From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio.

PBS Kansas presents Kansas Week with a critical election just weeks away.

The fight over a city wide sales tax is heating up.

We'll look at the battle inside City Hall over trust, transparency and how the money will be spent.

Also, a firestorm in Topeka.

Lawmakers fast track controversial legislation targeting transgender Kansans.

In an emotional debate that is sure to continue.

But first, 100% preventable.

A devastating finding as Wichita marks one year since the tragedy of flight 5342.

We'll break down the failures that cost 67 lives.

The families renewed fight for accountability, and what Senator Jerry Moran says can prevent this from ever happening again.

That's what we're talking about right now on Kansas Week.

Hello and welcome to Kansas Week.

I'm Jared central oil 100% preventable.

That was the conclusion from federal investigators this week as Wichita marked one year since the tragedy of flight 53, 42 families gathered for emotional memorials in both Wichita and the nation's capital, packing Constitution Hall and filling the Wichita City Council chambers to honor the 67 lives that were lost.

But amid the remembrance, there is new anger.

The NTSB releasing its final report Wednesday, and it cited systemic failures and years of ignored warnings.

Investigators say the pilots received a traffic alert just 19 seconds before impact, far too late to react.

And now families are turning their grief into action, pushing Congress for urgent safety reforms to ensure no one else endures such a preventable disaster.

Explorer Pedroza sat down with Kansas Senator Jerry Moran to discuss the impacts of this tragedy on government policy and aviation safety.

Even before we knew exactly what caused the crash of flight 5342, with that army Blackhawk helicopter.

Kansas Senator Jerry Moran was hinting at changes to air safety.

What needs to take place following, the outcome of this evening and this this months, kind of investigation as we enter January of this year.

He said those changes are happening.

There's a lot of, effort, certainly by the family members, to make sure that there is something good that comes from that tragedy.

One change already in place, a now permanent ban for military and national security helicopters from operating in the flight zone around Reagan National Airport in DC.

One of the first things that I and the ranking member of our Subcommittee on Aviation did was ask the FAA, asked the Department of Transportation to ban those flights to remove those helicopters from that air traffic area.

And they did.

And that remains in place.

It's the policy, but it's only policy under the FAA, not law.

Something Senator Moran says he's still trying to change as just one provision in the Or Act currently making its way through Congress.

We do want it in in in statute.

It's not just banning those helicopters.

It's also requiring those helicopters to have Ads-b, which was a requirement for it in part, but it was waiver bill.

And what I think we learned is that the military, helicopters are outdated.

Their technology is is if it was there, it wasn't being used.

And so there needs to be requirements that will involve updating our military air traffic, something that will cost money.

Another change headed our way that will also cost money.

Updated air traffic control technology.

We appropriated $12.5 billion to improve the air traffic control infrastructure.

That's a lot of money.

It's not enough, but it's a lot of money to get us on a path toward safer skies.

That 12 billion is less than half the 30 billion Moran estimates the update will eventually cost.

But he's positive the rest of the money will come in part thanks to the flight 5342 victims families.

I meet with family members frequently and they are on a mission and they have credibility.

The standing to make the case that something needs to be done here.

The work, he says, is already underway.

A company already hired to help design the new air traffic control system.

How far out are we from that becoming effective for air travelers?

I think it's 2 or 3 years before the full benefits.

Here are to discuss this.

And some of the week's other big stories are Kake news anchor and senior political reporter Pillar Pedroza.

Wichita City Councilman Dalton Glasscock and former Wichita Park board president Chris Kelly.

Thank you all for joining us today.

Good story there.

As always, you know, Senator Moran talked about air traffic control infrastructure, billions being spent on infrastructure.

But something that I thought about that happened here was part of the fault was that the controller himself was doing two things at once, which he shouldn't have been.

He was too busy.

If are we are we defeating the purpose?

If we aren't updating the personnel and hiring enough people?

That is actually something that even before this crash, Congress had begun moving on.

They had passed a law to increase the number of people that were being trained and hired.

But for DCA in particular, and this came out in the NTSB hearings this last week, there was something else going on as well that actually kind of complicated the issue.

Additionally, and that is the fact that the FAA, about ten years ago had downgraded the tower at Reagan National Airport from a level ten to a level nine, which means they weren't getting as much pay, they didn't have as many people allocated, and they were trying.

And it's one of the most expensive cities to live in.

They just a number of issues that made it even more difficult for that airport to get the air traffic controllers that they needed, and that usually translates into less experienced personnel as well.

Dalton Glasscock, You were at the city council chambers during the, remembrance ceremony.

What have you taken out of all of this that's happened?

Remembrance has to be met with action as well.

The Senate has done their part in passing the Rotor act in December of this year, and now it's waiting for the house to be able to act.

And the best thing that we can do to remember the lives lost is to make sure that this doesn't happen again, especially when the report says it's preventable and that it was preventable.

And so we cannot have a second action.

And I want to talk about that commission.

I sat through a whole day long NTSB, coverage of the results of their investigation.

There's a lot of details in there.

But one thing that really struck me is they talked about how there was a warning.

There's a particular piece of technology.

The Ads-b, that they had been asking the FAA to require of all planes.

Now, Ads-b, what that does is it basically every plane currently is required to have this automatic detection system.

That's what it stands for that can see all of the planes around them.

But they don't excuse me.

They can send out their location using GPS location, just like on your cell phone, but they don't all they aren't required to have that ability to see the information coming from the other planes.

Interesting.

And if that had been the case, even though the TSA, which is for sitting the information out, wasn't working on the helicopter, if they had had Ads-b, as the NTSB has been asking for for over 20 years, if they had had that, they would have at minimum had a minute like 49 to 59 seconds warning that there was another aircraft too close to them.

Chris Papelbon, thanks for joining us today.

We were they were one of the other critical findings that was talked about was the audible warnings in the air traffic control system went off, but the air traffic controllers have testified that there.

So that warning goes off so many times that they're desensitized to it.

You know, look, Gerard, first of all, thank you for having me.

And second of all, I want to echo, the fellow members of the panel here that that.

Listen, this is a terrible tragedy.

Obviously, this is a systemic failure.

This is something that touches so many pieces of the government, so many people's lives.

And the fact of the matter is, this is an infrastructure problem.

You know, we've got to reckon with the fact that our systems all over this country are crumbling.

And this is the this is the result when you defer maintenance, when you defer investment on the things that really matter, eventually it's going to cost lives.

And I'd like to point out that this is a double gut punch again for the city of Wichita.

We're a city that has a familiarity, serious familiarity with plane crashes.

And listen, this was supposed to be a flight that was we're really proud of a nonstop to DC.

And also it was filled with folks that we were so proud of, came here for that skating championships.

And now this is what comes from that.

But I hope, I hope the silver lining is, like Senator Moran says, some kind of, reform.

All right.

Our next story, a big one with just five weeks until a special election.

The debate over Wichita's 1% sales tax proposal is intensifying.

City leaders spent Tuesday discussing guardrails for the $850 million in revenue, money that would be split between things like century two, public safety, homeless services and a new performing arts center.

Mayor Lily Wu is pushing to prioritize the spending, wanting the first $300 million to go directly to tax relief.

Public safety and homelessness.

The mayor is also calling for a major change on the new performing arts center, requiring $50 million in private donations to be spent before a single tax dollar is used.

The council took no action Tuesday, but a town hall is set for February 10th.

Council member Dalton Glass is going to start with me.

I'll start with you since you're on the council.

This has been a very contentious debate.

First off, a lot of people are saying it's too little, too late.

Why did the council, you being a sitting member, you voted for this?

It was unanimous.

The original vote was unanimous.

Why did you feel it was necessary to move forward so quickly with a private entity coming forward, bringing this plan, bringing this, these buckets of, of money forward without a real plan?

Well, Gerard, these things have been talked about for years in our community.

In August of this year, all the priority items that are talked about in this plan were part of our CIP and part of our budget process.

Our community hasn't voted for community wide sales tax from interest Bank arena.

Prior to that was 1985 when the community originally did this.

These conversations have been going on for decades.

What the City Council did over in our last meeting was establish guardrails that we can move forward, and making sure that we are responsible to taxpayers.

And that's something that we need to do well.

We need to communicate.

We need to make sure to be able to educate individuals about what is in this plan and what is not in this plan.

There's misinformation from both sides, and we need to make sure that the citizens have the ability when they go to the ballot box, to have all the information that they need.

Is it responsible, though, to move forward when so many people I've seen polling data that shows as much as possibly 80% are not.

In fact, that's not registered voters, surely.

But as much as close to 80% are not in favor of the plan that's been put forward.

Now, is it responsible to move forward when that much negativity or that much rejection to this is is appears to be out there?

Well, we'll figure out on March 3rd.

That's the best poll as a poll of the voters when they go to the ballot box.

And if the voters choose to reject to what's offered on March 3rd, we'll come together on March 4th and we'll figure out a plan that could get forward, because the items in that would be approved by the sales tax are needed.

Investments in our community and in action is not an option.

And so if voters reject us on March 3rd, we'll come in March 4th and we'll have a conversation of what we can do next.

But what items are there?

I have nobody has seen any items other than public safety, homelessness, century two.

Why would say the sales tax that was passed in 1995?

Jared was one sentence.

The guardrails that the council will be talking about on February 10th are 13 pages.

When you put it on three of columns on a document.

And so I would encourage our citizens to go to witch doggo backslash ballot questions because the information is there.

It's our job to properly communicate that.

Chris, properly.

You've come up with your own little plan here.

I saw your op ed in the Wichita Eagle.

Tell me your thoughts on what's going on here.

It makes me sad.

This entire, situation was avoidable.

And I echo what council Member Glasscock is saying that everybody knows the problems.

I grew up in Wichita, and I have long said.

I wish that 50 years ago, somebody had a 50 year plan that they were going to roll out.

Well, they didn't, you know, they I was reading back into history and they were having fistfights at City Hall.

So not much has really changed.

So listen, I mean, I think most reasonable people agree the problem is not the tax.

The problem is the process.

The problem is not that it happened through this manner.

The problem is the fact that we didn't slow down and say, hey, we've we've been here before.

We've done this exact thing ten years ago.

And it was a disaster.

It was a disaster.

And we and we deferred more billions more in maintenance.

How much more are we going to do this?

How many more times are we going to ask the voters that you're going to have to accept a plan before you see the guardrails?

I fully accept there's a great plan in there.

Nobody saw it.

We didn't have public engagement on this plan.

And I'm not saying that any member of the city council is acting maliciously.

I do not believe that members of Wichita Forward are acting in any negative manner.

But the fact is, we're watching a slow moving train wreck, and I makes me sad because I believe in the city.

I ran for city council because I believe in it, and I'm loyal to the city and the movement of people like Brendan Whipple, Maggie Ballard, Miko, Hazel who love this city.

But listen, you know, when I ran, maybe we've stepped had some points that were too toxic, and this whole thing started toxic.

It started negative and it hasn't gotten better.

And that is unnecessary.

It's time that we take a pause and say, folks, we are people first.

We are neighbors first.

We are not arguing even about ideas.

We're arguing about people.

And that's a shame.

Let me go back to council member Glasscock Wichita forward.

Just put out a mailer yesterday.

I got one in the mail.

And they're one of their top lines that they've been saying for several weeks now is that the city is broke.

As a former councilman myself, I the city is not broke.

This.

When I left the city council, we had a $19 million reserve fund.

That reserve fund is now $88 million.

How can Wichita Forward say that the city is broke?

Tab reserve fund is exact same thing as Tab in your savings account.

You shouldn't do it.

And that's not good.

Principle.

Those are supposed to be there for moments that are unavoidable.

Then how do we have to govern responsibly?

We have to govern responsibly.

And I believe that previous councils have failed in terms of governing responsibly and building trust, especially when it comes to deferred maintenance for public safety and our fire stations, is it doesn't matter who did it previously, it's our job to fix it and we're trying to move forward with a plan that can fix the deferred maintenance that we've seen for decades in our community, from the community leaders previously.

And we want to make sure that we're addressing this.

And I believe that's why it's A72 vote.

It's our job to respond, communicate responsibly with the citizens and be able to educate the citizens about what this plan and what this plan isn't.

And it's up to them to make their decision about what type of direction they want our city to move forward and they are covering this problem here, this, this proposal here from a reporter standpoint.

Tell me your thoughts.

Well, there are two kind of strands that really stand out to me.

One is that pretty much every voter I've talked to or every Kans.

And I presume that there voters there have adult age, at that point has serious questions.

They they feel like it's another case of here's a big, pretty picture, but we have no details.

You know, the details are there.

The public isn't getting them.

They there's so many questions that voters have.

They feel like this is another case of we're going to sign a check and people are going to be able to spend the money however they want.

Guardrails are a big, big step toward addressing that concern.

But there's still a lot of question marks out there amongst voters that I am hearing the other strand of that a part of.

I think why we're seeing this move so fast has nothing to do with the council, has nothing to do with the plan, but everything to do with the elections office, because they just changed law to limit how many special elections there can be.

They had to do it in time to get it on the March ballot, or they couldn't do it until August.

And then we're running into some budgeting issues for the following year.

So whether you like the plan or not, part of why it was pushed through so fast, I'm sure has to do with getting it on that March ballot.

Chris Kelly, I'll give you the last word here.

One of the last things that I'm hearing is that, Wichita Forward is spending a lot of money on advertising.

And one of the biggest complaints is this election was going to cost the special election in March is going to cost us 170,000.

The question I'm hearing is, why couldn't Wichita Forward just pay for the election if they wanted it so badly?

Well, that's a question for them to answer.

And we'll Jared I'll answer that question.

Okay.

Go.

State law prohibits it.

Oh well they well, anyone can donate to the general fund as far as I understand, but I would I would simply say I'm whatever happens on March 3rd, we're going to have to all be here for March 4th because we're gonna have to talk about raising the mill levy.

We lowered it last year, and now here we are.

So if we're not going to do it this way and we're not going to have a meaningful discussion around this, we're going to have to do it another way.

Yeah.

Dalton Glasscock anything else to say here with 32nd?

Chris and I agree that we inaction is not an option.

We have to move forward together as a community.

And I believe our community can I believe our community wants to move forward.

And if it's not through this, then let's hear the community.

Let's figure out how to get back to the table and offer another solution for our community.

We're facing real challenges.

Are there any more public meetings that people can go to before the March 3rd February 10th?

I would encourage everybody to come to City Hall.

We'd having that as an evening meeting at 6 p.m., and we would love to hear your perspective.

It'll be an opportunity for public to comment on the guardrails, to hear the guardrails and hear the presentation from staff and a ballot start going out quickly after that.

Right.

Thank you.

A controversial bathroom bill is headed to the governor's desk now after a marathon emotional debate in Topeka this week, the Republican led legislature used a procedural maneuver to fast track the bill, which bans transgender people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity in government buildings and schools.

It also mandates that driver's licenses reflect a person's biological sex at birth.

Democrats slammed the bill as an attack on human decency, specifically targeting Wichita Representative Abby Boatman, the body's only transgender member.

Governor Kelly is expected to veto the bill, but Republicans appear to have the supermajority here that's needed to override the governor.

Chris Propeller, you've been very outspoken about these issues for many years.

Tell me your thoughts.

It does appear like Republicans have finally been able to get this passed rammed through.

Oh, yeah, those Republicans, when they want to ramp something, they really do it.

I'll tell you that, I it's really showing what their priorities are in a time that we see, people who can't afford their rent, they can't afford their water bill, they can't afford their electricity.

There's a datacenter moving in down the road that's going to take all their water.

We're focused on inspecting, bathroom policies.

That's our number one issue for Tim Masterson and Speaker Dan Hawkins.

That's where we are, with this current Republican Party in Kansas.

It makes me sad that we have to have folks like Abby Boatman who have to endure Representative Bowman.

Excuse me?

Who have to endure questions about whether or not they deserve human rights.

This is ridiculous.

But here we are.

So I guess we'll go through this and then move on to something else when they're done.

And Abby Bowman isn't the first transgender lawmaker.

Stephanie Byers was a transgender, House representative, and she dealt with, the.

That's right.

They're always just there.

They find solutions for problems that don't really they aren't really widespread, but they make everybody think that it's happening around their corner.

And if they don't act right now, then it's the end of the world.

Well good job guys.

Here we are.

So that's my comment.

So Dalton Glasscock some of these same arguments came forward, though, when the city issued or debated and passed its nondiscrimination ordinance in 2021.

Are these the same arguments that we're hearing now?

Is this Nessus?

Do you believe this is necessary?

Number one and number two, anything to say to his argument?

Well, first off, everybody should be true with dignity to respect our community.

And I was in Topeka when the debate was happening, and our test of our hearing had to be canceled to talk about real issues affecting real Kansans.

We are up there to advocate for the removal sales tax for food right now.

State law precludes it, and we weren't able to have that conversation because of the conversation happening on the House floor.

Kansans expect real results, and they want that.

And I hope that we can go back to that conversation and go back to what affects Kansans very directly every single day.

You know, people are there's been a lot of talk about how fast this moved through, and it did move very fast.

It was introduced, I think it was on day two, if I remember correctly, 1 or 2 of this session, the next day it had a hearing already.

That is light speed for the legislature.

By week three.

It's been passed through both the House and the Senate on the same day.

That is light speed for the Kansas Legislature.

Sounds like exactly what's going on with the City Council in the sales tax discussion.

Go ahead.

But one thing I think you talked about De Hawkins and Masterson in particular, really pushing this through.

And I do think that Masterson in particular, that is part of it.

I think he does have a hand on getting this pushed through because he's running for governor and he's look, he's he's speaking to the base.

He is speaking to the base that is going to turn up in the primary.

The ones that turn out in the primary are your most devout, your most either, if for the Republicans you're most conservative and for your Democrats, your most liberal.

They're the ones who turn out in the primaries for the most part, they kind of tend to dictate things.

And so right now what we're seeing is speaking to the base.

So the question that I'm hearing now that this has been passed is how do we enforce it?

Or we literally going to have people standing in front of the bathrooms at the statehouse?

You tell me.

I mean, these guys seem to have it all figured out, don't they?

So again, I would ask them instead, you know, they could give another couple of billion dollars to other billionaires, instead of passing a health care, solution for, working Kansans.

Or they could, have an office of of genital inspection, whatever they want.

I guess that's that's what that's how Ty Masterson works, is he just does whatever he wants, and this is his top priority.

Same with Dan Hawkins.

That's their top priority is bathrooms.

So keep that in mind.

Anything else?

Dalton?

I'll give you the last.

I imagine the courts will determine this.

I think this is probably not the last time that we'll be debating this.

All right.

No doubt whatsoever that you were right on that one.

Our last story today.

It's a concept that some called toilet to tap.

But state officials say it could be a critical lifeline for Kansas.

Its water supply.

A new bill would require the state to create safety guidelines for recycling treated wastewater, paving the way for cities to eventually return it to the Tap.

Supporters say it's vital to save the rapidly depleting Ogallala Aquifer.

But health officials are warning lawmakers that the 2028 deadline to write the rules is too aggressive, and the funding just isn't nearly enough to hire the experts needed to ensure public safety.

This has been talked about for many years.

Other cities have done this.

Has there been any discussion within the City Council about this topic?

Other states have done this as well, and the state needs to put rules and regulations that we can be able to move on.

Conservation of our water supply.

And the city of Wichita, we, provide water to nearly one fifth of all Kansas residents.

And the state needs to come with rules and regulations so we can move forward.

This is going to be a pressing issue in our community.

It's a pressing issue in western Kansas.

It's an issue that connects every single part of Kansas.

Inaction is also not an option.

And we have to be able to move forward on this.

And we need rules and regs be able to do that.

And with drought concerns that we've had over the last 20, 30 years, you think we would, find any way to resolve some of that?

Wichita is ready.

We're leading the charge.

We have our water department up there every single time that there is a hearing and we are moving forward, we are pushing on this, and we are going to make sure that we have better ways to conserve water.

And how can we make sure that we're being good stewards of the earth?

We've been given the go ahead.

The drought that we just got out of this summer is a prime example of just how quickly things can turn around in either direction.

When you're talking about using surface water like Cheyney Lake for your water source, and what's going on in western Kansas is a prime example of what can happen when you overuse those water sources.

Underground level.

They are 10 to 15 years away from being dry in 10 to 15 years.

That's not a generation that is not even in lifetimes.

And there's been fights over river water for years out there as well.

Chris pump Helling go ahead with for a minute.

I mean I think this is probably the most important issue of our time.

As a matter of fact.

I mean, there's a there I've seen some people say there's a 100% likelihood that Wichita will run out of water sometime within the next hundred years.

At some point during a drought that should really keep people up at night.

So this is a this is a national problem, but we need to act now.

We need to finish the project.

We need to think outside the box about systems, about understanding that water is not infinite.

And we need to treat it as something that is that equals life.

We cannot have it.

We cannot have society.

It will all go away without water.

And you know, the city.

During the drought, the city went through, ordinances to require people not to water their lawns and things like that.

Stage.

I think we made it to stage two restrictions.

Is that correct?

Is is the city or has the city going far enough in, in restricting every level of government and every person needs to have a hand in understanding that it is your responsibility.

I mean, really like you can't enforce people in their in the privacy of their own homes.

They're going to do what they're going to do.

You got to understand, this is all you got.

You can't just created out of nowhere.

Yeah.

Council member, we've enacted permanent water conservation measures and including a watering schedule, and we are trying to lead the charge on this in the state level.

And, this isn't a bypass or this is a bipartisan issue.

The governor is leading on this, and members of the House and these are the issues we should be talking about in Topeka.

It's definitely an issue, though, that does require buy in from the public.

All you have to do is go drive around Wichita and see all the yards with the signs.

Well water, well, that well water is coming from the same source as the city's water.

So even if you're not on the city's water, you're still using up that water when you're watering that way.

All right.

That is a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to peeler, Pedroza, Dalton Glasscock and Chris Pompei for being here.

And thanks also to cake Carson for sharing her video.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

We'll see you next week.