KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
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A Kansas state senator was stripped of his leadership role at the Board of Public Utilities after an ethics investigation revealed he fraudulently obtained health insurance benefits for his girlfriend by listing her as his spouse on official documents.
A document KSHB 41’s Rachel Henderson obtained through a records request offers more insight into why.
The BPU board voted to remove David Haley from his position as president following an ethics violation related to a 2021 health insurance application.
Haley listed his longtime girlfriend under the "spouse" section of the form, allowing her to receive health insurance benefits through the BPU's health plan at taxpayer expense.
"It's disappointing, but it's to be expected where there's a tight election," Haley said to Henderson the day after the board’s vote in September.
According to the ethics administrator's advisory opinion that Henderson obtained through a records request, BPU staff requested certificates to prove Haley's relationship status after he failed to submit the required documentation.
As of 2025, no marriage certificates were ever provided, and two of the staff members Haley spoke with no longer work for BPU.
“The elected official maintains that the official was assured by the two former BPU staff members that it was permissible to list the individual on the official’s application for health insurance and told to ‘just leave it,’” the report reads.
The opinion goes on to say Haley denies ever being asked to provide any birth or marriage certificates until 2025.
However, another portion of the opinion states that Haley declined multiple times to sign an affidavit affirming a common law marriage.
The report quotes Haley saying, "Man, I really messed up."
Haley claims former general manager Bill Johnson told him it was acceptable to list his girlfriend as his spouse.
However, Johnson denied making that statement.
"I wish I had gotten that in writing," Haley said in September.
Haley declined to speak on camera for Friday’s story.
The BPU's legal department is still determining if there are lost funds to recover from the fraudulent benefits.
Local ratepayers have mixed reactions to the controversy.
Fannie Hill, a BPU ratepayer who displays Haley's campaign signs in her yard, believes the issue reflects broader systemic problems.
"Nobody’s satisfied with this tax situation," Hill said. "Not anybody."
Hill's been vocal about BPU fees and Unified Government tensions in the past and shared her concerns with Henderson a year ago.
"I don't feel like Senator Haley is corrupt, I feel like it's the whole government system that's corrupt," Hill said.
Hill says she had a conversation with Haley after the news broke about his violation.
“I don’t condone what he did, and I talked to him about that,” Hill said. “I said, ‘Senator, if it was wrong, you need to apologize to the community, and if there’s money that’s owed back to the community, you need to pay it.’”
However, Thomas Alonzo, a lifelong Kansas City, Kansas, resident and BPU ratepayer with government ethics experience, takes a different view.
"He damaged the public trust," Alonzo said. "'I can do whatever I want' is the message it sends."
From an ethics perspective, something stands out to him.
"If you have any doubts in your mind, there probably is something wrong," Alonzo said.
Alonzo believes the situation highlights a larger problem with candidate quality.
"We are not demanding enough of quality candidates," Alonzo said. “What I worry about is people here in the Dotte getting used to people that aren’t transparent with us. And we have a history of that.”
Hill agrees that change is needed in local leadership.
"Get some people in there who really care about this community and love this community," Hill said.
Both Haley and Hill question the timing of the ethics investigation has raised questions.
"If the senator is corrupt, deal with it," Hill said. "Let the people know he’s corrupt and deal with it. Don’t go after a seat, what’s that about?"
It comes just weeks before the county’s general election, where Haley is running against former KCK mayor and BPU board member David Alvey.
"I would think it would have been addressed in the last 3 and a half years, not just a month out before a very tight re-election effort," Haley said in September.
Hill says she's hosting a public forum on Saturday, Oct. 11, at noon at the Beatrice L. Lee Community Center, located at 1310 North 10th Street in Kansas City, Kansas, for community members to discuss Haley's actions. Hill has invited Haley to attend.
You can read the advisory opinion in its entirety below.
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