The growing southern Johnson County town of Spring Hill will have a new mayor after November’s election, but it won’t be the one person whose name will appear on voters’ ballots.
That’s because current Councilmember Kristin Feeback, the lone candidate who filed to run for mayor this year, announced in July that she will not be able to fulfill the role after accepting a new job that will require her and her family to move out of Spring Hill.
The news came after the June deadline for candidates to pull their names from consideration, so Feeback’s name will remain on ballots as the only listed candidate running for mayor in the town of roughly 10,000 people that straddles the Johnson-Miami county line.
That has set off a scramble by others to mount write-in bids this fall to win the mayoral contest outright, thereby avoiding a post-election transition crisis reminiscent of what the city went through four years ago.
The candidate who won the mayor’s race that year, then-Councilmember Tyler Graves, suddenly and shockingly announced his resignation two weeks after his victory, saying he was moving out of state and couldn’t accept the job.
“This is a completely different situation”
In 2021, Graves won a three-person mayoral contest with 54% of the vote, but soon after, he announced that he and his family were moving to Florida and resigned his Spring Hill City Council seat.
Graves never took office as mayor, setting off a period of turmoil at the start of 2022 when the newly elected city councilmembers took office and had to select a member of their own ranks to fill Graves’ vacant seat.
In January 2022, the city council voted 3-1 to make Joe Berkey, who had also won his own race for city council the previous fall, the new mayor. But Councilmember Steve Owen protested Berkey’s appointment, accusing the other councilmembers of lacking transparency and shirking the city’s ordinances.
Owen refused to attend meetings for weeks afterwards or even communicate with other councilmembers or city officials, preventing the city council from achieving quorum and conducting regular business. (Berkey announced this year he would not seek election as mayor.)
Feeback has been at pains to differentiate her situation from what happened four years ago.
Feeback, first elected to the city council in 2023, said in a July 25 Facebook post that she had accepted an “incredible opportunity to work at a community behavioral health center, where I’ll have the chance to make a meaningful impact in the mental health field — my true passion.”
“This decision was not made lightly, and it reflects my deep commitment to serving others in a different but equally important capacity,” Feeback wrote.
At the Aug. 14 city council meeting at which councilmembers discussed what could happen after November’s election, Feeback said hers is a “completely different situation” from Graves’, noting she announced her intentions months before the election.
“The biggest reason I made the announcement when I did was that the citizens would get a chance to make a decision as opposed to what might be considered the more selfish decision of taking the position [the mayor’s job] and then saying, ‘Oh hey, I have to leave,'” she said.
Feeback said she plans to stay in her current city council seat until May 2026, when she plans to move, but emphasized that she will not accept the mayor’s job if elected in November.
Two write-in candidates have emerged
In the wake of Feeback’s announcement, two other people have launched write-in bids.
They are:
- current Council President Chad Young
- and retired university administrator Rodolfo Arevalo.
In an emailed statement to the Post, Young said his priorities are “smart economic growth, attracting more restaurants and retail, improving our roads with lasting solutions like asphalt instead of chip-and-seal, and bringing more transparency to local government … Ultimately, I want to make Spring Hill a place where families and businesses want to be, while working to limit tax increases and keep our community thriving.”
He said he’d only accept the position of mayor if elected through his write-in candidacy.
He said he wants Spring Hill to avoid the succession crisis that occurred four years ago when Graves didn’t accept the job and it was left to the city council to appoint a mayor.
Young said a competitive write-in contest will “give our residents the opportunity to have their voices heard and to decide the future of their city.”
“If another person receives more write-in votes than I do, I firmly believe that individual should be appointed as mayor. This election should be decided by the people of Spring Hill — not by the council — and I am committed to respecting their choice,” he said.
Arevalo, a Texas native, spent a career in higher education administration, serving as president of Eastern Washington University for nearly a decade until his retirement in 2014. Before that, he served in a leadership role at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.
“I am deeply committed to serving Spring Hill with passion and integrity,” Arevalo said in an emailed statement to the Post. “I believe in the power of unity and collaboration, and I am dedicated to bringing together every corner of our community — residents, businesses, and schools — to build a brighter, stronger future.”
He said he was committed to lowering property taxes, spurring economic development through attracting new businesses and developing a long-range plan for street maintenance, among other priorities.
Arevalo has also filed to run for city council. His name will appear in two separate city council races:
- a five-person contest for two open at-large seats,
- and a three-person contest to fill out the final two years of a separate at-large city council term, the vacancy for which was created when former councilmember Chip VanHouden was elected to the Kansas House last year.
Arevalo told the Post that if he wins both a city council race and the write-in campaign for mayor, he would accept the mayor job and not a city council seat.
What happens if neither write-in wins?
If Feeback is still elected mayor by voters in November and does not accept the job as she has said, then whoever is elected city council president in January 2026 will then become mayor for a shortened two-year term before the next regular city election in 2027.
That’s the procedure spelled out in a city ordinance approved in October 2024, which was in response to the crisis that occurred after Graves’ resignation following the 2021 election.
At the Aug. 14 city council meeting where councilmembers discussed the possibilities of what could happen after this November, city attorney Spencer Low said winning candidates will be sworn in on Jan. 12, 2026.
Then, on Jan. 22, the newly installed city council will vote to elect a new council president. That person will then become mayor, filling the vacancy created by Feeback’s decision not to accept the job.
The new mayor will then nominate an eligible resident to fill their vacant city council seat, which must be approved by the rest of the city council.
Different from four years ago, the newly appointed mayor would then serve until the next regular city election in 2027, when the mayor’s office would again be up for a full four-year term.
Under the former rules, Berkey has served all four years of what would have been Graves’ term after he was appointed mayor at the start of 2022.
Who else is on the ballot? Johnson County election season is officially here — See who’s running in your city and school district
