Political parties were so active in this year’s county commission election that Commissioner Mike Brown says the county should drop the pretense of non-partisanship. To that end, Brown is trying to get the county commission to amend the charter and end the non-partisan aspect of elections that have been in place since the county charter was crafted in 1999.
Brown said he expects to get a discussion going at next Thursday’s commission meeting, though he doesn’t know if he’ll have enough votes to get anything done. The commission can amend the charter with a supermajority of four-fifths, or 6 votes. But voters would still get the final say in a referendum if the commission approved. Putting a D or R on the county commission races would mean a change to the county charter, a document that sets up how the county is run. The county charter is up for review every 10 years. The last review was in 2011. But Brown said he’d prefer not to wait for the next review because another election cycle would have happened for commission races by then. Brown’s seat will be one of three up for the 2020 election, along with Steve Klika and Jim Allen.
(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post – Community news and events for northeast Johnson County)