photo by: City of Lawrence screenshot

Chuck Magerl speaks at the Lawrence City Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.

The agenda for last week’s Lawrence City Commission meeting was updated after the meeting to include an email in which an appointee to the newly restructured Lawrence Community Shelter board of directors repeatedly refers to someone experiencing a behavioral health crisis as a “psycho.”

As the Journal-World reported, the City Commission last week appointed three members to the shelter’s board of directors under its new shared-governance structure with the City of Lawrence and Douglas County: Shannon Oury, Elizabeth Keever and Chuck Magerl. But City Commissioner Courtney Shipley ultimately voted against Magerl’s appointment, citing an email from Magerl that she claimed contained statements about homeless people that she viewed as “disqualifying.”

Before the vote, however, which was 3-1 in favor of Magerl with Commissioner Amber Sellers abstaining, Shipley initially didn’t identify which appointee she had an issue with. When Mayor Lisa Larsen pressed Shipley to identify the appointee she objected to, Shipley said, “Chuck.”

Shipley didn’t go into further detail about what Magerl had said, but she did request that City Clerk Sherri Riedemann attach the email correspondence she alluded to at the meeting to the meeting agenda the following morning, Oct. 18. The correspondence — now linked on the meeting agenda without any public notification — began with an email from Magerl, the owner of Free State Brewing Company, to City Manager Craig Owens. Magerl’s message describes an incident that occurred outside of his Massachusetts Street brewery eight months ago on Feb. 17.

In the email, Magerl describes a man experiencing a behavioral health crisis accosting a family entering the restaurant, referring to the man as a “psycho” seven times. He said that police responded and arrested the man on suspicion of battery. Owens responded to the message two weeks later on March 3, also looping in the City Commission at that time.

None of the commissioners discussed at Tuesday’s meeting any of the details of the message they’d all been sent. Owens, Shipley and Larsen — who is responsible for recommending appointments to the city’s volunteer boards and commissions — did not respond to requests for comment from the Journal-World sent late Monday afternoon and again Tuesday asking why the email was not shared in more detail Tuesday night given the language therein.

Magerl did respond to the Journal-World’s request for comment on his email. However, he didn’t initially address his repeated use of the word “psycho” until asked about it more directly in a follow-up message. Magerl said the word was meant to be “provocative” in an attempt to get the city to take action.

“Things were getting worse on the streets downtown,” Magerl said. “The word psycho may have been correct from a dictionary reference but I recognize it may be hurtful and extreme to some. Perhaps in the future I’ll simply say crazy, violent and in need of care.”

Magerl, in his earlier response to the Journal-World, said he believes homelessness is one of the most significant crises this community and the country are facing, and he was concerned when he sent his email in February that the city hadn’t been facing the complexity of that crisis. Magerl said the message was written “out of frustration and despair that the city had continued to act like things were business as usual and not deserving of any real attention.”

“Meanwhile, real people, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, were dying on the streets and alone in tents,” Magerl said in an emailed message to the Journal-World.

Magerl noted that his message to Owens made no mention of homelessness, and he said he has no idea whether the individual involved with the incident was homeless or not. He said Tuesday that the man “was a very troubled person who needed attention and care,” and said people struggling with mental illness, addiction or “delirium” who may have violent episodes also need compassionate care.

Magerl said that after the incident he was particularly “furious” that the city had ignored the community’s behavioral health crisis, and noted that at the time Douglas County leaders were still locked in negotiations with Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center about final agreements for operating the Treatment and Recovery Center of Douglas County, which had yet to open. He said the resource was at a standstill “waiting for governments and agencies to quit arm wrestling and take action.”

“I know the behavioral health crisis may be a subset of the larger homelessness crisis, but it’s where the problems are most critical, and people need help while we can still reach them,” Magerl said. “But, importantly, not all behavioral health issues are homelessness issues.”

City spokesperson Cori Wallace also provided the Journal-World with an explanation Tuesday afternoon for why the email thread was added to last week’s meeting agenda retroactively, which she attributed to multiple city departments. According to Wallace’s statement, no public update was provided because notifications when including a link to City Commission meeting agendas are sent only to people requesting notification of governing body meetings in compliance with the Kansas Open Meetings Act.

“The attachment you are referring to is related to a past meeting,” Wallace’s statement said. “There is no requirement that a notice be sent when a document is added to a prior meeting’s agenda.”

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