By Brendan Ulmer
Hutchinson Tribune Staff
HUTCHINSON—It has been a chaotic few weeks for Hutchinson City Hall and Hutch Rec.
Talk of potentially absorbing Hutch Rec and a hypothetical study that would precede it was the throughline in what was a dysfunctional and sometimes heated city council meeting on April 7.
Accusations are being levelled all over the place, with City Manager Enrico Villegas being accused of trying to organize this consolidation behind the scenes and a consolidation advocate accusing the Hutch Rec Board of threatening to cease their business relationship with his employer. Meanwhile, former Hutchinson-area state rep of seven years Jason Probst is warning the city about what the fallout of an attempted consolidation might look like.
Jaxon Allen, the 21-year-old operations manager for Janitorial Solutions, was the first to pitch the idea for a study, which he did during the city council meeting on March 3.
Allen pitched the idea as a way to make local government more efficient.
“Absorbing the rec commission feels like a natural step towards the shared goal of being the best possible stewards of public funds,” Allen said.
Allen pointed to things like the Hutch Rec using city buildings and the $100,000-plus subsidy the rec receives from the city as examples of Hutchinson residents being double-taxed.
Since then, the young Allen has been in quite the whirlwind.
“I want to start by addressing a rumor that has reached several of you: the allegation that I was planted here by someone else,” Allen said. “This is not only untrue, but it’s very insulting to me.”
The allegation against Allen and Villegas stems, in part, from Allen’s Kansas open records request (KORA) for a 1994 city-ordered study that recommended absorbing Hutch Rec.
What is notable about this is that KORA requests require a timeline for the requested documents. This would mean that Allen opted solely to request a study that said Hutch Rec should be absorbed and not the most recent one, which was done in 2011, which concluded that such a move would not save the taxpayers money.
So, how did Allen learn about this 1994 study?
“I found the 1994 study by doing the work, sharing my idea with other community members, following leads, and speaking with former City Manager Joe Palacioz to understand the context,” Allen said.
Allen went on to accuse Hutch Rec Executive Director Tony Finlay of threatening to end the rec’s business relationship with Janitorial Solutions during a Hutch Rec Commission meeting he attended.
“During the review of the expenditures, Mr. Finlay specifically highlighted the account with my employer. He noted that he had been notified of upcoming price increases on a certain product and stated that they would be shopping out to other vendors,” Allen said, quoting an email he sent to the city council members. “When I stated, for the record, that I was aware Mr. Finlay knew of my position as operations manager at the company, he acknowledged he was aware of my employment there, though perhaps not my specific title.”
Allen felt this was meant to send him a message.
“While I know that Mr. Finlay could easily deny that this wasn’t his intention, everyone who just heard me knows exactly what he was doing by bringing it up at that time, ‘keep this up, and you lose our business,’” Allen said.
According to Hutch Rec Commissioner Duke Devaul, the Janitorial Solutions product they were referring to was trash bags.
“All it was was just the bags,” Devaul said. “I was head custodian at Hutch High, and we all know about trash bags. You use a lot, and they are expensive.”
Later in the meeting, Hutch Rec Commission Chairperson Marilyn Fisk said she was the one who invited Allen and that they had been planning to seek new vendors for their trash bags.
Later, in public comments, Probst spoke to the city council and urged them not to pursue this consolidation, as he believes the fallout would be dramatic and mutually damaging for both the city and Hutch Rec.
“I fear that if we continue down this line of attack, from one institution to another, we are jeopardizing the well-being and the future of this community years down the road,” Probst said.
Probst said he also believed that such a consolidation wouldn’t save the city money, citing the 2011 study.
“The 2011 study indicated that the city will not save money,” he said. “In fact, there’s a beautiful line in that study. It says, ‘assuming that the city is operating efficiently, it would be impossible to absorb the duties of Hutch Rec without hiring additional staff.’”
Probst would later tell the Tribune that, no matter how it would end, the city’s attempt to absorb Hutch Rec would be “a war and a bloodbath right when it feels there was some unity and forward momentum in this community.”
During the reports from city officials, Council Member Greg Fast shared that he doesn’t believe the 2011 report was adequate.
“The study from 2011 was a bunch of lay people like us, who probably didn’t compare city to city,” Fast said.
Fast also expressed frustration at the blowback, saying they are merely looking at doing a study.
“We didn’t talk about us ending the Hutch Rec; we talked about looking at it,” Fast said.
Later in the reports from city officials, Council Member Steve Garza said that he related to Allen in that he has also had negative experiences with the Hutch Rec Board.
Garza’s story came from a joint meeting between the city and Hutch Rec.
“When I went to that meeting, they treated me like shit,” Garza said. “Now, you know, I thought that it was because of my skin color. No, it wasn’t because of my skin color; that’s just the way that board was.”
Finlay later told the Tribune that the unpleasantness that Garza received during that meeting was a result of repeated rude comments Garza made about a Hutch Rec employee.
Garza has told the Tribune that the hostilities were a result of a disagreement concerning the city cutting its funding for Hutch Rec.
During his address to the council, Villegas denied the accusations that he’s puppeteering Allen behind the scenes.
“With respect to the young man coming, I’ve also been told by a lot of people that I sent him here, that he is my puppet, that he is my mouthpiece, any word you can think of, all of these false allegations, I did not send him here. I went at it kind of angry because that’s affecting my reputation,” Villegas said. “Even if I did, in the past, the council has also encouraged people to come and make statements, so that is not unique, even if I did do that. I encourage people to come to council meetings, whether I agree with someone’s viewpoints or not. So what’s the harm, and where is it wrong? I believe that is healthy.”
Villegas said that shortly after he was hired, he felt that there were agreements Hutchinson had made with several other entities, including Hutch Rec, that were lopsided against the city.
“Whether it’s with South Hutch, or some of the tweaks we need to make with the county, Hutch Rec with the expired contracts, whatever the case may be, we need to fix it,” Villegas said.
During his remarks to city council, Devaul expressed his view that this issue stems from personal disagreements, and he’d like to see them put to bed.
“I have been on the Hutch Rec board for two-and-a-half years, maybe, seems like turmoil, and I just want it to end,” Devaul said. “So if there’s personality problems, let’s bury them and get it over with.”