Former City Council member, real estate broker seek seat on Sedgwick County Commission

Two candidates have filed to run for the seat currently held by County Commissioner David Dennis in Sedgwick County’s sprawling western District 3.

Greg Ferris, a former Wichita City Council member, and Stephanie Wise, a commercial real estate broker, will square off in the Republican primary on Aug. 6. Candidates have until June 3 to file. So far, no Democrats have entered the race.

Dennis is serving his second four-year term and has said he plans to retire rather than seek re-election.

As the governing body for Sedgwick County, commissioners are responsible for setting policy direction and approving a budget for vital services such as EMS, 911, Comcare, corrections and the sheriff’s office. They also oversee Fire District 1 and serve as the board of health, the board of canvassers of elections, and the hearing panel on tax appeals. Commissioners’ base salary is $101,527 a year.

Ferris, 70, says his 12 years on the City Council (1987-1999) and his subsequent work as a consultant and lobbyist helping businesses get what they want from local governments has uniquely prepared him for the role.

“I’m going to be nothing but blunt. I had clients that I represented, and I represented them well. I was very effective at what I did. But my clients now will be the citizens of Sedgwick County, and I will be very, very effective in representing them,” said Ferris, who in recent years has pushed to get T-Mobile cell towers erected in north Wichita neighborhoods and helped short-circuit efforts to privatize city golf courses.

“I’m looking now at where I’m at in my life, and I think I still have some skills to give back to the community,” he said.

Wise, 36, says voters don’t want an insider. She hasn’t run for office since her student council days, instead developing her passion for leadership as a broker at Street Commercial and a District 3 Citizens Advisory Board member. She said the decision to run was one she made after deep self-reflection.

“It’s not a career choice. It’s a sacrifice to serve the community,” Wise said.

“I wanted to see more business leaders put their name in the ring and really make it to where running for an elected position isn’t something that you just wait for retirement to do, but that you make time for it while you’re in the thick of your career and raising kids and fully invested in the community and where it’s going.”

Expenditure reports filed with the county election office show Ferris reported raising $3,500 in December 2023 to Wise’s $3,000, but she outspent him $2,800 to $101 over the same period.

Priorities

District 3 is the largest County Commission district in size with more rural land than most. It includes much of west Wichita, as well as Goddard, Colwich, Bentley, Mount Hope, Andale, Garden Plain, Cheney and Viola.

“A lot of the focus is going to be on infrastructure and smart economic growth,” Wise said of her priorities if elected. “There’s a lot of the cities in my district that are really ready to grow and they desire to grow, but we need to make sure from a county perspective that we’re supporting it through infrastructure (roads and bridges) and really smart growth plans.”

Ferris said it’s time to get serious about the Northwest Bypass project, first studied in the late 1990s, which would extend K-96 from near 45th Street and Maize Road to Kellogg, just east of Goddard.

“There has not been a [highway] project done in west Sedgwick County from Maize west since I left the council, and the only reason [the] Maize [overpass] got done was because I fought to move it up,” Ferris said. “We need to get Kellogg done out west. It’s shovel-ready at 119th Street, 135th, 151st. That affects everyone in west Sedgwick County that wants to come into Wichita.”

Both candidates said they plan to prioritize keeping property taxes as low as possible without sacrificing core services.

“We should be advocates not only for tax relief but should also be advocating for property tax reform,” Wise said.

Sixty percent of Sedgwick County homeowners received higher tax appraisals in 2024 than they did in 2023. Appraisals went up for 80% of homeowners in 2023 and 88% in 2022.

“I think that the assessment rates as they stand now are not conducive to economic growth, and send a bad signal to our community,” Wise said.

That process is standardized at the state level. Ferris said he’s the candidate who’s best positioned to advocate for meaningful property assessment reform.

“Experience does matter in government, and knowledge matters,” he said. “I can pick up the phone and call the speaker of the House or the president of the Senate, because frankly I was involved in raising tens of thousands of dollars for Republican elected officials, so I know those people.”

Business interests

In Topeka, Ferris has lobbied regularly on behalf of Genesis Health Clubs President Rodney Steven II and other private club owners on various initiatives over the last decade, including in their push for a property tax exemption on the basis that nonprofit organizations such as the YMCA have an unfair advantage.

He also represented Steven in his unsuccessful bid to build and manage a state-owned casino in southeast Kansas. At the city level, Ferris helped Genesis secure a contract to manage the Wichita Ice Center, a facility that was built during his own time on the council. The city and Genesis are now suing each other over who’s responsible for neglected maintenance work and unusable rinks.

“I may be called as a witness so I have to be careful what I say about that whole deal, but I know that there’s some misinformation about elements of that, and I think some of that’s probably going to come out sooner rather than later,” Ferris said.

His substantial interest form filed with the election office, which lists all clients who paid him $2,000 or more in the last year, includes Wichita Foundation, Key Construction, Steven Enterprises, Baughman Company, SCI Wireless, Bridger Company and Pyramid Group International. Ferris said if elected, he’ll step away from all his consulting work.

In general, though, he thinks his experience representing clients will be an asset to taxpayers.

“I know how hard you can push,” Ferris said. “I know how hard developers — they push and tell you what they can and can’t do. That isn’t always the truth, and I know what they can and can’t do.”

Wise said she does not plan to quit her job at Street Commercial if she’s chosen to represent the people of District 3.

“I run all of my own transactions and workload myself, so it’s something that is very self-manageable,” Wise said. She plans to lean into that experience on the commission.

“I obviously have some great interest in helping with some of the real estate decisions that are on the agenda right now,” Wise said.

She said she finds it hard to imagine that her public and private work could present a conflict of interests.

“If there was some monetary benefit to me, I would be ready and willing to answer those questions,” Wise said. “But from an experience standpoint, I think that people will want me behind those decisions . . . Who would be better than someone who does that for a living to help guide those decisions?”

The District 3 race is one of two County Commission contests this year. District 4 incumbent Sarah Lopez, the five-member body’s only Democrat, is facing a challenge from Jeff Blubaugh, the recently term-limited Republican Wichita City Council member.