Bridget McCandless says she’s done the ‘homework’ to be next Independence mayor
As Independence prepares to elect its next mayor on April 7, physician and City Councilmember Bridget McCandless hopes to move to the seat at the head of the dais.
McCandless beat out one previous and one current City Council member in the mayoral primary in February. She will go head-to-head with Kevin King, a union roofer and former political organizer who has never held an elected municipal office.
McCandless grew up in Independence and returned to the city as an adult to practice medicine, operating a free clinic in northern Independence for 15 years after eight years of private practice. She won a special election to join the council in 2022 after former Councilmember Karen Deluccie died of lung cancer. Deluccie had been on the city council since 2014 and had recently been re-elected at the time of her death.
Spending three years learning the ropes of City Council has helped McCandless shape a clear and practical vision for how she would lead Independence as mayor, she said.
“It takes time to both learn the city and understand processes,” McCandless said. “I’ve had experience in this arena. I would hate to be learning all of that in front of people. That would be a little overwhelming.”
McCandless believes that her detailed-oriented approach to civic issues would help her work well with city staff as mayor. If elected, she says she plans to not only re-prioritize resident outreach, but also engage other councilmembers in frequent check-in conversations to the extent that public records law permits.
“I’m someone who tries to do the homework,” McCandless said. “I have a great relationship with staff to answer questions that are technical in nature. Or sometimes you need background… really getting a sense of, okay, do you have concerns about this? How can we address those? What don’t I understand?”
‘Dedicated and agile’
If elected, McCandless plans to advance and complete several development projects currently before the Independence City Council, starting with construction work funded by the city’s first ever general obligation bond.
Independence residents were presented with three GO bond proposals at the last general election in April 2025. Voters shot down two but approved a $55 million set of improvements to local roads, bridges and sidewalks.
The city will start work on three bridges this year, which will require communication with neighbors about changing traffic patterns, McCandless said. She also plans to continue seeking a “better governance structure” for Independence Power & Light, the city-owned energy utility which will increase dramatically in capacity with the planned expansion of the Blue Valley Power Plant.
This will require a specialized knowledge of how city utilities are built, expanded and approved, McCandless said, which she feels would lend her an advantage as mayor.
“The council has to think about a million things,” McCandless said. “You know, we think about roads and bridges and potholes and somebody’s mad at their neighbor’s dog. So we have that whole spectrum. But to administer a really complex utility, you need people who think about it from a banking perspective and from a staffing perspective… we want to be able to be both dedicated and agile.”
The power plant itself, McCandless said, will not be coal-powered in its expanded form. The city recently partnered with an outside entity to pursue building several natural gas combustion turbines on-site.
Data center debacle
The power plant upgrades are linked to the incoming construction of a $150 billion artificial intelligence data center in eastern Independence, from Dutch AI services company Nebius. The 400-acre project will benefit from more than $6 billion in tax breaks, which McCandless was one of five City Council members to approve by vote last month.
McCandless said she feels that if elected, she would be in an advantageous position to hold Nebius accountable to its “covenants” to residents and the city. However, she has drawn fire from residents over her role in the council’s public support of the project.
Many Independence residents, including King, have criticized current city leadership for conceding significant tax breaks to the company. Meanwhile, McCandless has consistently touted the Nebius project and its accompanying revenue – more than $650 million over 20 years to taxing jurisdictions, plus $35-55 million annually to the city in the form of electricity taxes – as a transformational opportunity for Independence.
“I want people to realize how much thoughtfulness went into that vote,” McCandless said. “We approach this not just as what’s best for the city. We live here and we want the best things for our town, for our families as well.
“It is a hard place to be when a difference of opinion is interpreted as acrimony, when we just look at a problem from different sides.”
McCandless said that conversations with neighbors has shaped how she hopes the city can use the influx of revenue from the data center. Like opponent King, much of her campaign has centered around knocking on people’s doors and conducting “very unscientific survey(s),” McCandless said.
“It’s going to be really important that we engage the public,” McCandless said. “And as I’ve been knocking doors, the things that have come up most frequently by people who live here are retiring old bond debt, investing more in streets and bridges, parks and recreation and homelessness services.”
McCandless said she expects the city to have to wade through competing priorities, as supporters of dozens of currently underfunded civic projects jockey for a cut of the incoming windfall. The city has largely cut its public transportation programs, she said, and complaints have risen among a large cross-section of residents, along with concerns about the condition of Independence Police Department headquarters.
She believes that as mayor, she would bring a fair and informed approach to spending, triaging between both pressing and popular funding needs.
“As people get more used to the idea that we won’t be in financial desperation, they may think that there are other places to prioritize dollars,” McCandless said. “For me, I want to be sure we don’t commit to things that we can’t continue long term. It’s easy to take care of it right this minute, and it’s new and shiny, but are you also caring for it at 10, 15 and 20 years?”
Revitalizing homes and businesses
While campaigning, McCandless has been pitching strategies to fill empty storefronts around Independence.
Though the city benefits from large swaths of undeveloped land, McCandless said, several large national retail chains have pulled out of the area in recent years, destabilizing the local commercial real estate market.
“We lost JoAnn Fabrics,” McCandless said. “We lost Hooters, Bed Bath and Beyond, Toys R Us. Those things all take a toll, and they’re big spaces.”
As mayor, McCandless said she would work to “reimagine” big abandoned retail spaces by sectioning them into multiple smaller developments and using city resources to help residents launch small businesses. She hopes to continue the city’s progress on revitalizing the Hub shopping center, as well as Noland Fashion Square, a disused shopping mall that McCandless describes as “a long-standing piece of pain and suffering for our town.”
McCandless said she plans to take a social services approach to serving Independence’s homeless population, which she said has contributed to a reputation of blight in some residential areas.
Eastern Jackson County does not currently have a full-time shelter for homeless adults without children. However, McCandless said, she would be in a strong position to support transitional housing and community policing options.
“It’s not just people bringing their private money in,” McCandless said. “It’s being sure that the roads look nice for them, that we’re addressing homelessness issues, that we help folks stay in their homes if they’re seniors or disabled, so that that’s both safe and affordable for them.”
An aging Independence
Many of the social services currently available in Independence have “aged with the population,” McCandless said. As mayor, she said she would refocus on attracting and accommodating young families, as well as retaining graduates of Independence and Fort Osage schools to live in the area.
Independence is distinct from other cities in eastern Jackson County because of its age, McCandless said. At about 200 years old, Independence has a history — and a long memory — that cannot be replicated elsewhere in the county. However, she said, it also has old buildings, pipes and other utility systems that can pose unique challenges to property ownership.
“Independence has really good bones with some beautiful houses that can be rehabbed and just be delightful,” McCandless said. “So how do we reflect all of those things that a community needs? I think we’re really at the spot where we may have money to do it and a plan to do it and community interest.”
McCandless hopes to encourage younger people and newer residents to get more involved in city politics by forming an advisory council focusing on families with young children. Municipal commissions in Independence tend to attract a lot of retirees, she said, which does not always bring a diverse set of perspectives and life experiences to new city policies.
“Sometimes Independence is awful hard on itself,” McCandless said. “And it’s amazing to me how many people are choosing to move here, but the people in the city often fail to appreciate the things about our town that are great.”
But the city is on the brink of big changes, McCandless said, and she wants to be the one to usher them in.
“I really think we are on the cusp of, reinvention isn’t the right word, but perhaps reinvigoration, of our town,” McCandless said. “
