Early voting in Johnson County is in full swing and Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 7, is upon us.
As Johnson County residents head to the polls and mail in ballots, we’ve put together election primers for each of the local races in the Post’s coverage area to give readers and residents in those communities an easy way to find out more about the candidates and where they stand on the issues important to you.
SHAMELESS PLUG
No other news outlet devotes as much attention to giving Shawnee Mission area voters a way to find out where candidates running for local office stand on the issues facing our community. If you value having a news outlet provide this kind of coverage, we hope you’ll consider becoming a subscriber if you aren’t already. Your first month of full access is just $1.
See who the candidates are
Voters will be able to select up to three candidates. The top three vote-getters will win seats on the board.
- Retired businesswoman and former Lenexa City Councilmember Cindy Green
- IT and data analytics professional Beneé Hudson
- Retired high school administrator Valerie Jennings
- Hospital supply chain manager Greg Mitchell
- Accountant and former Kansas State Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer
- Teacher and incumbent board member Laura Smith-Everett
- Small business owner Mike Storm
- Tera Wiggins has suspended her campaign though her name will appear on the ballot
Read what candidates say about key issues
Watch the Post’s candidate forum
The Post hosted a forum for the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees candidates on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at Central Resource Library in Overland Park.
Tera Wiggins did not participate.
A video of the entire forum is embedded in the link below.
Immediately following the embedded video are the questions each candidate answered during the forum. Timestamps are included in bold to help navigate through the forum video.
- Candidate’s opening statements [5:03]
- JCCC gets most of its annual revenue, roughly 68%, from property taxes. The other third comes from state funding and tuition. Of course,rising property values, which are causing increases in annual tax bills, remain one of our readers’ top concerns. The Board of Trustees has consistently voted to decrease the college’s property tax rate in recent years. The proposed rate for this coming year is again set to be slightly lower than the previous year, but JCCC is still expected to take in more revenue from taxes because of rising property values. Do you agree with where the property tax rate currently stands? If so, what justifies the increase in revenues in your mind? If you think it should be lower, would you support raising tuition or cutting spending in order to offset any lost revenue? [14:50]
- If elected (or reelected) what do you see as the biggest challenge or priority for JCCC over the next four years and how would you work to address that challenge? [24:14]
- This audience member says maintaining a low tuition is very important to me as a resident and father of potential future JCCC students. With inflation pushing up the cost of everything, how will you work to keep the cost of tuition down? Just to combine that with another question, another audience member asks would you ever consider linking future tuition increases to the median annual salary increase in Johnson County? [35:39]
- Building an inclusive and equitable culture is one of four strategic goals outlined in JCCC’s current strategic plan, which was put together in 2021. This followed a student-led push in 2018 for the college to improve its efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion, which in turn led to the creation of a DEI Committee that, according to its mission statement, works to ensure a “learning environment that promotes a diverse community” along a number of lines, including race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, national origin, religion and age. Do you think JCCC is on the right track in creating a diverse and inclusive campus community? Why or why not? [47:37]
- What is the one topic or initiative or project that you want to lead or champion going into your term as JCCC trustee? [56:27]
- There were several (audience) questions about candidates and thinking about this nominally nonpartisan office and thinking about your own personal leanings, how would your own partisan leanings figure in — if at all — in your work as a JCCC trustee member? [1:02:40]
- Closing statements [1:07:17]
