Monday, September 30, 2019

It's an in-depth report that many of you are talking about. Accusations from a story in

claiming Mayor Jeff Longwell steered the city's multi-million dollar water plant contract to his friends.

Eyewitness News has reported on the ongoing issues with the water plant. The city plans to spend $524 million to build a new plant to replace the current 80-year-old plant.

A city selection committee unanimously recommended awarding the contract for the water plant project to Jacobs Engineering.

The

Eagle

article says that instead, at Longwell's urging, the city council gave the bid to Wichita Water Partners, a group, the

Eagle

says includes some of Longwell's friends, political supporters and people he frequently communicated with.

Eyewitness News talked to Chance Swaim, the reporter behind the article. He said he started looking into the process once the mayor mentioned that the city diverted from its regular competitive bidding process.

"Some things that stuck out were the relationships between the mayor and the contractors on the Wichita Water Partners team that was ultimately awarded the project. It was a little surprising because it was not disclosed in any documents I'd seen," said Swaim.

Swaim's report includes emails, confirmed calendar dates of meetings and undisclosed monetary gifts. It goes on to say, "Longwell appears to have violated a plainly-written city law meant to shield the awarding of contracts from political influence."

After the article came out Mayor Longwell released a statement defending himself.

It reads in part..."An essential part of my job, and that of City Council is to build and maintain positive relationships in Wichita's business community ... the last thing I would do is make a city business decision based on who I go to dinner with."

Longwell also said there has been consistent oversight and numerous checkpoints to ensure the integrity of the process. He adds that Wichita Water Partners has the credentials and says selecting them keeps more dollars local.

We reached out to Mayor Longwell on Monday, offering him a chance to tell his side of the story. He told us he could not fit it into his schedule.

Eyewitness News talked to three councilmembers about the article. Councilmember James Clendenin and Bryan Frye voted against the Wichita Water Partners, and Becky Tuttle voted for the group. All three still said they felt like the process worked out the way it was supposed to.

"We've been working on this for years and a lot of hard work to make sure we got to the right place where we were keeping the rate increases as low as possible to pay for this and make sure we are doing what is right for ratepayers," said Councilmember Brian Clendenin.

Frye agreed favoritism did not influence his vote. He said his concern was the competition - or lack thereof.

"The idea of having a competition for the design-build didn't happen with no competition. I would've like to have had a true competition in order to make an informed decision and that's why I vote no," said Frye.

The Wichita Water Partners include a team of companies contracted to do 30-percent of the design for the water treatment plant. The council still has to vote who will do the next phase of designing and building the facility.

Tuttle voted for the Wichita Water Partners. She said she was not available for an in-person interview on Monday, but like Clendenin and Frye, she said the mayor is just one vote, and there were many checkpoints to make sure the process was done correctly.

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Sunday, September 29, 2019

Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell released a statement Sunday in response to a report in

alleging the mayor steered the city's large water plant contract to his friends.

The Wichita Eagle

reported that Longwell urged the City Council to award the project to Wichita Water Partners, a group the paper says includes some of Longwell's friends and people he frequently communicated with.

Read the mayor's full statement below: