Prairie Village

Strong-Mayor Ballot Initiative

November 4th, 2025

When city government is unresponsive, Kansas citizens, by law, can put issues they’re concerned about on the ballot for a public vote through a petition process.

Prairie Village residents have successfully exercised this right recently, and now a citizen-led ballot measure will appear on your November ballot.

A “yes” vote issue on the ballot measure will lead the way to an updated form of municipal government to make our city more efficient, responsive, and consensus oriented.

A “no” vote will maintain the current strong-mayor form of government.

The Question You’ll See on Your Ballot

“Shall the City of Prairie Village, Kansas, abandon the mayor-council form of government?”

What Happens if the Question Passes

If a majority approves this first step, the City Council will then take it up the issue as outlined in Kansas statutes. While our new form of government is developed in a collaborative process with our elected officials, the city will continue to operate under the current structure.

Moving forward from the current “strong-mayor” form would allow the city to adopt a mayor-council-manager or council-manager structure.

Expected Benefits of a Modernized City Government Structure

✓  More Efficient
✓  More Balanced
✓ More Consensus-Oriented
✓  More Responsive to Residents
✓  Less Susceptible to Special Interests
✓  Less Partisanship

The Status Quo

Some recent results of the current strong-mayor approach:

  • Prairie Village has the highest property tax rate of any first-class city in Johnson County.
  • Prairie Village has the largest budgeted city expenditures per square mile in Kansas.
  • City government administrative salaries have skyrocketed.
  • Using the strong-mayor platform, the mayor has pushed highly unpopular initiatives such as:
    • A $30 million city government building project that will balloon to $50 million with interest payments over 30 years.
    • A gold-plated community center proposal with a building cost of about $55 million and total cost of $93 million with interest, which would have negatively impacted our city’s bond rating.
    • A rezoning proposal to change the character of our beautiful, single-family, residential neighborhoods.

Replacing the current system with one that balances political leadership (our elected officials) and professional management (city manager) should provide better results in budgeting and overall responsiveness to the citizens.

To read more, click here for an external article, Council-Manager or “Strong Mayor”: The Choice Is Clear.