After stinging primary results, Independence Mayor Eileen Weir drops out of mayoral race
Independence Mayor Eileen Weir will withdraw from her reelection campaign.
The two-term mayor told the Independence Examiner on Wednesday that she would concede the race less than two months before voters go to the polls.
“It was a close primary, and it was suggested to me by some people that in order to win (in April) I would have to engage in negative campaigning,” Weir told The Examiner.
Weir did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday.
Weir, a Democrat, survived a crowded primary earlier this month. But she finished significantly behind Missouri Democratic Rep. Rory Rowland. And she was nearly knocked out of the race altogether as political newcomer Colleen Huff, a conservative, came just 106 votes shy of the incumbent.
Weir’s withdrawal comes as the city is in the middle of an investigation into potential overtime misuse. A whistleblower recently notified City Manager Zach Walker that a police officer had earned some $160,000 in overtime pay last year for completing construction work at the police department. It made the officer, Kevin Nightingale, the highest paid city employee, but city leaders say he was not authorized to do that work.
Walker has maintained that he was unaware of the practice until recently. He placed the interim police chief on leave and hired an independent investigator to examine the matter.
Last week, The Star reported that Nightingale received an award signed by Weir in 2018. He was nominated specifically for his extensive work on police department remodeling projects. Weir said she routinely signed such awards without being aware of the specific achievements of each officer.
In her primary campaign, Weir emphasized her work creating the Uptown Market farmers market. She said crime was on the decline and that the city was experiencing “tremendous economic growth and job creation,” citing expansions at Centerpoint Medical Center, Cargo Largo and Ronson Manufacturing.
But opponents painted a different picture of Missouri’s fifth-largest city, citing crime, homelessness and political corruption on Weir’s watch.
First elected mayor in 2014 and reelected in 2018, Weir over the last decade has become a respected figure in political and civic circles across the Kansas City metro area. She’s often mentioned as a future prospect for higher political office.
In her primary campaign, she received support from Independence’s powerful labor unions, Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman and the political action committee of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. Weir raised and spent more money than any other primary candidate, pumping more than $119,000 into the race. Rowland, who came in first, spent less than $5,000.
Even with her institutional backing, Weir’s tenure has been bumpy. Since at least 2019, the FBI has been asking questions about questionable city contracts in Independence.
One of the city’s most controversial projects during Weir’s tenure was the demolition of a power plant in Missouri City that Independence Power and Light was no longer using.
The Independence City Council in 2017 awarded Environmental Operations, a St. Louis company, a $9.75 million bid to tear down the plant. That was more than twice the amount in a bid from a competing firm.
Environmental Operations is owned by Stacy Hastie, a well connected player in Missouri politics. His general counsel is John Diehl, a former Missouri House speaker who resigned in 2015 after The Star revealed his relationship with a 19-year-old legislative intern.
Also in 2017, the city council voted to purchase the former Rockwood Golf Club for nearly $1 million. That decision came just months after a company called Titan Fish purchased the property for $550,000 from a firm that had owned the closed golf course for several years.
Just days before voting to purchase the golf course, Weir received more than $10,000 from political action committees funded by the company that would go on to operate the project.
Each of the PACs is also connected to the company’s lobbyist: Steve Tilley, a former Missouri lawmaker and longtime adviser to Gov. Mike Parson.
The money used to purchase the golf course came from another Tilley lobbying client, the city’s utility, Independence Power & Light.
In 2019, after other council members were questioned by federal agents, Weir told The Star she proactively contacted the FBI. She said they were not interested in speaking with her.
The FBI has not publicly commented on the case.
But the investigation continues to affect the political landscape in Independence.
Last year, investor Joe Campbell filed a defamation lawsuit against the city and two council members. Campbell owns Titan Fish, which bought the golf course property and quickly sold it for a profit to the city.
The suit stems from comments that two council members made in a Star story in March 2020. At that time, the city had received a proposal from a collection of businesses led by Titan Fish to repurpose its Blue Valley Municipal Power Generating Plant into a biofuels production facility. Tilley was also included in the proposal.
Two council members rejected the idea, citing the reported FBI investigation and previous dealings with Campbell and Tilley.
The lawsuit has moved slowly.
Though she is not a named party, Weir answered questions under oath in November about the lawsuit. Nearly two months later, her attorney asked that the deposition transcript be sealed.
With no objections at the time, the judge granted a protective order, sealing the deposition from public view.
In January, The Star filed a motion asking the judge to reverse the decision and unseal the document. In its motion, The Star argued that Weir failed to show any legal cause for sealing her deposition and says its closure is a violation of First Amendment protections.
Weir’s attorney has asked twice for extensions of time to respond to The Star’s motion. The judge has yet to rule.
Even with her announcement on Wednesday, Weir will remain on the April 5 ballot with Rowland.
“Mayor Weir deserves credit for her commitment to Independence over the years. She has demonstrated her love for our city through her years of hard work,” Rowland said in a statement Wednesday. “I hope that our city can quickly transition and start to focus on the positive changes we would like to see for our city. The voters have put a tremendous amount of trust in me to carry out reforms at City Hall, and I promise not to let them down.”
On Tuesday, before Weir’s announcement, Councilman Mike Steinmeyer launched a write-in campaign for the mayoral contest.
Steinmeyer said he was running largely because of his dissatisfaction with the city’s handling of the overtime situation. He, along with council members Mike Huff and Brice Stewart, have been calling on the council to discuss the city manager’s contract
The three attempted to meet last week to do just that, but couldn’t for lack of a quorum.
Steinmeyer noted that nearly half of the primary voters voted for someone other than Weir or Rowland.
“I’ve heard from so many who told me that we need to change,” Steinmeyer said, “and they don’t feel like they have a voice to make that happen in the general election.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 2:37 PM.
