Council person Vince Wetta with Jan Korte pictured above.

by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — As of Friday evening, only one candidate had signed up to run for the Wellington City Council. The deadline is June 1. Traditionally people do wait until the deadline approaches before signing up. But that deadline is approaching fast (see filings here).

The council will have a very different look after the election in November. Three of the six city council members terms will end this year, and all three have said they are not running again. However, one is wavering.

Bill Butts

Council members Vince Wetta and Jan Korte both served full terms, and Bill Butts was appointed to finish an unexpired term taking over for B.J. Tracy, who abruptly resigned in June 2014.

While Butts said he is not intending to run at this point, he is leaving the door open to changing his mind.

By the time the current term ends in January 2018, Korte will have been on the council for six years and she feels it is time to quit.

“There are other things I want to do, and I just feel like I am finished,” Korte said. She is still running her CPA business and plans on continuing that operation.

Wetta had similar sentiments. He served at the State Legislature, and then was elected to the city council. He and his wife want to travel some and be with their grandchildren more, so he feels the time has come. He said he still wants to be involved in the community and plans on taking part in various things.

“It was a great experience, I am glad I did it,” Wetta said of serving on the council.

All three current members are happy with the direction of the city, and feel that while there are complaints, some progress has been made.

“I think we are fine. There are a lot of complaints, but people don’t have all the information,” Korte said. “I know taxes are high, but I love the fact that the college is coming and that there will be some new development there.”

She noted as more businesses come, and as those here grow, the tax base will be broadened and that should lighten the load on taxpayers.

Korte said being on the council does take a lot of work, so people should be prepared for that. There is a lot of negativity, but she said there are a lot of positive things as well.

She encourages people to run if they have an interest, but said they should educate themselves.

“I would suggest they get acclimated to what is going on,” she said. “People who want to run should get the documents and read them, and they should start going to meetings.”

She compared getting on the council to jumping on a moving train.

“When you get on the council, you don’t know exactly what is going on,” Korte said. “The more people prepare before hand, the better off they will be.”

Wetta also said he feels good about the direction of the city, but he wants to do other things and is not going to run again.

“I would encourage anyone who would like to run to go ahead and file,” Wetta said. “Public service is a great experience. You learn a lot.”

He said there is a lot of negativity and criticism, but there is a lot of good going on as well.

“I will still be involved in some of the good things the town has going,” he said.

Wetta said several things had been put off for years, and left to fester, and the current council has tried to address some of those issues.

“By the end of the year we will have the rural water issue settled, the downtown building issue will be resolved and the airport extension will continue. All of those are great things,” he said.

Wetta said four years is a long time, and some people have criticized the length of the term which was changed recently. He said while it does seem like a long time, it goes pretty fast.

Wetta was on the state legislature for eight years before running for city council, so he had an idea of what to expect. Even so it takes some time to get your feet on the ground and realize what the issues really are.

He said perhaps the most important thing for a city council member is to learn what questions to ask.

Butts had said he is not going to run, but he said Friday there is a possibility he could change his mind.

He was appointed to finish an unexpired term, and he said it takes at least six months to feel like you know what is going on.

He said there are advantages to being appointed, one being that you are not obligated to any group that might have helped get you elected.

One of the challenges is that you have to make decisions, and no matter what you decide, someone is not going to be happy.

He too said he believes the council has addressed some important issues that have been hanging around for several years.

One of those was the Westborough subdivision street paving project. Citizens there had petitioned the city, and the council agreed at the last meeting to proceed with the project.

He noted that people in that sub division pay a very high percentage of the total property taxes paid in the city. They are paying 10 percent up front, and will pay a sizable portion of the 90 percent that is left through their property taxes.

He said the raw water issue is going to be fixed this year, and that is an issue that has been going on for 66 years.

He is also pleased that the college is coming, and believes the city has set the state for expansion into the eastern corridor of the city towards the Kansas Turnpike.

Butts said he would encourage people to run, but he also said they need to be prepared to spend a lot of time on the job if they are elected. He said he spends two or three hours per day working on council-related issues.

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