The Kansas City Star’s endorsements in the Overland Park ward races | Opinion

Editor’s note: Our Elections Recommendations page gathers all our endorsements. Catch up on any you missed here.

Overland Park can be a paradox. It is a great place to live, making it attractive to newcomers, but its rapid growth can be a burden to residents who like the city the way it is. And officials boast about the city’s low property tax rates, but rising home valuations mean that residents can still feel the pinch.

The candidates for Overland Park City Council will have to navigate those paradoxes.

Logan Heley, the incumbent in Ward 1, and Josh Beck, a newcomer in Ward 6, are running unopposed. But four other races are contested. These are our endorsements in the Nov. 4 general election.

Ward 2

Ward 2 spans Overland Park, with rough boundaries of 87th Street in the north and 103rd Street on the south side. (You can see the ward map here.) Incumbent Melissa Cheatham is running for her second term against challenger Sydney A. Marsden.

Marsden, 28, is a paramedic, educator and dispatcher, and a critic of a city budget she says has outpaced the race of inflation. She opposes a Royals move to Overland Park, and says Overland Park is short on law enforcement manpower. “What needs to be done is regulate our spending,” she wrote in response to a survey from The Kansas City Star Editorial Board. “No more pricing people out of their homes. Period.”

However, we endorse Cheatham, 41, who has proven an effective council member during her first term. Of particular note: She was one of the primary backers of Overland Park’s property tax rebate plan, which offers givebacks of up to 75% to low-income homeowners who meet eligibility requirements. The rebate, she said in her survey response, “targeted relief for those who need it most, while sustaining the services residents count on.” That’s what you want in a council member.

Ward 3

Ward 3 also covers Overland Park from east to west, roughly bordered by 103rd Street on the north and on 119th Street in the south. Candidates Amy Scrivner and Tom Carignan are vying for the open seat. Both appear to be good choices with a wealth of leadership experience.

Carignan, a 50-year-old commercial banker, isn’t quite a newcomer: He served a single term on the council from 2019 to 2023 — helping steer the city through the COVID-19 pandemic — before becoming one of three incumbents swept out of office in 2023. The most important issue facing Overland Park now, he said, is maintaining the city’s high standards while keeping a tight hand on the budget. “Making the budget process more accessible is a key part of engaging residents to gauge what are the true ‘wants vs needs’ in our community,” he said in his survey response.

We endorse Scrivner, the 52-year-old director of development and communications for BikeWalkKC, if only because she has so clearly prepared for the task, offering particularly detailed answers about her preferred policies. Scrivner said she favors targeted tools to deliver property tax relief to Overland Park residents who need it most. “I’m not keen on providing more tax relief to corporations than to our residents,” she said.

Ward 4

Ward 4 sits at the city’s midpoint, mostly bounded by Pflumm and Antioch roads on the west and east, 119th and 151st streets on the north and south. Scott Mosher, the incumbent, is being challenged by Amy Antrim.

Antrim, a 47-year-old real estate agent, sees affordable housing as one of the biggest issues facing Overland Park. “We should support housing, such as townhomes and duplexes, by simplifying codes and processes,” she said in her survey response, adding that “thoughtful use of the southern city will be key to maintaining opportunity as land for new housing becomes scarce.”

Mosher, 71, gets our endorsement. That is because he might be the candidate — in the entire field — with the strongest commitment to holding the line on property taxes, advocating for a revenue-neutral budget during the council’s most recent budgeting process. “There is no need to keep raising taxes, as we keep adding to the rainy-day fund,” he said in response to the Star survey. “We should not raise the mill levy, and we should stop taxing on appraised values. A tax is a tax, money out of the pocket.”

Ward 5

Ward 5 sits to the east of Ward 4, extending a bit further south to 167th Street. Andrew Payne and Alexandria Washington are both running for the open seat. Both bring strong backgrounds in civic involvement, including roles in developing Overland Park’s FrameworkOP comprehensive plan. Either would be a good choice.

Washington, 38, is director of operations for a financial firm. She brings a commitment to council transparency to her candidacy. “I believe the city can do a better job of communicating clearly with residents about development projects, timelines, and impacts,” she said, “while also listening to concerns before decisions are finalized.”

Payne, 41, a corporate attorney, gets our nod, though, because he gets into specifics about the competing demands on City Hall to provide great services while keeping taxes low. “The balance is this: Roughly 70% of our city budget goes to the people we count on like police officers, firefighters, and the crews who maintain our streets and sidewalks,” he said in his survey response. While rising home valuations shouldn’t be seen as a “blank check” to the city budget, “I don’t want to see those core services cut, because they are the basics that make Overland Park a premier city.”