Half of the members of the Unified Government Board of Commissioners are up for election this fall, with the potential to shape decisions affecting Kansas City, Kansas, and the rest of Wyandotte County for the next four years.
Fifteen candidates are running to represent the four districts in the southeastern corner of the county, including four candidates in the race for District 4, where Harold Johnson has decided not to run for reelection. On Aug. 1, Wyandotte County voters will vote in the primary election, and the top two vote-getters in each race will proceed to the general election on Nov. 7.
District 4 covers areas of Kansas City, Kansas, that mainly lie between Minnesota Avenue and Parallel Parkway, east of 47th Street. It also includes a northern portion of the Kensington neighborhood.
The 10-member Board of Commissioners governs Kansas City, Kansas, and the rest of Wyandotte County, making decisions about the yearly budget, public safety, development and city services. The meetings are overseen by the mayor and CEO, currently Tyrone Garner, who sets the agenda.
To prepare for this year’s Unified Government election, The Beacon reached out to all candidates in the four competitive primary races with a three-part questionnaire. These questionnaires include biographical questions, four lightning-round yes-or-no questions and five short-answer policy questions. Some responses have been lightly edited for length or clarity.
Following the primary election on Aug. 1, two candidates will be eliminated, and the other two will proceed to the general election on Nov. 7.
The four candidates in the District 4 race are Brandie Armstrong, Evelyn Hill, Tarence Maddox and Pamela Penn-Hicks.
Tarence Maddox received the questionnaire but did not return answers prior to publication. Pamela Penn-Hicks did not respond to a voicemail, and the email address on her campaign business card returned a bounce-back email.
Click on a link to jump to a question:
- Meet the candidates
- Lightning-round questions
- How would you increase affordable housing in Wyandotte County?
- What would you do to improve public safety?
- Would you do anything to make property tax assessment more fair?
- What should the Unified Government do to address the issue of rising houselessness?
- If elected, what issues will you make your own?
Meet the candidates
Brandie Armstrong
Armstrong is a paralegal and has also worked as an organizer and campaign manager.
Favorite place to get tacos in KCK: I am particularly fond of the birria tacos from Nunez Foods.
Favorite thing to do or favorite festival in KCK: I love going to the farmers and La Placita markets on Saturdays and then going around Central and State Avenue and trying the food stands and food trucks that are there.
Evelyn Hill
Hill is a consultant at her practice Evelyn Hill Consulting and served as president of the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education from 2014 to 2017.
Favorite place to get tacos in KCK: The restaurant Margarita’s (close to the Kansas-Missouri line).
Favorite thing to do or favorite festival in KCK: Wyandotte County Fair
Lightning round questions
Candidates were asked for a yes-or-no position in response to these four questions:
- Should the Department of Justice investigate the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department?
- Should officials be allowed to hold more than one elected position at a time?
- Should the Board of Commissioners have limited the mayor’s powers in February 2023?
- Should housing developments receiving tax incentives be required to include units at affordable rent prices?
How would you increase affordable housing in Wyandotte County?
Armstrong: Other than seeking out and courting developers that are interested in bringing attainable housing to Wyandotte County, particularly District 4, I would also like to see a housing trust fund, similar to the one in KCMO, that is meant to create opportunities for attainable housing in Wyandotte County to be created and funded with grant money. I would also want to look at parking requirements and other bureaucratic hurdles hindering attainable housing projects from occurring.
Hill: I would begin to inquire about successful housing projects nationwide and how they were able to leverage low-income housing using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) with developers to begin the process to execute building mixed-income affordable housing units in District 4.
What would you do to improve public safety?
Armstrong: I believe that we must first look at the residency requirement and how it could be hindering our public safety departments from hiring and staying fully staffed. Beyond that I also believe that we need to ensure that the Law Enforcement Advisory Board has the ability and tools to be a true liaison between the community, the Unified Government, the KCKPD and sheriff’s offices so that our community feels like it has a resource to not only seek help from law enforcement but also as a way to ensure accountability from our law enforcement officers.
Hill: I would work with the group Churches United for Justice to begin the process of identifying successful crime prevention solutions and work with the commission to find solution-based narratives as was cited in Oakland, California, and New Jersey that reduced violence. I would also work with the police department to engage in more community projects that could reduce gun violence in our community.
Would you do anything to make property tax assessment more fair?
Armstrong: Absolutely, we need to ensure that oversight is occurring at the assessor’s office and that the assessors are acting properly and fairly to prevent redlining that has occurred in the past from happening in the future. We also need to leverage the lobbying power of the Unified Government to petition Topeka for property tax relief such as freezing property taxes at current rates for those 65 and older.
Hill: I would be strategic to work with the commission to manage the mill levy relative to the evaluations that we don’t control.
What should the Unified Government do to address the issue of rising houselessness?
Armstrong: First and foremost, we need to do everything in the Unified Government’s power to open a permanent homeless shelter in Wyandotte County, as one does not currently exist. But I would also like to create the housing trust fund previously mentioned that would work to tackle this issue head-on by using those funds to bring in projects and services to aid those experiencing homelessness and also to help bolster mutual aid and work to make sure our community members get to stay in their homes.
Hill: I would work with the commission to consider requesting a federal grant to assist with shelter resources. I would also work with the other tiny-home project developers that could build housing for the homeless who have the capacity to pay around $250-$300 a month.
If elected, what issues will you make your own?
Armstrong: I want to work to make the Unified Government more accessible to its constituents by ensuring that we have translators at meetings and that everything that comes out of the Unified Government is multilingual. I would also tackle the development and housing issue in District 4 and northeast Wyandotte County head-on by working to find and help write grants as well as finding other unique solutions and opportunities for development. I also want to work with the community and departments in the Unified Government to fight for tax relief.
Hill: Affordable housing, unhoused neighbors, and public safety.
