Three-way race for mayor develops among other races for city council, school board

The filing period closed Tuesday evening for candidates seeking office in the April municipal election in Lee’s Summit, where voters will be asked to decide a race between three candidates vying to become the city’s next mayor.

Voters will also make choices in contested races for city council and the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District board.

Rob Binney, a Lee’s Summit city councilman and mayor pro tem, threw his hat into the ring as a third candidate for mayor late in the filing period. Binney is a second-term council member representing District 1 on the city council.

Binney, who has also worked in real estate and banking, joins two other mayoral candidates, Bill Baird and Ron Williams. Both Baird and Williams announced their intentions to run for mayor last year.

Binney announced his intentions to seek the mayor’s office in a statement released this week. If elected, he said he will continue to look for economic and redevelopment opportunities for the city, improve the city’s infrastructure, and support public safety with facilities and equipment necessary — “all while maintaining a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers.”

“We have changed the face of development in our community and, once again, people are interested in developing and building and creating jobs here,” Binney said in a statement. “We also need to look closely to see if helping existing companies grow here can be accomplished, keeping what we have, when possible. We need to continue to make sure our community is adopting for the changing lifestyles of the baby boomers, from housing options to recreation and volunteer opportunities.”

The city’s current mayor, Randy Rhoads, has reached his term limit after being elected to consecutive terms in 2010 and 2014.

Lee’s Summit City Council seats are up for grabs in each of the four districts along with an election for a municipal judge in Division 263. All positions, including mayor, serve four-year terms.

Both seats in Lee’s Summit’s District 4 are up for election, including one for a two-year term in place of ousted council member Chris Moreno, who lost a recall election last spring.

A final candidate list provided on the city’s website also shows that the four current city council members up for re-election face challengers in their respective districts. The following candidates have filed for the following offices:

▪ Council District 1: Incumbent Diane Forte and Robert Dye

▪ Council District 2: Incumbent Trish Carlyle and John Elkin

▪ Council District 3: Incumbent Diane Seif and Jose H. “Beto” Lopez

▪ Council District 4: Donna Gordon and Bob Johnson

▪ Council District 4 (two-year term): Incumbent Fred DeMoro (appointed by Rhoads last May) and Casey Crawford

Dave Mosby, a current city council member representing District 4, will not be seeking re-election due to term limits.

Finally, Dana Altieri, the current municipal judge representing Division 243, also has filed for re-election. Altieri was elected as municipal judge of the Lee’s Summit Municipal Court in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014, according to her bio.

Voters within the Lee’s Summit School District will also get to choose two school board members on the April ballot.

A spokeswoman for the school district announced in a news release Jan. 17 that four candidates have filed for two positions on the school board. School board members in the Lee’s Summit School District serve three-year terms.

Candidates, listed in order of which they filed, are John R. Schuler, Julie A. Doane, Ryan N. Murdock, and Michael W. McMenus.

Doane currently serves as a member of the board of education.

Another current school board member who was up for election, Adam Rutherford, did not file for re-election, the news release said.

The election for city offices and school board will be held April 3.

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Three-way race for mayor develops among other races for city council, school board."