Municipal News & Jobs

Riley County’s planning board is making progress on its short-term rental regulations. At Monday’s county commission meeting, the planning director presented a draft with updated language on licensing requirements and other rules for commissioner feedback. One planned requirement for short-term rentals (also called vacation rentals, commonly rented on sites like Airbnb and VRBO) is a responsible agent. Webb added a rule that the responsible agent must live in Riley County while guests are in the short-term rental.
Source: themercury.com – RSS Results in news of type article

National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week is April 13 through 19, and it highlights the essential role dispatchers fill in emergency responses, according to Kyle McCaskey, Harvey County public information officer. The department has 24 people working there altogether, with four of those being part-time dispatchers and three being administrative.
Source: Harvey County Now

The new law updates the Kansas Open Records Act and Kansas Open Meetings Act, and a provision in it says that any governing body or agency that “elects to live stream their meeting on television, the internet or any other medium shall ensure that all aspects of the open meeting are available through the selected medium for the public to observe.” That would affect the Lawrence City Commission, which currently does not include all parts of its meetings in its live broadcasts on YouTube.
Source: LJWorld

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 stock market has been the acute point of stress for investors the past week. But the bond market hasn’t given them much of a break either. On Tuesday, as the S&P 500 tumbled for a fourth straight day, prices of long-term U.S. Treasury debt fell, too. That drove their yields, which move in an inverse relationship to prices, higher. It was especially confounding because long-term Treasury prices in preceding days hadn’t gained as much as they normally would in the face of a steep-stock market selloff. So much for government debt being a haven at a time of upheaval. The big question is why Treasury yields have behaved this way.
Source: WSJ.com: Markets

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.

Last week, Wichita city leaders extended an agreement with the McPherson County Conservation District. The agreement is meant to work with farmers to reduce levels of atrazine in the Little Arkansas River, keeping those chemicals from being recharged into the Equus Beds Aquifer…. “That we pay farmers $100 an acre when they plant cropland back to grass,” Howard Miller, a leader for the Cheney Lake Watershed, said.
Source: KSN-TV

A new partnership between Fort Hays Tech Northwest and the Goodland Police Department may help speed up investigations for the department. … The school says the agreement will establish a fully functioning fingerprint lab at the Goodland Police Department.
Source: KSN-TV

The Villalobos family has been raising chickens in their backyard for five years. “So, at the start of COVID, we got chickens. We decided to hedge against some security. As everything started locking down, we wanted the kids to have something to do for fun, and it also gave us eggs,” Jeremy Villalobos said.
Source: KSN-TV

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.

Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday signed seven more bills, bringing to 29 the number of pieces of legislation that she has signed into law this year. So far, she has vetoed four bills, including two on Monday. She has been overridden twice so far, with the Legislature scheduled to return April 10 for more veto override votes. She has allowed three bills to become law without her signature.
Source: Sunflower State Journal

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that he expects President Donald Trump’s tariffs to raise inflation and lower growth, and indicated that the central bank won’t move on interest rates until it gets a clearer picture on the ultimate impacts. In a speech delivered before business journalists in Arlington, Va., Powell said the Fed faces a “highly uncertain outlook” because of the new reciprocal levies the president announced Wednesday. Though he said the economy currently looks strong, he stressed the threat that tariffs pose and indicated that the Fed will be focused on keeping inflation in check.
Source: Bonds

Should Wichita’s mayor have more power? Or should an unelected city manager continue to be the city’s most powerful official? As it stands, the mayor is the only official elected citywide. But she has no executive powers and can’t enact her agenda without the support of three other council members, who represent smaller districts. The city manager, who is appointed by the council, prepares the budget, chooses department heads and manages the daily operations of the city government.
Source: Wichita Kansas Local News, Crime & More |

The upcoming Rural Living Resource Fair will seek to connect community members with experts and resources designed for rural living, including a range of local vendors. The event, hosted by K-State Research and Extension Douglas County, is set for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 12 at the county fairgrounds. It’s free and open to all, and no registration is required. Local experts will be present to speak on topics such as zoning and codes; well and pond management; prairie, wildlife and woodland management; brush clearing and noxious weed control; land preservation and more, according to a news release announcing the event.
Source: The Lawrence Times

Five of the six southwest Kansas counties reporting measles cases have seen kindergarten vaccination rates drop, one showing a 24 percentage point dip over a four-year period. Vaccination rates are one focus of many Kansas county health officers and medical experts as they work to educate against misinformation about vaccines in the hopes of staving off a growing measles outbreak. As of April 2, Kansas has 24 confirmed measles cases in Grant, Gray, Haskell, Kiowa, Morton and Stevens counties, with one case added in the past week.
Source: Wichita Kansas Local News, Crime & More |

Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday signed a bill that’s intended to create a better climate for keeping hundreds millions of dollars invested in Kansas banks. The legislation adopts a new strategy to encourage local governments to deposit their funds in banks based in Kansas. The bill is intended to ensure taxpayer dollars are invested in local communities, increase economic activity in the state, and provide Kansans access to additional capital to finance investments in their home, business, or community.
Source: Sunflower State Journal

For the first time since 2013, population growth patterns in Johnson County have necessitated a change in the boundary lines that determine which areas, municipalities and neighborhoods county commissioners represent. Commissioners kicked off the redistricting process Thursday with an introductory meeting with an official from HaystaqDNA, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that specializes in political marketing and redistricting. New maps are required when the county’s district populations become out of balance, which generally means there is at least a 10% deviation between them, said Haystaq President Anrdrew Drechsler.
Source: Johnson County Post

The Holcomb Police Department has announced the creation of the Holcomb Police Explorer Post # 2011, a program designed to engage local youth interested in law enforcement careers. Recruitment for the program will began Friday at Holcomb High School. The Explorer Post will offer students hands-on learning experiences, mentorship from officers, and opportunities to develop leadership skills while gaining insight into police work.
Source: Garden City Telegram

Investors pulled money out of municipal bond funds in March, as widespread uncertainty around President Trump’s policies mixed with concerns that the securities funding most of the country’s infrastructure could lose their tax-exempt status. Borrowing costs for local governments are now ticking higher as municipal bond supply increases while demand weakens, making it more expensive for local governments to finance public works.
Source: WSJ.com: Markets