others around the metro are looking for ways to capitalize on the economic boost it’s expected to bring. Some homeowners plan to list their homes as short-term rentals this summer, including John Buschmann, who is preparing to list his Olathe home as a short-term rental for World Cup visitors. “It’s going to be a financial boom for the entire city from restaurants, bars, nightly rentals, hotels, all that. It’s going to be great for the city, and I’m hoping to capitalize on that too,” Buschmann said. “When they decided to bring the World Cup here, it was kind of a no-brainer to at least look into it [Listing a short-term rental]. As we’re getting closer, we’re really starting to see what revenue looks like,” Buschmann said. The company Buschmann is listing with estimates that his short-term rental property could bring in tens of thousands of dollars, ranging from $40,000 to $60,000.
Read more: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV

Monica Curls still remembers being about 10 years old waiting around after Chiefs home games to get autographs from players on the team. Curls said her family has had season tickets since 2007. They also had season tickets in the 1970s when the Chiefs first moved into the Arrowhead Stadium, but those seats weren’t as good so the family got rid of their season tickets. They kept showing up for games, though. The Chiefs have announced plans to leave Missouri after getting more than $2 billion in incentives from Kansas. The team is expected to build a stadium in Wyandotte County and a mixed-used development in Olathe with a practice facility and team headquarters. Kansas has offered to finance 60% of the multi-billion dollar project, or $1.8 billion in bonds for the stadium and another $1 billion in bonds for other projects. One economist says this is the largest public subsidy of a professional sports stadium in American history. And Kansas did this to entice fans like Curls, and all the generations of her family, to spend their money in Kansas instead of Missouri.
Read more: Johnson County Post

During the growing season, bees, butterflies, and buyers swarm to the rippling strips of lavender on Rick and Ingrid Elam’s farm near Winfield. “It’s pretty amazing to watch all the bees and the moths and the butterflies and all the pollinators in there,” Rick Elam says. “A lot of people just take pictures of them as they go.” The Elams have two acres of lavender and 30 bee hives, from which they derive 32 products. But they’re thinking bigger these days, thanks to the launch of the Border Queen Harvest Hub in nearby Caldwell: a commercial kitchen that can increase their product line.  A harvest hub is a community-based operation that brings together producers, processors and distributors of local food. Those products can, in turn, be purchased locally, regionally, and nationally. The hub “helped quite a bit in getting our name out there,” Rick Elam says. “Now it’s up to us to fine-tune the products that we have and get those in the hands of the people that want them.” Recently launched hubs in Sumner, Sedgwick and Rice counties are thriving. A thriving food network in McCune, about 150 miles east of Wichita, is touted as an example for sparsely populated sectors of the state to emulate.
Read more: KLC Journal

Wichita voters head to the polls to weigh in on a proposed 1% sales tax in five weeks. If approved, the expected $850 million in revenue would be divvied up into five different categories. City staff presented several kinds of guardrails to the Wichita City Council on Tuesday. These rules would govern how the funds from the sales tax would be collected, distributed, and spent. The biggest funding commitment is restoring and expanding the Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center. Money would also be spent on public safety, property tax relief, housing and homeless services and a new downtown performing arts center.
Read more: KSN-TV

Ever have one of those weekends? Maybe you should ask the same question to the whole Oxford community. In a 12-hour span from late Friday evening to early Saturday morning in subarctic zero conditions, the Oxford community experienced not only an electrical outage but also a water break. Today, Oxford is operating at 100 percent after the Kansas Department of Health and Environment lifted a boil-water advisory this morning. The trouble started at 5 p.m. Friday evening when the lights went out in Oxford. The temperature was 7 degrees, with a wind chill of -14. At 7:48 p.m., short of three hours, power was restored. Oxford residents, like the rest of Sumner County, planned to spend the rest of the weekend hunkered down as the storm blew through. When Oxford residents woke up the next morning, many residents noticed that little to no water was coming out of their faucets. Oxford utility workers immediately headed north of town to the town wells and saw something they hadn’t expected — a newly formed lake that wasn’t frozen. “We have never had any problem with the water line before,” said Shannon Brister, Oxford City Clerk. “I would say this was the largest water leak in Oxford history.”
Read more: Sumner NewsCow

An estimated 650,000 visitors are expected to visit northeast Kansas and Kansas City in June and July, and businesses and the city are working to attract those visitors to Eudora. The 2026 World Cup is coming to the United States, Canada and Mexico, with Kansas City set to host six matches from June 16 to July 11. FIFA World Cup KC estimated that communities within a 200-mile radius will see an influx in tourism, according to previous reporting,  Jason Musick, owner of Barbwire Barbecue and a Conventions and Visitors Bureau member, said his business is waiting on what team, if any, decides to stay in Lawrence. FIFA highlighted Lawrence as a potential base camp for countries playing in the tournament, but final camp assignments will be released by the end of January. If a team chooses Lawrence, they will stay at the Oread Hotel and practice at Rock Chalk Park, according to Lawrence2026.com.
Read more: The Eudora Times