Sedgwick County needs to mellow out in fight with Wichita over marijuana | Editorial

Sedgwick County is throwing a tantrum over the city of Wichita’s move to halt prosecutions for small quantities of marijuana or the paraphernalia to smoke it.

There’s really no other way to describe it.

The County Commission seems to be under the impression that if the City Council chooses not to prosecute people for small-time possession charges in Municipal Court, it will be up to the county-funded District Court to take up the slack.

The commissioners, especially their chairman, David Dennis, think they can bill City Hall for the extra cost.

On Wednesday, commissioners directed their staff to compile a report on what it would cost for the county to take over the prosecutions.

“The costs should include the cost of booking individuals, the cost of anything in the jail, forensics science center, (police) testifying, the DA’s costs, attorneys for their defense and any other expenses we incur as a result of (the city’s) action,” Dennis said.

Mayor Brandon Whipple says the county can send a bill, but the city isn’t going to pay it.

“There’s no way they can charge us for decisions they make,” he said, citing the separation of powers between county and city governments. “It’d be like if we tore down the Sedgwick County Zoo and sent them the bill for doing it.”

Speaking of zoos, the county is pretty much in disarray at this point.

Commissioner Lacey Cruse is on the outs with her colleagues after calling a Black female bartender Sheena or Shaquetta or something similar. Stories vary, but the bartender and the owner of the XY Bar took offense, 86’ed Cruse, banned her in the future and went public with it.

When her fellow commissioners pounced on her, charging racial insensitivity, Cruse fired back that they’re corrupted by private-jet junkets to tour a mental-health campus in San Antonio.

The developers who provided the trips — one of whom, Jeff Lange, is an on-call Realtor for the county — are proposing to build a similar mental-health center here in conjunction with the county’s Comcare mental health agency.

Lange Real Estate also wants to buy a downtown parking lot from the county for a bar and dog run catering to owners and their pets.

That’s sparked conflict with another influential development partnership. Old Town developers Dave Burk, Dave Wells, Jerry Jones, Pat Do and Steve Barrett own the Wave venue across the street from the lot and it’s been their de facto free parking for years.

The general animosity among commissioners spilled over into Wednesday’s discussion of the county’s response to the city’s planned marijuana policy.

When Cruse sought to question staff about the county’s share of money from a state settlement with producers of opioid drugs, Dennis shut her down, ruling her queries irrelevant.

His victory in parliamentary procedure was short-lived. Minutes later, Cruse brought it up again during “other,” when commissioners can discuss anything they want.

So here we are. Commissioners sniping each other while lobbing rhetorical shells at City Hall.

It’s happened before. And when our local governments fight, it’s seldom that the public wins.

Whether marijuana cases are handled by District Court or Municipal Court, the cost goes way beyond the county and city checkbooks.

The City Council is rightly tired of pursuing petty and outdated crimes that saddle young people with drug convictions and limit their future career prospects for no good reason.

The county needs to quit rattling sabers, get its act together and work with the city to figure out how to resolve this as efficiently and economically as possible.

The public deserves no less.