THE TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNALwww.cjonline.com | $1.00WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 12, 2012

By Tim Carpenter the capital-journal

LENEXA — Bitterness roiled in-side Marvin Kleeb over failure to win a state government contract despite submitting the bargain-basement bid.

"We had the lowest," he said. "I protested."

Kleeb, a 25-year veteran of per-sonnel staffing businesses head-

quartered primarily in Lenexa, said none of the eight rival bidders were in the ballpark. His offer was 40 per-cent beneath the second-lowest.

To no avail, he told state officials

Please see LEGISLATOR, Page 7A

Council OKs budget for revitalization

city presses for tax reform

Judge rules juror misconduct

By Steve Frythe capital-journal

A Shawnee County District Court judge has ruled there was juror miscon-duct when a juror in the trial of Anceo D. Stovall posted remarks on CJOnline.

com news stories during the trial.In a 12-page ruling issued late Mon-

day, District Judge Evelyn Wilson said “the court determines Mr. Stovall has established that juror misconduct oc-curred during his trial.”

Now, the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office will have to show “be-yond a reasonable doubt” that the error didn’t affect the outcome of the trial, Wilson wrote.

Stovall, whose trial started June 25

and ended July 24, requested a new trial based on juror misconduct. A com-menter named "BePrepared" posted a comment on July 21 while the jury was recessed on a news story written on July 19. The comments suggested "BePre-pared" was a juror.

Stovall was one of nine defendants in the killing of Natalie Gibson and the wounding of her life partner, Lori Alli-son, during a robbery at their Kenwood home on July 21, 2011.

His trial in July this year ended in a hung jury on nine counts, but the jury did acquit him of one count and con-vict him of a second count.

Monday’s ruling said prosecution and defense attorneys can question ju-rors. Then, Wilson will make a final rul-ing on Stovall’s motion for a new trial based on juror misconduct.

At a hearing Dec. 17, prosecutors are

Please see STOVALL, Page 6A

D.A. must show online posts didn’t hurt Stovall outcome

By 6-3 vote, $4.967M approved to carry out projectBy Tim Hrenchir

the capital-journal

A divided Topeka City Council on Tues-day evening approved a nearly $4.97 mil-lion budget to carry out a project targeted at revitalizing a four-block stretch of S. Kansas Avenue in downtown Topeka.

An audience that filled most of the 122 public seats in the council chambers broke into applause after council mem-bers voted 6-3 to adopt the budget to carry out the project’s second phase.

The vote came during a three-hour meeting in which the council heard com-ments from 22 members of the public, with 21 clearly speaking in favor of the downtown project. The other speaker, Ted Mize, said he favored making infrastruc-ture improvements downtown but want-ed the city to avoid wasting money.

Martin Munoz, whose family owns Lu-pita’s restaurant at 732 S. Kansas Ave., told the council the project wasn’t about the concept of “Build it, and they will come.”

He said, “This is about ‘Fix it, and it will work.’ ”

Council members Karen Hiller, Denise Everhart, Larry Wolgast, Bob Archer, Chad Manspeaker and Andrew Gray voted in favor of the project budget. John Alcala, Sylvia Ortiz and Richard Harmon dissent-ed.

Three council members took a different side than they had when the council voted

Please see COUNCIL, Page 8A

march 2012 file photograph/the capital-journal

The current view of the 700 block of downtown S. Kansas Ave., looking northwest. By a 6-3 vote Tuesday night, the Topeka City Council approved a $4.9M project budget for improvements to a four-block stretch of S. Kansas Ave.

School officials oppose deeper budget reductions

DoWNtoWN topEkA

contract fracas inspires legislator

By Tim Carpenterthe capital-journal

Topeka city manager Jim Colson made clear Tuesday that a top prior-ity for the Shawnee County legisla-

tive delegation ought to be limit-ing action by the state that pushes tax loads onto municipal gov-ernments.

"We oppose changes that would negatively impact or shift state re-sponsibilities to local units of gov-ernment," he said.

In a bipartisan gathering at the Statehouse of the county's House and Senate members, Colson said the city of Topeka also would oppose imposition of state-mandated taxing lids or spending lids designed to

2012 file photograph/the capital-journal

Rep. Marvin Kleeb, R-Overland Park, stands as a proponent of state government contract reform after missing out on a project despite being the low bidder.

Kleeb’s advocacyreflects privatebusiness acumen

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Index

advice/crossword ..... 6cclassified ................. 1Dcomics .................... 2DDaily record .............. 5BDeaths/funerals ... 6, 7Bflavor ........................ 1Bopinion ..................... 4apolice news ............... 5BSports ....................... 1cStocks ...................... 2atV ............................. 6ctoday ........................ 2a

college football

K-State quarterback collin Klein earns ap all-america honors.

Sports, page 1C

american profile

famous people contribute their family recipes for a cookbook to benefit meals on Wheels.

thursday

Seeking SantaDo you have funny or

cringe-worthy photos of kids with Santa? the capi-tal-journal would like to see them.

page 2B

house firea blaze caused

$142,000 in damage to a home on S.W. 29th, but one resident’s 4-year-old dog was saved.

today, page 2A

jayhawksKu coach charlie Weis

seeks help for his team from a number of junior college players.

Sports, page 1C

Inside today

Coming up

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of Topeka!

RELATEDWashburn president, legislators talk guns on campus.

page 2B

Anceo Stovallhad requested trial based on juror misconduct

proficiency standards lead talks

of ed boardBy Celia Llopis-Jepsenthe capital-journal

The Kansas State Board of Educa-tion heard testimony Tuesday on how the state determines whether students meet standards on state tests in subjects like math and read-ing.

The discussion centered on cut scores — the scores used to catego-rize students into various levels of achievement on the annual tests.

Board of education member Walt Chappell, who requested the discus-sion, has expressed repeated con-cern that Kansas lowered cut scores during the past decade, giving the appearance that more students meet standards in math and reading. Chappell said students who meet standards according to the state tests aren’t necessarily ready for college or the workplace, meaning that Kan-sas needs to set the bar higher.

The board invited Neal Kingston, director of the Center for Educational

Please see BOARD, Page 8A

on thursday: health profes-sors dispense legislative elixirs.

POLICy MATTERS 12th in a series of 15 articles.

CJonline.com/policymatters

Please see TAX, Page 6A