Jul 28, 2025

SHAWNEE CITY COUNCIL MEETING

July 28, 2025

You can stream the full City Council meeting at the link below! If you don't have time to watch, here's my quick recap. 

Tonight’s meeting was pretty quick with no major votes or feedback from community members. The only item of note was a brief discussion about some of the stormwater emergencies that have arisen with all the rain these past few weeks. For the water main break near Mill Valley High School, staff had hoped to complete that project in summer 2026 so as to avoid closing the road during the school year. However, the recent storms exacerbated the problem so the break needs to be repaired as soon as possible which will require them to close the road during that project. There are several other water main breaks, sinkholes, etc. which staff has prioritized and will address as soon as materials and labor are available.

Additionally, the Council considered the following:

• Passed consent agenda (unanimous)

• Approved appointments to Johnson County Department of Corrections Juvenile Corrections Advisory Board, and Community Corrections Advisory Board (unanimous)

• Amended Private Activity Revenue Bonds (IRBs) for Sunrise Capital Group Project (unanimous)

• Awarded asphalt contract for the Shawnee Mission Parkway Improvement Project from I-435 to K-7 (unanimous)

• Approved final change order for the Fire Station 71 and Fire Station 73 Facilities Upgrades Project (unanimous)

• Adopted the 2026-2035 Capital Improvement Program (unanimous)

• Set the date of August 25 for the 2026 Budget Public Hearing and Revenue Neutral Rate Public Hearing (unanimous)

• Ratified semimonthly claims (unanimous)

At Council Committee, the city manager presented the overall budget and 2025-2036 Community Improvement Plan for final discussion in committee. The council discussed reasons why the city continues to be able to remain in the black each year despite several years of deficit budgets; there are a few reasons, but a big one is that the city is not fully staffed all year so those vacancies allow us to save money. City staff has also worked hard to create a lean budget where costs increased about half as much as last year despite inflation. There wasn’t anything to vote on, but the council has not decided on a final mill levy. Councilmember Gillette has said in the past that he plans to propose another mill levy reduction, and Councilmember Whitted said that she would not feel comfortable voting for that after seeing the budget presentation tonight. The council agreed to have their discussion of the mill levy at their August 11 meeting and will hold a public hearing and vote on the final budget at their August 25 meeting. If the mill levy rate is important to you, I encourage you to sign up to speak at that meeting or submit written testimony ahead of time!

City Council Meeting: 

https://cityofshawnee.civicweb.net/document/311570/?splitscreen=true&media=true 

Council Committee Meeting:

https://cityofshawnee.civicweb.net/document/311573/?splitscreen=true&media=true 

Recap by: Alex Welch Blattner