A sturdy seat belt may be a good item for Lawrence voters to have, because the twist and turns in the final days of the Lawrence City Commission campaign have been significant. The two most recent: the political arm of Lawrence police officers is squaring off with front-runner Leslie Soden, and approximately $15,000 in outside money recently has been injected into the City Commission race from a national Realtor group.

First, Lawrence police officers and their concerns about Soden, the top vote-winner in last month’s primary election. The Lawrence Police Officers’ Association Political Action Committee has issued a formal statement about why it doesn’t think Soden is suitable to serve as a city commissioner. The group said that as it was researching candidates to support, it found several social media messages on Twitter that raised concerns about her attitudes towards the police.

“If one were to view Ms. Soden’s social media activity, and her failure to tour existing police facilities to educate herself on one of the most discussed issues of this year’s campaign, it shows she is willing to make decisions not based on facts and vital information but upon uneducated and incorrect assertions,” the group said in its statement. “This demonstrates that she lacks the mature judgment needed by a Commissioner, and if elected to the City Commission it could be to the detriment to our community.”

This twist in the campaign should be interesting to watch because the social media messages in question likely are going to be viewed differently by different folks. First, it is important to note that none of the messages actually were written by Soden. They rather were all retweeted or favorited. (For those of you who confine your tweeting activity to bird shows, think of “retweeting” or “favoriting” sort of like forwarding an e-mail message, although, in this case, to multiple people at a time.)

There are some tweets that Soden forwarded or favorited that bring up questions of race relations between the police officers and the communities they serve. These tweets came in the aftermath of the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. Here are a couple of examples:

— Soden retweeted an Aug. 17 message from Max Berger, an organizer with the Occupy movement, that read: “#Ferguson is the perfect storm of America’s problems: war equipment from Iraq used to suppress poor people angry about a racist murder.”

• On Sept. 19, Soden favorited a tweet by Jason Barr, a prolific Lawrence-area Twitter user. It read: “Cops arresting a guy with a huge assault rifle at Dillons on 6th. A (expletive) assault rifle. He was white . . . so they didn’t shoot him. #LFK”

Soden told me she can understand how some people may be concerned about the social media messages when “they are taken out of context.” She said she was very interested in the news of the day surrounding the Ferguson shooting and its aftermath. She said she thinks the discussion happening in the wake of the Ferguson shooting is very important for people involved in community leadership to pay attention to. She said she retweeted the messages because they showed the emotion of the debate. She said she doesn’t necessarily agree with all the sentiments expressed in the tweets.

“They were just retweets,” Soden said. “They weren’t my words. It showed a lot of emotion. There were a lot of emotional messages that people were sending out. It showed this is something people were experiencing very intensely.”

The police officers association in total included 40 tweets that it said were examples of messages that “demonstrate a lack of understanding of issues facing law enforcement and the communities they police.” If you want to look for yourself, you can see Soden’s full Twitter feed here. It is worth noting that about half-dozen of the messages cited by the police group were simply retweets from news organizations such as the Associated Press, NPR, CNN and LJWorld that were providing updates on the Ferguson situation.

Soden said she wants people to understand she thinks Lawrence police officers are doing a good job in serving the community.

“Any police officers I have encountered in Lawrence, I’ve had good interactions with them,” Soden said. “I think they do a great job. There are probably people in town who don’t agree with that, but my experience has been good.”

One issue the police officers association raised is that Soden hasn’t been on a tour of the current police facilities. She said that is correct. Soden said she’s attended several city presentations on the condition of police facilities, but hasn’t yet taken a tour. She said she’s already convinced that police facilities need to be upgraded and expanded. She expects a formal City Commission tour of the facilities will be one of the activities of the new commission.

Soden said she thinks this most recent statement by the police officers association is a sign of frustration.

“I understand that they are frustrated that they were not the top priority for past commissioners,” Soden said. “And I’m sure the failure of the sales tax in November was frustrating too. But for the past few months I have been telling anyone and everyone that public safety is my top priority. I really am looking forward to working on that issue.”

Soden, during her campaign, has been advocating for examining the entire “emergency services system,” which includes the police, the fire department, the hospital and the jail. She said such a review may lead to ways that the community can reduce the demand for police services.

All six candidates in the field have supported improvements for police facilities, but Soden has differentiated herself from several other candidates by saying she wants to study whether existing facilities could be upgraded or expanded before looking at $26 million plan to build an entirely new police headquarters.

“I agree that we have issues with our current facilities,” Soden said. “I don’t know why they are in the shape they are now. I totally think it needs to be a top priority. But to build a new facility so soon after the voters rejected that idea, I’m not sure.”

• On to Twist No. 2. The newly formed Lawrence Realtors Political Action Committee filed its required campaign finance report with the Douglas County Clerk’s office yesterday. It showed two contributions to the PAC: $300 from the Lawrence Board of Realtors and $14,645.49 from the National Association of Realtors based in Chicago.

If you remember last week, there was an uproar over outside campaign donations perhaps influencing local races. Given that, I wanted to check in on this donation, which to my memory is the largest single donation related to a Lawrence City Commission race.

Crystal Swearingen, president of the Lawrence Board of Realtors, told me this morning that members of the local board of Realtors periodically make donations to the national political action committee for the National Association of Realtors. One of the programs of the national PAC is to provide grant money to local boards of Realtors to use in local races. Swearingen said the local board this year decided it wanted to get more active in the Lawrence City Commission race, in part because the next commission is expected to deal with updates to Horizon 2020 and other planning documents that directly will impact the residential home industry.

Swearingen said the local PAC is using the money to send postcards and buy advertising to support the three candidates it has endorsed, Stan Rasmussen, Terry Riordan and Matthew Herbert.

“We just want to make sure people understand how these issues may impact property owners,” Swearingen said.

In other news and notes from around town:

• A little more than 100 people went to a public open house regarding concept plans to expand the western leg of the South Lawrence Trafficway to four-lanes. As we have reported previously, the project won’t be as simple as just adding two more lanes to the existing bypass.

The latest concept plans give an idea of how much could change along the western route of the road. Specifically, some new interchanges may be built, and there’s even talk of eliminating the existing Clinton Parkway interchange. Nothing is close to being set in stone. The state doesn’t have the money currently budgeted to build another two lanes, so any project is years away. But the Kansas Department of Transportation does hope to settle on a concept plan within the next year.

Here’s a look at some of the major ideas floated in the current draft version of the concept plan:

• Moving the existing Clinton Parkway interchange to the south. A map shows a location that would be just north and west of where Wakarusa Drive currently intersects with the SLT near the YSI sports complex. Planners do not like the at-grade intersection that exists at Wakarusa/27th Street near YSI. It has been dangerous. The concept plan notes that creating an interchange at the Wakarusa Drive location “would be challenging” due to several right-of-way issues. A new interchange to the north and west, however, could provide access to the YSI complex, if some new frontage roads are built. But that new interchange would mean the existing interchange for Clinton Parkway would be removed. KDOT planners have said they are open to that idea, in part, because the Clinton Parkway interchange currently is the least used on the SLT. Removing the interchange, however, may create new difficulties for people wanting to get to Clinton State Park.

• Changes to the roadway alignment near the existing Clinton Parkway interchange. If you remember, that is where the road takes a big curve. Planners say the arc of the curve would make it difficult for the road to safely have a 70 mph speed limit. The arc of the curve likely would need to be lessened, which would bring the road much closer to existing residential development or perhaps would require some houses to be relocated. Here’s a map that shows what they’re talking about.

• A new interchange where the SLT and Inverness Drive would intersect. The interchange would be south and east of the existing Wakarusa/27th Street intersection. It also could provide an alternative route to the YSI complex. If built, planners have said they would add an overpass for Wakarusa and the SLT.

• Changes where Kasold Drive intersects with the SLT. The concept plan says that intersection needs to be removed for safety reasons. The planners also have ruled out the idea of an interchange due to floodplain concerns and too little space between that location and the U.S. Highway 59 interchange. The concept plan notes an underpass that would allow Kasold to get across the SLT is a possibility.

• Major changes to the Lecompton interchange on the Kansas Turnpike. That’s the interchange that connects the SLT to the Kansas Turnpike. Planners want that interchange to be completely free-flowing, meaning motorists wouldn’t have to travel through any at-grade intersections. That design, though, will be tough to accomplish if access to North 1800 Road — also known as Farmers Turnpike — is allowed to remain at the interchange.

Planners are contemplating that a new Kansas Turnpike interchange could be built at Queens Road, just east of the current Lecompton interchange. The Queens Road interchange would allow motorists to have access to North 1800 Road. Once built access to North 1800 Road at the Lecompton interchange would be eliminated.

Another possibility is a new interchange at County Route 1029, which is a bit west of the existing Lecompton interchange. County Route 1029 leads directly into Lecompton. That new interchange also would allow access to North 1800 Road.

Here’s a map that goes over some of the ideas. As I said before, the project is years away, but the talk that is going on today could be very significant in shaping Lawrence’s transportation future. KDOT intends to have another public meeting this summer where it presents a revised version of the concept plans.