In JoCo city feuding over housing, voters to decide on abandoning form of government
Prairie Village residents in November will get to vote on whether to abandon the city’s mayor-council form of government, a Johnson County judge ruled Wednesday.
But if that were to pass, nothing would change, according to the city’s legal counsel. City Attorney David Waters said state law requires a city’s form of government to remain in place until a new one is adopted.
It’s a complicated next step in a protracted political battle in the northeast Johnson County suburb, where a group of homeowners has sought to restructure the city government, limit mayoral powers and cut the number of City Council seats in half. The group, PV United, which formed to oppose the city’s affordable housing initiatives, submitted three ballot initiatives last month.
Johnson County District Court Judge Rhonda Mason on Wednesday threw out two of those petitions, saying they did not meet legal standards to be placed on the November ballot. One petition would have restricted rezoning, while the other would have adopted a new form of government with weaker mayoral powers and only six council members, opposed to the current 12. Half of the council would have been ejected midterm, which some called unconstitutional.
Only the third petition can be placed on the ballot on Nov. 7, the judge ruled. Prairie Village voters will get to decide whether to abandon the current form of government. But without voters deciding on a new form of government to replace it, the city’s legal counsel says that the current form would remain in place, essentially making the vote moot for now.
Attorney Joseph Hatley, representing the city, said residents would need to bring forward another petition before the next election to actually restructure the city government.
“The form of government that’s currently in place remains indefinitely regardless of what happens in November on this abandonment question,” Hatley told The Star after the judge’s oral ruling on Wednesday morning.
In a statement, resident Dan Schoepf, with PV United, said the group plans to appeal the judge’s ruling “in the hopes of giving the people of Prairie Village the vote they deserve on these important issues.”
“Our state has a citizen petition process so everyday people can make their voices heard when government refuses to listen,” Schoepf said. “It is terribly disappointing to see the City Council throw up technical roadblocks in court to thwart these petitions and silence the thousands of citizens who have participated in the process at the grassroots level.”
Schoepf added that regardless of the outcome on the petitions, “voters will at least have the chance to elect six City Council members in November who share their vision for preserving what makes Prairie Village unique.”
The judge’s expedited ruling came before a deadline to have the petitions placed on the November ballot. It followed two hearings last week, where both legal counsel for Prairie Village and an attorney representing PV United argued their positions.
Mason said she will file a longer written ruling, detailing her decision, later this week.
PV United, made up of residents, former council members and candidates, organized over the past year to oppose the city’s efforts to amend zoning laws to allow for more duplexes, apartments and other affordable housing options. Another faction of residents, Prairie Village for All, formed to support the city’s plans and push for more affordable housing in the city where average home prices topped $536,000 last year.
But the opposition group has now turned its sights on removing council members and limiting the mayor’s powers.
Hatley argued during last week’s hearings that due to several legal and practical flaws, the group’s petitions would result in “chaos” if voters were to approve them.
“We would have an absolute mess on our hands,” Hatley told the judge.
Attorney Rex Sharp, who represents the homeowners and is husband of council candidate Lori Sharp, argued that the petitions are legal, saying the city, “can make arguments all they want, as to we need a big council, we need a strong mayor. … But what they can’t do is prevent the people from voting.”
Johnson County’s legal counsel determined this spring that the group’s petitions failed to meet several requirements. But after collecting enough signatures, the group submitted them to the city and county election office last month.
Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman completed a review of the petitions, determining that they each had enough valid signatures. But Sherman did not rule whether the initiatives met other legal requirements to be brought to voters this fall.
Rather than city leaders making that decision, the city filed the suit in Johnson County District Court last month, seeking a judgment on whether the petitions comply with state law.
One petition would have changed the city’s definition of rezoning and restrict ordinances that would allow for dwellings with more than one family living on a single-family lot. Sherman determined that 3,213 signatures were valid on that petition.
But the judge sided with the city’s argument that the proposal is an administrative ordinance, which cannot be adopted through a petition process under state law. The city argued that the ordinance “intrudes into areas of the city’s government that require specialized training and experience” and adopts a new definition of “rezoning” that would impact many other city matters and place other city regulations in “conflicts with federal and Kansas law.”
Another petition would have established a mayor-council-city manager form of government, cutting the number of council seats in half and removing all of the members elected in 2021. But the judge ruled that petition did not meet the legal requirements, including that the petition did not establish terms of office.
The initiative states that the “currently elected at large Mayor shall serve two year terms.” Hatley previously argued the petition does not comply with state law because it does not establish the terms of office for future mayors.
But the judge ruled that the third petition, abandoning the city’s mayor-council form of government, did meet legal requirements, so will go to a vote.
The petitions regarding the restructuring of the city government both had more than 2,000 valid signatures, according to the election office.
Hatley said that the council will not need to take any further action, so the petition should appear on the ballot as it is written. But that vote, he said, essentially would have no effect on the government, other than sending a message to city leaders.
This story was originally published September 6, 2023 at 1:22 PM.
