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Thursday night’s Mayor’s Banquet in Bonner Springs brought together city delegates and state politicians alike.

In attendance during the night’s festivities, which included a social hour, dinner and Mayor Clausie Smith’s State of the City address, were Bonner Springs City Council members and other city officials, in addition to retiring U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., and state Sen. Kelly Kultala.

The guest speaker during the banquet was Kansas Secretary of State Chris Biggs, who talked about the importance of being not only accessible to constituents, but also transparent. He said one of the challenges over the election season he was directing much of his focus toward was on ensuring there was enough competition among vendors of voting machines used in cities during elections. He said not facilitating an environment where many different varieties of voting machines are available for use at the local level could lead to a loss of control over the elections themselves.

“We have some vendors that are growing very powerful,” Biggs said. “And I’m very concerned that if we’re not careful in the near future we could have a situation where the vendors are telling the state and telling the counties what their elections are supposed to look like, instead of the other way around.”

The night also included the presentation of the Marion Vaughn Community Service Award to Don and Vicky Wheeler, who both shared how unimpressed they were with Bonner Springs when they originally moved there from Lawrence a number of years ago.

Still, “we came to love our small community,” Don said.

Looking out over those in attendance at the banquet, Vicky added, “And look at all the wonderful friends we’ve made.”

• More of this story can be found in the Sept. 2 issue of The Chieftain.

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