A new survey indicates that a majority of employees who work in the Salina City County building do not want a policy change that would allow concealed weapons in the building.

On Tuesday Salina City Manager Jason Gage shared to the joint City and County Building Authority Board the results of a survey completed by employees who work in the building–for the City of Salina, the Building Authority and KSU Extension.  County and court employees did not participate.

Of the 66 who responded:

• 41 (62.1%) preferred the City-County Building not allow the public and employees to carry concealed weapons.
• 23 (34.8%) wanted to allow the public and employees to carry concealed weapons.
• 2 (3%) had no opinion.

As a second question, if the Building Authority decided not to allow the public and employees to carry concealed weapons on the City-County Building’s first and second floor:

• 41 (62.1%) preferred that employees be permitted to enter the building through a non-secure entrance (with no armed guards and no electronic monitoring).
• 19 (28.85) preferred that employees enter the building through a secured entrance.
• 6 (9.1%) had no opinion.

Court Administrator Todd Heitschmidt reported on what other courts were doing to comply with the Kansas Personal and Family Protection Act.  There are no consistent trends.  Saline County is unique in that it houses its city, county and court offices all in the same building.

Discussion turned to the time frame to implement changes.  Some speculated that a change in the make-up of the State Legislature could impact the law’s July 1, 2017 implementation date.  With four new members to the County Commission taking office in January, the new Building Authority Board might want to go a different direction.  Separately, Commissioner John Price said he thought candidates’ views on concealed carry in the City-County Building should be a campaign issue.