Earlier this summer, we asked our readers about the issues you wanted to hear the candidates running for the Board of County Commissioners district seats for Districts 1, 4 and 5 address in the lead up to the Nov. 8 general election.
Based on the input we received, we developed a five-item questionnaire for the six candidates running in this nonpartisan race.
We’ll be publishing the candidates’ responses to one item per day each day this week. We’ve already published their responses regarding election integrity and property taxes in Johnson County.
Today we’re publishing the candidates’ responses to our third question:
“The county played a central role in setting and enforcing the public health policies related to the pandemic — including business closures and school mask mandates. Do you believe the county’s approach to managing the pandemic was a success? Why or why not? What should the county do differently if a public health emergency arises in the future?”
District 5
Stephanie Berland
I do not believe the county’s approach to managing the pandemic was a success. During this time, the county inconsistently and sporadically followed the guidelines of Kansas, the Centers of Disease Control, and the local school boards. They were highlighted in the national news for having a group of elderly outside in the cold in which it was icy, and ironically had just passed an ordinance that no groups over 50 can be outside without masks and social distancing. They immediately broke their own rule. As on the national level, there was hypocrisy witnessed daily by citizens who noticed the very bodies that made the rules were not following them.
The biggest failures in my opinion were the following: the destruction of local businesses with the lockdowns, the mental health trauma caused by their actions, the reckless spending millions received by the federal government with little given back to the public, the educational failure of our children that ensued due to masking and remote learning and the inability for self-reflection on these mistakes.
If we are to be in another health emergency, we should rely upon our emergency services professionals for advice and not bureaucrats. That is why we have an emergency response team. Education and awareness are the key to implementing any type of program. With that being said, I do not believe in mask mandates or the closing of businesses by the government. And I support those who vaccinate and don’t vaccinate.
Michael Ashcraft (incumbent)
Did not respond
District 1
Becky Fast (incumbent)
As your District 1 Commissioner, I am proud to have navigated Johnson County through the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson has rebounded with record job growth and record low unemployment. Johnson County like many communities had to quickly increase staffing and organize resources. I supported investments to develop mobile outreach clinics to provide education, testing and vaccination resources for our residents to help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19.
The Johnson County Commission also serves as the Board of Public Health. This is a huge responsibility. I voted on the side of science-based solutions each time guided by our County’s public health professionals and our regional medical experts. Johnson County has one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation due to science-based decision-making and collaboration with medical experts.
The pandemic brought stronger collaboration with our regional hospital system with tracking and early intervention of new variants. The collecting and analyzing data with daily public access prevented even more hospitalizations and deaths from the virus. The County established integrated data sets from across the region to assist our cities, school districts, and businesses to guide local policies. Our overwhelmed hospital resources would have had even more serious consequences without public health investments and innovations in our county data systems.
My goal throughout the pandemic was to keep our community healthy, kids in school, and our businesses open and operating. The pandemic highlighted the importance of a strong public health system at all levels of government after years of underfunding by the Kansas legislature. Ongoing attention to process improvements focused on what we learned from COVID-19 are important next steps to have stronger public health infrastructure along with regional collaboration to better meet future challenges.
Audra McMahon
There is no answer to this question that honors everyone. The County did the best with what they had at the time. What was missing is that the County is allowed to create solutions independently for the betterment of the people. People showed up to share their voice and some feel heard, while some do not. The County did what it did, and didn’t do what it didn’t do. In the event of another worldwide pandemic, I believe there should be an independent authority to smaller, more intimate communities inside our large community as a whole (micro, more immediate – day-to-day, community) within the County that are able to discern for themselves what is best for them and their health. I believe that if people are uncomfortable with what is happening in mass, they should stand up and be the change they want to see.
District 4
Maria Holiday 
In spite of what my opponent stated in a recent forum, MARC [the Mid-America Regional Council] did not save us from COVID. Government failed us. The commission shouldn’t be the arbiter of personal health decisions through mandates.
The county’s position on COVID-19 was ineffective and highly divisive when we should have been pulling together. COVID-19 brought out the worst in our commissioners. My opponent, crippled by fear, hid behind a mask and plexiglass deciding who was “essential” while continuing to collect a paycheck from constituents that she put out of work. I have not talked to a single person who didn’t feel their paycheck was “essential”.
She robbed our children of a year of education, bankrupted local businesses, imposed mental anguish, then voted for increased spending to fix a mental health problem she helped create. Recent studies show children in the Midwest fell even further behind than other regions. Our workforce and our economy have not recovered. This is just another example of my opponent believing she knows best and YOU can’t be trusted to make decisions for yourself, your children or your business.
Janeé Hanzlick (incumbent)
To date, 1,285 Johnson County residents have died because they contracted COVID. It is easy in hindsight to say that schools and businesses would have been just fine if the county had simply ignored COVID-19 and let everyone get on with life as usual. We forget the anxiety and uncertainty that existed in March 2020. At that time, we had no testing, no PPE, no vaccine, and scientists were not sure how the virus spread. Hospitals and emergency rooms were filling up and seniors in nursing homes were dying.
I am proud of the Johnson County Commission for consistently making science-directed decisions motivated by the responsibility to protect residents’ health and prevent deaths. Closed schools and businesses have, without a doubt, had negative effects. I not only upheld infection control measures like masks, but also supported allocating $13 million in COVID relief funds to help our county’s small businesses. If the county commission had done nothing, we would have likely experienced even more hospitalizations, deaths, and economic disruptions. I am glad to have supported life-saving actions, even if they were not universally popular.
The pandemic highlighted the need for Johnson County (and the entire country) to be better prepared for public health emergencies. Going forward, the county commission needs to ensure that our health department has the appropriate resources, staff, and expertise to immediately and effectively lead our community’s response to current and future public health challenges.
On Thursday we will publish the candidates’ responses to our fourth question:
“More and more developers are requesting tax increment financing when they bring proposals before Johnson County cities. Under state statute, the Board of County Commissioners has a 30-day window to veto the creation of TIF districts in the county. Critics say tax incentives amount to giving private businesses a handout. Proponents say development projects that ultimately benefit the community couldn’t move forward without them. What’s your view on the prevalence of the use of tax incentives on development projects here?”
