Longtime official, former Sedgwick County employee square off in Commission District 1

Republican Pete Meitzner and his Democratic challenger Kelli Grant both say they’re the candidate with the experience to help Sedgwick County navigate a debilitating staffing shortage as the District 1 county commissioner.

Meitzner, the incumbent, cites his private sector experience and 12 years in local government. Grant says her 22 years working in and around county departments give her the edge.

District 1 in northeast Sedgwick County includes east Wichita, Kechi, Bel Aire and Eastborough.

Commissioners make up the governing body for Sedgwick County and are paid $98,304 a year. Their responsibilities include setting policy direction and approving a budget for vital services such as EMS, 911, Comcare, corrections and the sheriff’s office.

“What I’ve learned is, the county is kind of the bones of the community,” said Meitzner, who served eight years on the Wichita City Council before being elected to the commission in 2018.

“A lot of people have never called 911 before but when you call them, you want them to answer. When you need an ambulance, you want that ambulance there in nine minutes, 10 minutes.”

Grant said she gained a deep appreciation for county services when she was a single mother and relied on Women Infant and Children (WIC) benefits for a period of time.

“My experience with WIC was a blessing,” Grant said.

“The role of the county in human services is to meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable in our population.”

Grant got her professional start with the county at Comcare, working as a case manager in a school and for people reintegrating into society after leaving prison. She went on to work on ADA, real estate and leasing projects for the county before serving as an HR training manager and finally as a budget analyst.

Grant, who owns a grant consulting firm, now sits on the Sedgwick County Corrections Advisory Board and the Wichita State University Institutional Review Board.

Meitzner said his private-sector career in telecommunications, data services and banking prepared him for the “business aspects” of county government, including overseeing a $500 million budget.

“It’s no secret I was the president of a publicly traded company on Nasdaq,” Meitzner said, referring to T-Netix, the telecom firm he co-founded.

“And I’ve just transitioned that experience and knowledge to local government. We don’t have shareholders like a publicly traded company but we do have citizens that expect services.”

Staffing shortage

The most serious threat to county services at the moment is a shortage of workers across numerous departments, the candidates agree.

Although the commission recently approved pay increases for county workers, chronic staffing shortages persist. Comcare has roughly 200 open positions, the Sedgwick County Jail is short 100 deputies and staffing issues forced the county to temporarily close a south Wichita WIC office.

“After 10 years of consultant recommendations to raise pay, that has recently happened,” Grant said. “Public servants work very hard and they deserve to have what they need to do their jobs, including equitable pay.”

She proposed hiring an “innovation or culture specialist” and implementing an open-door policy for county staff to improve retention.

Meitzner said staffing issues are a national trend, not the result of neglectful county leadership.

“The crisis of staffing shortages that’s going on around the country and the compensation wars that are going on around the country and in our community has opened electeds’ eyes,” Meitzner said.

“Maybe things that have been done that way for 20 years need to be changed. It’s not over. We’ll have to keep adjusting.”

COVID-19

Meitzner said one of the biggest challenges of his first term was navigating the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when he served as chair of the commission, which is also the county board of health.

The Republican-majority commission took a relatively hands-off approach to COVID restrictions, closing down businesses for a month before petitioning Gov. Laura Kelly to let them reopen. The commission repeatedly rejected mask mandates as county case counts swelled.

Meitzner said he learned to “balance health with the economy” during the pandemic. He said hospital capacity was the most important metric he used for making decisions.

“As soon as the hospital numbers started coming down, that’s when I wanted to let the public and the businesses and the schools — I wanted to let them all make their decisions,” Meitzner said.

“I was able to have tremendous relationships already within the medical community and the business community and the restaurant hospitality community, so personally, I was able to lean on those people to give me their feedback.”

Grant said the commission needs to appoint an “advisory board of experts and citizens” for future health crises to keep politics from guiding decision-making.

“As commissioner, I will lean on the advice of both the advisory board and experts in the community,” Grant said. “I will listen to science and weigh community impacts, social and economic, of each decision.”

Grant said the county should be doing more to support victims of domestic violence, which increased dramatically during the pandemic. Sedgwick County has the highest frequency of domestic violence incidents, arrests and homicides in the state, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

“We have a significant domestic violence issue in our community that needs some pretty serious attention,” Grant said.

“A specialized court for domestic violence would be very beneficial.”

Such a court would likely feature a dedicated judge, on-site victim advocacy and ongoing judicial supervision.

The District 1 race is one of three County Commission contests on the Nov. 8 ballot. Early in-person voting in Sedgwick County runs from Oct. 24 through Nov. 7.