Lawrence journal world 08 15 15

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FDA approves OxyContin for kids. 1B

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SATURDAY • AUGUST 15 • 2015

Just Food continues to wrangle with $50K tax bill By Karen Dillon Twitter: @karensdillon

Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo

VICE MAYOR LESLIE SODEN AND CITY COMMISSIONER MIKE AMYX GREET EACH OTHER before a special commission meeting Friday at City Hall to take formal action on the resignation of Mayor Jeremy Farmer and receive public comments on filling the vacancy and filling the position of mayor. The commission is expected to name a new mayor and vice mayor at their next meeting Tuesday.

Shake-up at City Hall —————

Commissioners accept mayor’s resignation; replacement unclear By Peter Hancock

residents showed up to watch the proceedings at 2 p.m. Friday, with many of them offering comments about the selection of the next mayor and how the city should fill the vacant commission seat. On the selection of mayor, several people suggested that Mike Amyx, who has held the position before and is now the only commissioner with more than three months’ experience on the job, should be the obvious choice. “Although the members that are active on the commission right now seem to be doing a good job, you only have one person on the commission who has experience being on the commission,” said Carol Klinknett, one of several Lawrence residents who spoke out Friday.

There is only one person on this commission that is qualified to get us out of this situation in The four remaining Law- a manner that has a lot of experience, and that’s rence city commissioners on Friday thanked former Com- Mike Amyx.” Twitter: @LJWpqhancock

missioner and Mayor Jeremy Farmer for his service. But they did not immediately make a decision about naming a new mayor or about how they will go Farmer about filling Farmer’s vacant seat. Instead, commissioners agreed to take up those matters at their next regular business meeting Tuesday, starting with the naming of a new mayor. Farmer submitted his resignation Wednesday, two days

— Ted Boyle, a North Lawrence resident after he resigned as director of the nonprofit food bank Just Food over an issue of $50,000 in unpaid federal payroll taxes. In the days since, city officials have raised new questions about his travel expenses and use of a city credit card during the brief time —about three months — he served as mayor. Commissioners held a special meeting Friday to accept Farmer’s resignation and to hear comments from the public about how they think the city should proceed.

“It’s been a tough week, a very tough week,” Commissioner Mike Amyx said after the meeting. “This started for us Monday morning, a little after 8 a.m., I guess.” Farmer did not attend Tuesday’s City Commission meeting. Commissioner Leslie Soden, who holds the title of vice mayor, has served as acting mayor since then. She will continue in that role until the commission names a new mayor. Despite the unusual time of the meeting, at least two dozen

Even though former Mayor Jeremy Farmer resigned from a charity after failing to pay $50,000 in federal payroll taxes, it is the Just Food board that will face the ire of the Internal Revenue Service, an expert on nonprofits said Friday. “When the IRS goes after somebody, they go after the board,” said Brent Never, an assistant professor of nonprofit leadership at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “They are the fiduciary agent. They are the ones who sign on the bottom line.” The Lawrence community learned Monday that Just Food, the city’s largest food bank, had an employee tax liability of $50,000. Just Food leaders also said Monday they were investigating whether the agency owed additional back taxes to the Kansas Department of Revenue. On Friday, Just Food board president Kristi Henderson said the board had engaged an accountant with the Please see TAX, page 7A

Town Talk

Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

City may reduce lanes Residents look toward brighter future in Cuba on portion of Kasold Drive

By Rochelle Valverde

Twitter: @RochelleVerde

When Joe Nobo was 14, his mother sent him away from Havana on a plane headed toward asylum in the United States. It would be at most six months, his mother told him and his 16-year-old brother — then they could come back home. The year Nobo boarded that plane was 1961. It was the same year Fidel Castro proclaimed Cuba a communist state. The same year that diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba were severed — a break that would last over 50 years. Prior to that flight, Nobo had spent

almost six months in a Havana jail for his opposition to the communist regime. “My family sacrificed to give me that freedom, to put me on an airplane and send me to America,” Nobo said, noting the complicated process it was for his mother to arrange it. The U.S. and Cuba have announced a “normalization” of diplomatic relations, and on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry visited Cuba to raise the American flag over the U.S. embassy in Havana. A ceremony last month raised a Cuban flag over a new Cuban embassy in Please see CUBA, page 4A

Business Classified Comics Deaths

Low: 64

Today’s forecast, page 10A

I

Ismael Francisco/AP Photo

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY WATCHES the raising of the American flag Friday at the newly opened U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

INSIDE

Lots of sunshine

High: 90

Please see MAYOR, page 7A

2A 6C-11C 12C 2A

Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles

10A, 2C 6A 9A 6A

Society Sports Television USA Today

4A 1C-5C 6A, 10A, 2C 1B-8B

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know there have been times when I’ve been a passenger in my family’s Ford Taurus — like when we go around the curve at 31st and Kasold — that I’ve thought about becoming a fulltime pedestrian. But then the Gforces subside, and I again become a bit uncertain about the notion that Lawrence residents are going to be less reliant on cars in the future. But maybe they will. City commissioners on Tuesday will be trying to figure that out. Commissioners are receiving a recommendation from engineers to reduce the number of lanes on a portion of Kasold Drive when it

Catching on Take a look at which wide receivers are separating themselves on the KU football team. Page 1C

Please see KASOLD, page 2A

Vol.157/No.227 30 pages


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