Save Prairie Village

09/06/2024

08/06/2024

Johnson County mayor responded to attempted ouster. It’s now reason for new recall push

02/06/2024

Another Council Policy not followed by the mayor:

II.A. To establish a uniform policy for bid solicitation, purchase order system, and approval of change orders. This policy is intended to provide a method for the most prudent and effective expenditure of City funds and for maximum protection of the taxpayer.

V.A.1. Purchasing … A commodity or SERVICE should be obtained at the lowest cost possible consistent with the quality
required to maintain efficient operations of city department

V.B. 3. B. Bids from a minimum of three (3) vendors will be taken for any singular item purchased for the following
amounts and by the following method:
***
Informal written price quotes will be required for any singular item costing $10,000 or more, but less than
$20,000.

4. For any singular item costing $20,000 or more, bids must be solicited by a notice in the paper and
sealed bids will be received and opened by the City Clerk. [They’ll argue ‘singular item’.]

02/06/2024

The City did not follow its own City Council Policy hiring Shockey Consulting Services. Hiring and payment of Shockey violated Section V.C. Of Council Policy CP015 in that it was not screened, selected and recommended by the Standing Committer to the City Council for its approval. As a result such hiring was never on the City Council Agenda, thus a missed public notice and opportunity for residents to see what’s going on in their City.

02/06/2024

01/06/2024

Link to updated information:

Thanks to each and every one of you who have shown up at our city park signature gathering! We had hundreds of concerned PV citizens show up recently, ask questions, and sign the petition that allows a vote of the people on whether to recall the mayor. Signing the petition only allows a vote, it doe...

27/05/2024

We need to address an incident at yesterday's Mayor recall signature gathering event in Porter Park. Ward 2 PV Council Member, Ron Nelson, walked up to the tables while recording for the sole purpose of harassing and intimidating not only the signature gatherers but the residents of Prairie Village who were present. He threatened us with defamation lawsuits and informed us that we "better have some deep pockets". We all realize that Mr. Nelson is a strong supporter of the Mayor. However, this is how juvenile schoolyard bullies act and reprehensible for a representative of our city. Where this gets complicated is that Ron Nelson photographed/videoed the signature pages, up close and in detail, and we're looking into possible First Amendment rights violations. For a council member who is known as an extremist on social media, his actions here crossed the line. If you were a resident who also happened to be there and experienced Ron Nelson's actions we've been asked to have you reach back out to us.

24/05/2024

Media (JCP) asking for details and a response at the bottom to their 5/25 story AFTER having the facts: Here are just a few of the documents (images attached) showing that the PR team working with you (Johnson County Post) on your recall stories about the Mayor last year actually consisted of Shockey Consulting and its PR partner, Nancy Mays, both of whom were paid with taxpayer funds. City staff are copied on some of these emails, too. Likely without your (JCP Reporter, Julianna Garcia) knowledge, you had a front row seat to the facts underlying the current recall efforts. To the extent these same PR consultants (or any PR consultants) are working with you on your current story, it might be relevant to ask who is paying the fee—is it Mikkelson and any campaign committee he may have formed, is it the city itself, or is it some third party that has stepped in to support Mikkelson? Or are city staff actively engaged in the anti-recall effort? We would certainly like to find that out ourselves.
The recall petition does not state that there was a “public response” on June 7, 2023; rather, it states that consultants were “used” on that date for a public response. You will see that in the email chain, the mayor suggests using Shockey to craft the public response in advance, and Wes Jordan, a taxpayer-paid city employee, on that same date follows through by contacting Shockey about talking points that could be used in the response.

There may well be additional evidence backing this up, but the people with that evidence are Shockey, Wes Jordan, the mayor, and the city. They would be great sources of information. For example, are there notes of the meetings or phone calls? How about the follow-up meeting referenced for the next day, June 8? Were there discussions before this?

Various citizens have also requested that information from the city and major productions of emails have apparently been made by the city. The point is this: the city is necessarily going to be the source for all of this information, and I think these are great questions for the local media to be asking the city. Cutting through the city’s PR operation to get to the underlying facts would be a great project for reporters.

Regarding the Johnson County Post article on 5/24/24 regarding the recall: I reviewed your article this morning on the Johnson County Post website. It doesn’t report the facts and reads like a hit piece on the recall campaign.

To take just one example, it casts aspersions on the three members of the recall committee for failing to provide information themselves, rather than through me; by then refusing to report the information I quickly turned around to you on their behalf, it strongly implies that no such information exists. As you know, they referred you to me so that I could provide you information, and then, acting on that referral, I provided you that information by email very quickly. By using some of my comments but ignoring what I provided you, you left your readers with the false impression that there is no factual basis for the petitioners’ allegations. I can’t believe that this was a mere oversight. You printed the recall target’s specific denials and reasoning, but you buried the factual basis for the committee’s allegations.

In my experience in this market and around the country, it is also highly unusual for a reporter to refuse an attorney’s request to speak solely on background as an initial step. I understand that you have a professional obligation to get as much on the record as you can, but your refusal to speak on background out of the gate is out of the ordinary. I appreciated that you then stated your four questions for me so that I could have an opportunity to review them. As I suspected by the way you framed those questions, the angle of the story—the very first one on this recall—was pre-set. It was to subtly mock the petitioners and falsely imply that they were not diligent, rather than to actually report on the recall or the facts of the allegations. Had you disclosed to the readers the public records I quickly sent you establishing the basis for the allegations, it would have destroyed the narrative you were trying to build.

This conduct is disappointing. If this will be your publication’s approach to this campaign, it’s hard to recommend that anyone communicate with you in the future. If your plan is to simply work with the elected officials and their PR consultants to help them package their narrative, it will fall to other members of the media to actually investigate and report on the facts.

23/05/2024

***PV Mayor RECALL EVENT***
This Saturday, 5/25, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm at PORTER PARK
Read for yourself at the signature gathering what the city, the mayor and his small number of social media supporters (some paid and others outside of our city) say don't exist and are 'lies'. Ask the city why they've stayed silent. This IS NOT about politics as they want you to believe, we are a non-partisan group. It's 100% about holding our elected officials ACCOUNTABLE for a city that we all love. Meet us at the park meet-ups and you'll see who we are. We're just like all of you, holding a wide variety of political viewpoints.

07/11/2023

ALL HANDS ON DECK to save Prairie Village!
TODAY is the day we need YOU to help keep our city the special place that it is for our children and their children. Please take the time today to visit your polling place and vote for one of these candidates who will respect your voice and what makes this city a "Perfect Village". (TEXT this to your friends and neighbors who are also concerned - YES, it is that important!)

04/11/2023

❤️

04/11/2023

Prairie Village residents in Ward 2, we need your help with the write-in candidate Edward Boersma on Nov. 7th! Help bring civility back to City Hall and elect a candidate who will bring people together and be respectful of you and your tax dollars.

30/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, our city financials are like what I imagine it would be like being in a plane with all the warning lights flashing and warning sounds blaring and everyone is sitting calmly and blissfully unaware.
Spending is up markedly, net worth has declined, and they want to build projects totaling $70M or more. Not to mention, the sizeable unfunded liability in the police pension plan increased during 2022. Collectively, way irrational or lacks any financial management. On Nov. 7th, please vote for one of these candidates who understands fiscal responsibility.

30/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, our City Council has been spending your money in record fashion. If we keep up these growth rates, under the ‘rule of 72’, we can expect our taxes to DOUBLE in 7 years. We CANNOT afford another four years of this nonsense.
NOT TO MENTION: Bonnie Limbird, Ian Graves, Piper Reimer and Inga Selders are prepared to lose our AAA rating for $70M+ pet projects and sell out our neighborhoods to developers. It’s time for change so I implore you to support these new candidates in each ward.

30/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, this is from the City's independently audited financial Statements:

Assets: DOWN $13M
Liabilities: UP $7M
Net Position: DOWN $14M

Vote for one of these candidates on Nov. 7th who understands fiscal responsibility.

28/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, Zillow ranked us their #1 searched city within the entire U.S. in 2022. Ask yourself, why does current leadership believe we need drastic zoning changes? Early voting starts today, please support one of these candidates who knows what makes Prairie Village worthy of such a ranking.

25/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, please ask yourself if this is acceptable behavior from our elected officials. Why are we seeing our current council members, some of whom are up for re-election next month (and Ciara running in Ward 5), following and condoning a very small social media page dedicated to harassing and bullying the residents of Prairie Village? A page started by a WyCo resident who was also a founding member of a group established a year ago to counter the resident-led petitions (formed by our mayor's campaign manager no less). Is this something that helps HEAL THE DIVIDE THEY CREATED?

On Nov. 7th we can bring new leaders into City Hall who respect ALL of their constituents with Terry O' Tool (ward 1), Edward Boersma (ward 2, write-in), Lori Sharp (ward 3), Tyler Agniel (ward 4), Nick Reddell (ward 5) and Kelly Wyer (ward 6). If you're not sure what ward you're in, take a look at the map here and please forward it to your friends and neighbors in Prairie Village who also might not approve of these actions by our elected leaders.

25/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, do you wonder why the rapid increase, brought to you by the CURRENT CITY COUNCIL, in property taxes continues and where that money is spent? The 39% INCREASE, IN THREE YEARS, in the portion of the budget constituting 56% of the total budget is remarkable, particularly where inflation Jan 2021 to Sept 2023 totaled 18% per Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Also, that doesn't include any potential additional taxes for TENS OF MILLIONS to be borrowed to build a new admin/PD building and possible replacement of the YMCA.
On Nov. 7th we can bring change into City Hall with Terry O' Tool (ward 1), Edward Boersma (ward 2, write-in), Lori Sharp (ward 3), Tyler Agniel (ward 4), Nick Reddell (ward 5) and Kelly Wyer (ward 6). If you're not sure what ward you're in, take a look at the map here and please forward it to your friends and neighbors in Prairie Village who are also concerned about the excessive spending!

24/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, this type of spending increase is brought to you by the same people - the incumbents - who want to bring you drastically changed zoning. On Nov. 7th we can bring change into City Hall with Terry O' Tool (ward 1), Edward Boersma (ward 2, write-in), Lori Sharp (ward 3), Tyler Agniel (ward 4), Nick Reddell (ward 5) and Kelly Wyer (ward 6). If you're not sure what ward you're in, take a look at the map here and please forward it to your friends and neighbors in Prairie Village who are also concerned about the excessive spending!

19/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, help heal the divisiveness the current city council and mayor have created in our city over the past 15 months and on Nov. 7th please vote for a candidate who will listen and work with their constituents on a comprehensive long-term housing plan that is derived from the input of YOU. Feel free to download or screen capture this image and share or text it with your family and friends who are also concerned.

10/10/2023

For the past 15 months, current Prairie Village leadership has focused on agenda-driven, city-wide, rezoning efforts instead of what really matters to residents; new height & size requirements for the rebuilds on all of the tear-down lots. On Nov. 7th vote for new leadership that will work FOR US.

03/10/2023

Prairie Village residents, our current city council voted over a year ago (unanimously, 11-0) to recommend zoning changes throughout the entire city and more recently denied us our ability to vote on the issue. They’ve disregarded, for years now, the primary concern many in the city have regarding the oversized builds within the tear-town construction trend and instead push personal agendas backed by a private organization, UCS of Johnson Country. The only winners in what they’re driving are out-of-city and state developers. Please share this picture with your friends and neighbors representing the candidates for each ward who value the city we live in and also our voices as constituents. On Nov. 7th please vote for: