OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Local governing bodies on the city and county levels have had to make some big decisions in the last two months.
In Overland Park, the city council has also been forced to fill a vacancy by selecting a new member. City council members voted, 9-2, for Stacie Gram to fill the vacancy.
Former Ward Four Representative Gina Burke stepped down from the Overland Park City Council in April, and the city charter requires a replacement be found quickly. Even in the middle of a statewide shutdown.
"A lot more people were interested in what's going on with the city, what we do to impact the virus and other things,” Ward 4 Representative Fred Spears, who also serves as council president, said. “And with that, we had a dozen, candidates apply."
But only eight were given interviews by the selecting committee, made up of Spears, Ward 5 Representative John Thompson, and Mayor Carl Gerlach.
Dan Osman ran against Spears in the November 2019 election, losing by by roughly 16 percent. Osman applied for the vacant position, but didn't get an interview.
“If I were trying to view the person that I just ran against as a potential applicant, my first inclination is, I would recuse myself to ensure that there's no conflict of interest,” Osman said.
Spears said Osman not making the cut was about his experience, not politics.
"He was probably, the number nine guy,” Spears said. “And because his experience of his service to the community had been over on the Missouri side, we were looking more for more current and more relevant to our community.”
Osman served on the school board for the Hickman Mills School District, but resigned in 2016 after moving to Kansas.
“Actually, I was complimentary of him at the initial meeting saying that he brought a lot to the party,” Spears said. “It just it wasn't in the Kansas area, and Mr. Thompson and the mayor agreed."
All of the committee's meetings were available to watch on Zoom, but weren't recorded. Overland Park spokesperson Sean Reilly told 41 Action News that the city council recently adopted a policy requiring city council, planning commission, and standing council committee meetings to be live streamed, not recorded.
Each of the eight remaining candidates interviewed in person, including eventual finalists Stacie Gram and Patty Markley.
"I think that as you drive, for example, Metcalf, south all the way out to the farthest ends of Overland Park, the tenor of OP changes, and I’d really like to see more revitalization of northern Overland Park," Gram told the committee during her interview.
“You know they had some really great questions," Markley said. "They asked everything from, 'Why do you want to run,' 'Why do you think you're the most qualified,' 'What is your deliberative process,' 'How do you come to decisions,' 'What do you think about incentives.'"
Spears called all 12 candidates very strong, and said it's proof that the current climate drives people to speak up, to make sure their city is ready.
"I'm getting more emails and more phone calls regarding a wide variety of things," Spears said. "Not just necessarily the (corona)virus, but some of the impacts of that and the nuances of what some of the changes in the laws are going to be because of it."
Markley told 41 Action News that she knows her fellow finalist, Stacie Gram very well. They will both be interviewed by the full city council at a committee meeting before Monday's city council meeting.
If the council agrees on a choice, that person will be sworn in at the city council meeting, and vote with the rest of the council for the remainder of the meeting. Their term will expire in January 2022.
The committee meeting starts at 5:30 p.m., and can be viewed via Zoom. The council meeting starts at 7:30 p.m., and can also be viewed via Zoom.
