Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:06 p.m. Wednesday to include a statement from West Jordan, the city administrator of Prairie Village.
A Prairie Village resident is asking a district court judge to stop city officials from going ahead with a new city hall and expanded police building without a public vote.
The resident, Marc Vianello, contends the charter ordinance city officials are using as authority for it is illegal because it exempts the city from seeking voter approval as required by state law. He asks that the ordinance be declared invalid.
The suit, filed Thursday, June 19, has the potential to impede efforts to begin the $30 million building project.
The Prairie Village City Council last week approved the project in two separate 9-2 votes and is expected to issue the bonds for it in August.
Reached for comment, Vianello declined to discuss his reasons for filing the suit and referred the Post to his attorney, Frederick Edmunds of Edmunds Law Office LLC in Overland Park. We will update this story when we hear from Edmunds.
Wes Jordan, the city administrator of Prairie Village, provided the following statement on Wednesday afternoon:
“The City is in receipt of the petition and is reviewing the same with legal counsel. The City has followed the same process that Kansas cities-including Prairie Village – have used for decades to invest in infrastructure. The City will defend the pending lawsuit accordingly.”
Below is a copy of the petition.
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Open in new tab The $30M project will build a new city hall and expand police space
The building project is meant to address space issues at the current municipal building at 7700 Mission Road, which houses police and city offices.
The city council has opted to buy the Mission Road Bible Church just to the south, at 7820 Mission Road, to become the new city hall. That comes at a cost of $4.5 million to buy the church property, with the remainder of the $23 million for demolition and construction.
Another $7 million would be spent renovating and expanding the existing municipal building as a police and municipal court space.
The project faces pushback
Plans for expanded space for the city hall and police department have been getting pushback from PV United — the same organized group of residents who objected to efforts to use city zoning to create more affordable housing a couple of years ago.
A dark money resident group, Preserve PV, has also been circulating mailers to galvanize grassroots efforts to stop the project from moving forward without a public vote on it.
Councilmembers Lori Sharp and Inga Selders also had pushed for a vote but never got a majority to go along. However, the votes last week would have been too late to get the question on this year’s ballot, city officials said.
More specifics on the petition
Vianello’s suit cites KSA 13-1024a as the protection against “rogue city council members from funding their pet projects on the backs of taxpayers by obligating them to indebtedness for decades without a public vote.”
The suit contends the Charter Ordinance 28 that city officials used as rationale for skipping the vote does not apply. That ordinance amends the city’s home rule charter to exempt itself from votes on bonds for public projects. The suit contends that’s illegal because state law only allows first-class cities to exempt themselves from a vote if the bonds in question are not more than $100,000 in any one year.
The suit also alleges some technical issues with the ordinance’s filing and says that it is overly broad because it is not limited to specific projects with an ending date. The ordinance was approved in 2016.
Keep reading: Tensions rise again in Prairie Village, this time over new city hall — Here’s what you need to know
