Douglas County Commission candidates said during a forum Thursday evening that the community has existing resources in place to fill gaps in access to health care and preventive care but better education and leadership are required.
Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, Heartland Community Health Center and United Way of Kaw Valley co-hosted the forum at the Community Health Facility in Lawrence.
Candidates vying for a seat on the Douglas County Commission include:
• District 2: Shannon Reid, incumbent Democrat, and Brad Chun, independent;
• District 3: Karen Willey, incumbent Democrat, and Pam McDermott, Republican;
• District 4: Gene Dorsey, Democrat; Steve Jacob, Libertarian; and Timothy Bruce, Republican;
• District 5: Erica Anderson, Democrat; Kirsten Kuhn, Libertarian; and Rich Lorenzo, Republican.
Find out which district you’re in by visiting myvoteinfo.voteks.org and inputting your name and date of birth or your address.
All participated in Thursday’s forum except for Reid and Bruce. Jonathan Smith, executive director of LDCPH, moderated the forum, posing questions related to drug addiction and recovery, economic security, housing, food security and gun violence. He said bringing public health into the conversation ahead of November’s election is vital.
“We need everybody to exercise their right to vote, because voting is public health policy development, can help to address social determinants of health, and has a direct link to our environment and overall health and well-being,” Smith said.
Candidates largely argued lowering property taxes would be the saving grace for many pervasive issues in Douglas County. But they offered varying perspectives on addressing gaps in accessing preventive care across the community.
Dorsey said about a year and a half ago, he requested that the LMH Health board expand the East Heights medical care facility on Haskell Avenue, which is in his district. He said if elected, he would push harder himself.
“We have a health care desert east of Massachusetts Street,” Dorsey said. “There’s one LMH clinic to serve roughly 15,000 people in that area, and between Massachusetts Street and Eudora, the East Heights clinic is the only place you can get health care.”
Lorenzo’s district substantially includes rural Douglas County. He said individual health decisions are not the commission’s job to address, and he suggested a solution could be health partners hosting community meetings around the topic.
“One of my goals would be to support local agriculture, which I believe can be directly related to preventable care,” Lorenzo said. “If we’re supporting our local farmers, we’re promoting a healthy and sustainable food supply.”
Kuhn agreed with Lorenzo that preventive care is outside of the commission’s purview. She said healthy habits are personal issues.
“To a great extent, I think that, especially here in Douglas, there seems to be a sentiment that the government is to be relied on for all things in every case,” Kuhn said. “And that’s just simply not true.”
Chun said people are unable or neglect to follow up when being transferred between different agencies, and that’s a problem.
“A solution has been proposed to create a hub that houses representatives of all of the diverse community partners so that we don’t lose individuals already seeking help in between the different agencies,” Chun said. “I would be interested in exploring this further and perhaps facilitating in its creation.”
Food insecurity
Jacob said his first item in office would be to advocate for an end to the county food sales tax. He believes “tax on food is the worst type of tax possible” because “the more you tax people, the less they have to eat.”
Willey, a current Douglas County commissioner, said she has a farm south of Lawrence and advocates for regenerative farming. She said she supports the work of the Douglas County Food Policy Council and programs, such as Farm 2 School, in her role; however, the state does not allow counties to cut their food sales taxes, she said.
Dorsey pointed to Just Food, Douglas County’s food bank. The county’s budget for this year allocates $40,000 to Just Food, but the organization’s annual need amounts to $2 million, and the county’s total budget is approximately $200 million — a disparity he said needs adjusting.
McDermott said opportunities for community members to help are present, and the resources are here, but it’s a matter of good leadership.
“One of my friends this year said that at the end of the fair each year, a group of them purchase a cow and have it processed and donate that processed meat, that good, quality protein, to Just Food,” McDermott said. “And I thought, why can’t that be something we could build on?”
Chun said the county could potentially incentivize local growers and farmers to produce more and quicker. Providing support for mobile pantries could also be a solution, Anderson said.
Opioid crisis
Candidates agreed that opioid abuse prevention begins with education. McDermott, Chun, Dorsey and Anderson specifically said education should begin early, with children in schools.
“You don’t really solve an addiction by passing policies,” Dorsey said. “What you need to do is provide education at a young age to explain problems taking opioids, and then you need community support for those who might go that direction. So I think by the time the county gets involved, it’s really too late, and we need to take action at a much earlier stage in the problem to try and solve this.”
He along with several other candidates promoted carrying narcan, which is available for free through DCCCA. McDermott said “people that are addicted should carry that.”
Lorenzo recommended working with the district attorney’s office, local agencies and the state government to “crack down” on distributors. Promoting free meetings like AA are simple solutions, he added.
Anderson recommended bringing public health nurses into schools.
“We must have individuals at the table crafting policies and helping us understand why individuals seek out these types of substances so that we can maybe begin to mitigate the risk,” Anderson said. “And we need to go further upstream.”
Gun violence
As firearm violence is the leading cause of death for U.S. youth, Smith asked candidates how they would intervene as commissioners.
Jacob said it’s up to local leaders to instill hope into people — that the consequences of violence aren’t worth it. He and Dorsey also pointed to the legal system.
“Somebody murdered a 14-year-old child in this city and county, and no one’s going to go to jail,” Jacob said. “That’s disgusting. Basically, we need a DA that can prosecute these things.”
Kuhn and Lorenzo said guns are just a tool for violence.
“Guns are not the problem,” Kuhn said. “It’s the underlying motivations and behaviors.”
McDermott brought up local conversations already happening, specifically a series hosted by law enforcement. Community members met for conversations about trust in law enforcement on July 27 and Aug. 3. But she said parents and churches weren’t invited, or were missing.
Willey said it’s important to promote safe gun ownership in homes and that discussing gun violence and safety with children “takes away some of the mystery of it.” Anderson agreed and added it’s important to first “understand the trauma” behind those who carry out violence.
Smith said all candidates were invited to share written answers to all questions he asked Thursday, and those will soon be posted to LDCPH’s website, ldchealth.org.
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Early voting begins Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Tuesday, Oct. 15 is the final day to register to vote in Douglas County, and Oct. 29 is the final day to apply for an advance ballot. Douglas County voters can take care of both quickly at KSVotes.org.
Note: This article has been corrected from a previous version.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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