THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL NEWS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2012 7Awww.cjonline.com

ous.Steineger unsuccessfully lob-

bied the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback to soften audit-ing of developers awarded incen-tives by the Kansas Housing Re-source Corp., which administers federal housing tax credit offer-ings in the state.

In March, a frustrated Steineg-er took matters into his own hands.

He introduced in the Senate Commerce Committee an amendment to prohibit KHRC from continuing to grant non-profit organizations, state agen-cies or municipalities in Kansas a modest scoring preference over for-profit development compa-nies — like his own — in alloca-tion of tax credits.

Steineger's foray evoked a rap-id response from Dennis Mesa, executive director of KHRC. Mesa fired off an email to Steineger threatening to publicly disclose the senator's "vested, personal potential conflicts of interest" if he declined to withdraw the amendment. That moment of transparency never occurred, be-cause Steineger stood down.

Steineger, who followed in his father's footsteps into Wyandotte County politics, lost a bid for re-election in November. Elected to the Senate in 1996 as a Democrat, he switched to the Republican Party in 2010 based on a calcula-tion his ideas would see more daylight if he was part of the GOP majority in the Legislature.

He fashioned himself an un-orthodox fiscal conservative. He touted a "billion-dollar list" of money-makers for the state that included selling Docking, Landon and Eisenhower state office buildings in Topeka, as well as The University of Kansas Hospi-tal in Kansas City, Kan.

He sought consolidation of the state's 105 counties into 25 coun-ties. He proposed a constitutional amendment to eliminate one-fourth of state legislative seats.

"There are a lot of folks who talk about reducing the size of government," Steineger said. "Talk is cheap. I'm trying to put words into action."

Steineger attempted to ride unconventional ideas to higher office, but the most attention-

grabbing aspect of that quest was a ruling he broke campaign fi-nance law.

He was fined $5,000 by the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission for illegally using Senate campaign contributions to pay for polling to determine whether voters preferred he run for governor or secretary of state. The senator was aware of state law forbidding the transfer. He had attempted to amend statute to allow candidates to reallocate political donations to their cam-paign for a different office.

Steineger, while touting person-al experience as an entrepreneur, was among the Legislature's harshest critics of taxpayer-fi-nanced investment in the Kansas Bioscience Authority. He alleged piles of cash were wasted by KBA.

"There are an amazing number of folks who have fallen for what's going on in KBA. It's not very pretty at all," Steineger said.

Still, the senator was comfort-able receiving government back-ing four years ago to infuse $450,000 into Lowell elementary. The three-story property owned by Steineger opened to tenants in 2011.

"Our project competed with several dozen other developers to gain the tax credits and was turned down several times before receiving an award," Steineger said in a statement addressing speculation his activities prompt-ed an investigation by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

He said KBI agents spoke with him about business affairs, but neither Steineger nor the KBI would be more precise.

In March, Steineger's legisla-tive strategy for transforming KHRC rocked the agency's lead-ership.

Mesa, who declined through a spokeswoman a request for an interview, dispatched the deci-sive email to Steineger on March 9.

In that message, the KHRC's executive director urged the sen-ator to drop his amendment to House Bill 2510. If it wasn’t with-drawn, Mesa advised, agency of-ficials would embarrass Steineger by revealing the senator's vested interest during a March 13 meet-ing of the Senate committee.

"While we will be prepared to address the issue from a policy

standpoint," Mesa's email said, "we do want to give you advance notice that we feel obligated to share as full-disclosure with the committee of any vested, person-al potential conflicts of interest in the outcome of this matter."

Mesa was prepared to release information on Steineger's $181,000 application "with our program that could potentially be impacted by the very policy changes you propose."

Steineger's amendment van-ished into the ether at the Capi-tol, and the Kansas City lawmak-er wasn't awarded the $181,000 tax credit. KHRC spokeswoman Catherine Couch declined to elaborate, noting "KHRC gener-ally doesn’t discuss individual applications, so we’re unable to comment on anything further."

Steineger didn’t consent to a personal interview about the KHRC controversy, but others shared concerns about the sena-tor's conduct.

Matt Watkins, chairman of the Wyandotte County Democratic Party, said the attempt by Stei-neger to manipulate KHRC threatened to diminish opportu-nities for nonprofits to contribute to building of quality housing.

"His understanding is funda-mentally flawed — that he thinks he can just tilt the playing field towards private developers," Wat-kins said. "In doing that, he could potentially create a giant void where no one would come in and do these types of projects."

Pat Pettey, a Democrat who beat Steineger in the November election, was a commissioner on the Unified Government in Wy-andotte County when Steineger secured a $25,000 grant for in-stalling energy-efficient utilities at Lowell apartments. She said his desire for public funding of private developments belied his reputation as a fiscal conserva-tive.

"There is a person saying one thing to the public and when it comes to his projects, he's first in line," Pettey said.

In a statement, Steineger dis-missed concerns of his detrac-tors.

"Considering the sources are hard-core political partisans who hate my politics," he said, "it seems like typical election-year politics."

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time to spare.A giving sheet suggests $55 to

adopt a single person — $25 for food and $30 for presents. For a family of five, the United Way suggests $195. That amount is one quarter of the maximum weekly income for that family to qualify for the program.

People who adopt families are responsible for purchasing, wrap-ping and delivering the presents, preferably a few days before Christmas.

Shavonne “Weezy” Holmes, who has adopted families for 17 years, estimated that the total time commitment for each per-son is about 45 minutes. But it isn’t the time commitment peo-ple should worry about, she said.

“It’s a life-changing experi-ence,” Holmes said. “You think you’ve done something for them, but they’ve done something for you. They are so humble and so grateful. And once you’ve had ex-perience, it’s like something bites

you, and you have to do it again.”People also have the option of

donating money, Bell said. She hadn’t tallied how much had been donated so far this year, but said the United Way has several personal shoppers who will make sure people get what they need this year.

Volunteers still are needed to help with wrapping, shopping and other odd jobs, Holmes said.

More information about the Christmas Bureau, including the suggested giving chart and family income level requirements, are available on the United Way’s website.

The Web page, www.united-waytopeka.org/volunteer/christ-mas-bureau, also lets people sign up to adopt a family.

Cushinberry still is holding out hope that she will get her phone call this year, knowing without it Christmas will be less bright for her family.

“It would be heartbreaking, because I wouldn’t be able to provide at least something for the

kids,” she said.Cushinberry has two older

sons — Jamon Fulton, 18, and Ja-montez Fulton, 15 — and a 3-year-old daughter, Ja’niya Cushinberry.

Ja’niya believes in Santa Claus, and, if they are adopted, he will be the one placing presents un-der the tree this year, Cushinberry said.

When Ja’niya is old enough, Cushinberry said, she will tell her daughter the truth about the presents, as she did her two boys.

“I tell them who the presents come from so they can appreci-ate that what they get is from somebody that’s helping,” she said. “Maybe, one day, they can turn around and help somebody that’s in need.”

In fact, Cushinberry is still hop-ing for the day she can be on the other side of the program herself.

“To the families that are get-ting help,” she said, “just be strong and keep your head up, because there are brighter days ahead.”

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Christmas: Past recipient gratified

Subsidy: Fined $5,000 in past

COURTESY KANSAS HEALTH INSTITUTE

Sen. Chris Steineger, R-Kansas City, burnished credentials as a fiscal conservative by touting a plan for $1 billion in state budget savings, but he earned criticism for trying to limit nonprofit access to housing tax credits. He had hoped to personally obtain such credits.

Policy Matters seriesdraws reader queries

Midway through publication of the Policy Matters series about implications of Kansas' citizen legislature, several readers expressed irritation the stories weren't printed prior to the August primary or Novem-ber general elections.

The simple explanation is the project delving into potential conflicts of interest and questionable political conduct by members of the House and Senate wasn't finished ahead of those important voting opportunities.

Reporting standards at The Topeka Capital-Journal required lengthy exploration of work by representatives and senators interpreting their sense of a citizen legislature. Traditionally, it is a role to be occupied by Kansans who view state government as a part-time avocation. Their full-time responsibility is to remain a presence in home communities through work or service. The opposite is Congress, which is served by a professional cadre of lawmakers.

Acquisition of documents,

interviews, photographs and videos leading to the writing was accomplished during a busy

election cycle. A wide net was cast for Policy Matters story possibilities. A bundle of promising ideas were set aside for the time being. A few were dismissed entirely. New ones are sure to emerge.

While The Capital-Journal is grateful to legislators and other sources who didn't shy away from subjects raised in Policy Matters, some individuals refused to cooperate. Politicians unwilling to be transparent succeeded in making the task more challenging, but not impossible.

The 15-story series isn't intended to leave the impression — given voice by several readers in telephone calls, emails and online posts — that all 125 representatives and 40 senators in Kansas failed some sort of ethical test.

In a citizen legislature, the potential for conflict of interest is inevitable. The issue is how to deal with those moments.

A majority of Kansas politi-

cians have the discipline to step back from the crevasse. Others plunge ahead and hope calculated attempts to manipu-late the system are undiscovered.

A few readers suggested House and Senate members engage in questionable financial maneuvering because legislative compensation remains low. Salaries should be increased to encourage a more diverse cross-section to participate in the Legislature. But a modest wage is no justification for deceptive, self-serving conduct. Each person in the Legislature stepped forward with knowledge of the compensation.

Finally, there were readers who questioned motivation for reporting on this type of political conflict.

The goal of the series wasn't to bolster either political party. There are Republicans and Democrats in these stories. More belong to the GOP, but that reflects the Republican Party's numerical advantage in the House and Senate.

The purpose was to outline unvarnished reality in a law-making process touching lives of Kansans. The reader reaction is welcome. Keep it coming.

TImCARPENTER

grams and services. A $25,000 goal was set for the breakfast.

People paid $12 in advance for tickets, or $15 at the door. Chil-dren 10 and younger ate free.

Once inside, patrons were greeted by an array of local celeb-rities and politicians, all of whom wore red aprons as they dished up a variety of breakfast special-ties along a pair of buffet lines.

“It’s a great morning to see people,” Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, said as she served food

from the buffet line. “The Kansas Children’s Service League does such good work in our commu-nity, so really, it’s an honor to be able to support them.”

Other celebrity servers includ-ed Topeka Fire Chief Greg Bailey, Washburn University President Jerry Farley and Washburn wom-en’s basketball coach Ron McHenry.

Other elected officials includ-ed Rep. Annie Tietze, D-Topeka, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Rep. Ann Mah, D-Tope-ka, Shawnee County Sheriff Her-

man Jones and city council mem-bers Karen Hiller and Larry Wolgast.

WIBW-TV on-air personalities included Melissa Brunner, Jere-my Goodwin, Amanda Lanum, Justin Surrency, Sarah Plake, Chris Fisher, JB Bauersfeld, Chef Alli Winters and Doug Meyers.

Sponsors for the event includ-ed WIBW-TV Channel 13, 94.5 Country, 580 WIBW Radio, We-star Energy, Cox Communica-tions, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Capitol Federal Savings, and Kan-sas Gas Service.

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Advocacy: Celebs don red aprons