photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Mike Courtney, left, and Kristine Polian, right, are pictured on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.

Two new commissioners will take their seats and a new mayor and vice mayor will be chosen at the Lawrence City Commission’s meeting on Tuesday.

The incoming city commissioners are Mike Courtney and Kristine Polian, the top two finishers in the November general election. They will be replacing outgoing commissioners Bart Littlejohn, who finished fourth in the election, and Lisa Larsen, who did not seek reelection.

Once the new commissioners are seated, the commission will choose a mayor and vice mayor from among its members.

Traditionally, these are chosen based on general election results and who was vice mayor in the past year. If the pattern continues, current Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei would become mayor, and Courtney would become vice mayor. Finkeldei has served as mayor once before.

The swearing in and mayor and vice mayor elections will take place near the end of the meeting, and there are no regular agenda items to be discussed. After the meeting concludes, there will be a reception for the outgoing and new commissioners.

In other business, the commission will:

• Consider approving the Unmistakable Events Grant award recommendations for 2026. The recommendations for the grants, which are funded through the city’s tax on hotel stays, were made by an ad-hoc panel of volunteers, and $150,000 is available to distribute this year.

Twenty-three events are recommended for funding, many of them long-running events such as Art in the Park, the Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships, the Lawrence Busker Festival, the Old Fashioned Christmas Parade and the Free State Festival. The largest of the grants are around $11,000, and more than half of the grants are for $7,500 or less.

• Consider changing the start date for an additional 2% sales tax in the Turnhalle Community Improvement District. The sales tax district was approved in 2024 as part of a package of incentives for the redevelopment of the Turnhalle building at 900 Rhode Island St.

The tax was originally scheduled to start on Jan. 1, 2026, but since the project has not been completed yet, the commission will consider pushing it back to Jan. 1, 2028.

• Consider authorizing the city to sell surplus empty fiber conduits to Google Fiber. The empty conduits are located along Bob Billings Parkway, Kasold Drive, Ninth Street, 19th Street and 31st Street. Staff recommends selling the empty conduits for $257,070.

• Receive a request to annex roughly 63 acres of land just northwest of Lawrence. The properties are at 1008 North 1700 Road and 1032 North 1700 Road, a couple of blocks north of Sixth Street and east of Rock Chalk Park.

All of these items are on the City Commission’s consent agenda, which is a group of items that the commission can vote on in a single motion. The commission meets at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.