After 1 week, Leavenworth mayor resigns amid controversy. New commissioner appointed
One week after Leavenworth city commissioners voted to install a mayor who did not align with the citizens’ vote and sparked local outcry, the commission reversed its decision.
Commissioner Edd Hingula, who served as mayor for the week, announced his resignation at a special session Tuesday night in Leavenworth City Hall. Commissioner Nancy Bauder then nominated Commissioner Jermaine Wilson to serve as mayor, who had been in line for the position after winning the popular vote.
After Hingula’s resignation speech, the four commissioners present unanimously voted to appoint Wilson as mayor.
“The reason I ran for commissioner in the first place was to ensure the voices of the citizens are heard and that decisions are made with their opinions, thoughts and beliefs consistently in the foreground,” Hingula said. “I will not stand in the way of the will of the people.”
Hingula will still serve as commissioner.
Citizens erupted in applause as Hingula and Wilson shook hands and switched chairs. Wilson took the gavel from Hingula’s hand and gave a speech to the overflowing crowd, which spilled into the hall and into the next room.
The new mayor celebrated his appointment after a “painful” upset that he said had left many feeling like their voices weren’t heard.
“The people need to vote, and they need to be the ones to elect their mayors,” Wilson said. “Not the city commission.”
System leaves citizens with muted voices
Operating under a commission-manager form of government, Leavenworth voters elect commissioners, who then vote on a mayor each year. While the sole power to select a mayor rests with the commission, Leavenworth commissioners typically follow the longstanding tradition of voting in the commissioner who receives the most votes by citizens during the previous year’s election.
While awaiting appointment, the commissioner with the most votes serves as mayor pro tem.
Bauder said this unwritten rule has only been broken a couple times, “years ago,” when commissioners were either unable to serve as mayor or had committed a crime.
But Leavenworth commissioners upended tradition last week after bypassing the decision of citizens from the last commission election and voting Hingula into office instead, who, Wilson told The Star, received the fewest votes.
In the previous week’s meeting, Camalla Leonhard, commissioner and outgoing mayor, announced Hingula’s name as her recommendation. Commissioners Hingula and Griff Martin both seconded.
Bauder and Wilson strongly dissented, saying they were caught off guard by the decision.
“This is disrespectful because the citizens elected me. I received the most votes,” Wilson said after the decision. “That’s uncalled for.”
Bauder said Wilson was voted in by a wide margin because of his constant service to the community. She felt the commission’s decision was an overreach of power.
“I believe in the people of Leavenworth,” she said. “I have to stand by the vote of the people that he should have been mayor this time.”
Wilson served as mayor in 2019 and added that if the people didn’t want him in office, they wouldn’t have voted for him a second time.
Leonhard defended her decision, however, saying she chose Hingula for the role because Wilson did not attend enough of the meetings. She felt Hingula assisted her more than Wilson did.
“Every time I turned around, I had Commissioner Hingula,” she said. “He was there, and I felt like he supported me.”
But Wilson told The Star he’d only missed three meetings, calling in to attend over the phone when he couldn’t be there in person. Meeting minutes on the Leavenworth City Commissioners website show Wilson was absent or not present March 8, Aug. 9, and Oct. 25. Regular meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.
Wilson also expressed concern over the way the switch was orchestrated. None of the commissioners who voted for Hingula seemed surprised, leading Wilson to question whether a meeting had been held between the three behind closed doors and in violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act.
In video of the meeting posted online, Hingula appears to read a short thank-you speech from his notes at the end of the meeting.
“There’s no way they could side with each other without having this meeting behind closed doors,” he said.
Giving voice back to voters
At Tuesday’s special session, Hingula said he’d made his decision after listening to the frustrations of the people. The upset brought forth an online petition, and many expressed discontentment with Leonhard’s recommendation.
It was a collection of those discouraged voices, Hingula said, which prompted his change of heart. He apologized to Wilson for any hurt his appointment might have caused.
“I sincerely hope that with the election of a new mayor, we can work together to put this behind us and do what is best for our community,” Hingula said.
Wilson thanked Hingula for resigning and urged the community to stay positive and work toward unity despite the current setbacks. He added that he now sees the situation as necessary, saying it helped “shine a light” on needed changes in Leavenworth’s government.
“You don’t just take a vote away from the people because you feel a certain type of way about a person,” Wilson said in an interview with The Star.
He expressed desire to start a petition to allow citizens to directly vote on who will become mayor, adding there’s not one circulating yet.
Leonhard, who voiced displeasure of Wilson’s attendance record, was a no-show at the meeting.
Wilson and Bauder said they weren’t sure where she was.