ShawneeDispatch.com

Jeff Meyers

In his 2004 campaign, Shawnee Mayor Jeff Meyers said one of his goals was to unite the entire city. No more, he said, should people see it as east Shawnee or west Shawnee.

In the past four years, Meyers said he thinks much has been done toward that goal: The city is trying to show it works on improvement projects in each of the four city wards, and it makes an effort to involve all city residents in community events, no matter which side of Interstate 435 they live on.

"I think we've made a lot of improvements in trying to get that message across, and I think we've done a pretty good job," Meyers said. "I don't hear a lot of east versus west, though there's always going to be some of that : in any community where you have 'established' versus 'new.'"

Now, as Meyers campaigns for his second term as mayor, his focus has turned to the big issues of this election season: the city's mill levy and economic development efforts.

In his first campaign, Meyers said he would support raising the city's property taxes only as a last resort. His 2004 opponent, current Johnson County Commissioner John Segale, suggested raising taxes slowly to address funding needs, but Meyers said it was clear the Council also wanted to wait until there was no other option.

"I always said there was going to be a day where we were going to have to raise the property tax, and that day came," Meyers said. "I think we handled it the best that we could, and it was important for us to do that to keep this city on a positive track and moving forward, rather than putting us on a negative track and move backward."

Meyers said he felt comfortable with the raise considering the tax increase for a $250,000 home broke down to an additional $9 a month. He said if the city didn't raise taxes, it likely would have had to lay off employees and move to repairing its roads every 20 years rather than every 12. The city's bond rating also was in serious danger of being lowered, he said.

"That's huge to a city's financial status, being able to save money on large projects or on any project," Meyers said.

Meyers said it was clear that if the city did not raise taxes, it would have a hard time recruiting businesses to the city and providing services to citizens. Meyers added that finding places to cut spending would be difficult, considering that among the five most populated cities in the county, Shawnee has the lowest number of expenditures per square mile and per capita, as well as the fewest employees per square mile and per 1,000 in population.

Meyers said he also is concerned about a statement made by his opponent, Dan Pflumm, that the 2007 tax increase, an 18 percent increase from 20.847 to 24.621, was the highest in Shawnee's history.

That is untrue, Meyers said, noting that the city's mill levy went from 17.146 to 22.878 in 1987, a 33 percent increase. In 1988, it increased another 19.5 percent to 27.337 mills, and in 1989, there was another 20.9 percent increase to 33.063 mills.

All candidates have stressed that the only route to lowering taxes is to increase commercial development within the city. Meyers said Shawnee has taken many of the necessary steps, with Tax Increment Financing and Transportation Development District policies, leadership summits to get community input from business owners, residents and community leaders, and the branding project.

"The economy plays a role in economic development, and I think Shawnee has done very well for itself in difficult times," he said. "I'm even more optimistic about our near future of attracting some very much needed economic development, and I'm constantly working on that and will constantly work on that in my next term."

Some candidates suggest that more financial incentives could be offered, and Meyers said he knows Pflumm has suggested an incentive offered to certain professions.

"To me, you have to bring the business first in order to attract the scientists and engineers," Meyers said. "I don't know that we want to specify incentives for one worker versus another. I think what we want to do is bring in the companies to be attractive to increasing our workforce population. I think we want to keep doing what we've been doing, make our community as attractive as possible with services, schools and amenities that people look for when choosing a home."

Meyers said he has been deeply involved in working with developers where TIF applications have been made, and he supports the use of such incentives when the development is the right fit for the community.

"These things don't happen overnight, and you can't always make public negotiations and discussions," he said. "But I can guarantee you that there is a lot of interest in our community, and I see some very positive results taking place in the very near future."

As for commercial vacancies within the city, Meyers said one throughout his first tenure he has undertaken a writing campaign to specific companies and restaurants, encouraging them to take a look at Shawnee. But he said there's not much incentive to fill a vacant space for a landlord who is still receiving rent, as is the case for several of the city's empty grocery stores.

"It is very important to try and get those filled; we are constantly working toward that," Meyers said. "Some of these leases are coming to an end, so the landlords are going to be working harder to find tenants for those spaces."

Building the new Justice Center was another big issue for Meyers in 2004, and now that it is closer to completion, Meyers said he stands behind his decision to move forward with its construction rather than investigate the former Hy-Vee store.

"I'm extremely satisfied, and I think what we found out is that the rest of the Council has finally understood the importance of that decision," Meyers said.

Meyers said the protection of western residents will be greatly improved because of the Justice Center's location, and work between the courts and police will be made easier in the new building.

The empty space the new building will create at the Safety Center will not be hard to fill with the overcrowding at City Hall, Meyers said. He said the city would utilize all the space in a responsible and efficient manner.

Another controversial manner last year was the smoking ordinance, and Meyers said though his opponent didn't like how the smoking task force was developed, Pflumm should remember he originally voted to have the task force created. Meyers said Pflumm also initially said he didn't think the city needed a total ban when the Council first discussed it, at the March 6, 2007, Finance & Administration Committee meeting.

Meyers said the city has been slowly working toward bringing a western aquatic facility to a reality, but a lot of work needed to be done to determine funding sources.

"It is a very big challenge, but it is something that's definitely on our radar screen; we're talking about it being an important feature in the future of Shawnee," Meyers said. "I do believe that there's going to be some different type of funding opportunities in the future but nothing that is imminent at this time."