City Commission to decide who will be mayor for the rest of 2016

In this file photo from Aug. 14, 2015, Vice Mayor Leslie Soden and City Commissioner Mike Amyx greet each other before a special commission meeting.

Because of a statewide change in how city elections are scheduled, one Lawrence city commissioner could get a longer-than-normal mayoral term. On Tuesday, the commission will decide if it should be current Mayor Mike Amyx or Vice Mayor Leslie Soden.

The commission has traditionally elected mayors in every April, meaning Mayor Mike Amyx’s term would be nearly complete. But because the Kansas Legislature passed a bill in 2015 moving city elections from April of odd-years to November of odd-years, Lawrence’s city attorney is recommending the mayoral election fall in line with the change.

Changes in terms

The new state law regarding city elections will change the terms of seated city commissioners.

• Terms for Commissioners Matthew Herbert, Lisa Larsen and Mike Amyx that would have ended in April 2017 and will now end January 2018.

• The City Commission will later be asked to vote on an ordinance when it comes to Soden’s and Boley’s terms. They were set to end in April 2019, but could be pushed to January 2020.

Commissioners will talk Tuesday about when the next mayor should take over and how long he or she should stay in the position. Lawrence voters do not directly elect the city’s mayor, who serves a one-year term. Instead, the five-member City Commission chooses a commissioner to serve in the position of mayor. Historically, that changing of the guard happens each April.

“The big thing is, traditionally we would’ve changed mayors next week,” Amyx said. “The tradition changed when the state decided to change the election schedule, so I wanted to have a commission and community discussion about it. Let’s select the time for a change and move on.”

The state’s new schedule for city elections starts in 2017. Elections will be held in November, and outgoing commissioners will remain in their positions until the newly elected City Commission is seated the second Monday in January.

The new law also allows for partisan elections, meaning candidates could file as a Democrat or a Republican, for example. Currently, candidates in City Commission elections don’t declare a party. Lawrence city commissioners, thus far, have had no discussions about switching to a partisan system.

Following city tradition, Soden, who received the most votes in the 2015 election, was named vice mayor and would become the next mayor. Commissioner Stuart Boley, who received the second-most votes in the 2015 election, would become vice mayor.

If the commission decides Tuesday to make Soden mayor sometime this month, as they would have without the schedule change, she could serve to January 2018. City Attorney Toni Wheeler is recommending that mayoral elections be held in January starting that year, as soon as the new commission is seated.

The commission could also choose to extend Amyx’s mayoral term to January 2017 to get to the January-to-January cycle.

But commissioners could decide to stick to Lawrence tradition and continue to hold mayoral elections every April.

Amyx didn’t state a preference when asked about the change Friday. Soden could not be reached for comment.

“It’s up to the governing body to decide,” Wheeler said.

The City Commission meets at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.