Spring Hill’s mayor race got a little messy. We won’t know the winner for days
Spring Hill residents will have to wait to learn who their next mayor will be.
The only candidate on the ballot for mayor in Tuesday’s election was Kristin Feeback, a current City Council member. But according to the Johnson County Post, Feeback announced in July that a new job means her family will have to move from Spring Hill by May 2026, which would make her ineligible for the mayor role. Feeback became CEO of Beacon Mental Health, which is based in Kansas City’s Northland.
She has said she would not take the mayor’s seat if elected. Feeback’s announcement came too late to remove herself from the ballot, and incumbent Joe Berkey did not run for another term.
That prompted two candidates to run as write-in candidates: current City Council President Chad Young and planning commission member Rodolfo Arevalo. Voters had to write their names on the ballot to vote for them because they were not already listed.
The growing city of about 10,000 people falls in both Johnson and Miami counties. Unofficial results show that write-in candidates for mayor received 1,256 votes and Feeback received 224 votes.
But the initial results only show the number of total write-in votes cast in the election, not who received them, so it’s currently unclear how many write-in votes Young and Arevalo each received in the election and whether they received enough votes to win.
Fred Sherman, election commissioner for Johnson County, told the Star that a detailed breakdown of write-in votes will be available after county officials are finished canvassing the votes on Nov. 13.
Miami County’s canvass is scheduled for Nov. 17.
Arevalo also ran for two seats on City Council but did not win either one, according to the unofficial results. He previously told the Post that he would accept the mayor position if he won both for mayor and the council.
If Young is elected, his council seat will become vacant. He would appoint someone to fill the seat with the council’s approval.