Long-time community leader Fred Spears will not seek another term to the Overland Park City Council.
First elected in 2003, Spears represents Ward 4, an area in west-central Overland Park that’s generally bounded by Pflumm Road and Antioch Road to the east and west, and 119th and 143rd streets to the north and south.
“Twenty years is long enough. I think we needed some very fresh blood,” Spears told the Post in a recent interview. “I want to make sure that people keep having a fresh set of eyes, and I was concerned that I may not be having a fresh set of eyes anymore.”
Spears started out in local partisan politics
- The year he was first elected to the city council, Spears got involved in some community organizations and in the leadership ranks of the Overland Park Republican Party group.
- “I was raised in an environment where you get involved, you take your own chair to the table or at least you go to the table,” he said.
- Spears decided to run for the city council seat because the incumbent, Byron Loudon, at the time was stepping back and it was Spears’ job within the local Republican Party to put up someone to run.
- “So I said, ‘I’ll do it.’ It was time for me to step up,” Spears said, though he doesn’t think partisan politics should play a role in municipal government.
Overland Park has grown and changed a lot in 20 years
During Spears’ first term on the city council, Overland Park recorded about 150,000 residents and the city stretched to 167th Street.
Now, the city’s population is pushing 200,000 and it reaches past 199th Street in some parts.
And, Spears said, the residents’ expectations have changed. Over decades of Overland Park ranking among the best cities in the U.S., the best has become the baseline.
“We’ve got a resident population that holds us to extremely high standards, and we’ve got such a great staff that lives up to that,” he said.
Spears sees Vision Metcalf, new investment as major city accomplishments
For Spears, the city’s successes over the past two decades belong to city staff, city leaders, the business community and Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, and other stakeholders as a product of their “immense” collaboration.
Spears lists things like the Scheels Overland Park Soccer Complex and LongHouse among the top accomplishments Overland Park netted throughout his time on the city council.
The city’s ongoing project Vision Metcalf to improve that major corridor and the overall downtown Overland Park revitalization — including reimagining Thompson Park — are also on his list of the city’s major wins over the past couple of decades.
Spears said the city’s investment in complete streets — a philosophy that encourages blending walking, cycling and other forms of transportation onto road networks — has also been a “big deal.” In that same vein, investments into major highways U.S. 69 and Interstate 435 are also big for Overland Park, he added.
The work of Overland Park’s Infrastructure Advisory Group to engage residents on issues that impact them is also a vital community contribution, he said. It’s part of an effort, he added, to get “more and more and more residents involved in making decisions that impact them and everybody else in the city.”
Overland Park faces some challenges, Spears said
Spears sees the rise of “parochialism” as one of Overland Park’s major challenges right now. He fears that grandstanding, partisanship and focusing on specific issues at the expense of everything else threatens the city council’s ability to build consensus and get the work of the people done.
“It just bothers me that while some people might have a different view, they don’t try and convince somebody, they just [say], ‘This is my position. I really don’t care what you think,’” he said.
That turn, which he’s noticed become more pronounced recently, has disappointed him.
Beyond that, he expects Overland Park is also going to face a reckoning of sorts on what to do with its aging office buildings — long-considered the city’s economic backbone — as the needs of today and tomorrow’s workforce morph.
Housing is also a concern as cities across Johnson County and the greater metro area deal with a shortage of attainable options to rent and buy. Spears sees fear of change as a major roadblock to some of those projects, not just apartments but also some single-family home developments.
Additionally, Spears worries about city hall’s ongoing workforce issues. Like businesses and industry, Overland Park and other municipalities have struggled to attract and retain high-quality staff equipped to offer the level of service the residents have come to expect.
“The employees we have in this city are some of the finest people I’ve seen,” he said. “I don’t know where all the people went.”
Spears wants to see Overland Park prepared for the next generation
As Spears prepares to step back at the end of the year, he said, above all else, he wants to see Overland Park continue to be a desirable place to live and work, and also be ready to take on the next generation of challenges.
“I want them to continue to be the leading city in the metro,” he said of Overland Park and the city council. “I want them to be a model for other organizations and other cities. I want them to not necessarily be on the cutting edge but be on the leading edge of how to do things better.”
To do that, he said, good councilmembers need to remember it’s their job to be “representatives of the city and cheerleaders.”
“The role goes beyond just being on the governing body,” Spears said, stressing the need to show up to more than just the regularly scheduled meetings to get the job done.
Looking ahead:
- Gregg Riess is the only candidate seeking to replace Spears on the city council.
- That means Riess is nearly guaranteed to succeed Spears following the November municipal elections.
- In a written statement to the Post, Riess said Spears’ legacy is defined by his “dedication and foresight.”
- “His governance style combined pragmatic decision-making with a deep-rooted commitment to Overland Park,” Riess said. “As he retires, we are not merely bidding farewell to a public servant, but to a leader who has worked hard to shape our city for the better.”
Related news: Overland Park Councilmember Paul Lyons won’t seek reelection
