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TUESDAY • MAY 19 • 2015
Bill would abolish Bioscience Authority
‘The future is very strong’
By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
DEPARTING LAWRENCE CITY MANAGER DAVID CORLISS gets a handshake from Doug Gaston, right, vice president of loan services at Central Bank of the Midwest, during a farewell reception for Corliss May 11 at the Carnegie Building. Corliss has accepted a job in Colorado.
City manager shares parting observations as new era begins By Chad Lawhorn
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document focusing on an overarching community aspiration. That’s a piece currently missing in Horizon 2020. Corliss said he’s seen strategic plans that are very simple: a large goal that the community has come to a consensus on, — Outgoing Lawrence City Manager David Corliss and then just four to five specific goals that can be Lawrence City Hall at the beneficial for Lawrence tracked and measured end of the month to take to go through a process to evaluate whether the a town manager job in of setting “long range community is making Castle Rock, Colo. goals and aspirations.” progress on its overall But Corliss, who sat Lawrence has a longaspiration. Corliss said down with the Journalrange, comprehensive the focus required under World to share his plan called Horizon 2020, such a system might be thoughts about the combut it’s mainly a land use good for Lawrence. munity as he ends his document for the city and “We want to do so nearly 25-year career at the county. A strategic Please see CORLISS, page 6A City Hall, said it may be plan would be a simpler
This community has difficulty saying ‘no’ to things. There are pluses and minuses to t might be time for being a community that wants to do a lot of Lawrence to fill in the things. I think the pluses outweigh the minusblank. es, but the community needs to talk about Lots of communities do it. Some communities that more.” @clawhorn_ljw
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say, “in five years we’re going to have ... ” Others say, “we’re going to excel in ...” A few even go so far as to say, “we’re going to be the best in the country at ....” How would Lawrence fill in the blank? Lawrence City Manager David Corliss isn’t sure, and he won’t be around to figure it out. Corliss is leaving his post as the top executive at
Lawmakers threaten judicial funding By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Topeka — Kansas lawmakers are threatening to cut off all funding for the judicial branch of state government if the Kansas Supreme Court strikes down a law enacted last year spelling out how chief judges in the district courts are selected. A lawsuit challenging the new system of selecting chief judges is currently pending in Shawnee County District Court. House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to the language Monday in a bill that would fund the judicial branch for the next two years. The language is similar to
the judicial funding bill en- dence, who chairs the Senacted last year. In that bill, ate Judiciary Committee, lawmakers inserted a pro- said the issue about how vision that says chief judg- chief judges are named is es must be elected by the a matter of “local control” other judges in the district. over district courts because It abolished the previchief judges have a ous system in which great deal of discrethe Kansas Supreme tion in allocating Court appointed the district court funds, chief district judges. hiring staff and even Both last year’s assigning cases to bill and the one be- COURTS other judges. ing considered this “Having funding year would contain a “non- decisions decided at the severability” clause, mean- level of government closest ing if one part of the bill is to the people is something struck down by the courts, I personally believe in, and the entire bill, including its was a policy behind the funding provisions for the block grant bill we passed courts, would also be struck this year for schools,” King down. said. Sen. Jeff King, R-IndepenIn February, Judge Larry
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Please see BILL, page 4A
Brownback defends use of private email, cell as simpler By Nicholas Clayton Associated Press
Topeka — Under scrutiny for using private email and cellphones for official communications, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Monday that he has engaged in the practice since he was a U.S. senator. The Wichita Eagle reported Saturday that the Republican governor has used private emails for official business, raising concerns because documents related to them aren’t accessible under the Kansas Open Records Act. Budget Director Shawn Sullivan also used a private email account at least twice in December to circulate details about spending proposals. Brownback said Monday that he began conducting some business through pri- Brownback vate email or cellphones while serving in the U.S. Senate from 1996 through 2010 due to situations where it was unclear whether the communication was personal or official. “I just thought, well, look, ‘I’ll just use the personal one and pay for that myself,’” he said at a news conference. Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, issued an opinion recently saying that the state’s open records law does not cover private emails from public officials, but he recommended that lawmakers fix
Please see JUDICIAL, page 4A
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T. Solomon, chief judge for the 30th Judicial District in Kingman County, filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the new selection system as a violation of the separation of powers doctrine. Article 3 of the Kansas Constitution gives the Supreme Court, “general administrative authority over all courts in this state.” Rep. Boog Highberger, D-Lawrence, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, said he opposed the language. “I think the judicial branch should be funded according to its needs, and not tied to any opinion or court
Topeka — The Kansas Senate is considering a bill that would abolish the Kansas Bioscience Authority, an agency designed to attract new investments in health care, pharmaceuticals, animal health and other related industries to Kansas. The agency was established in 2004 and typically receives between $10 million and $35 million each year. The agency uses that money in combina- LEGISLATURE tion with private investment funds to help kick-start companies in what is often called the “life sciences corridor” between Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka and Manhattan. Since its inception, the authority has drawn criticism from legislators over its management and investment decisions. Some have also questioned whether that
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Vol.157/No.139 26 pages