This week, the Journal-World is presenting condensed profiles of the candidates seeking seats on the Lawrence City Commission and school board.

For the full profiles, 6News profiles, texts of candidate chats or to check out our “Candidate selector,” go to the Journal-World’s Web site at www.ljworld.com/section/election03.

In Sunday’s Journal-World, look for our Election Guide, which maps each candidate’s position on important issues.

Tuesday is Primary Election Day.

Lawrence school board

Leonard Ortiz, 45,
college teacher
3032 Yellowstone Drive

Leonard Ortiz doesn’t like what he sees and hears of the current Lawrence school board.

He objects to the board’s proposal of a record-breaking $59 million bond for school construction. And he said he couldn’t believe board members felt justified in closing three small neighborhood elementary schools.

But there’s more.

Ortiz, who is Hispanic, said he is uncomfortable the seven-member board is composed entirely of affluent white people.

“There needs to be … somebody who can identify with minority or low-income families. There needs to be a voice of that segment of society,” he said.

The lack of diversity is shocking, Ortiz said, because one-fourth of the district’s 10,000 students are minorities.

Ortiz, 45, teaches history part-time at Kansas, Baker and Washburn universities.

Ortiz struggled to get a high school education. He worked 15 years in a factory and took college classes at night. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Santa Clara University in 1984.

Ortiz completed a master’s degree in education at Stanford University and a doctorate at Kansas University. He and his wife, Dana, have two children who attend Schwegler School.

“I believe the bond should have given the voters some optional packages to choose from,” he said. “Unfortunately, it is an all-or-nothing deal.”

Should the bond issue fail in April, Ortiz said the board should craft a bond that mirrors public sentiment.

Michael L. Pomes, 39,
environmental geologist
528 Kan.

Neighborhoods will have a voice on the Lawrence school board, candidate Michael Pomes promises, if he wins election.

“I think neighborhoods need to have more input into the Lawrence school board, particularly when you start closing schools,” said Pomes, secretary of Park Hill Neighborhood Assn.

Pomes is chief of the underground storage tank section in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. He’s also in a National Guard field artillery unit.

He has geology degrees from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Fort Hays State University and Kansas University.

He and his wife, Marsha, have a daughter who graduated in 2001 from Lawrence High School and a daughter nearly old enough to attend Broken Arrow School.

Pomes jumped into the race hours before the filing deadline because he didn’t think there were enough candidates standing in opposition to the board’s $59 million bond for school construction or against plans to consolidate East Heights and Centennial schools.

A flurry of filings after he signed up brought the number of candidates challenging the wisdom of the bond and consolidation to eight.

Some of Pomes’ ideas for cutting extravagant district spending: Get rid of administrative staff; reduce maintenance costs by asking neighborhood volunteers to cut school lawns; avoid consultants for long-term planning.

Ron Powell, 44,
registered medical assistant

School board candidate Ron Powell says burned-out teachers must go.

“We do have some very, very good teachers in the Lawrence schools,” Powell said. “Replace ones who have lost a general good feeling about students, parents and education.”

Teachers remaining after the housecleaning should be paid higher salaries, he said.

Powell has lived in Lawrence since 1986. He is the single parent of two adopted sons.

“I want to run because right now I’ve got the feeling the school board we’ve got is not looking at the whole picture,” Powell said.

He said an example was the board’s decision last year to impose $3.1 million in budget cuts and fee increases. The action weakened academic offerings and made it tougher for families on limited incomes, he said.

“Some of the cuts that have been made to the special-needs classes have been … so drastic.”

One of Powell’s sons is a senior at Lawrence High School and attends a therapeutic class at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. The other is a fifth-grader at Prairie Park School. Powell’s second wife and their infant son were killed six years ago when a car driven by an intoxicated motorist hit her vehicle.

He expects voters to reject the school bond issue on the April 1 ballot. He is a opposed to the bond and consolidation.

“You don’t need to close schools to save money,” he said. “Why can’t the liquor be taxed? Why can’t that money be turned around and used in the schools?”

Cindy Yulich, 43,
bank vice president
4203 W. 12th St.

Cindy Yulich wants to be more than a one-issue candidate.

That’s no easy task in a Lawrence school board primary dominated by debate about the $59 million bond for school construction and elementary school consolidation.

“Whoever is elected to this board will make decisions the next four years for all our kids and it shouldn’t come down to one single issue,” she said. “I will not represent a single issue, a single neighborhood or a single constituency.”

Yulich said issues surrounding teacher compensation, budget options and implications of government mandates had been overshadowed by hubbub about the bond and school closures.

For the record, Yulich is solidly in the pro-bond and pro-consolidation camp. But her position comes with a twist.

“I’m not running to support or defeat the bond,” Yulich said. “If the bond issue passes, I will work for efficient implementation. If it does not pass, we’ll go back to the table and come up with a bond that will pass.”

Yulich moved to Lawrence in 1991 to work for Emprise Bank. She’s a senior vice president and oversees both Emprise branches in Lawrence.

She’s on site councils at East Heights and Quail Run schools and has won the district’s outstanding citizen award.

Cindy and Mitch Yulich have two sons, one at Southwest Junior High School and the other at Quail Run.

City Commission

Mike Rundle, 49,
Community Mercantile
shift manager
615 Ind.

Mike Rundle has spent eight of the last 16 years on the Lawrence City Commission, but there’s more he wants to accomplish.

That’s why he’s on the campaign trail again.

“My priority is standing up for neighborhoods,” Rundle said at a recent campaign forum. “Lawrence can be a great city, but only if we insist on growing with character.”

He has built his reputation as a consistent opponent of developments he thinks violate the city comprehensive plan and a vocal critic of city management, and for his votes against tax abatements he thinks benefit businesses at the expense of taxpayers.

But Rundle suggests he would vote for an abatement if the right one came along.

“This important economic development tool needs to be used judiciously,” he said. “Tax abatements cost us tax dollars and must be fair and equitable to the rest of the community. I believe the next commission needs to continue the public dialogue on this policy issue.”

And Rundle thinks the city’s handling of growth is improving but not yet perfect.

“The current commission gets high marks for choosing ‘planned growth’ as one of its goals for 2002,” he said. “However, we have not had any discussion of how we will achieve or implement that goal. Our planning commission needs to take our comprehensive plan more seriously. I do not believe that we have adequate staffing to manage growth for a city of our size and for the pace of our growth.”

David Schauner, 57,
attorney,
5002 Jeffries Court

Campaigns are sometimes filled with cliches, platitudes and the kind of talk that makes everybody happy.

David Schauner hates cliches, platitudes and the kind of talk that makes everybody happy. And he makes little attempt to hide it.

“Everybody’s trying to say the same thing,” he said after a recent candidate forum. “Everybody’s trying to migrate to the middle.”

Not Schauner. One of his first campaign acts was to unveil a “promise card” telling voters where he stands. He challenged other candidates to sign it. Some did, some didn’t.

In the card, Schauner said he would work to fulfill the following promises if elected:

• Companies that want tax abatements will pay a “living wage” of at least $9.39 an hour.
• Development will pay more of the costs it creates.
• The community’s diversity will be reflected on boards and commissions.
• Major developments will be studied for their effect on neighborhood quality of life.
• Floodplain development will be prohibited.
• Schauner will vote for Commissioner David Dunfield to be mayor.

The promise card irritated candidates who didn’t sign it, but Schauner makes no apologies.

“It was an attempt to be specific about what I believe in,” he said.

Schauner doesn’t want to revisit the city commission’s decision to ban the private use of fireworks during the Fourth of July holiday.