THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL NEWS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2012 7Awww.cjonline.com

his bid would save the state $1.6 million over the life of the deal. He said he was informed "estab-lished relationships" were of greater relevance in awarding Kansas government contracts.

Inspired rather than defeated, Kleeb launched a campaign for a seat in the Kansas Legislature.

After winning election to the House in 2008, the Republican lawmaker expressed discontent with the contracting procedure by proposing the Kansas Depart-ment of Administration explain to the House and Senate every time a state agency declined the lowest bid or selected an out-of-state vendor.

Kleeb's attempt to amend Kansas' contract law while lead-ing companies engaged with government agencies triggered criticism.

"Marvin Kleeb's sole focus since he arrived in Topeka has been to force state government to outsource more work to pri-vate companies like his," said Terry Forsyth, president of the Working Kansas Alliance. "While outsourcing might be good for Kleeb and his friends, it costs some working Kansans their jobs, and it drives down wages

and benefits across the board."Kleeb, who ran unopposed in

November to earn a new term in the House serving the 48th Dis-trict in Overland Park, didn't re-spond to multiple requests for an interview.

Joan Wagnon, chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party and a former House member, said it was incumbent on Kleeb to disclose potential conflicts of interest arising from his part-time obligations in the Legisla-ture and personal business af-fairs outside politics.

"It would be up to him to ex-plain that," she said. "If it affects you personally and you vote 'yes,' you probably ought to let people know where you're coming from."

Kleeb is president of Allied Global Services, which extends staffing services to companies and government. He has had ties to Peak Call Center Solutions, Al-lied Staffing and The Hospitality People.

He also is involved with Amer-ican Government Solutions,

which concentrates on consult-ing for business clients engaged in the state and federal govern-ment markets.

In the Capitol, Kleeb has been a vocal advocate for the forma-tion of councils and commis-sions assigned the task of figuring out how to transfer government work to the private sector.

Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita, said hypocrisy layered Kleeb's proposal last year for a govern-ment council on outsourcing. Appointees to the commission would possess unlimited author-ity to create supplemental advi-sory groups. Kleeb's idea sur-faced amid a public campaign by Gov. Sam Brownback to put an end to ever-expanding state gov-ernment.

"What's our response?" Dill-more asked. "Let's create a com-mission for this. Let's create a commission for that. Let's grow some government."

In news releases and public statements, Kleeb outlined his approach to government by not-ing the Kansas tradition of a citi-zen legislature required service of people with diverse liveli-hoods and experiences. He was convinced the House lacked enough representatives from the business community who un-

derstood government's impact, positively and negatively, on eco-nomic growth.

"I grew up with the time-hon-ored philosophy that the govern-ment that governs best governs least," he said. "Our state must focus on incentives and fair tax policies that will grow our busi-ness communities — not scare them away."

He said in an interview with the National Federation of Inde-pendent Businesses the biggest obstacle to expanding employ-ment in Kansas was workplace, environmental and health care mandates of the federal govern-ment.

Unionization and energy costs were legitimate threats to busi-nesses, he said, and promoted off-shoring of jobs.

A business background is im-portant to formation of public policy in Kansas, said Republi-can Jeff Colyer, who previously held Kleeb's House seat and was elected lieutenant governor in 2010.

"A citizens' legislature like the one that serves Kansas needs strong voices experienced in a variety of areas — especially the business community," Colyer said.

Kleeb put his shoulder to a

bill allowing companies with re-cords of heavy reliance on Kan-sas' unemployment trust fund, which triggers assessment of a higher tax rate, to whitewash their experience and avoid steeper taxes by outsourcing their personnel to professional employer organizations.

He was at forefront of opposi-tion to a Senate plan raising busi-ness taxes to recharge the bank-rupt Kansas unemployment trust fund. It had been kept afloat by borrowing millions of dollars from the federal government. Kleeb's preference for avoiding a business tax hike in Kansas re-quired borrowing $130 million more from the U.S. treasury.

"We need to keep the money in the private sector to we can create jobs," Kleeb said.

Rep. Mike Slattery, D-Mission, said he was dismayed a fiscally conservative Republican would seek to profoundly expand the state's debt obligations.

"I get really irritated personally when you get people who come up here touting their fiscal re-sponsibility all the time, till the cows come home, calling this a job-creation bill while at the same time they are literally shooting themselves in the foot by eliminating our ability to pay

back our federal debts," Slattery said.

Kleeb also played a lead role in the House advancing a bill re-forming workers' compensation. The bill limited scope of employ-ees eligible for benefits arising from accidents, but raised com-pensation for the injured.

The original version of the bill was negotiated by the Kansas Chamber and AFL-CIO, but modified by a House committee. In a speech to the House, Kleeb portrayed the product as fully endorsed by both factions.

"When the bill came to the committee it was a landmark compromise between two groups that have frankly hardly ever agreed on anything contro-versial," Slattery said. "Then we decided to put our little political thumb print on the bill and it is now out of balance."

Kleeb waved off the notion business interests in the House tipped the scale.

"As a small business owner, I see this legislation as a critical part of creating and retaining Kansas jobs," he said.Tim Carpenter can be reached at

(785) 295-1158 or timothy.carpenter@cjonline.com. Read his blog at cjonline.com/blog/

political-runoff.

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Legislator: Amendment attempt brought criticismONLINEView video of the executive director of the Kansas Republican Party as he discusses Kleeb.

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