WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – For about four hours on Tuesday, Wichita city leaders heard public comments from nearly 40 members of the community on proposed new ordinances for landlords. The meeting was the council’s third longest in history.
Following the lengthy discussion, the Wichita City Council rejected an ordinance to create a registry of landlords with problem properties (two or more code violations). The council also voted down an ordinance adding ‘source of income’ to the list of protections landlords can’t discriminate against, meaning that landlords would be required to accept Section 8.
“The register or registry of landlords who have violated or maybe not violated, I would say that’s a really bad idea,” said Gayle Clark, who owns nine rental properties in Wichita. “And if it passes, I would like to see a registry of tenants who have willfully damaged our properties.”
A statement that was met by applause from those in attendance.
Hundreds of people packed into the Wichita City Council Chambers on Tuesday for the discussion. Councilman Brandon Johnson noted the enthusiasm of those who had come to fight on behalf of the landlords, but said the tenants often go unrecognized.
“We’ve continued to do something about substandard living or substandard properties, and while all over this engagement is great, I don’t see this type of engagement when someone reaches out to me about their gruesome situation,” said Johnson. “I get a few messages saying it’s sad, but we don’t see a full house saying that ‘we need to do something’ or a full house with multiple suggestions of how we can do something.”
Johnson also urged city council members to act on the ordinances sooner rather than later. He said these are issues that have been around since before he was elected to the council in 2017.
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“The sad thing for me is what I would hate to see is in 30 days, 60 days, is that we come back and we end up doing nothing. ‘Cause it’s been 10 years since Lavonta,” said Johnson, referring to former District Councilwoman Lavonta Williams, who spoke on behalf of tenants and seniors during Tuesday’s meeting.
Johnson, along with council members Mike Hoheisel and Maggie Ballard, all voted to table all three ordinance changes to a later date, but that motion was denied.
After the meeting, council members shared their thoughts. Councilman Dalton Glasscock said, “I think what we heard today is that we are all aware there are some bad actors in our community when it comes to being landlords, but that today’s solution wasn’t able to cure those bad actors.”
The council will revisit the International Property Maintenance Standards Ordinance on Dec. 9. That ordinance involves adopting a code that requires landlords to keep properties in livable condition. Between now and Dec. 9, a task force will be formed to review the ordinance and make recommendations to the council.
Glasscock said, “I think for us, the council decided that we’re going to bring all stakeholders to the table, specifically landowners and also tenants.”
However, the city will not ask the task force to continue looking into the ordinances regarding non-discrimination and the problem landlord registry.
Johnson is still hoping those issues get addressed. He said, “I was disappointed and felt like we’re already taking a step back in being more assertive in our enforcement by saying we’re not even going to instruct the task force to talk about these two items, and at this point, we just hope that they do instead of directing them to talk about it and discuss it, and council member Hoheisel and Ballard and I wanted the full package to be discussed.”
The council hopes to make their final decisions at their Dec. 9 meeting and implement any changes at the start of 2026.
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