The Unified Government Board of Commissioners worked through a fiscal-heavy agenda on May 21, setting solid waste fees, authorizing $66.9 million in new bonds, and clearing two land bank housing projects, all before the gavel fell ahead of 6:30 p.m.
Three members were absent with memos, commissioners Jermaine Howard (District 1), Evelyn Hill (District 4), and Phil Lopez (District 6), leaving seven alongside Mayor Christal Watson on the dais.
Waste fee shifts costs to Bonner Springs, Edwardsville
The commission adopted the 2027 solid waste fee rates on a 6-2 vote, the meeting’s closest call. With only five commissioners in favor, Watson had to cast the deciding vote. Andrew Kump (At-Large District 2) and Chuck Stites (District 7) opposed the measure.
Public Works Director Troy Shaw said the chosen option keeps most charges flat but bills Bonner Springs and Edwardsville for county-wide services such as household hazardous waste disposal, costs he said that KCK residents have been subsidizing. The change, he said, “basically pulls that [subsidy] and puts the actual cost of service to Bonner Springs and Edwardsville for equity throughout the community.”
Commissioner Carlos Pacheco (District 5) stressed that access to the services is not changing. “This does not mean that the citizens of Bonner Springs and Edwardsville do not have access to these opportunities for solid waste disposal,” he said. “It just means that the cost of it is spread out more equitably throughout the county.”
Bond package funds sewers and delayed city projects
Across three separate votes, each 6-1 with Stites opposed, the commission authorized up to $66.9 million in general obligation bonds. Chief Financial Officer Shelley Kneuvean said the single issuance covers $55.5 million in sanitary sewer work and about $10 million in general city projects, including design of a west-side police station, a new fire station, a salt dome, and bridges. Bundling the projects into one issuance, she said, holds down the cost of borrowing.
Kneuvean noted that the city paused new borrowing a year ago. “If you recall in 2025 for the city side, we did no new bond issues,” she said. “We took a debt pause.” The sanitary sewer work, by contrast, sits in an enterprise fund and is required under the government’s federal consent decree, so it could not wait. “Those projects are repaid by the ratepayers that pay on their monthly bill,” she said.
Commissioner Christian Ramirez (District 3) drew out the link between the borrowing and the sewer rates the commission raised earlier this month, confirming that the higher bond figure tracks the rate increase and keeps the government on schedule with its Environmental Protection Agency obligations.
Grant policy heads back to committee
Staff asked the commission to raise the threshold for required approval of grant applications from $50 thousand to $100 thousand, and combine grant application and acceptance under a single vote. Commissioner Andrew Davis (District 8), works with grants professionally, pushed for still more flexibility, particularly for grants that require no local match.
“Our scheduling is so rigid that it just doesn’t allow for the flexibility that staff needs at times to quickly act,” Davis said. He framed the stakes plainly: “What I don’t want is for us to kind of dampen the ambition and the need to go after those grants in the first place.”
Melissa Bynum (At-Large District 1) urged caution, recalling a federal body-camera grant the UG once accepted and later returned because of the local costs it carried. “Just because there’s no cash match associated specifically with the grant, we might still be incurring a great deal of cost,” she said.
County Administrator David Johnston offered to draft an administrative order spelling out how departments could move quickly on opportunities while keeping the commission in the loop. The board then voted 7-0 to remand the policy to the Administration and Human Services Standing Committee, chaired by Ramirez, for revisions. Earlier in the evening, the commission had approved on its consent agenda a no-match $70 thousand Love Your Block grant facing a June 1 deadline, the kind of fast-moving opportunity cited in the debate.
Land bank duplexes advance amid housing needs
Sitting as the Land Bank Board of Trustees, the commission approved two development applications from Urban Haven on a pair of 7-0 votes, clearing the way for duplexes and a single-family home on vacant land bank parcels in the northeast. A neighborhood group had objected, citing the broader economy.
Pacheco said the opposition “didn’t hold water” for land that is sitting idle. Davis was blunt about the need. “We are in a housing crisis right now,” he said, arguing that development drives broader investment. “Getting more rooftops leads to higher probability of getting grocery stores and getting other amenities for the community.”
Kump echoed the point. “More housing on the market will help drive down the cost of housing,” he said, calling the work “an investment in an area that has historically been disinvested.” Redevelopment Coordinator Michael Sutton said one applicant had trimmed its project and agreed to build a single-family home in response to neighborhood concerns.
World Cup, travel, and recognitions
The commission adopted a preemptive disaster declaration ahead of the World Cup, a step coordinated with Johnson and Douglas counties and the state that would let the government draw emergency resources faster if severe weather or another emergency strikes during the tournament. Members also approved, 7-0, a fully funded trip for Hill to represent the government at the NACo Public Health Leadership Academy in Washington, D.C., one of about 10 awards made from more than 80 applications.
Bynum, delivering announcements, recognized Emergency Medical Services Week and National Public Works Week and noted that three Wyandotte County law enforcement officers had their names added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, among them Officer Hunter Simoncic and Deputy Elijah Ming.