A group that has been primarily opposed to Prairie Village’s housing recommendations appears to be taking a new tack: remaking the Prairie Village City Council at the ballot box.
Stop Rezoning Prairie Village, which has stringently opposed some of the city’s initial steps over the past year at addressing housing affordability, is now circulating petitions that aim to curtail the power of the mayor and cut the current city council in half.
At the same time, the group is putting forward a list of candidates who, if elected this November, would replace six councilmembers who won office just two years ago.
Leaders of the group did not respond to the Post’s request for comment for this story, but current city councilmembers say, if successful, Stop Rezoning’s push would amount to an “extreme” takeover of city hall.
Two petitions aim at changing city government
There are two petitions Stop Rezoning PV is circulating that deal with changing the current city government. (There is also a third that deals with a change to rezoning rules regarding accessory dwelling units.)
One petition would “abandon” the city’s current form of government, which the group characterizes as a “strong mayor” government, and the second would adopt a new form of government that, as its main consequence, would cut the current city council in half.
The language of that second petition states that only the candidates elected in the upcoming 2023 election can serve on the new city council, meaning councilmembers who won seats in 2021 and are still in the middle of their first terms would be moved off the council.
That would include Cole Robinson, Ron Nelson, Lauren Wolf, Dave Robinson, Greg Shelton and Terrence Gallagher. (Three of those councilmembers ran unopposed. The other three all won by margins of 15% or more.)
It also sets up staggered term limits by putting a two-year term for the mayor and three of the councilmembers elected in 2023.
Stop Rezoning supports six candidates
Stop Rezoning appears to be backing a candidate in each ward this election cycle, though the group refrains from making any official endorsements on its website.
At a signature-gathering event last month, the group displayed a laminated list of the names of candidates it was urging residents to vote for.
The candidate list, like the petitions themselves, is not being actively shared by the group on social media or publicly outside of signing events, and the group would not give the Post a copy of the list.
Based on the list seen at last month’s event, the group’s preferred candidates include:
- Terry O’Toole in Ward 1, who is running unopposed,
- Mark Samuel in Ward 2,
- Lori Sharp in Ward 3, one of Stop Rezoning’s most prominent spokespeople,
- Tyler Agniel in Ward 4,
- Nick Reddell in Ward 5,
- and Kelly Wyer in Ward 6.
There have been conversations in recent month’s on Stop Rezoning’s group Facebook page calling for “credible candidates” to run for city council and suggesting the group make a list of candidates to challenge current councilmembers.
Stop Rezoning PV did not respond to the Post’s multiple requests for comment for this story to explain their reasoning for backing certain candidates.
Current councilmembers see ulterior motives
Councilmember Ian Graves, who is running for reelection in Ward 6 this November, told the Post in an interview that Stop Rezoning’s petition hides the group’s true goal of taking over the city council, adding that the petitions largely don’t address the issue the group says it is concerned with the most: zoning.
Graves said the two government-related petitions “seem like a power play” that is “coming out of left field.”
“This feels like they’re trying to toss out the 2021 election results, eliminate those members of council, truncating their terms, and then making this single election about control of the entire council, which is just a massive deviation from the norm,” Graves said. “I don’t think people are aware that this is what the petition is actually doing.”
Councilmember Cole Robinson, who is not up for reelection this year but would be moved off the council if Stop Rezoning’s petition is approved at the ballot box, took to Facebook criticizing the group’s unwillingness to publicly share the petitions’ language.
“This is much more than a disagreement about housing policy,” Robinson wrote. “It’s an attempt to overtake an entire governing body and system. Instead of winning democratic elections, the leaders of this group are attempting to radically change our entire government.”
There are still several hurdles facing the petitions
First, the group in coming months needs to gather enough signatures to present the petitions to the current city council.
The council would then need to approve any item that would appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.
Both government-related petitions — the one seeking to “abandon the mayor-council form of government” and the one seeking to “adopt mayor-council-manager form of government” — would need to be passed by voters in order to take effect.
Finally, all six of the group’s preferred candidates would also need to win their individual elections in order to give the group the ideological makeup on the city council it appears to want.
Who is running for office?
Below are the candidates who have filed for Prairie Village City Council seats, per the Johnson County Election Office website:
Ward 1
- Terry O’Toole, who did appear on Stop Rezoning PV’s list of candidates, told the Post he does not consider six individuals running for council to be a “slate” of candidates.
- O’Toole is running unopposed, and Councilmember Chad Herring posted on social media that he is not seeking re-election.
Ward 2
- Incumbent Councilmember Inga Selders, who has been vocal about her concerns with Stop Rezoning PV’s efforts on Facebook — including a June 1 post in which she said, “It is no coincidence that STOP [Rezoning] is running a full slate of hand picked right-wing extremists.”
- Mark Samuel, who did not respond to the Post’s request for comment, did appear on Stop Rezoning PV’s list of candidates at the May signature-gathering event.
Ward 3
- Alex DiCarlo
- Incumbent Councilmember Bonnie Limbird
- Lori Sharp, who is an active member of the group and does appear on Stop Rezoning PV’s list of candidates. Sharp told the Post she hopes “the PV United people support me as I hope the whole community will trust in my ability to listen and lead.” She directed the Post to other Stop Rezoning leaders to discuss the group’s preferred candidates.
Ward 4
- Incumbent Councilmember Piper Reimer
- Tyler Agniel, who appeared on Stop Rezoning PV’s list of candidates, told the Post he cannot speak to whether or not he is on the list but that he hopes to gain the group’s support — as well as the rest of Ward 4.
Ward 5
- Ciara Chaney
- Nicholas Reddell did not respond to the Post’s specific questions but appeared on Stop Rezoning’s list of candidates.
Ward 6
- Incumbent Councilmember Ian Graves
- Kelly Wyer, who appeared on Stop Rezoning PV’s list of candidates.
