Seat these history-making new Jackson County legislators while we wait on the courts

There is a question of whether politicians in Jackson County can serve two public agencies at once. And the legal debate over the county charter could delay the swearing in of up to four new members to the Legislature. While we wait for the courts to provide much-needed clarity, Jackson County Legislature’s first minority-majority should be seated early next month.

The potential holdup would be an affront to a free and fair election. In November, voters sent a clear and convincing message at the ballot box.

Incoming Democratic legislators Manny Abarca, Megan Marshall, DaRon McGee and Donna Peyton are four of six newcomers to the nine-member county legislature. All are Black or Hispanic and sit on area school boards in different districts. By virtue of a public vote, each earned the right to serve Jackson Countians. None can do so before resigning from their respective school board posts, outgoing legislator Crystal Williams told us. The charter prohibits legislators from simultaneously serving dual elected positions, according to the county counselor’s office.

This week in Jackson County Circuit Court, Abarca, a board member for Kansas City Public Schools, requested a restraining order asking the court to allow him to take his rightful seat while serving out his all-too-important school board term that ends in 2025. Because of inherent conflicts of interest, the entire 16th Judicial Circuit Court — in all, 29 circuit and associate judges — declined to hear the case, according to court documents. The Missouri Supreme Court appointed Clay County Circuit Court Judge Luis Angles to decide the merits of Abarca’s legal request.

In a statement, Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs explained the factors that led to the court’s recusal. The court often works closely with the county legislature on a number of matters including approval of the Court’s annual budget, Youngs wrote.

“Under the Code of Judicial Conduct, judges should recuse themselves from presiding over a matter whenever their impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” he wrote. “It was more appropriate for a judge from outside the circuit to preside over the matter.”

Under the county charter, outgoing incumbents such as Williams and Tony Miller would stay in the Legislature if newcomers failed to meet the standards set out by the charter and are forced to forfeit their legislative seats, Williams said. But if voters wanted Miller to remain in office, the results of last month’s election would have reflected that. Williams has announced her retirement.

Abarca won his county race with just over 78% of the vote. McGee, president of the Hickman Mills School District Board of Education, ran unopposed and won with just under 96% of the vote. Peyton, who won with more than 59% of the vote, will replace Williams, who did not seek reelection after 12 years in the Legislature.

Peyton, a member of the Raytown School Board of Education, plans to step down from the position, according to news reporting in The Star. Attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful. As of this week, her resignation from Raytown hadn’t been announced.

Marshall won in the general election with just over 60% of the vote. In August, the Lee’s Summit school board member, defeated Miller by a wide margin for the Democratic nod for county legislator. Miller, a longtime office holder, is opposed to any sitting school board member taking office in January while not adhering to the rules, he told The Star.

It’s not clear if the county charter precludes sitting school board members from serving on the Legislature, Abarca said. He filed legal arguments for clarity. Pending Angles’ ruling, two-thirds of the Legislature’s members seated at the start of the new year could be people of color, the first time in Jackson County history. Black and Hispanic legislators command a majority in the Legislature.

In a county where only one-third of the population is nonwhite, why object to a transition of power and put such a groundbreaking achievement in peril?