Should Prairie Village move forward with a plan to build a new city hall or should that project be put to a public vote?
That is the key question animating races for Prairie Village City Council this year, the latest electoral drama that has shaken the suburban community in recent years.
In each of the city’s six council wards, there is a race between a candidate who supports the $30 million plan to build a new city hall along Mission Road and a candidate who either opposes it outright or wants the project to be put to a public vote.
In June, the City Council propelled the yearslong plan forward with a 9-2 vote. Councilmembers Lori Sharp and Nick Reddell cast the dissenting votes that night, with Councilmember Inga Selders absent from the meeting.
If this pitched electoral battle feels familiar to Prairie Village voters, it’s because the fight over a new city hall mirrors a similarly contentious tussle two years ago over housing and zoning.
In fact, some of the same players are involved, and Prairie Village voters are again being asked to pick a side.
City hall proponents say upgrades are overdue
City leaders in Prairie Village spent the past four years studying ways to upgrade its city hall, built in the early 1970s, and the adjacent police department HQ, built in the 1990s.
The city says the aging facilities need upgrades in large part to address overcrowding for both city hall employees and police officers. Some staffers on both sides are now working out of storage closets, officials say.
“Our property and evidence [police division] is in such an overflow state that they had to convert a garage behind the police station into gated-off evidence and property storage that’s not climate controlled,” Councilmember Cole Robinson, who is running for reelection in Ward 1, said at a forum earlier this month.
After years of considering options to improve its municipal complex, the city landed on the $30 million project now at the heart of the election fight.
In total, that plan includes the cost of building a brand new city hall building on the site of the nearby Mission Road Bible Church, which the city bought earlier this year, and expanding the police department and municipal court into the existing city hall space.
Some vocal proponents of the project include Mayor Eric Mikkelson and Councilmembers Robinson, Ron Nelson and Ian Graves. (Nelson is running for reelection in Ward 2, and Graves is not on the ballot this year.)
Last year, Mikkelson cast a tie-breaking vote to move forward with the proposed option to build a new city hall at the church property and to renovate the existing police department and city hall building.
Some groups opposed to the project say it will increase Prairie Village residents’ property taxes, but Graves sees that as misinformation. At the same time, he said, some of the opposition’s rhetoric is “demeaning and targeting our administrative staff.”
“I view this other part of this opposition as sort of like, ‘We love our police, but we hate government workers that aren’t the police,’” Graves said. “But all of them are necessary. And the city hall is like the glue that keeps it all (running).”
Police Chief Eric McCullough said at a City Council meeting in June that the police department needs to expand in order to make room for staffers like the K-9 unit and accommodate a larger property room.
Both of these additions to the existing police department space were shown in a virtual fly-through conceptual rendering of the proposed plan.
“We will continue to do the job regardless of the space, but I don’t know how we can renovate that existing floor plan … and gain the space that we saw on the fly-through,” McCullough said.
Resident group and councilmember push for public vote
While some elected officials push for the city hall and police department project, residents and one councilmember in particular have spent much of this year calling for a public vote.
Earlier this year, Preserve Prairie Village, a resident advocacy group whose origins and funding remain murky, sent mailers around the city saying the project would increase property taxes and lead to a “washing away” of the community.
The mailers used rhetoric similar to arguments heard two years ago during the city’s fight over housing, when opponents often raised the specter of apartments being built in single-family neighborhoods.
“Our village risks becoming an urban core,” Preserve Prairie Village’s mailer opposing the city hall project read, echoing an argument from the housing debate. The mailer didn’t specify how a new city hall might lead to that.
Shortly after that, PV United, another resident group that has been at odds with the city over various issues including housing for the past three years, distributed “Let Prairie Village Vote” yard signs across the city. (PV United’s website lists the city hall project as its “Current Priority Issue.”)
The “Vote” signs state support for the proposed police department renovations but reject calls for a new city hall.
Residents have turned out at City Council meetings, much as they did two years ago amid the zoning debate, making similar pleas directly to the council.
At an April meeting, Rob Kohl, a resident who frequently shares comments at council meetings in line with PV United’s talking points, said the city needed to “be pragmatic” with taxpayer money when it comes to a new city hall.
“Most of all, you need to remember who the city belongs to: We the people who live here, not just the 24 over-entitled city employees,” Kohl said.
One of the most prominent voices pushing for a city hall vote is Ward 3 Councilmember Lori Sharp.
In an email newsletter she sends to constituents, she has routinely demanded a public vote. Sharp’s ties to PV United date back to the 2023 election and that group’s efforts to make widespread changes to the city’s governance that same year. Her husband represented PV United in court against the city.
Over the summer, Sharp called attention to the estimated $30 million price tag approved by the city and added the roughly $23 million in estimated interest over the 30-year payback period. She often refers to it now as a $50 million project in her communications with constituents. PV United makes this same argument on its website.
“I just would choose to spend that money differently,” Sharp said at a City Council meeting this summer. “I would choose to give it back to the residents to give them tax relief, or I would choose for money more spent at the police department or the pool coming up, but for me that would not be my first choice.”
The city hall project, for all the electoral back-and-forth, is currently in legal limbo due to a federal lawsuit filed by a resident who argues that a city ordinance authorizing bonds to be taken out for the project is invalid.
If or when that legal challenge is cleared, the city still intends to move forward with the project.
But the city has also said the legal case “is likely to further delay the issuance of bonds” for the project, noting that delays could increase the cost of the project by $125,000 each month it sits on the shelf.
A disputed poll, an alleged assault and social media groups
Earlier this year, The Sentinel, a nonprofit news arm of the Wichita-based Kansas Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, released a poll about the city hall project, meant to reveal Prairie Village residents’ feelings about a new city hall.
The Sentinel concluded that a majority of Prairie Village residents agreed with PV United’s stance that the project should go to a public vote. A closer look at the poll’s methodology, though, showed two-thirds of the 435 respondents lived in ZIP codes outside Prairie Village.
Sharp sent the poll results in an email newsletter on June 2. Over the next five days, City Council members received 263 emails from their constituents, many citing the poll and demanding a vote.
Sharp’s newsletter to constituents has drawn public criticism from some of her colleagues on the council, including Graves, Dave Robinson and Nelson. They say it stirs up hostility by emphasizing misleading statements like the Sentinel poll.
Sharp, who tightly controls who receives the newsletter and has previously not responded to the Post’s request to be added to the mailing list, said in an email that she disagrees with her critics’ description of her newsletter.
“I reject the accusation that my newsletter is spreading misinformation or stirring up hostility,” she wrote. “My communication reflects the voices of residents who feel ignored and excluded.”
Since the beginning of the year, tensions over the project have escalated.
A six-hour City Council meeting in early June ended with a police report alleging that one resident assaulted another in the hallway just outside council chambers.
A Prairie Village police spokesperson said investigators determined an assault had occurred, but no charges were ever filed related to that incident.
In early August, police were called to a residential street in Prairie Village to investigate another reported assault. Police later said that investigators determined no crime had occurred. In the first page of a police report obtained by the Post regarding that incident, Sharp was listed as a reporting party.
“I have personally experienced bullying and intimidation at council meetings, online, and even on my own street,” Sharp said in an emailed response to questions. “This behavior is alarming and (it) is honestly sad that our community has been divided in this way.”
Division inside city hall is also leaking into Prairie Villagers’ social media feeds.
The Beacon and the Post have identified at least four resident groups and anonymous social media pages that have all chimed in on some of Prairie Village’s weightier issues.
Those groups include:
- Save Prairie Village — An anonymous Facebook page that stokes conflict around issues like Mayor Eric Mikkelson’s parking space and falsely claims that Prairie Village still plans to rezone single-family neighborhoods. It is run by a man who, two years ago, identified himself as Mike to a Post reporter.
- Preserve Prairie Village — A dark-money group focused on “preserving our village” and “protecting our wallets,” with specific opposition against general fund spending and the city hall project. (Read more Preserve coverage online here.)
- Prairie Village Citizen — An anonymous Facebook page that generally supports city hall efforts and uses memes and a blog to “fact-check” PV United.
- Forward Prairie Village — A now-dissolved group spearheaded by former Councilmember Lauren Wolf, outgoing Councilmember Greg Shelton and resident Rae Nicholson, whose purported aim was to expose the backers of PV United. That group disbanded and took down its website after somebody filed complaints against Nicholson and Wolf with a state body that reviews alleged misconduct of licensed attorneys. (Disclosure: Councilmember Greg Shelton is married to Post Publisher Jay Senter’s sister.)
Where do the candidates in your ward stand?
The 12 candidates running for six City Council seats this year are evenly split on the city hall issue. Every race has one candidate in favor of the project and one who wants to take the issue to a public vote.
You can use this map to find out which ward you live in.
While they’re not technically running on a slate, half of the Prairie Village City Council candidates on the ballot this fall support the city’s plan to move forward with the municipal complex project without taking it to a public vote.
These six candidates say the new city hall and upgraded police department are necessary to provide a safe, enjoyable environment for city staff.
The other half, who have the backing of Prairie Village United, would rather put the issue before voters to decide if the city should take on debt to move forward with the project.
This year’s six PV United-backed candidates say the $30 million plan is too costly without widespread resident buy-in, and are calling on the city to let Prairie Villagers vote on the issue.
Those six PV United-backed candidates did not attend the Post’s Sept. 30 forum or the Northeast Johnson County Chamber of Commerce’s forum on Sept. 29. But 11 out of 12 candidates attended an Oct. 9 forum presented by PV United.
Below are what candidates have said about the city hall project at the Oct. 9 forum. You can also read candidates’ fuller responses to the Post’s questionnaire on the city hall issue here.
Ward 1
- Daniel Garrett: “I don’t hear a lot of, ‘build it,’ or ‘don’t build it,’” Garrett said. “What I hear is, ‘I appreciate the information. I want to do my own research, and I want to have a voice.’ … My opinion is to put this to a vote.”
- Cole Robinson: “You see very real needs in our PD to start, and then on the city hall side as well,” Robinson said. “One of the main roles, maybe the main role, of anyone elected to the City Council … is to determine how to solve the needs of the city. And this city, over the past 74 years of its existence, has handled and addressed needs large and small through its City Council.”
Ward 2
- Edward Boersma: “The residents of Prairie Village should vote on a bond issue this large,” Boersma said. “A new city hall is not an infrastructure project. It’s completely different. I’ve studied the engineering report for our current municipal building. That building is structurally solid … I believe we should be renovating the city hall, and if for some reason we should tear down city hall, we should use the church as a temporary city hall and build it in place. That way, we still only have one municipal building that we have to pay for for generations to come.”
- Ron Nelson: “The council has already looked at 18 different possible plans,” Nelson said. “And the plan that my opponent referenced was one of those that was looked at, and because it was a renovation, it was not going to be satisfactory either for the police department or anyone else in Prairie Village. We look at this as a long-term matter, not as a short-term solution.”
Ward 3
- Amy Aldrich: “Third graders know this,” Aldrich said. “It’s our money. Let us vote. … One thing that I have asked a lot of residents when I go door-to-door is, ‘How many times have you been to city hall?’ I’ll tell you how many times I’ve been to city hall. It’s been four times, and that’s over 20 years. That’s not a very good average. Just saying.”
- Shelby Bartelt: “Having toured these facilities, I’ve seen the need, and I continue to encourage residents to do exactly that,” Bartelt said. “I think this project is of impeccable importance. It’s trust in our city servants. It’s trust in the residents. … Our elected City Council voted nine-two to move this forward.”
Ward 4
- Kelly Sullivan Angles: “The price tag for this project, in my own opinion, is outrageous,” Sullivan Angles said. “If we’re going to incur the kind of debt that is the largest in our city’s history … our citizens should have a vote on that. … No one knows what kind of facilities our city is going to need for administrative purposes in the long term. Who would have thought five years ago that anybody would need less commercial space?”
- Nathan Vallette: “I understand why some residents are uneasy with the cost or believe it should go to a public vote,” Vallette wrote in response to the Post’s questionnaire. “I respect those perspectives. But I also recognize that city government exists to make informed, often technical decisions like this one after years of data, studies, and public discussion … While I’ll always push for fiscal responsibility and regular updates to keep the project on budget, I support moving forward.”
Ward 5
- John Beeder: “The building that we are proposing to build is a $23 million building,” Beeder said. “It’s about 23,000 square feet for 22 employees…. How about the Tomahawk Elementary School over on Lamar? You all know that one — $31 million building, just completed, 80,000 square feet, $400 a square foot. How about the Mission City Hall? $300 a square foot. … We’re going to spend $1,000 a square foot on the Prairie Village City Hall. That’s extraordinary. It’s extravagant. The people deserve to vote.”
- Betsy Lawrence: “I spent a lot of time going through the city documents, looking through the various proposals,” Lawrence said, “and I don’t know which solution I would have chosen. But I did come away knowing that it was a disciplined process where questions were asked. … These are lifelong Republicans, lifelong Democrats, liberals, conservatives, the whole spectrum that voted in favor of this plan, including two PV United-elected candidates from the last (election). That’s representative democracy, and I am opposed to setting aside that vote because some people don’t like the way that it went.”
Ward 6
- Dan Prussing: “I look at ‘needs and obligations’ versus ‘wants,’” Prussing said. “The city hall is a ‘want.’ The new city administration building is a ‘want.’ It’s a $50 million ‘want,’ for 22 employees. I don’t know how many of you go to the city administration building. If you go there, I have a feeling you’re not gonna have a hard time finding a parking spot. … ‘Needs and obligations?’ That’s the police. I am all for funding their facilities, funding their equipment, and making sure they have what they need.”
- Jim Sellers: “It troubles me,” Sellers said, “to hear that the police are a priority from six individuals who, when the city administrator invited 12 candidates to City Hall to meet department heads and tour the facility and understand what the situation is, that only six showed up. Six did not show up yet. … Here’s a couple facts … In the municipal court, plaintiffs and defendants and judges share a bathroom. The city hall was built to residential code standards with a large amount of wood. There is inadequate sprinkling throughout the building.”
The Johnson County Post and The Beacon collaborated on coverage of the upcoming Prairie Village City Council election.
