The Shawnee City Council on Monday appointed city Public Works Director Doug Whitacre to the interim city manager position as current city manager Doug Gerber remains on paid administrative leave.
Following an executive closed-door session during a special called city council meeting Monday night, the city council voted 7-0 to approve the interim appointment. Councilmember Kurt Knappen was absent.
City councilmembers did not publicly comment on the appointment after voting.
Gerber is on leave after an explicit video was sent to staff
Last Wednesday, the Shawnee City Council unanimously voted to place Gerber on leave during a special meeting hours after the Kansas City Star reported that an outside party had sent some city employees an explicit video showing Gerber engaged in a sexual act.
The video was sent in late September, but multiple city councilmembers said they learned about it only after the Star filed an open records request last week seeking records pertaining to the video.
The anonymous sender told the Star they “wanted to reveal Gerber’s online behavior.”
It’s unclear at this point how the outside party obtained the video, though under state law Gerber could claim he is a victim of breach of privacy.
That law makes it illegal to “disseminat[e] any videotape, photograph, film or image of another identifiable person 18 years of age or older who is nude or engaged in sexual activity and under circumstances in which such identifiable person had a reasonable expectation of privacy, with the intent to harass, threaten or intimidate such identifiable person, and such identifiable person did not consent to such dissemination.”
This is Whitacre’s second stint as interim manager
He previously held the position in 2022, when former city manager Nolan Sunderman left the job.
He has held the public works director position in Shawnee since 2015.
His previous job experiences include working in city government in Topeka and McPherson and also a corporate stint at Embarq/Sprint.
Whitacre stepped out of the interim city manager role in March when Gerber was sworn in.
Gerber’s wife vows legal action
Michele Gerber, Doug Gerber’s wife, issued the following statement Monday night via email:
“I hope you can appreciate how difficult it is for me to speak out publicly. Opening my family to further unjust comments –both libel and slander–is very disconcerting. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to make a brief statement.
I have been asked to tell my side of what has happened in the past 5 weeks, as I too was a victim of this criminal scam. The criminal targeted me and my family twice, both prior to the sending of the email to city employees and again prior to the sending of the press email. Criminal complaints have been filed with the appropriate jurisdictions because of these actions.
As much as I would like to share the details, right now is not the appropriate time. Due to multiple members of my family being victims of crimes related to this situation, pending legal litigation and criminal investigations prevent me from making detailed comments at this time. I appreciate the support the governing body has shown us during this difficult process.”
Go deeper: Shawnee city manager put on paid administrative leave following report of explicit video
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