History of Salina Freedom

by Kevin Korb

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed“

Declaration of Independence

Recently, the Kansas Supreme Court held that:

“The Kansas Constitution does not begin with an enumeration of the powers of government; it instead begins with a Bill of Rights for all Kansans, which in turn begins with a statement of inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By this ordering, demonstrating the supremacy placed on the rights of individuals, preservation of these natural rights is given precedence over the establishment of government.”

Hodes & Nauser, MDs v. Schmidt, 309 Kan. 610, 622-23, 440 P.3d 461 (2019)

While I do not agree with the controversial subject matter to which this holding was applied, I believe it to be generally applicable, and based on how they applied it, there should be no other situation that is excluded from this way of thinking.

Early in 2021, I sued the City of Salina to end their mask mandate with the belief that they were subject to the newly enacted rules of SB 40 pertaining to the Kansas Emergency Management Act (KEMA).  In defending the case, the City held that they did not enact the mask mandate under KEMA, and that they were using “Home Rule” authority.  They further stated that they did not declare an emergency and had no statutory authority to declare an emergency and did not have an emergency management agency.  My first thought: “Then why are you trying to take on an emergency management role?”  Shortly after my lawsuit was dismissed for the reasons stated above, I got in touch with some other people who had mentioned an intention to bring similar action against the City.  I proposed to this group that we start a petition to take action.  After the petition was written, I submitted it to a group of Kansas lawmakers who reviewed it with a few colleagues with legal background and the Kansas Revisor’s office.  It then received a referral from that group to a private attorney with expertise in public policy and I got the green light that it looked valid.  Kansas law also said that I had to have it reviewed by County Counselor Mike Montoya before circulation, which I did.  The petition was circulated, mostly by the patriotic group known as the “Granny Brigade”, and before long, we had more than enough signatures to validate the petition and move forward to it.  We submitted the petition to the Saline County Clerk to validate the signatures, and then, subsequently to the Salina City Clerk to present to the City Commission for adoption.  The City commission chose not to adopt it, but rather to send it to the voters, but they also voted to challenge it in court.  As articulated by the City’s legal counsel, their primary argument is that it violates “their home rule authority”.  This doesn’t sit well with me or many other citizens.  The city government doesn’t want to acknowledge that all government power is granted by the people.  “Their Home Rule authority” is actually OUR Home Rule authority.  They want to maintain the ability to rule over us rather than represent us.  There is a growing multitude of people that believe the City violated our individual liberties by trying to enact a mask mandate for all citizens when people are not all the same.  No thank you, City of Salina.  We can think for ourselves and don’t need you to protect us from ourselves.  It seems that governments always try to take advantage of a bad situation and people’s fear in order to grab more power for themselves. Emergency powers have been abused for as long as they have existed because people in power know that they can get people to agree to things that they would normally not agree to if they are in a state of panic or fear and looking for temporary safety.  The problem is that once these power hungry people get more power, they don’t want to give it back up.  That can be seen in the fact that the United States government has had the same emergency declaration in place for 41 years.  Emergency powers were also used in the establishment of the Third Reich by using the desperation of the people of Germany to bypass legislative authority and give absolute power to Hitler.  We all know how that story went.  The point being that emergency powers at all levels need to be kept in check by the people and even if it doesn’t seem very critical at the time, we must not ignore the concept of incrementalism.  People that are power hungry will keep taking more and more gradually until there is nothing we can do about it.  We need to stand up and push back and send a message that we are a free people and we intend to stay that way.  In the beginning, I wondered if I was in a minority in this way of thinking, but throughout this process, I have found that there are thousands of people right here in Salina, Kansas that feel we have also been pushed too far.

Now, back to the issue at hand:  The State of Kansas, when it enacted the Kansas Emergency Management Act, clearly intended to have counties manage the response to emergencies.  The language is clear.  There are a few exceptions where cities have their own disaster agency, but this has to be recommended by the Governor and that has not happened for Salina.  The City of Salina had no business enacting a mask mandate and undermining the County’s decision to leave it up to citizens.  Even if the county had decided to issue mandates before the city did, violation was a civil matter and has the legal teeth of a recommendation, in practice.  In addition, the recent changes to SB 40 gave citizens a legal remedy to challenge county-issued health orders.  In using an ordinance under “Home Rule”, the city made violation of the ordinance a criminal matter with no legal remedy.  Even though there were stated exemptions in the ordinance, it made everyone who exercised an exemption appear to be a criminal and subject to discrimination.  The County covers the City of Salina, and for consistency, they need to be the only entity handling this type of thing in the future.  There is a small group of people in Salina that are opposing this, some based on fear and the flawed idea that we need a government to keep us safe from ourselves and some are opposing it simply because of their hate for conservatives and the former president that we supported.  This group has been spreading misleading statements about what we are voting on, perpetuating ridiculous “what-if” scenarios and just generally misinterpreting the effect of the ordinance. The ONLY effect this ordinance has is keeping the City of Salina from infringing on the rights of individuals and businesses while there is a declared emergency.  This has nothing to do with standard response from first responders, such as when you dial 911.  This does not keep the City from accepting or spending disaster relief funds, which go through the county – because they have the disaster agency.  This will not keep the city from doing what is necessary to respond to a tornado, unless they seem to think they need to violate someone’s rights in doing so. 

In conclusion, a large number, possibly a majority of the citizens of Salina were not represented well recently by the people who were given that job.  Those people instead took the attitude of kings ruling over their subjects and we are ready to fight back and tell them we won’t tolerate it.  Vote YES on November 2 and don’t let the City get away with what they did in 2020!