The Issues

1. Vacant land sales and city debt

I am concerned about the current debt burden placed on Bel Aire taxpayers. Forward-thinking administrations allowed the city to expand and grow in recent years and for that we are grateful, but as a result the city continues to be financially responsible for more than 1,700 acres of un-used and unsold land. The interest payment alone on the remaining unsold land totals $1.6 million each year. Combined with payments on the land, water district and city building, city debt chokes the current budget. This means important city council issues including road improvements, beautification projects, business promotion, and park improvements are extremely limited or nonexistent. Additionally, future economic development and city marketing projects are on hold. We urgently need leaders with the financial and political skills and discipline to make wise financial decisions for the future.

As a Bel Aire City Council member, my number one objective will be to significantly reduce, if not erase, the city debt. We will do this by prudently speeding up land sales and investing in the future by attracting businesses that will provide employment opportunities to the citizens of Bel Aire and a steady tax revenue base for the city. We will also be known as a business and family-friendly community.

After the debt is paid, we can then look at expanding and improving roads, parks and recreation departments, and beautification projects as well as the preservation of green spaces.

2. Road Improvements

It is vital that streets are improved to improve the city’s financial situation. Improving traffic flow on Woodlawn and Oliver at 45th are necessary. We need to widen the intersections and install stoplights. Improving Rock Rd. and the intersection at 45th St. will improve our appearance to potential developers. It needs to be widened, cleaned up and the asphalt re-surfaced. These will be my top three road priorities.

The city council must stretch its dollars as far as possible. Until more debt is paid off, the city must look at all alternatives including temporary (less than 10-year) solutions and a voter approved tax increase.

3. Promoting Bel Aire

The city recently created a new website to inform citizens and promote our services to out-of-town potential developers. The council needs to use its website to promote Bel Aire businesses to our residents and the community at large. I will explore setting up an electronic water bill payment option on the website. In the 21st century, this will drive traffic to the site regularly and there they will see our featured businesses and learn about its products and services.

4. Being sued for Jail fees

In 1985 the Sedgwick County commission announced they’d stop charging cities, including Bel Aire, for jail fees. Two years ago, however, they voted to start charging these fees again beginning in January 2008. Bel Aire and six other municipalities have refused to pay and are now being sued by the county. Bel Aire maintains it is already paying for these services in another form and should not be charged with them again. I believe this is double taxation. The county maintains it never levied the tax, but the 1985 law remains on the books. And therein lies the dispute.

This issue is currently in the hands of attorneys.

Under the county's policy, cities are charged only for inmates booked for breaking their own laws. If a city books a suspect on a felony charge, or on a warrant issued by another law jurisdiction, that city isn't billed. As a direct result, Bel Aire police have begun looking into lesser punishments including community service sentences, day reporting and other alternatives to incarceration. Lesser and easier punishment for crime is a wimpy deterrent to potential criminals and therefore jeopardizing the safety of Bel Aire citizens.

The Wichita Eagle reported on March 2, 2009, that bookings at the Sedgwick County Jail were down 9 percent last year. Wichita amassed a bill of more than $3 million in jail fees in 2008 that it refused to pay and their bookings were down 10.4 percent.

In the six other cities, including Bel Aire, that haven't paid the fees, bookings were down an average of 8.6 percent last year. This is scary. We cannot allow individuals who belong in jail to roam our streets freely due to an on-going dispute.

The case is not expected to go to trial until next year.