Wichita council members criticize mayor for not announcing his trip to White House

Wichita City Council members say they’re frustrated that Mayor Brandon Whipple visited the White House last week without their approval, which isn’t required under city policy because he wasn’t there on city business and didn’t use public funds.

Whipple said he didn’t announce the trip to the council — or the public — before leaving because he fears for the safety of family after receiving multiple threats in the past year and a half.

One of those threats resulted in criminal charges against a former Wichita firefighter who sought Whipple’s whereabouts in text messages to James Clendenin, a past City Council member whom Whipple is suing for his involvement in a false smear campaign and cover-up.

“Frankly, I don’t want people to know when my wife and my three little kids are home alone,” he said.

Whipple spent three days in the nation’s capital last week for the New Deal Leadership Conference, an annual conference for Democratic politicians to share policy ideas. City Council members didn’t learn about the trip until the conference was finished.

Whipple has been a member of the organization for seven years, and he said he views it as a professional development and networking opportunity.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the trip spurred a lengthy and heated argument between Whipple and several members of the City Council, primarily Jared Cerullo.

“I’m just arguing why didn’t you discuss with this body ahead of time about this great and productive trip that you had to the White House,” Cerullo said. “I think that’s a fair question.”

Whipple said in a phone interview that the trip was “extracurricular” and not an official trip on behalf of the city and thus did not need to be disclosed.

“The idea that I need to seek out council members and ask them if it’s OK that I use my own resources to participate in a training that I’ve been participating in for the last seven years, and will continue to participate in, that’s a little bit far fetched,” he said.

“Being mayor and acting as mayor are separate things,” Whipple told council members on Tuesday.

But council members Cerullo, Bryan Frye, Jeff Blubaugh and Cindy Claycomb disagreed with Whipple, saying it’s tradition for the mayor to ask permission before taking a trip that could have policy implications.

“I take offense to that, and this entire city should take offense to that,” Cerullo said. “The reasonable thing to do would have been to discuss this ahead of time with your fellow board members acting on behalf of this city.”

Whipple said he didn’t ask for permission from the council because he wasn’t there on city business or the city’s dime. He paid for the trip himself and will be reimbursed for some of the expenses by the New Deal organization, he said.

As part of the conference, Whipple received information from White House staff on a $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill to fund repairs on roads and bridges, public transit, rail service, climate change resilience and broadband service across the country. Some of that funding is expected to come to Wichita.

“I don’t think any of us are saying that you broke an ordinance or a law,” Frye said. “I think we’re just asking for greater transparency, as that’s been a focal point of yours for the last few years.

“We’ve created an ethics board, and we’re saying that if we’re going to do this the right way, we should all live by the same rules.”

Whipple told The Eagle he plans to report the travel reimbursement on his gift disclosure form under the new ethics policy.

“If anyone had any questions about this trip, they could have texted me, they could have called me, they could have walked into my office down the hall,” Whipple said. “Instead, they weirdly used a City Council meeting to ambush me about a personal trip when we have actual governing to do.”

Mayor questions motives

The trip discussion was the latest point of dissension between Wichita’s mayor and council members, who have clashed with Whipple on nearly all of his major policy initiatives.

This fall, Whipple actively supported two challengers — Maggie Ballard and Mike Hoheisel — who defeated Cerullo and Claycomb in the city elections, giving Whipple an apparently friendly majority on the council next year for the first time since he took office in 2020.

He said he hopes the new council members will help bring an end to “the drama” seen at Tuesday’s meeting.

“The people of Wichita want to see us get stuff done, even if people on the council don’t like me,” Whipple said.

Not all of the council feedback was negative. The council members didn’t question the trip as much as they questioned Whipple’s communications about the trip.

“The fact that you got invited, that’s fantastic,” Frye said. “It’s good for Wichita.”

“I’m not saying this was a bad trip at all,” Cerullo said. “I’m saying, ‘Hey, more power to you if you were invited to the White House.’ That’s great for the city of Wichita. I would just expect something this big would have been discussed with other council members in this body beforehand.”

No taxpayer money

Whipple’s trip is unusual compared to other council members’ trips because he didn’t tap city funds or seek council approval, Eagle research found.

The City Council has wide latitude to fund trips, and it typically approves travel requests without discussing who’s paying for what and without any description of travel costs in the City Council agenda packet.

The agenda reports do not say how much the trips cost the city. And records of city officials’ travel are not easily accessible by the public.

Past expense reports are stored in boxes at the Hutchinson salt mines, and the city has previously quoted nearly $50 in delivery and return fees per box to pull them out of storage, according to a response to an Eagle Kansas Open Records Act request.

Council members are required to have council approval only if they’re using public funds.

The city-sponsored trips run the gamut from business conferences and political networking to dedication ceremonies and lobbying.

Recent examples of council-approved travel include a trip to Las Vegas for Frye and council member Becky Tuttle to attend the National Business Aviation Association Convention. Vice Mayor Brandon Johnson, Frye and Tuttle traveled to Oklahoma City for an annual city-to-city trip for the Wichita Chamber of Commerce.

Claycomb received City Council approval to travel to Washington, D.C., in 2019 for a conference for the White House Women Municipal Leaders.

Johnson was approved to attend a conference in 2019 in Miami for the Young Elected Officials Conference, an event held by the progressive advocacy organization People for the American Way Foundation.

For several years, the city has paid a portion of the expenses for Frye and other Republican council members to attend the annual Community Leaders of America conferences around the country. The group describes itself as a “national forum of Republican mayors, city council members and county leaders.”