The city of Prairie Village is changing how it elects a council president.
After nearly a decade of electing the most senior councilmember who has yet to serve as president, the Prairie Village City Council on Monday voted 11-1 to change those rules. Councilmember Inga Selders cast the lone dissenting vote.
The new rules outline a more complex council president election process compared to the previous one, including a more detailed list of criteria for what is an eligible candidate.
Council presidents generally run the governing body’s council committee of the whole meeting, during which no formal action can be taken. Other than that, council presidents stand in the mayor’s place when the mayor is unable to attend meetings.
What led to the change?
- In December 2023, the city council opted against using the decade-old council president election process that called for the most senior councilmember who has yet to serve as president be elected to the role.
- Instead, the city council voted 8-3 against electing Selders and instead nominated and voted 7-4 to elect Councilmember Dave Robinson.
- Several councilmembers shared concerns about the process itself and sticking with it for tradition’s sake, while others supported the status quo.
- At that time, some councilmembers also shared interest in updating the council president election policy.
The new rules outline eligibility, procedure
The new rules state that the council president election occurs during the first city council meeting in January and that a simple majority approves a nominated, eligible candidate.
In order to meet eligibility criteria for the council president role, a councilmember must:
- Attend the meeting during which the council president election occurs
- Accept a nomination prior to a vote
- Serve on the city council for at least one year
- Have not served as council president during their current term
- Be in a different ward than that of the current sitting council president
Other stipulations outlined in the new rules include the following:
- A councilmember is unable to serve as council president for two consecutive years.
- If no eligible councilmember accepts a nomination or there are no eligible councilmembers, then anyone can be nominated for council president.
- If the council president resigns from this role or from the city council, then an interim election must take place.
The changes will take place in 2025
- The new rules will take effect immediately, impacting the January 2025 council president election.
- Under the new rules, councilmembers Cole Robinson, Terry O’Toole, Inga Selders, Lori Sharp, Greg Shelton, Nick Reddell, Terrence Gallagher or Ian Graves could serve as council president in 2025.
- Councilmembers Tyler Agniel, Chi Nguyen, Ron Nelson and Dave Robinson would be ineligible to serve as council president in 2025.
Go deeper: The city council approved the new rules on Oct. 7 with no discussion, but a full discussion of the new rules can be watched from the Sept. 16 meeting online here, starting at 2:49:40.
