At the risk of sounding cliché, Majed Al-Ghafry wants Lawrence to know that he is a public servant through and through. The “smile of the entire community” keeps his fire lit.

The Lawrence City Commission selected Al-Ghafry as the new city manager Tuesday, and he flew to town this weekend to meet with his new team and house hunt. He’s enjoyed patronizing local restaurants, like Aladdin Cafe and Merchants, and he’s already delighted in Sylas and Maddy’s ice cream — twice.

Al-Ghafry said the city manager job in Lawrence is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He wants to bring his values of ethics and compassion to the role, and to address the trust gap between the city and its residents with transparency and no side deals.

Being a city manager, he said, is a privilege, not a right.

“When I go to an organization, I embrace the organization, but I want to make sure also that the organization embraces what I stand for,” he said. “Which is, again, deliberate, effective, efficient service. We’re there to serve the public.”

Al-Ghafry is leaving a position as the city manager of DeSoto, Texas. His contract there requires 60 days’ notice before his departure. He tendered his resignation the day he was awarded the Lawrence job, but he hopes to start work here even sooner. 

The one-year plan

The gears are already turning in Al-Ghafry’s mind.

As he drove past Haskell Indian Nations University this weekend, he made a note to schedule a meeting with the interim president. He spotted code compliance issues on some streets and began brainstorming a neighborhood cleaning program.

He’s also preparing to present his one-year plan to city staff. It may need tweaks as he learns from staff and community members, but he told the commission he’s tempted to also toss it out to the community.

“I’m not going to come in and say, ‘Oh, I need to change this and this and this’ without having a good understanding of how the city is run, you know, what the community truly needs, what the commission really wants, and of course what the team is capable of,” he said.

His one-year plan will tackle a laundry list of pressing issues: housing and homelessness solutions, permitting and development challenges, public safety integration response time, business growth and retention, workforce growth and retention, the median area income, town and gown partnerships, maintaining a relationship with the county, and more.

Here’s where Al-Ghafry’s head is as he steps into the new role.

Finances

Al-Ghafry said that from residents to city staff, Lawrence needs to wrap its brain around the budget.

If something is added to the budget, he wants to know the expected return on investment. He also wants to know what city programs are proving effective based on performance indicators, and which ones do not align with industry standards.

He said he’ll work with department directors to truly understand what is driving the budget and why expenditures outpace revenue.

“It starts at the department level. It doesn’t start with the city manager,” he said. “It’s not the city manager’s job, it’s the department director’s job to understand their department really well — their expenditures, their revenues, their pain points.”

Ultimately, Al-Ghafry said he wants community participation and input in the budgeting process.

Housing and homelessness

“Homelessness is a community issue, not an individual issue,” he said.

Al-Ghafry stressed that building a shelter is not enough to solve homelessness. People also need wraparound services like mental health and job training, as well as access to multiple stages of transitional housing and job opportunities.

Al-Ghafry said he can weigh in on affordable housing goals once he’s gotten to know the city better, but he emphasized “diversity of housing.” He said the city should have options for a wide range of needs, from students who can only rent at $700 per month to a family of five that can’t afford more than $400,000 for a home.

“You have to provide the full gamut, the full spectrum of housing that fits the needs of the community,” Al-Ghafry said.

Town and gown

Al-Ghafry wants to maintain a symbiotic relationship with KU, while expanding job opportunities that coax students to stay post graduation. 

“We lose a lot of talent with people graduating and looking for high paying jobs … so, between the school and the city, we need to devise plans to create those opportunities for high paying jobs, whether it’s the biomedical, whether it’s advanced manufacturing … or even remote working opportunities,” he said.

Al-Ghafry said Haskell Indian Nations University is, likewise, a major stakeholder in the town.

He recognized that Haskell students may want to stay in town after graduation, or take what they’ve learned back to their home communities. By talking more with the Haskell administration, he plans to answer the question, “How do we help them in both situations?”

Development and business growth

It’s become a common refrain to hear that Lawrence has a bad reputation with developers. Al-Ghafry said that’s a problem.

He wants to meet with developers to understand their pain points, while also speaking with community members who are concerned about densification.

“I think the biggest focus is, how do we simplify the process for people to continue working with us?” he said.

Ideas could include streamlining the process for projects to move faster or rethinking permitting.

Over the years, Lawrence has grappled with developments that abut or pass through the wetlands, such as the current 1059 project (formerly the New Boston Crossing). Indigenous community members and advocates have long spoken out against such projects, citing concerns of environmental destruction and the long history of Native stewardship of the land.

Al-Ghafry said he’s not afraid to tackle projects that some may disagree with, as long as he’s open and transparent. However, he drew a firm line between NIMBYism — “not in my backyard”-ism — and environmental protection. 

“The protection is something completely different,” he said. “Something that is sacred and important, you need to involve the community that is trying to protect that, and you need to be very genuine about it.”

“That’s something I can guarantee,” he continued. “We’ll engage the community from the get-go. It’s not going to be after our consultant puts together the strategic plan, and then he or she says, ‘Here, we’re done. What do you think, community?’ That doesn’t work that way.”

An inclusive city

Community members had an opportunity to interview the final four city manager candidates at a meet-and-greet in May. For many attendees, questions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and anti-transgender legislation were top of mind.

On Sunday, Al-Ghafry said, “We’re humans first and foremost, and protecting the human lives is more important to me than my job.”

He said the city is a partner of the federal government, but not at the expense of humanity.

“A lot of the immigrant community came in and worked their hearts out,” Al-Ghafry said. “They wanted a better life for themselves, they wanted a better life for their families, and I’m not a big proponent of separating families.”

As a father and grandfather, the thought of children in cells, taken from their parents, kills him. If there is evidence that someone has engaged in criminal activity that affects the safety and welfare of the community, he said he is in support of collaborating with ICE.

He said he’d also look further into Senate Bill 244, which strikes down transgender people’s opportunity to change their gender markers on Kansas drivers licenses or identification cards. It also criminalizes trans people who use bathrooms that align with their gender identity over bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth in public buildings.

“My own personal feeling is that everybody has the right to live their life and be respected,” he said.

There might be ways, he said, that the city can comply without taking a person’s integrity away. 

“At the end of the day, we are the steward of the city, and we are the servants of those people who voted for the mayor and the commission, and I work for them,” Al-Ghafry said.

Moving to Lawrence

The new city manager plans to become a regular part of the Lawrence fabric, and a familiar face around town.

Moving, he said, will happen immediately.

“I’m not going to commute 400 miles every day,” Al-Ghafry joked. 

Al-Ghafry is married with four children and two grandchildren. His wife will spend her time between Lawrence and Dallas, trying to entice their oldest child and grandchildren to move closer to grandma and grandpa.

“I’m actually going to bring in the three younger kids next week, so they can feel the flavor of Lawrence,” he said.

Perhaps, if he’s lucky, his youngest son will apply for medical school through KU. That’s Al-Ghafry’s hope, at least.

Throughout the hiring process, community members noted his relatively short tenure in DeSoto. But at the age of 62, Al-Ghafry said he has no interest in moving every few years for a new job. He hopes to be in Lawrence for a long time.

“I wanted to make DeSoto my home, but it has to be a give and take,” Al-Ghafry said.

DeSoto is a bedroom, or largely residential, community, and he felt that some residents were very vocally opposed to his development and investment goals.

“DeSoto has been great at times and challenging at times,” Al-Ghafry said. “Challenging in the sense of it’s a city that used to be a bedroom community, and change sometimes is really hard.”

That doesn’t mean he expects Lawrencians to sit back on their heels. He said he loved getting grilled at the meet-and-greet. For Al-Ghafry, listening is key to a city manager’s success.

“I want the engaged community, because how would I learn my city if I don’t have an engaged community?” he said.

Fun facts about Lawrence’s new city manager

• “Majed” is pronounced “ma-jed,” without emphasis on either syllable. “Al-Ghafry” is pronounced “al-gaff-ree.”
• Al-Ghafry immigrated to the United States from Syria when he was 17 years old. He said his dad taught him to always work hard.
• He played college soccer.
• His desert island book is the Quran. “I’m a Muslim by religion,” he said. “… I read the Quran. It’s a beautiful book that teaches me … all of the values that I believe in — love, tolerance, peace — despite what other media says.”
• If he could only have one breakfast for the rest of his life, it would be his youngest son’s  “killer” over easy eggs.
• When his job gives him the time, he loves cooking, planting, sports and martial arts, and quality time with the kiddos, like watching true crime shows with his daughter. He wants to learn to play guitar.

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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

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