Lisa Larsen, left, and Shannon Reid, right

Two current commissioners – one a Douglas County commissioner and the other a Lawrence city commissioner – are running against each other in the Democratic primary for Douglas County Commission District 2.

The two candidates are incumbent Douglas County Commissioner Shannon Reid, who was elected in 2020, and Lawrence City Commissioner Lisa Larsen, who has served on the City Commission since 2015. Whichever one wins will be running unopposed in the general election in Douglas County District 2, which includes North Lawrence, the eastern Lawrence area around downtown, Grant Township and the portion of Wakarusa Township north of Lawrence.

Lisa Larsen

Larsen has a background as an environmental geologist, a business owner, a city commissioner and previous mayor of Lawrence. She is also a Kansas Supreme Court-approved mediator and one of the founders of a nonprofit center for conflict resolution, Building Peace. With her experience, Larsen said she wants to be a commissioner who shows up, listens to and learns from the community.

“I realize that I don’t have all the answers, and the county commission needs people who are willing to question and learn,” Larsen told the Journal-World.

She has made it a priority to meet with members of the public to inform the decisions she makes on the public’s behalf. In her conflict resolution work, she has dealt with restorative justice issues involving youth in the court system and tenant/landlord mediation to keep people housed and their evictions off-record.

Regarding renewable energy initiatives, Larsen said that in her experience, community members have been in support of these projects. However, she thinks these new ideas need to be addressed through the lens of the city-county comprehensive plan, Plan 2040. The plan’s goals include improving quality of life in urban and rural areas, preserving community heritage and character, and creating unique places to live and work. Renewable energy is not mentioned once in Plan 2040, Larsen said.

In a response to a Journal-World questionnaire, Larsen said an issue Douglas County needed to focus on was lowering property taxes.

“The county commission has spent years transferring millions of leftover dollars from budgeted funds to non budgeted funds,” Larsen said. “These transferred dollars are an indication that the county’s property taxes are too high.”

Shannon Reid

Reid, the only incumbent county commissioner to face a primary challenger this year, works as a court advocate for victims of domestic violence at The Willow Domestic Violence Center. She told the Journal-World that her career in social services and the education she has received in systems comes from growing up in poverty in Lawrence.

If Reid is reelected, she said, she will prioritize efforts to increase equity, access and opportunity across the community. She says it’s a core responsibility of the county government to help people access resources, whether those are emergency services, courts, housing or public health.

“All of those resources are also supported by a healthier natural environment, managed responsibly through robust land use regulations and (prioritize) protecting our ecology alongside our population,” Reid said.

According to Reid, when it comes to renewable energy projects and resources, there is no right number that could or should operate in Douglas County. Reid said that although renewable energy projects provide good growth opportunities for the community as a whole, she would aim for fair and open processes that help the community weigh both the potential harms and benefits of each unique proposal.

In a response to a Journal-World questionnaire, Reid said she’s proud of the progress made by Douglas County, and that the county could still do better in some areas.

“I’m invested in helping the county engage with the community more on solutions to critical issues of housing, treatment and resource access, issues that so many of our residents face barriers around,” Reid said.