As the new year gets underway, our reporters take a look at what are promising to be some of the big stories of 2017 in the city, county, school district and Statehouse, as well as at the University of Kansas, and on the crime and courts beat.

? City of Lawrence

? Douglas County

? Lawrence school district

? State government

? University of Kansas

? Crime and courts

City of Lawrence

Police chief: The city will hire a new police chief in the coming year. Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib said he will step down as the department’s head this summer. Khatib has been with the Lawrence Police Department for more than 20 years and has served as chief since 2011. City Manager Tom Markus intends to do a nationwide search to fill Khatib’s position.

Strategic plan: The City Commission will create its first strategic plan, and in doing so will decide what it wants the city to look like in the future. As part of the strategic planning process, the commission will create specific, interrelated steps to arrive at that future. Those steps will be part of the city’s annual budget decisions. A process will also be in place to measure and assess progress related to the plan.

Affordable housing: The shortage of affordable housing in Douglas County has been classified as severe, and plans to address the issue will continue to move forward. The city has reinstated its affordable housing trust fund, and the City Commission added an affordable housing requirement to the economic development incentives policy in December. Review of affordable housing proposals related to residential incentives requests and of decisions regarding how funds in the trust will be used to create affordable housing are in store for the coming year.

East Ninth: The City Commission will decide on the scope of improvements to East Ninth Street. The concept design originally proposed for the multimillion-dollar project would have completely redone a seven-block stretch of the street, as well as added public artwork and other aesthetic features. Some commissioners, as well as East Lawrence residents, were opposed to the scale of the project, and it was not funded as part of annual budget decisions.

— Rochelle Valverde

Back to top

Douglas County

Newly elected Douglas County Commissioner Michelle Derusseau said there is no rush to make decisions regarding the Douglas County Jail expansion and construction of a mental health crisis intervention center.

Just as it dominated the recent campaigns for the 2nd and 3rd District County Commission seats, the two topics are sure to be at the top of the commission’s 2017 agenda. The estimated $30 million expansion of the Douglas County Jail and the building of a mental health center were the subject to two candidate forums during the campaign in which incumbent Nancy Thellman won decisive re-election in the 2nd District and political newcomer Derusseau emerged victorious in the 3rd.

Thellman and 1st District Commissioner Mike Gaughan remain supportive of both projects, but have said they will wait for Derusseau to feel comfortable with the issues before making a decision on how to proceed.

Derusseau said recently that she would not be ready to act until the county had a better idea of how well the alternatives to incarceration being explored through the Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council work.

“I’m not going to be in any hurry,” she said. “There’s a lot of great things going on in the CJCC. There’s a lot of things put in place recently that need to be given time. These are big decisions. We need to make sure we get them right. When I say get them right, I mean make sure they serve the community for a long time.”

Early this year, commissioners had hoped to put a ballot question on the November general election ballot, asking voters to approve a bond issue for the jail expansion and the crisis center’s construction. However, commissioners backed away from that schedule in April when they agreed it did not give the then-1-month-old CJCC time to review the county’s criminal justice system as charged.

Nonetheless, Gaughan sees no reason to veer far from the previous commission’s position to move forward with both projects. The needs identified during three years of work and review still exist, he said.

Throughout her re-election campaign, Thellman said there was a pressing need for jail expansion and a crisis intervention center. The right question to ask was how to address existing needs, she said, and not whether the two proposals should be linked on a bond question.

— Elvyn Jones

Back to top

Lawrence school district

The New Year tentatively brings plenty of new developments to the Lawrence school district, namely an $87 million bond issue that would involve major improvements to Lawrence’s secondary schools.

If board members vote to approve the bond issue, a decision that is slated for the school board’s Jan. 9 meeting, the projects would come before district voters in a May 2 election.

The public has shown early support for the bond issue, with 76 percent of respondents in a recent survey expressing their approval. When asked whether they would still support the bond issue if it resulted in a tax increase of about $55 per year for the owner of a $200,000 home, 71 percent of respondents maintained their support. The results of that survey, which polled 400 landline and cellphone users in the district this fall, were presented to the school board at its Dec. 19 meeting.

The improvements would include classroom expansion at Lawrence High School and Free State High School to address the needs of a growing district, among other projects, as well as the modernization of libraries at Lawrence’s four middle schools. Other proposed improvements, including the addition of LED lighting, would transform schools into more energy-efficient spaces.

Also on the roster for January is the meeting of a community conversation around race and equity issues that school board members say will lead to the formation of a community advisory council concerning such matters.

The council would ideally involve representatives from local schools, faith-based organizations and other civic- and community-minded groups, and would hopefully lead to a “shared vision” for the school district, its ongoing equity work and input from community members in the process.

— Joanna Hlavacek

Back to top

State government

Kansas voters elected a more moderate, centrist Legislature in 2016, and those new lawmakers will face some daunting challenges when they convene this month to start the 2017 legislative session.

The immediate challenge will be finding a way to close a projected $933 million budget shortfall over the next 18 months. That’s the difference between how much the state is planning to spend and how much revenue it actually expects to receive.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has said he will offer his proposal in January, but lawmakers are likely to have their own ideas, especially those who campaigned against the governor’s tax and budget policies.

Many of them campaigned saying they wanted reverse many or all of the sweeping tax cuts Brownback pushed through in 2012 and 2013. Many also said they want to expand the state’s Medicaid program, as allowed under the Affordable Care Act, but the election of Donald Trump as president may put that idea on hold for the time being.

Meanwhile, lawmakers also are expected to write a new school finance formula in 2017, the first such overhaul of education funding in 25 years. A pending Kansas Supreme Court decision could have much to say about what the new formula should look like and how much money needs to go into it.

Statehouse observers can also expect to see battles over funding for higher education and a state water plan, as well as issues like concealed weapons on college campuses, gambling, the state’s voting laws and the death penalty.

The 2017 session begins Monday, Jan. 9. Gov. Brownback will deliver his State of the State address at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10.

— Peter Hancock

Back to top

University of Kansas

Before the end of 2017, the University of Kansas will have a new chancellor.

And if all goes as scheduled, shortly after current chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little vacates her office the KU campus also will allow the concealed carry of handguns.

Those are two of the biggest changes expected at KU in 2017, along with several major building projects.

The search is underway now for a new KU chancellor. Gray-Little announced in September that she would step down at the end of this school year, and Kansas Board of Regents members have indicated their goal is to announce her replacement in time to take office on or around July 1, 2017.

That happens to be the same date an exemption allowing state universities to prohibit guns from their campuses will expire. Under state law, KU and other schools must allow the lawful carry of concealed handguns starting July 1. Policies for implementing that law have been approved by the Regents — though a number of faculty, staff and students who oppose the law say they will lobby the Legislature to change it.

In addition, major construction will continue and some buildings will be completed in KU’s $350 million Central District redevelopment project.

The new residence hall and dining facility going up near 19th Street and Naismith Drive, behind Oliver Hall, is on track to be completed and open in 2017. So is a new parking garage just off Irving Hill Road.

Work will continue through 2017 on the Integrated Science Building on Irving Hill Road, a new student union adjacent to the science building, and a new student apartment complex at 19th and Ousdahl.

A major building project just outside the Central District, the $82 million Earth, Energy and Environment Center adjacent to Lindley Hall, also is scheduled to open in fall 2017.

At the KU Medical Center Campus in Kansas City, Kan., the $75 million Health Education Building is scheduled to open in August 2017. The first phase of KU Hospital’s $350 million Cambridge North Tower should be substantially completed by the end of 2017 and accepting patients in early 2018.

–Sara Shepherd

Back to top

Crime and courts

Perhaps the biggest change for the Lawrence Police Department in 2017, as noted above, will be the replacement of Police Chief Tarik Khatib, who will leave his post in June.

Another potential change to the department will come in the form of citizen oversight. Watch as the discussion continues regarding changing the current Citizen Advisory Board for Fair and Impartial Policing to the Community Police Review Board. Lawrence city commissioners recently showed support for allowing the board to fully review and take a more hands-on approach regarding investigating reported instances of racial profiling. In addition, the board would be able to accept complaints against the department, which it currently does not do.

In the Douglas County District Court system, several high-profile criminal trials are scheduled for 2017.

Jaered Long, 17, who is accused of stabbing his 67-year-old grandmother, Deborah Bretthauer, to death in December 2015, is scheduled to face trial in late February. He has been charged with a single charge of first-degree murder and will be tried as an adult.

Former Lawrence Police Officer Frank McClelland will face trial for a misdemeanor battery charge in late March. While working as a police officer McClelland was accused of punching an uncooperative man in the face multiple times. He is no longer employed in the Lawrence Police Department.

One of two former Haskell Indian Nations University students accused of rape will stand trial again after a mistrial. In February Galen Satoe, 22, is scheduled to appear in court, facing two felony counts of rape and a single felony count of aiding and abetting attempted rape. The second man charged in the incident, 21-year-old Jared Wheeler, was convicted of a single, felony charge of aggravated battery in November. Wheeler is scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction in early January.

— Conrad Swanson

Back to top