Douglas County commissioners are teaming up with their counterparts from four other urban counties to create a political powerhouse.

The Urban Counties Consortium is a coalition of five counties with more than half the state’s population and more than half its total property valuation, said Charles Jones, commission chairman.

With that kind of weight, he said, consortium members should be able to assemble a strong push at the Kansas Legislature on issues ranging from money for education to financing for 911 services and bolstering budgets for hiring new judges.

“We’re kindred counties, and we’re trying to see if we can work together more effectively,” Jones said.

He is scheduled to meet this afternoon in Topeka with the top elected officials of other urban counties:

• Annabeth Surbaugh, chairwoman of the Johnson County Commission.
• Tom Winters, chairman of the Sedgwick County Commission.
• Carol Marinovich, mayor and chief executive officer of the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County.
• Ted Ensley, chairman of the Shawnee County Commission.

The meeting has no specific agenda, but officials acknowledge it’s time to establish some common goals.

First up: Communication.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do, but at the very least we would be able to share information,” said Surbaugh, who came up with the consortium concept along with Winters. “The very first thing we can do is learn from one another.”

‘A collaborative effort’

Surbaugh looks into the future and sees county officials sharing their expertise on computer software for tax collections, or building alternative jails.

“It’s a collaborative effort,” she said. “We’ll see where it collaborates.”

A logical target might be the Kansas Legislature, where budget cuts have stripped city and county governments of millions of dollars in revenue-sharing funds.

Jones ultimately expects to get into valuable discussions about specific legislation, such as efforts to impose fees on wireless phones to help finance emergency dispatch centers. Douglas County has lobbied to have users of wireless phones be charged 75 cents a month, with the money to be used to implement “enhanced 911” services that would enable dispatchers to locate a caller automatically.

The county also wants the state to pick up the personnel tab for Judge Peggy Kittel, a pro-tem judge hired by the county to help lighten the caseload on the county’s other judges. The Kansas Supreme Court continues to recommend that the state finance another judge for the county, but the Legislature has refused to do so — often citing the need for less-populous counties to keep their district judges, despite dwindling caseloads.

Jones is hoping that the consortium can lend weight to such high-priority issues.

“We have begun some discussion to see if we can unify our efforts,” he said.

‘Soft sell’ sought

Surbaugh prefers to concentrate less on politics and more on mechanics. Simply getting the five governments talking, she said, should help improve services for residents not only in the five counties, but statewide.

Besides, Surbaugh said, coming up with a unified legislative package doesn’t need to happen right away. Douglas County might be pushing for another judge, while Johnson County might advocate for the state boosting judicial salaries by 3 percent to account for the county’s higher cost of living.

Other urban counties could add to the mix in their own ways, she said, to help create a single judicial package that all five counties could support.

The trick then would be to support the positive aspects of the plan, Surbaugh said, not attack the inevitable opponents.

“I don’t want it to be, ‘We’ve got this many votes, and they’ve got to listen to us,’ ” Surbaugh said. “I don’t want it to be a power play. The guy that carries a big stick sometimes doesn’t win. I want this to be a collaborative effort, learning from one another. …

“It’s the day of the soft sell, not the big stick. I don’t really want a big stick. I’ve found a soft sell works a lot better.”

Commissioners from all five governments are invited to attend a reception today, after the afternoon meeting of consortium leaders. The reception, sponsored by Sedgwick County, is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka.