photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Lawrence Mayor Bart Littlejohn is pictured outside City Hall Friday, Dec. 8, 2023.

When Bart Littlejohn was growing up, his father often shared a particular piece of advice: “When you’re first, or when you’re in the forefront, you have a lot of pressure.”

That pressure is earned, Littlejohn’s father said, because people have recognized that you’ve done a good job. They’ve seen you, and they’ve put you in a position to determine your own future. Littlejohn is certainly in the forefront now that his peers on the Lawrence City Commission have made him the city’s newest mayor, about two years on from when he was first elected.

His father’s advice has applied in more ways than one since then. Littlejohn, along with fellow City Commissioner Amber Sellers, is possibly one of the first Black commissioners elected in Lawrence in more than 100 years, and city staff told the Journal-World that though they’re unable to confirm definitively, it’s also likely that Littlejohn is the City of Lawrence’s first Black mayor.

Littlejohn spoke Friday with the Journal-World about his recent mayoral appointment, and he said the significance of that role isn’t lost on him. But it’s also a reminder that there are many other community members who deserve a chance to be a voice in local government, people for whom he’s hoping to leave “fertile ground” in his wake.

“(A hundred years is) a hell of a gap — that’s an embarrassing gap, quite frankly,” Littlejohn told the Journal-World. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m utterly grateful that people saw in Commissioner Sellers and myself that we had things to contribute to the commission, to provide perspective and a bit of depth to the commission, I’m utterly grateful for that. But I think there are other folks in the community … that can provide that sort of expertise or contribute, as well.”

Taking the lead

Littlejohn is the former chair of the Pinkney Neighborhood Association, and he was serving as the chair of Lawrence’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and as a member of the Douglas County Community Health Plan Steering Committee when he first ran for election in 2021. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in political science, works as a marketing manager at research equipment company Pinnacle Technology and has now lived in Lawrence for nearly three decades. He and his wife have a young son.

Littlejohn’s decision to run for office came from a budding desire to help the community more and more. On top of his involvement on volunteer boards and commissions, he was also involved with Junior Achievement of Lawrence and the Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee. Getting involved to that extent usually means becoming someone whom others look to when seeking another willing hand, he said.

“I’m not one of those folks (who) run just to run; I’m running to actually accomplish something,” Littlejohn said. “A part of my platform going in was economic development, housing, houselessness, working on those social issues that had become so prevalent. Equity and things of that sort, especially coming out of the pandemic and things like George Floyd, a lot of people asking really, really good questions about how we’ve done things before and how we can do things better.”

Setting goals

After becoming mayor last Tuesday, Littlejohn mentioned a few areas in which the city is making progress but still has some work ahead, including investing in infrastructure improvements, adding more housing and addressing homelessness. He brought those issues up again when asked about his goals for the coming year.

Much like he did Tuesday, Littlejohn said addressing homelessness, in particular, would be helped by the city and Douglas County’s collaborative “A Place for Everyone” plan.

“I think that kind of bicameral nature and that way of addressing the problem would only serve to benefit us,” Littlejohn said. “As a city, we know we’re good at certain things, and the county (knows it’s) good at certain things. The thing that heartens me is that we’re actually at the table talking to each other, because that wasn’t necessarily the case a couple years ago.”

Beyond those issues, which have been especially prevalent subjects of discussion among community leaders lately, Littlejohn said he’s hoping to steer the commission toward addressing economic development during his mayorship.

The $4 billion Panasonic battery plant coming to nearby De Soto is perhaps the most prominent development on that topic, but it’s not scheduled to begin production until March 2025. That doesn’t mean there’s not work to be done sooner rather than later, though — Littlejohn said the city should be working now to put itself into a position to take advantage of the changes that will be coming to the area in the next few years.

“They’re ramping up, and they’re aggressive in their schedule to go ahead and open that plant,” Littlejohn said. “And when it opens, it’s going to be its own well of gravity to pull a lot of things toward.”

But he said it will also be important to take steps on bolstering economic development in areas that aren’t as grand in scale, like retaining KU and Haskell Indian Nations University graduates to add to the city’s workforce and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs. Littlejohn said his role would be about balancing the city’s short-term and long-term interests and goals.

A new role

Littlejohn has a few past experiences that he believes will go a long way in helping him with the transition of presiding over City Commission meetings. For one, he already did that on a regular basis when he was chairing advisory boards. But Littlejohn said the less frequent instances during the past year that he’s served as vice mayor have been just as instructive.

“I think last year I had the opportunity to preside over a couple meetings, so I think that was pretty helpful just to kind of get my feet wet a little bit and understand what that dynamic is like,” Littlejohn said. “I thought that was invaluable, that I had that opportunity. …The whole dynamic is different. You’re almost removed from the process; you’re participating in the process and you’re directing the meeting, but you’re also trying to run the meeting, which is a whole different area.”

Littlejohn said he’s always operated as an attentive listener and as someone who more often than not takes time to process information inwardly before making a decision. But he also said he looks forward to helping the City Commission accomplish a lot as a result of a productive meeting process.

Beyond that, being a city commissioner has taught Littlejohn a lot, such as that there’s an “unfathomable” amount of good work from city leaders, staff and community members that’s going on behind the scenes. Telling those stories about how the city is working for the community is important and unfortunately gets “drowned out” sometimes, he said.

“I’m working for the entire City of Lawrence,” Littlejohn said. “I’m working for those folks that might not necessarily have the voice, to try to fill those gaps and those interests where people might not necessarily feel that they’re being heard. I just want to let people know that we’re working for all of Lawrence, and we’re doing the best we can to make sure that Lawrence is the place to be.”