Dr. Ed Flentje, Professor Emeritus at the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs at Wichita State University, served as Director of that School from 1999 to 2008. Flentje has a long career as both an academic and practitioner of public affairs. From 1975-1979, Flentje was a member of Governor Robert Bennett’s Cabinet and Director of State Planning and Research. During his tenure as Director of State Planning, he served on the Governor’s Task Force on Water Resources which met for two years and published its final report in 1978. In 1986 Flentje was named Coordinator of the Special Commission on a Public Agenda for Kansas. That Commission was created by the Kansas Legislature to identify policy choices on issues critical to the State’s future. Flentje edited the Commission’s final report published in 1986. He played three roles in the administration of Governor Mike Hayden: Chair of the transition team for the Governor-Elect, Secretary of Administration, and Coordinator of Policy spanning the period 1986 through 1988.

In this 2019 oral history interview of Ed Flentje, he recalls the intricate work of developing a water planning process and applying good governance principles to a highly contentious issue that involved a variety of entities both inside and outside state government in the 1970s. The innovations in water regulation that grew out of the agenda of Governor Bennett, for whom Flentje served as Planing Director, were carried out and implemented by succeeding Governors, Carlin and Hayden. Flentje's description of water policy rising to prominence in the Bennett administration demonstrates how governors benefit from listening to a variety of voices when developing policy agendas.