Subcommittee created to select Lawrence mayor for remainder of 2016

City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.

Lawrence won’t know for several more weeks who its mayor will be for the rest of the year.

The Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to create a subcommittee comprised of commissioners Lisa Larsen and Matthew Herbert to decide how mayoral terms will run from now on. Because the Kansas Legislature passed a bill in 2015 moving city elections from April of odd years to November of odd years, the commission needs to decide whether its tradition of electing a mayor every April should stand.

Lawrence’s city attorney is recommending the mayoral election fall in line with the change, meaning a new mayor would be seated the second week of January, when new commissions will start.

The change could mean one commissioner could get a longer-than-normal mayoral term. Herbert and Larsen will decide if it should be current Mayor Mike Amyx or Vice Mayor Leslie Soden.

Herbert and Larsen were chosen for the subcommittee because, based on how mayors are traditionally selected, neither is likely to hold that title before their terms end in 2017.

Amyx said the two would be in charge of “setting a new tradition.”

“Don’t try to tie in a name, take it out of the equation,” Amyx told them. “Just think dates on a calendar.”

Herbert’s and Larsen’s recommendation will be brought before the City Commission in three to four weeks, they estimated.