Following Lawrence voters’ rejection of a form of government change, city commissioners on Tuesday will select a new mayor and vice mayor.
Typically, following a city election — held in odd years — commissioners choose the person who received the most votes as the vice mayor, and the following year, the person who received the second most votes is chosen as the new vice mayor while the vice mayor advances to mayor.
Mike Dever received the most votes in the 2023 election, and he was selected to be vice mayor for 2024. If tradition holds, based on the 2023 election results, Dever will be selected as mayor for 2025, with Brad Finkeldei as vice mayor.
The mayor position does not differ strongly from the rest of the commission positions but includes a few extra duties — essentially, presiding over commission meetings and representing the city in ceremonial roles and in intergovernmental relations. The mayor also votes on all agenda items, just like the rest of the commissioners.
Commissioners do not have to follow the tradition — any one of them can be nominated or self-nominate to be mayor of vice mayor — but they typically have in recent memory.
Current Mayor Bart Littlejohn will also give parting remarks before he returns to the role of commissioner.
Voters on Nov. 5 rejected a change to the form of government. Had the change been approved, voters would have begun directly electing a nonvoting mayor to a four-year term, among other changes. The vote was about 51-49 against the change.
The Lawrence City Commission will meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3 at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.
Meetings are open to the public, broadcast on Midco channel 25 and livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/@lawrenceksvideo. See the complete meeting agenda at this link.
The commission accepts written public comment until noon the day of the meeting emailed to ccagendas@lawrenceks.org. The commission hears public comment in person during meetings as well as via Zoom. Register for Tuesday’s Zoom meeting at this link.
In other business, as part of their consent agenda (a list of items that are generally considered routine and approved with one motion), commissioners will consider amending an agreement with the Lawrence Community Shelter to give LCS an additional $756,550 to expand its capacity. Read more about that at this link.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
