2nd District Lyon County commission candidate Phil Winter
October 30, 2008
Phil Winter is the Democratic candidate for the 2nd District Lyon County commission seat.
Moderator: Phil Winter is the Democratic candidate for the 2nd District Lyon County Commission seat. Before his retirement at the end of 2004, Winter had served the county for more than 30 years. Most of that tenure was as county counselor or county administrator. Don't forget to refresh your screen to follow the chat. And we're still taking questions.
Steve_Corbin: Do you think the county should have a smoking ban ? YES OR NO PLEASE.
Phil Winter: No I do not think the county should have a smoking ban. There are a number of reasons why. The smoking ban, if it were in the city, I'm sure it would be done by an ordinance; in the county by resolution. The business is legal. A bar is a legal business in the county. In most of the small cities in the county it's legal. And it's certainly legal in Emporia. The penalty on the secondhand smoking isn't really aimed at the secondhand smoking. What it is aimed at, instead, is the license of the bar owner. And therefore ultimately taking that license. The enforcement of it, even in the best of cases, is going to be expensive and I'm assuming it will be done either by a police officer or a sheriff's deputy. Even if no one is apprehended, somebody is going to have to go in and see if it's going on if no one is enforcing it. The cost of that enforcement, if it were effective, would be prohibitive. There is no real showing that I've seen of any good scientific evidence that this presents a clear and present danger to anyone and certainly, if it does, those people are free to leave. This is a question of the rights or right of the owner to have smoking or non-smoking and I'm sure that the owner would determine it based upon their business and how their business is run. It seems to me that is a logical solution and it is the solution that historically we have favored in this country. Unless there is some extremely good reason, the freedom should be left to the individual. It has seemed ot me recently that government often takes freedoms but it very seldom gives them back.
LifeGoesOn: you worked for many years as county counselor, would there still be a need for one if you were elected or would you be able to fill both positions and save tax payers a little money?
Phil Winter: I'm still a licensed attorney in the state of Kansas. However, I think a conflict would exist should I hold the position of county counselor and also county commissioner at the same time for the same county. In the absense of an appointed county counselor, the statute is quite clear, that the county attorney acts in that regard. Also, of course, is the time element. The county counselor's position, particularly during trial, would well take a great deal of time.
moderator: We usually hear about economic development as it affects the city of Emporia. Do you think it's possible to spread economic development projects to rural Lyon County? If so, how would you propose doing that?
Phil Winter: All of Lyon County needs economic development be it Emporia or Bushong or the heavily developed area around Emporia or the totally rural area in Lyon County. The state has a few statutes concerning economic development. The most important of which has been referred to many times by the county commission and that is the maintance of agricultral land. This does not totally prohibit the taking of land for economic development. In fact, far from it. It simply requires that a plan be adopted by the county planning board and county commissioners for land use and, at certain times, changes are made to that plan. Lyon County has had such a plan for many years. There are numerous practical reasons for the plan besides just the use of the land for agriculture purposes. Water and sewer come rapidly to mind. Now with the increase in the rural water districts in Lyon County, that becomes less of a problem. Sewage and other waste remain a problem. However, these are not insurmountable problems. Certainly, the smaller cities in Lyon County are looking toward industrial development. And we are seeing industrial development even outside these small cities. I would certaintly hope that this contines in an orderly plan even outside of Emporia.
speedy: Do you think the county commisioners should stop Newman Hospital from providing a place for air ambulance services to fly out of? Are you still upset with the inconvienient noise it makes in your neighborhood when it lands and takes off?
Phil Winter: I'm sure the proponent remembers when I opposed the helicopter landing at Newman's. I sit on the board of Newman County Memorial Hospital at the present time. The noise from the helicopters is not inconsequential to the neighborhood and I am still sorry as to the placement of that helicopter landing, as I believe long-term planning would have placed it in an area close to Newman's but not at the same actual location it presently is. However, after saying all of that, the helicopter has certainly proven its worth to all of the residents of Lyon County and surrounding counties saving, without doubt, innumerable lives. Certainly, I do not feel that county commissioners or the Board of Newman County Memorial Hospital should stop providing for a place for our ambulance service to fly out of.
moderator: How could Lyon County avoid problems like those that cropped up after passage of the sales tax?
Phil Winter: In this particular case, Lyon County could have avoided the problem by having almost anyone who had drafted or read the proposed item for the ballot contacting the Department of Revenue in Topeka, assuming that person gave the Department all of the current background as far as what sales taxes Lyon County currently had in effect. It could have also been avoided prior to that by the statute being simplified. This is a statute that has had numerous additions made to it and it is anything but clear. It is not clear from the statute, however, that the Department of Revenue was interpreting the statute in the manner in which they turned out which to be doing. I believe that there is also one other county that has the same problem that Lyon County does in this regard.
moderator: Within the last 10 years, there has been interest in developing subdivisions at different places between Emporia and Americus, which is in your district, as well as some locations north and east of town in the 1st District. What criteria would you use to determine whether a subdivision was a good fit for a particular location?
Phil Winter: For a subdivision to be established, a number of items must be taken into consideration. These are not the same in all areas nor do they have the same weight in all areas and that is one of the reasons for the planning board. Certainly the first item must be the plan that has been adopted to see how that subdivision would fit into that plan. There are hopefully many times that a subdivision would fit within the plan already in existence without any changes to that plan. Assuming this is not the case, then the various items within the plan itself must be looked at individually. In the county, the item of transportation is always a major problem and that will need to be looked at to see how the proposed subdivision would fit in with the current transportation grid. Again, water and sewer must be looked at to see if that is an economically and socially viable option. And last, but certainly not least, is the land use in the area at the time that the subdivision comes into effect and in future growth in the area. I am sure there are others as well but these rapidly come to mind.
moderator: What issues are voters in the 2nd District telling you they'd like the commission to address?
Phil Winter: Most of the voters that I have talked to are concerned about their taxes. This is a change from when I last talked to a large number of voters on a one-to-one basis. In those years, particularly recently, taxes have increased and in many cases, increase in taxpayer pay has not been commensurate with their increase in taxes. Government provides many services that the individual taxpayer could not provide on their own. We must be sure that we are getting the services that the taxpayer needs and desires for their money. I do not envision taxes decreasing. I am hopeful that they will not need to be increased to provide those services.
moderator: What do you think the commission should do to control costs while waiting for the sales tax revenue to start coming in?
Phil Winter: At the present time, it is my understanding that should a shortfall be experienced before the sales tax comes in for the county it would be covered by other funds and be subsequently re-paid when that sales tax does come in. Certainly, I would assume that the county has looked and will continue to look at any way it may cut the current cost of county government during this time or postpone the expenditure of whatever item was to be paid from the sales tax until it starts to come in. I would think, however, that the county would continue to do this, as it has done before, and since the passage of the sales tax.
moderator: Should residents be allowed to build in flood plains, even if they are required to carry flood insurance?
Phil Winter: It is unlikely that a person will be able to get flood insurance if they are in the flood plain as the number of insurance companies is extremly limited, I am told, in this area and I doubt that it would be obtainable. There is a larger problem, however, and that is one of the reasons for the federal interest and that is by building in the flood plain, the water has to go someplace and usually that means on somebody else's land or in the road ditch or increasing the amount of water going down the river, which means additional costs not just for the owner of that land, but for the public in general. Therefore, while I am not 100 percent opposed to the idea of a person being able to build in such an area, I am generally opposed to it.
Moderator: That’s all the time we’ve got for Phil’s chat. Wait about 15 minutes and we’ll start the chat with his Republican opponent, Teresa Walters.