Workman's Comp Law

He's another one of those guys I so admire - the flip side, polar opposite of Kenneth Lay.

You know Lay, the former CEO of Enron Corporation. He and Jeffrey Shilling are synonymous with the kind of self-centered greed that collapsed an entire company in 2001. Kenneth was chairman and Jeffrey CEO. Their misdeeds cost Enron employees every dime they had invested in the company for their retirement. Messrs. Kenneth and Jeffrey are going to jail now for a long time. Good riddance!

But what of the guy I so admire? Well, he too is a businessman, but of a completely different ilk. He's a former captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, who came to Manhattan several years ago with a fellow Navy man and friend, Carl Reed, to establish Abbott Workholding Products out on McCall Road. His name is Criss Mayfield. He directs administrative affairs for Abbott.

Mayfield took me for a plant tour a couple weeks ago. He spoke with great pride about Abbott's honest and fair approach to employees and customers. And that it has helped make the company a world leader in producing high precision aluminum components used in the manufacturing industry. Abbott is a solid, stable, non-government business operating here in Manhattan that I knew little about before our visit.

Anyway, I had asked Criss to fill me in on a workman's compensation bill the Legislature had just passed but Governor Sebelius promptly vetoed. Mayfield had earlier testified for the first time in Topeka on behalf of the bill, which would have made it easier for job applicants to be hired. Had it been signed, employers would not have been responsible for employee injuries that occured before they were hired. For some odd reason the governor axed it.

As a result, otherwise qualified candidates are not being hired because of their past medical history. To me, that makes no sense for either potential employees or employers. And naturally, it makes doing business in Kansas even more expensive. But perhaps it serves a larger purpose, satisfing some interest group funding the governor's re-election campaign. Trial lawyers?

My point here is not to rag on our honorable governor. But to point out that at the root of good business and good governance are people like Criss Mayfield. He took time away from his considerable duties at Abbott to speak out before the Legislature. He participated in the process. And yes, he was in the end shot down by the governor's veto. But that makes his effort no less worthy nor his view no less compeling.

Manhattan is fortunate to have Abbott Workholding Products operating here with ethical leaders like Criss Mayfield at the helm. Enron employees should have been so lucky.

First published in the Manhattan Free Press, May 31, 2006.