Topeka ? The Topeka City Council’s choice for mayor holds a Kansas University master’s degree and says he looks forward to broadening the capital city’s tax base during his abbreviated term.

James McClinton, a state government administrator and former city council member, will serve out the term of former Mayor Butch Felker, who resigned in November while facing an ouster trial. McClinton, one of 39 applicants for the job, was elected Tuesday night by the City Council, winning on the second ballot. He got four of the nine votes on the first ballot, then picked up the additional vote he needed the second time around.

“These are uncertain times for the city,” McClinton said. “Questions have loomed about who will be mayor and where this city is going. The mayor is a part of the foundation of the city.”

McClinton, who has a master’s in public administration from Kansas University, said job growth and increasing the number of people in the middle class were important to Topeka.

“We need to broaden the tax burden,” he said. “Topeka is a wonderful place. We have a lot to offer. I think we’ve just been shy about making that known.”

McClinton, who takes office Tuesday, will serve until April 2005. He will leave his job as an administrator for the state’s Juvenile Justice Authority. He said he was considering running for mayor again in 2005.

McClinton served on the council from 1991 to 1993 and again from 1997 to 2001. Felker was elected to four-year terms as mayor in 1989, 1993 and 2001. When he resigned, he said he couldn’t afford the mounting legal expenses involved in defending himself against the ouster petition filed by Shawnee County Dist. Atty. Robert Hecht.

Hecht accused Felker of violating Kansas campaign finance laws and the public trust, and a Shawnee County District judge who heard four days of testimony in the case suspended him from office Oct. 17. As the trial on the bid to oust him drew near, Felker resigned Nov. 6.

Felker was accused of falsifying a campaign finance report from his 2001 campaign to mask questionable donations and the identities of some contributors. In July he was fined $7,500 by the state Governmental Ethics Commission.

McClinton’s candidacy was opposed by the interim head of Topeka’s YWCA, Annette Beck, who wrote to council members citing allegations that he had struck his daughter with a belt and hit her in the face and that he pushed his wife to the floor during an altercation.

McClinton responded with a letter in which he said that after his divorce in 1998 he was awarded residential custody and child support, and that his former wife “was looking for any reason she could find to get that decision over-turned. Anytime I would discipline my daughter her mother would allege abuse.”

McClinton said two companies that provided counseling for his daughter never reported any child abuse, and said the domestic battery charge was dismissed by a judge on the recommendation of the District Attorney’s office.

Beck declined comment Tuesday night. McClinton called her allegations unfounded and part of a “smear campaign.”

Councilwoman Lisa Stubbs, who voted for another candidate during both rounds of balloting, said she had questions about McClinton’s background.

“Sure, I’m concerned,” she said. But “ultimately, the city will decide 15 months from now whether that’s an important issue.

“I wish James the best of luck,” she said. “I hope he’s ready to hit the ground running.”