Jun 22, 2026

SHAWNEE CITY COUNCIL MEETING

June 22, 2026

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. 

The city council meeting proper was pretty quick tonight, with little discussion on the few routine agenda items. The mayor and several councilmembers expressed appreciation to city staff, volunteers, and the Chamber of Commerce for their hard work on recent events including Moonlight Market, Americana and Ales, and Parked which is coming up this weekend.

Additionally, the Council considered the following:

• Passed consent agenda (unanimous)

• Approved contract for crossing guards and school resource officers for the 2026-27 school year (unanimous)

• Approved engineering design agreement, easement acquisition agreement, and KDOT cost sharing agreement for the 83rd St and Monticello project (unanimous)

• Approved final change order for the Shawnee Mission Parkway - Lackman to K7 Project which came in more than $700k under budget! (unanimous)

• Ratified semimonthly claims (unanimous)

During Council Committee, the committee heard routine budget presentations from the police and fire departments with no major discussion. They also heard an update from the city manager on two projects from the Capital Improvement Plan: Rail Creek Park and the Shawnee Town 1929 Visitor’s Center/Museum. Staff advised there are several ways to fund these types of projects: taking in new revenue, completely exhausting one of the city’s funds, and external grants (or a combination of those.) The governing body then discussed what they would like to potentially pursue.

Councilmember Reynolds was interested in exploring the possibility of a new sales tax to fund this, like several nearby cities such as Overland Park are currently considering. Councilmembers Murphy, Whitted, Rainey, and Aldridge all expressed hesitance to propose a new tax during a recession, but were open to hearing more details from staff about how it would work. Any new tax would require a public ballot measure. The governing body also agreed to continue moving forward with the planning phase for the visitor’s center, revisiting the phases and elements of each project to cut or spread out costs, and looking at setting aside money in a special fund to pay for this type of park project.

Live Stream Meeting Link: 

https://cityofshawnee.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=10202 

Recap by: Alex Welch Blattner