Wichita council seeks to tie $5K police bonuses to officer accountability changes

Some Wichita City Council members want to tie police bonuses to officer accountability before the balance of power on the council swings to a majority that’s more aligned with the Fraternal Order of Police.

The Democrat-majority council voted Nov. 21 to delay awarding the bonuses until the city can come to terms with the FOP on other changes to the police union contract.

Wichita Police Chief Joseph Sullivan has led public criticism of that move, calling the vote a “setback” and voicing support for the $5,000 bonuses for all officers.

The $4.3 million unbudgeted change to the FOP contract would be funded by unspent salary dollars and reserve funds in an effort to retain officers as the department’s staff struggles to grow.

The proposal did not include any of the changes recommended by Jensen Hughes, a national police consultant hired by the city in 2022 for $220,000 to assess the culture within the department and recommend reforms, including several changes to the FOP contract.

Instead, it would have paid out $5,000 bonuses — after taxes — to officers before the holidays. The stated purpose of the bonuses was to retain officers who are eligible for retirement. But there was nothing in the proposal that prevented officers from quitting the day after receiving the money.

Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple — whose term ends in January after a bitter fight with the FOP during the mayoral campaign — said it’s inappropriate to amend the FOP contract without adopting any of the changes recommended by Jensen Hughes.

The Jensen Hughes recommendations aim to increase police accountability and restore public confidence in the department in the aftermath of a mishandled internal investigation into racist text messages sent and received by SWAT team members.

Whipple on Tuesday directed city staff to bring the bonuses back for a vote “along with the contract and ask staff to also include Jensen Hughes recommendations so that we can vote on this as one big package.”

“This item — I don’t want it to be voted down,” Whipple said of the bonuses. “But there are folks who are looking towards the reforms and then also the larger context of the contract, and, therefore, if we move it, it gives us an opportunity to have this part of the larger picture.”

The council vote split on party lines, with Democrats Whipple, Maggie Ballard, Mike Hoheisel and Brandon Johnson voting for the delay and Republicans Jeff Blubaugh, Bryan Frye and Becky Tuttle voting against it.

“We’ve heard from the community on the Jensen Hughes reforms and some of the concerns about this bonus going forward,” Johnson said. “I think most of us agree that we need to retain officers, but that kind of gives more to what the community demands of us as well, so if they’re able to see that contract with the reforms in there as well as the retention bonus by the end of the year, I think that kind of checks all the boxes for the things that we’ve been asked.”

The FOP-supported council

A new council will take office in January. The Democrats’ narrow majority will disappear when Mayor-elect Lily Wu, a longtime Republican who recently changed her registration to Libertarian, replaces Whipple. All four candidates who won this fall carried the endorsements of the FOP — Wu, Tuttle, Dalton Glasscock and JV Johnston — giving the police union a friendly majority going into contract negotiations in 2024.

In a recorded statement posted on social media, Sullivan said the delay has changed “the landscape of the current negotiation,” raising questions about whether the FOP will balk at any contract changes until the new council is seated.

FOP President Dave Inkelaar said the delay does not affect negotiations with the city.

“It doesn’t change anything,” he said in a written statement. “We will continue to work with the city to fix the issues. We are continuing negotiations.”

“The matter of Mayor Whipple, Council members Maggie Ballard, Mike Holeisel, and Brandon Johnson delaying the bonus was disappointing,” he wrote. “The action of the Mayor felt incredibly personal and retaliatory. This directly affected the morale of the Officers and shows a lack of support.

“The FOP has been working together with the city to address the issues brought forward in the Jensen Hughes study. We will continue to work with the city.”

Sullivan, in his recorded statement, called the bonuses “an unconditional token of appreciation” and said “it is disheartening when well-deserved recognition of hard work faces delays.”

“This bonus — negotiated and agreed upon in good faith by the FOP, WPD leadership and various stakeholders within city government — was intended as an unconditional token of appreciation for the tireless efforts of our officers who have been working short-handed throughout this year.”

The FOP issued a statement half an hour after Sullivan’s posted online that closely mirrored his language but called out the council members by name who voted for the delay.

“The bonus was agreed upon under good faith by the FOP, WPD command, and (City Manager) Robert Layton,” the FOP statement said. “The bonus was an unconditional offer, showing the City’s appreciation to the Officers for all their hard work and for working the streets shorthanded. The bonus was never tied to the Jensen Hughes study but that was being addressed in the early opening of the contract. We have worked with the City and Wichita Police Department Leadership to address all the issues brought forth in the Jensen Hughes study.”

“The actions in today’s meeting appeared to be personal,” the FOP statement said. “Mayor Whipple’s actions today undermined the process and has caused even lower moral (sic) and frustration with the members. We want to thank the Officers who tirelessly work to ensure the community’s safety. Though some of the council does not care, we appreciate all that you do.”

Wu and Glasscock applauded Sullivan’s recorded message on Facebook.

“We can’t continue to kick this down the road — Wichita is better than this,” Wu wrote. “We must stand with our police and ensure pay is regionally competitive.”

“Dear Chief Sullivan and the brave women and men of the Wichita Police Department,” Glasscock wrote. “We see and hear you, and very soon, you will know what it means to be supported in the way you should be.”

Staffing crisis?

The Wichita Police Department is authorized to hire 708 commissioned officers, an increase of 58 since 2019.

But it has 106 unfilled positions, a number that’s expected to go down in January when a new class of 23 recruits graduate from the academy, three previous employees are rehired and nine recruits join who were part of an “early onboard process” for the January 2024 class.

That leaves WPD to start 2024 with the same number of commissioned officers it had at the start of 2019 — 634 — which is nine more officers than the previous five-year average starting in 2014.

The FOP and Wu have characterized the department’s staffing levels as a crisis and positioned increased police staffing as the top priority for the city, largely due to the number of officers who have reached retirement age.

The FOP says the department has more than 130 commissioned officers who can retire at any time. It’s unclear how that compares to previous years.

Since 2019, the City Council has authorized spending an additional $30 million on the police department and hiring an additional 58 commissioned officers. But the department has not been able to fill those positions.

The council also approved raises for the department, with police recruit wages increasing from $22.46 an hour in 2019 to $24.37 an hour this year. Starting salaries out of the academy are $26.26 an hour, nearly $3 more an hour than in 2019.

Wages increased throughout the ranks. Detectives now start at $28.78 an hour and max out at $40.66 an hour. Sergeants start at $31.57 an hour and max out at $44.61 an hour. Overtime pay and $2-an-hour “conduct bonuses” can drive those salaries much higher.

In 2021, more than 20% of all WPD employees made more than $100,000, including the entire executive staff, 51 sergeants, 34 lieutenants, 31 detectives, 12 captains and five officers.

The Jensen Hughes study looked at the underlying problems within the workplace culture of the Wichita Police Department, which officers described as “broken,” “dysfunctional” and “horrible.” Pay was not mentioned as a factor in those problems.

The consultants provided 54 action steps Wichita could take to improve its police department. It included an entire section on changes to the FOP contract, which includes “provisions in the contract that seemingly allow employees to either avoid responsibility for misconduct or, at a minimum, reduce the corrective impact imposed disciplinary sanctions may have on them”:

▪ Stop giving officers $2-an-hour “conduct bonuses” for not violating city policies

▪ Change policies that allow officers to trade vacation time and conduct pay to avoid suspensions

▪ Stop allowing officers who are under investigation for wrongdoing to review the entire investigative file — including witness statements and evidence — before sitting for an administrative interview

▪ Define misconduct that triggers removal from specialty teams

▪ Eliminate the “statutes of limitations” on filing low-level misconduct complaints

▪ Create and approve a code of conduct for the Wichita Police Department

Inkelaar, the FOP president, has expressed disagreement with some aspects of the recommendations, specifically the change that wouldn’t allow officers to review investigative files before being questioned. He said that would violate due process of the officers.

Jensen Hughes said the existing policy “serves no good investigatory purpose” and could “taint the testimony given by the employee during the administrative interview.”

“It would allow the subject under investigation to construct a story that may discredit or nullify any of the evidence,” the study said. “The disciplinary process should be designed to gather facts, determine what took place and decide whether the employee engaged in misconduct. Allowing the employees to view the PSB case file before the interview is counterproductive to that process.”

Fairness

Two other city employee union groups have their own concerns about the proposal for $5,000 bonuses to police officers.

Representatives from Firefighters’ Union and the Service Employees International Union are calling on the city to offer similar bonuses to the rest of the city’s employees.

“Every department in the city is short staffed,” Ted Bush, president of IAFF Local 135, said in a written statement. “Fire has been short staffed for 14 years. We have a study that proves that. If this is the new dynamic for the city manager, then all employees should be afforded the opportunity to open a contract at any time to address these issues. Wichita Fire spent months to agree to a contract that lasts three years. We were under the impression that an agreement is an agreement, and we were prepared to honor that. But it seems now there is an avenue to fix some of the things that were previously not agreed to.”

Esau Freeman, a Wichita service employees union representative for the city’s civilian staff, including those who work in public works, parks and recreation, the water and sewer department and others, said he believes police officers deserve a bonus. But he said other departments in City Hall have dealt with much more severe staffing shortages than the police department.

“We 100 percent think that all of the city employees deserve this bonus,” Freeman said. “We’ve been short on security officers for the front of City Hall. We’ve been short in Animal Control, we’re short workers in the water department, we can’t get enough people to work in the street department — all the city’s employees are working short-staffed.”

Freeman said he is impressed that Sullivan is standing up for his employees.

“I appreciate the fact that he’s standing behind his police officers, and he’s in line with the FOP that they need this money,” Freeman said. “I would appreciate it if the other directors around the city would, you know, straighten their backbones up a little bit. And let’s do the same thing. Because everybody that works for the city deserves to be taken care of.”

Freeman said he would like to see a “Me too” clause in the city’s union contracts that would align other city workers with the police department. “If they get something, everyone else gets it, too,” Freeman said. “That would do away with some of this favoritism.”

“I don’t want to take anything away from the police and the hard work they do,” Freeman said. “Because I’ve got to say, we have our police do a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with police work, and we should not be imposing those things on those officers. But by the same token, you know, when we talk about first responders, they often forget that somebody has to come set up the roadblocks, somebody has to come and shut the water off when a main breaks. And when we contextualize how important all these jobs are, the city has consistently taken police first, fire second, and then all the other workers third.”