Three Prairie Village residents attempted in recent months to recall Mayor Eric Mikkelson and failed — four separate times.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe ultimately found no legal grounds for the recall effort, according to copies of four separate petitions submitted by the same trio of residents and Howe’s corresponding response letters, which were obtained by the Post through an open records request.
The long shot attempt to initiate a recall came just months after Mikkelson ran unopposed for a second term in November 2022 and won 94% of ballots cast.
Mayor ties recall effort to housing debate
The recall petitions also come as Prairie Village remains embroiled in a heated public discussion over how the city can best address housing affordability and zoning.
Two of the three recall petitioners are active commenters on the Facebook page of Stop Rezoning PV, a group vocally opposed to the city’s housing recommendations.
For his part, Mikkelson said the recall petitions are another attempt — alongside separate ballot petitions being circulated by Stop Rezoning PV — to dismantle Prairie Village city government.
Still, one of the petitioners, Michael Sullinger, said he still supports recalling Mikkelson despite Howe’s rejection of multiple petitions, because he sees Mikkelson as the root of division in Prairie Village — division which Sullinger said has grown over the past year since the city council approved the housing recommendations.
The recall petitions were submitted in April and June
Sullinger, along with John W. Anderson and Stephen Snitz, all Prairie Village residents, submitted recall petitions against Mikkelson on April 12, April 27, June 5 and June 20, according to the records obtained by the Post.
Such petitions must go through the district attorney’s office before moving forward.
Anderson and Snitz are both regularly active on Stop Rezoning PV’s Facebook page, but neither responded to the Post’s request for comment for this story.
Sullinger denied any affiliation with the Stop Rezoning PV group, though he did admit to having commented on their Facebook posts in the past.
A name search in the Facebook group shows Sullinger created some posts, including one on Sept. 12 that suggested Mikkelson was pushing an agenda.
For his part, Sullinger told the Post via Facebook Messenger that as a Prairie Village native, said he supports the recall of Mikkelson because he said Mikkelson “has divided our community to a degree I’ve never witnessed in my lifetime.”
He thinks Mikkelson turned the city into a place “where he, and even members of the city council, are attacking the residents of the city.”
“This divide is easy for anyone to see and as someone who was elected to represent the best interests of his electors, he has failed the majority of his constituents,” said Sullinger, who described Prairie Village as a safe, welcoming tight-knit community for the past 20 years, where he bought his first home in 2004.
At the same time as the recall petitions were going to the DA’s office, other members of the Stop Rezoning PV group were submitting different versions of zoning and government petitions — which they are currently circulating for signatures — to the county legal team in March, April and May.
The recall petitions made three main arguments
The four recall petitions — which are largely the same in language — cover three main arguments.
With each new recall petition submission, the language is updated in what appears to be an attempt to meet Howe’s legal grounds outlined in a previous response letter.
One argument for recall alleges that Mikkelson failed to list all of his clients who contributed $2,000 or more to Stinson LLP, the firm where he works as an equity partner.
The second argument for recall is the fact that Mikkelson serves on the board of the United Community Services of Johnson County during his tenure as mayor.
The petitioners described the dual leadership role as evidence of “competing loyalties” and that this “impairs… his independence of judgment or action” when performing his mayoral duties.
The final argument for recall in each of the four petitions said Mikkelson failed to enforce discipline or termination of a former police officer for alleged sexual misconduct.
In later versions of the petitions, the recall petitioners also said Mikkelson failed to direct the chief of police to investigate and fire the officer.
DA’s office rejected each petition
Each of the four response letters from Howe to the three petitioners states legal grounds for a recall are “a conviction for a felony, misconduct in office, or failure to perform duties prescribed by law.”
None of the grounds for recall listed in the four petitions fell within these parameters, Howe found.
Howe found that the first listed ground for recall, Mikkelson’s alleged “failure to list clients within the statement of substantial interests,” invalid because of a lack of specificity in the petition language.
The second grounds for recall — the competing loyalties with UCS of Johnson County — “is an allegation of an ethical violation,” which is insufficient to meet the requirements for a recall, Howe wrote in a response letter on April 19.
As for the final alleged ground for recall listed in each of the four petitions — regarding Mikkelson’s alleged failure to appropriately discipline the former police officer for sexual misconduct — Howe explained that, per city code, Mikkelson has “superintending control of all officers” such as the city administrator and the chief of police.
Still, Howe explained, the authority to suspend and terminate police officers falls to the chief of police.
In the final response letter to the recall committee on June 27, Howe wrote “nothing in the ordinances suggests that the mayor has the authority to force the chief of police to expedite an investigation, or punish an officer.”
Mikkelson says recall petitions are “false”
Mikkelson told the Post in a written statement on Wednesday that he’s honored to be an unpaid elected official in Prairie Village.
Still, Mikkelson said the “repeated, failed, false recall petitions from those with political and personal axes to grind don’t do anything to strengthen our community.”
Mikkelson also tied the failed recall efforts to the other petitions being circulated by Stop Rezoning Prairie Village and said those latter efforts are also an attempt to “radically disrupt our government, overturn fair elections and structurally collapse Prairie Village government into the hands of a few.”
Mikkelson’s entire written statement to the Post is below:
“I’m honored to be one of the many unpaid elected officials who, along with staff, work hard every day to make Prairie Village a prosperous, safe and welcoming place to live and work. Thanks to those efforts and our residents, our city is in great shape and full of potential.
Unfortunately, repeated, failed and false recall petitions from those with political and personal axes to grind don’t do anything to strengthen our community. Instead, they create unnecessary divisiveness, while wasting taxpayer resources.
And these are not the only recent petitions proposed to radically disrupt our government, overturn fair elections and structurally collapse Prairie Village government into the hands of a few.
While similar extreme tactics have sadly become the norm at other levels of government, they are not The Prairie Village Way.
Over 94% of Prairie Village voters recently voted for me to lead with this team again. And so that’s what I’ll do — continue working to keep Prairie Village strong and vibrant.
I look forward to continued, good faith conversations with residents about their needs and ideas for our community’s future.”
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