By Allen Dinkel
Junction City Manager
Recently a city near Junction City had a vacancy on their governing body as a member of the City Commission resigned from his seat. What is ironic is that the same city they had a similar situation last year when a member of the Commission decided to leave her position. Also, a little over a year ago a member of the Junction City governing body also resigned.
Cities are unique in that they are the only governmental unit that chooses to exist. They are cities because they want to be and not because they have to be. The City of Junction City and the City of Milford here in Geary County were incorporated in the 1850’s, but the third City in the County, Grandview Plaza was not incorporated until 1963. The oldest city of the 625 cities in Kansas is Leavenworth as it was incorporated in 1854 and the newest city in Kansas is The Highlands located north of Hutchinson when it became a city in 2017. Overland Park, which is currently the second largest city in Kansas in terms of population, was only incorporated 64 years ago. Then there is a want-to-be city called Golden in Miami County. This community wants to become a city so that they can control the urban sprawl from changing their way of life. However, in 2021 the Miami County Commission chose to not let it happen as they did not want this area of the county to have control over what development was moving into that portion of the county.
Cities in Kansas also can be unique from each other as well. There are 625 cities in Kansas ranging from the smallest with Waldron and Frederick each with a population of 9 to Wichita and their 396,192 citizens. Each city has an elected governing body and the governing body of Waldron with a mayor, and 3 council members has the ability to determine what they want to in their city just like Wichita does with its mayor and 6 council members. In 1961 the Kansas Constitution was amended to give cities Home Rule Power. This empowers cities to determine local affairs and government including the levying of taxes, fees, charges, and other actions. Some common examples of cities using Home Rule for local decisions include setting ordinances for property maintenance and code enforcement, determining local zoning areas, and creating a process for staggering governing body terms of office. Home Rule recognizes the need for local people solving local problems locally, allowing them to preserve the community’s unique identity.
Let’s get back to the filling vacancies in a governing body which I mentioned above. Last year the City of Manhattan decided to leave the position open for a few months and then the voters just elected another person to serve the remainder of that term, however this year they are choosing to appoint a person for the remainder of the unexpired term. Each of the 4 remaining city commissioners will bring a name to the next meeting and they will chose the next city commissioner. At the end of 2022, the city commission here in Junction City simply made a motion and approved choosing a person to serve the 1 year left of the term when there was a vacancy. All 3 methods were okay and in fact other cities may do it another manner. There is not one set process across the State. In contrast if a county elected official does not complete their term, there is a set process in place that is the same in every county in Kansas. Of course, county elected officials are usually a member of one of the two major political parties. Cities are non-partisan and elected officials do not claim a given party.
Junction City is the 20th largest City in Kansas of the 625 cities. Of course, 229 cities in Kansas have a population of 200 or less and 128 of these have 100 people or less. However, about 84% of all Kansas live in a city. The best is that each city can be different from the others. Each city can choose to be who and what they want to be.