By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
OVERLAND PARK, July 10 Sandra Lawrence, a vice president with Children”s Mercy Hospitals, was elected new chairman of the Kansas Bioscience Authority at the agency”s annual organizational meeting today.
The election followed the June 5 resignation of Clay Blair, who had served as the board”s chairman since it was founded in 2004. Blair resigned after newspaper reports questioned about $80,000 that he and his Lenexa-based Clay Blair Services Corp. received from the Bioscience Authority over 11 months for offices expenses, clerical support and other reimbursements. Several fellow board members said the reimbursements were appropriate and done with their approval to expedite the new agency’s operations when it still lacked staff and office space. But critics wondered why the
reimbursements continued as long as they did and tensions began to develop among some board members and agency staff with Blair at the helm.
Monday, three of Blair”s more vocal allies on the eight-member board voted for Bill Sanford to become the new chairman. But Lawrence garnered five votes, the fifth coming from Sanford himself. Sanford is president of
Nanoscale Materials, Inc. of Manhattan. The three votes for Sanford came from Dolph Simons, Jr., editor and publisher of the Lawrence Journal-World; David Franz, director of the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center at Kansas State University; and Ray Smilor, executive director of the Beyster Institute at the University of California, San Diego.
Sanford was re-elected vice-chairman without opposition. Ed McKechnie, a former Democratic member of the Kansas House newly appointed to the authority, was chosen to be secretary-treasurer. McKechnie is a short-line railroad executive in Pittsburg. Also reappointed as president of the authority was Tom Thornton. Chief Operating Officer Janice Katterhenry also was reappointed.
The election of officers came at the end of a morning-long meeting at the Overland Park Convention Center.
Earlier, board member unanimously approved nine projects totaling about $23 million in bioscience authority spending. The largest project approved was the purchase of almost 100 acres in Olathe for development of a bioscience research park. The site, sold for a nominal fee by the city, would be owned by the bioscience authority and Kansas State University. The major expenses of the project, about $15 million, would be for development and infrastructure costs.
The second largest project approved was $6 million for the expansion of Lawrence-based Deciphera Pharmaceuticals.
Other approved projects included:
*
$3.5 million to help relocate an out-of-state firm called Project Delta in the Olathe bioscience park. Board officials said the project would bring 215 new jobs to the area.
*
$1.5 million to relocate a U.S. Department of Agriculture animal disease research laboratory from Laramie, Wyoming to Manhattan. The lab would employ seven research scientists and various technicians and support workers.
*
$130,000 for OsteoGeneX, to help the firm take a new treatment for osteoporosis to clinical trials in conjunction with the University of Kansas.
*
Up to $650,000 for Lenexa-based Innovia Medical LLC, a company developing a new test helpful for diagnosing ear infections.
*
$300,000 for Renewable Energy Group Emporia and the City of Emporia to develop a biodiesel production facility that would convert soybean oil to fuel and employ about 30 people.
*
$150,000 for KC BioMediX, Inc. to commercialize technologies developed at KU for care and treatment of premature babies.
In other action:
The board heard Thornton announce that a decision is expected by Thursday on whether Kansas will be included on the short list of possible sites for a new federal agro-defense laboratory. Manhattan and Leavenworth are each vying with bioscience authority support to secure the lab, which would cost an estimated $451 million to build and employ hundreds of scientists. At least eleven states have been jockeying to host the replacement for the government”s aging Plum Island, N.Y. facility.
Approved a resolution praising Blair”s contributions to the board and that he be sent an “appropriate memento” honoring his service.
After the meeting, the authority hosted a luncheon attended by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a number of state legislators and about 50 others. Sebelius made brief remarks, praising the board for adding new transparency measures.
The board was created by 2004 legislation that also dedicated revenue derived from tax growth in the life science industry to a fund meant to lure and enhance bioscience industry in the state. Board members said then they wanted to create 10,000 new jobs in five years using money from a fund expected to reach $580 million over the next 15 years.
-Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
mshields@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.