Chi Nguyen is the newest Prairie Village councilmember, appointed Monday night to fill a vacancy in Ward 3.
Nguyen, who has served on the city’s diversity committee the past two years, was appointed in an 11-0 vote by the Prairie Village City Council to fill the seat recently vacated by Lauren Wolf, who resigned last month because she is moving out of the ward.
Nguyen was appointed to fill the seat for the remainder of Wolf’s term just hours after a lawsuit challenging the city’s appointment process was heard in Johnson County District Court.
Following an application and interview process, Mayor Eric Mikkelson recommended Nguyen for appointment to the city council. Mikkelson told the Post via text on Thursday that Nguyen “embodies what he calls “The Prairie Village Way.”
Still, the appointment faced pushback from PV United, the same group who has opposed the city’s housing recommendations and is also known as Stop Rezoning Prairie Village.
In an email sent to some residents, the group called the city’s procedure to fill the council vacancy — laid out in city ordinance — “a flawed process that is not transparent.”
One applicant who applied to fill the Ward 3 city council vacancy sued Mikkelson and the city, asserting that the mayor is unable to appoint a person to the city council under state law.
A Johnson County judge during a Monday afternoon hearing denied the resident’s request for a temporary injunction that would have prevented the city council from voting to appoint anyone to the vacant seat for at least a 14-day period.
Nguyen moved to Prairie Village in 2019
Nguyen, who is a human resources professional currently working as a senior technical recruiter for Verizon, moved to Prairie Village from North Carolina in 2019. At that time, her oldest son, Thomas, was scouted to play for the Sporting Kansas City Academy, the professional soccer club’s program aimed at developing youth talent.
As an infant, Nguyen came to the United States with her mother as a refugee after escaping Vietnam. Prior to her appointment, Nguyen told the city council that April 15 is the anniversary of her and her mother’s escape.
“On this special day, I hope to join you on council and use this opportunity that I’ve been given to do meaningful work that will make a positive impact for all of Prairie Village through public service,” Nguyen said. “I want to represent Ward 3 in a way that would make my parents, my sons and myself proud.”
Nguyen has been on the city’s diversity committee since February 2022 and has been the chair of the committee since March 2023. Nguyen is also a community outreach volunteer for Cafe Caphe, a Vietnamese coffee shop in Kansas City, Missouri.
In her application for the position, Nguyen said that diversity is one of the driving factors for her wanting to serve on the city council — a theme that came up in remarks introducing herself on Monday.
“I think it is possible and important to have different perspectives, different voices, different backgrounds, but still find common ground to make the city safe, diverse, welcoming and a place that we and others want to live, work and play,” Nguyen said.
The city council approved Nguyen’s appointment with no dissent
Councilmember Lori Sharp made the motion to ratify Mikkelson’s recommendation to appoint Nguyen to the Ward 3 vacancy.
Sharp said she initially questioned “the process and the legality of it all,” but after meeting Nguyen for coffee over the weekend, Sharp said she was “confident that [Nguyen is] someone I can work with.”
Several councilmembers shared personal endorsements in Nguyen’s favor, including councilmembers Cole Robinson and Inga Selders who served on the diversity committee with her.
Mikkelson said he was looking for a candidate with integrity, communication, vision and wisdom, which were all subjective factors when considering applicants for the position. Other factors included previous city volunteer work and living in the ward for at least one year.
“I am confident that Chi is qualified, eager and the best fit for this job,” Mikkelson said. “That she is also a woman of color is a plus — perspectives underrepresented here, both historically and now.”
The current appointment process has been in place 10+ years
In December 2013, the city of Prairie Village amended its ordinance dealing with vacancies on the governing body, including councilmember vacancies.
The ordinance states that the mayor — with the consent of the city council — is able to appoint a resident to a vacant seat until the next election for that position.
This is the same ordinance that was followed when former councilmembers Courtney McFadden, Sheila Myers and Chad Herring were first appointed to the city council, in December 2013, April 2015 and August 2017, respectively.
Under this ordinance, Nguyen will remain in office until December 2025. If she wants to continue as a councilmember after that, then she will need to run for election in November 2025.
Mikkelson told the city council on Monday that the process for filling the Ward 3 vacancy went as follows:
- Staff and legal counsel reviewed the city code and state laws.
- The city advertised the open seat and received 24 applications, and a list of those individuals was circulated to all of the city council.
- Mikkelson and staff reviewed the 24 applicants and interviewed eight of them.
- Nguyen was the person who “rose to the top,” Mikkelson said.
A lawsuit was filed in early April
Tim Swanson, a Prairie Village resident and one of the two dozen people who applied to the Ward 3 council vacancy, filed a lawsuit against Mikkelson and the city on April 8.
In the lawsuit, Swanson alleged that the decade-old ordinance the mayor used to recommend Nguyen’s appointment violates a Kansas state law that deals with filling local governing body vacancies, including mayors and councilmembers.
The lawsuit argued that while cities can opt out of parts of or entire state laws by adopting so-called charter ordinances, Prairie Village’s charter ordinance addressing how to fill city council vacancies was unsatisfactory and the decision should therefore be made by the entire governing body.
A full version of the lawsuit, as obtained from court records, can be found below.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab There was an emergency hearing Tuesday
Swanson was represented in his lawsuit by attorneys from Graves Garrett Greim a Kansas City law firm that has taken on some high-profile political cases in recent years, including representing Missouri Attorney General Jay Ashcroft in his defense of that state’s anti-ESG investing rule, as well as several witnesses who testified before the special Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack.
Swanson’s attorneys on Monday filed a motion for an emergency restraining order and a temporary injunction that sought to prevent the Prairie Village City Council from appointing anyone to the vacant Ward 3 seat for up to two weeks.
Judge Krishnan Christopher Jayaram of Division 12 at Johnson County District Court approved an emergency hearing request from Swanson’s attorneys related to the request for an injunction.
During the hearing, Cody Hagan argued Mikkelson was “gatekeeping” council applicants and only allowing the city council to consider appointing someone of his choosing.
City Attorney Alex Aggen said that neither state law nor city ordinance defines what the process of filling a city council vacancy looks like, and that that is left up to the city to decide.
Ultimately, Judge Jayaram denied Swanson’s injunction request for failure to demonstrate why one should be issued, including failure to demonstrate irreparable harm would be done if the city council appointed an individual to the Ward 3 vacancy.
While it is currently unclear what next steps are, the lawsuit itself remains open.
Keep reading: Outgoing PV commission sees hope in city’s recent tension — ‘People are engaged’
