The filing deadline has come and passed for folks to file (or withdraw) from city elections this year.
Shawnee has two currently sitting city council members who will not be returning after the election and when the new members are sworn in.
Matt Zimmerman (Ward I) apparently chose not to run again. Lindsey Constance (Ward IV) originally filed to run again, but then withdrew from the race at the last possible moment. Kevin Makalous filed at the last minute to run. Was this planned ahead? And if so, for how long?
Seeing Zimmerman and Constance departing from the council leads me to say "No big loss!!".
Did these two read the handwriting on the wall? Did they realize that their actions made them prime targets for the voters to tell them to kiss off and not return to office?
Both of them were strong proponents of the failed community center project. They apparently didn't care that they were proposing a plan that was going to stick it to the citizens of Shawnee. A whopping 72% of the voting public told them they were nuts. The project went down in flames at the ballot box.
They also voted last year, at the beginning of the Covid crisis to give our neophyte city manager an approximate 25% salary raise (about $40,000). Gee, what kind of compensation increases did the real workers of the city get?
Then these two also voted for the monster five story apartment building on King Street (the location of the former Wonderscope). Fortunately that project did not make it. That brings up another question that only three people can answer, Constance, the mayor and the city manager. The vote for that project kept getting delayed until after last year's state senate election, which Constance lost to Mike Thompson. Was the vote on the project delayed so that her "yes" vote would not cost her votes in Ward II for her senate run? Anyway, looks like the folks in that area smelled where she was coming from and did not like the odor.
Now my concern is that being lame ducks what garbage will these two try to foster on the city knowing that they won't be held accountable? My guess is that Constance in particular might try for another office down the road. Especially since she is trying to be the local area's version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
