It arrived with a thud, but it wasn’t exactly unexpected. I’m talking about the other shoe dropping on Jeremy Farmer and his troubled tenure at Just Food.

I think for weeks now it has been clear to many folks in Lawrence that there was more bad news to come from Just Food and what it would find about its former executive director. After several weeks of seeking more information and records from Just Food, the the Journal-World learned Wednesday that Just Food’s investigation alleges that Farmer overpaid himself by more than $52,000 over a two-year period, among other misdeeds.

Now, the question becomes whether there are more shoes to drop. An organization that surely has that question on its mind is Lawrence City Hall. Farmer, of course, was a city commissioner and, at the time of his resignation in August, was the city’s mayor.

I asked Mayor Mike Amyx on Wednesday whether he thought the new allegations against Farmer should cause the city to conduct its own inquiry to assure everyone that Farmer was not misusing his public office. Amyx told me it was an issue he wanted to discuss with City Hall staff, but that he would provide me an answer.

It will be an interesting decision. The city already has reviewed Farmer’s city expense account and credit card information. It requested and received about $1,100 in reimbursements from Farmer for expenses that staff deemed were not part of city business. But is there more to look at? Let me be clear: I’m confident the financial checks and balances that exist at Lawrence City Hall are much more significant than what existed at Just Food. But are the worries about Jeremy Farmer confined to just how he deals with other people’s money? Should the city look at the much broader issue of whether there was an abuse of power by Farmer?

I don’t have any particular instances to report, but I think it is fair to raise the question at this point. If allegations made by Just Food are proven to be true — and that still needs to happen — then it is clear that Lawrence’s one-time mayor and city commissioner was devious and unscrupulous. Unfortunately you don’t have to look very far — see the vote buying scheme in Junction City — to see the damage devious and unscrupulous elected officials can do.

That will create concerns for Lawrence residents, who already made it clear that they believed the previous City Commission had broken some issues of trust as it related to the no-bid work at Rock Chalk Park, and with other issues.

What can the city feasibly examine at this point, though? That may be a tough one. The city could review all of Farmer’s official emails on his city account. Unfortunately, I believe a lot of city business is conducted on the private email accounts of commissioners.

The city could look at the point where Just Food came before the City Commission for items. Those instances weren’t numerous, but there were some.

Was Farmer unduly involved in the recommendation of any contracts awarded by the city? I’m not saying that he was, but the city awards a lot of contracts not through a straight-bid process but rather through a request-for-proposals process that gives the city leeway in what firms it chooses.

Perhaps the most important thing the city could do is to make it clear that it wants to know about any concerns related to Farmer and how he used his power as a city commissioner. I think it is particularly important to send that message to city employees. The rank-and-file employees who do the day-in-day-out work of running the city see an awful lot. I do believe city leaders try to promote a culture where employees are expected to come forward anytime they see something that raises a red flag. But, let’s face it, it can be difficult to tell that type of news to your boss. City officials may want to consider creating a system that makes that easier in this case. And, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t mention this: If city employees don’t feel comfortable telling their bosses, they can sure tell me.

There are probably other things the city can do to ensure that it knows the truth about Farmer and his tenure on the commission. The good news is the city has its own performance auditor. Auditors across the country have had to conduct these types of reviews in the past, so Lawrence wouldn’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Perhaps city leaders will find that there is no reason to look further into Farmer and his time on the commission. But given that many of us have been burned by Farmer, it would be foolhardy to not have the conversation.

• A quick note to clear up a rumor. There certainly have been statements made on social media that the approximately $1,100 in checks that Farmer wrote to reimburse the city for his improper usage of city credit cards bounced. That’s not accurate.

I checked with interim City Manager Diane Stoddard about that topic in mid-August, shortly after Farmer resigned. She sent me an email on Aug. 18 confirming that the checks had cleared the bank and that the city had been reimbursed. Stoddard confirmed to me again today that the checks have cleared.

• The work to find a replacement for Farmer’s seat on the commission really gets rolling tonight. The advisory board that is helping the City Commission review the 14 applicants for the vacant position meets at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

The city has released information about how that meeting will proceed. Basically, the 12-member committee will spend some time discussing any extra letters of reference that some candidates have submitted. Then, each committee member will be asked to disclose his or her top four to six applicants, then explain his or her rationale for the ratings.

Once that part of the process is done, the advisory board members will be asked to complete a written ballot where they will select up to 12 semi-finalists. That process means there could be fewer than 12 semi-finalists. City Attorney Toni Wheeler and Senior Assistant City Attorney Randy Larkin will tabulate the votes. State Rep. Boog Highberger, who also is a member of the advisory committee, will monitor the vote tabulation.

The semi-finalists then will be announced, and they will move on to a public forum that will be hosted by the advisory committee and the Voter Education Coalition on Sept. 24. At the conclusion of the Sept. 24 forum, the advisory committee will recommend six names for the City Commission to consider.

Ultimately, the successful candidate must win a majority vote from the City Commission. City commissioners will hold a special meeting on Oct. 1 to interview the finalists. Commissioners are scheduled to select a successor at their Oct. 6 meeting.