‘Partisan, divisive, combative’: Johnson County city officials try to hamstring mayor

In an escalating battle for control in Shawnee, Mayor Michelle Distler is accusing City Council members of wanting to appoint only friends and campaign contributors to city boards.

The harsh words come after council members continually vote against her appointments, effectively blocking one of her main powers.

“I think it’s bad policy to only appoint friends, especially those who are currently giving campaign contributions to council involved in the current election,” Distler told the council during Monday’s meeting. “These appointments do not serve me or the council, they serve the community. And there should be checks and balances and diversity of non-politically motivated individuals.”

The issue blew up last month, when instead of accepting Distler’s choice for the planning commission, the council voted 6-1 to suspend all of her nominations to city boards until a new mayor is elected. Distler is not seeking reelection in November. A new mayor will take office by January.

“I think it’s essential to the institution of this city and to the very health of our community not to launch our city into a partisan, divisive, combative battle at the very same time in front of our Shawnee voters when there’s going to be an election,” Councilman Tony Gillette, who made the motion to block her appointments, said last month, calling Distler a “lame duck” mayor.

But city staff have since informed council members they did not have the authority to take away the mayor’s appointment powers.

It’s the latest in a series of conflicts at Shawnee City Hall, which has seen an exodus of high-level staff in the past year. Some officials attribute staff resignations to the council majority repeatedly ignoring their advice.

Distler has often been at odds with much of the council in recent months and has regularly voiced her support of staff’s recommendations.

A couple of years ago, three planning commissioners abruptly resigned, and many said they were fed up with the City Council, as city leaders were increasingly divided on how to develop Shawnee, including whether they should allow and incentivize larger apartment complexes.

At that time, then-planning commissioner Alan Willoughby said he was upset that council rejected projects the commission supported, worried that attitudes among elected officials would stall the city’s progress. The council had recently shot down a proposed $50 million apartment complex at the site of the old Wonderscope Children’s Museum near downtown Shawnee.

“We need to educate the public and vote these people out,” he said during a meeting at the time.

Willoughby’s term on the planning commission expired this year.

In June, the council rejected the mayor’s recommendation to reappoint him. Councilman Mike Kemmling accused him of past “electioneering,” saying he previously wore a shirt to a meeting supporting a controversial community center plan.

Later that month, Distler expressed frustration at the council for rejecting her nominations.

“First, I’d like to remind the council of the huge turnover the planning commission has seen the last few years,” she said. “We have a few applicants that are willing to volunteer so much of their personal time for the commission because it is such a difficult role. Historically, planning commission served for many years, but similar to staff turnover, many of these resignations are happening for the same reason as staff resignations.”

She accused council of refusing to appoint members in the past few years “because of a speeding ticket, one anti-Trump post made six years prior, and a T-shirt worn over four years ago.”

“It seems the approach for these appointments and reappointments have become more like a confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court instead of volunteers who want to serve their community,” she said.

Councilman Eric Jenkins defended the decision to reject Willoughby, saying he “politicked from this dais. The words came out of his mouth that we need to vote out the city council. … That’s inappropriate behavior for somebody on an appointed board.”

He said the city needs better training on appropriate behavior for board and commission members.

The council agreed to reappoint three other planning commissioners recommended by Distler in June.

In an attempt to fill the vacant planning commission seat, the mayor last month nominated resident Matthew Ledbetter. Jenkins asked why other applicants weren’t nominated instead, saying others had applied for the role in the past. He also questioned why former council candidate Dave Myres wasn’t selected.

Myres contributed $250 to Kemmling’s mayoral campaign, according to a finance report filed with the Johnson County election office last month. Kemmling is running against former councilman Mickey Sandifer.

Distler stood by her choice, saying Ledbetter applied for the role first.

After some back and forth, Gillette moved to halt the process altogether. He argued the mayor’s appointment powers should be suspended through the end of the year. He referred to when Joe Biden was a senator in 1992 and argued then that President George Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy until after the presidential election. In 2016, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it the “Biden rule” when he blocked President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

The Shawnee council voted 6-1 to block the mayor’s appointment powers, which also halted a decision on a member of the city’s board of zoning appeals.

“So, I guess unfortunately we are going to be short on our planning commission and our board of zoning appeals for several months through January. So, sorry about that,” Distler said after the vote.

Councilwoman Jill Chalfie, the lone Democrat, was the only one to vote against it, calling the move “very political in nature if you look at the list of applicants as to why we’re stalling on this.”

“I just want to apologize to 68,000 people who apparently have been stripped of their mayor for the last four months of a term,” Chalfie said during the meeting. “… But I don’t know, maybe the council wants to lay out what else the mayor is not allowed to do in the last four months. Is the mayor allowed to sign contracts in the last four months? Is she allowed to go represent Shawnee? Because clearly she’s not allowed to make appointments.”

Since then, city staff advised the council that it didn’t have the authority to take that action, Distler said.

City spokesman Doug Donahoo told The Star on Tuesday that the mayor retains her appointment powers.

On Monday, the council voted 5-3 to reject the mayor’s next attempt at filling the planning commission vacancy with resident Paul Goode. The seat remains vacant. The council did, though, approve the mayor’s appointment to the city’s code board of appeals.

Distler took a jab at Gillette, calling back to his previous comment, and said that it is essential “not to launch our city into a partisan, divisive, combative battle by recommending and appointing only our friends and campaign contributors. These positions should be diverse and nonpolitical. So where is the balance and the accountability to the residents?”

Kemmling said while the council does not “have the right to just say (the mayor) can’t make recommendations” it does “have the ability to say ‘no’ to the recommendations.”

“I don’t think it’s petty to want to appoint someone to one of these commissions that sees things the way you see things and wants to lead the city in the same direction you want to lead,” he said.

The Shawnee City Council gained a 7-1 conservative majority in 2021. The council has taken some controversial steps since then, including voicing support for a statewide ban on transgender athletes participating in girls sports. And it approved an ordinance limiting how many unrelated people can live together, a move that’s now embroiled in a lawsuit.

Distler has had her own controversy in recent years. In early 2021, she was ordered to complete 150 hours of community service as part of a diversion agreement with the Johnson County District Attorney, to resolve a felony perjury charge brought against her the year before. Distler was accused of using a false identity to file an open meetings act complaint against some council members.