Meerpohl selected to fill city commission seat

A former Holton USD 336 Board of Education member will be returning to public service in place of departing Holton City Commissioner Erich Campbell, it was reported.

During the Holton City Commission’s regular meeting on Tuesday — held a day later than normal due to observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday on Monday — commissioners chose Holton resident Mike Meerpohl from a field of five to take over for Campbell.

It was reported that Campbell would resign from the commission effective at the end of this month to serve as a Kansas Second Judicial District magistrate judge in Pottawatomie County.

Meerpohl, a 38-year Holton resident who has also retired from the Farm Service Agency and from Therll’s Furniture in Holton, said he looked forward to serving in city government. Others who had sought appointment to Campbell’s position included Mike Clancy, Christina Cobler, Christina Murphy and Willy Wilson.

After the five candidates introduced themselves to commissioners and answered questions, commissioners were polled by ballot to choose a replacement for Campbell. Meerpohl and Clancy each received two votes in the first balloting, but after the balloting was narrowed to those two for a run-off vote, Meerpohl won by three votes to two for Clancy.

Commissioners thanked all five candidates for submitting their applications for appointment to Campbell’s commission seat, although the position will be up for election in April. Meerpohl, Cobler and Murphy said they had filed for the April ballot, while Clancy said he “planned to” run and Wilson said he “hadn’t considered it.”

The commission position held by Dan Brenner is also up for grabs in the April election, and Brenner said he had filed for re-election. The ballot registration deadline is Tuesday, Jan. 26, it was reported.

Meerpohl said he and his wife, Gloria, came to Holton nearly four decades ago and raised three children, two of which have returned to Holton to live as adults. He noted that the top three issues facing Holton residents and city government were attracting new business to the city, maintaining the city’s streets and keeping Holton’s downtown area “free and viable.”

He also told commissioners that he had served on the Holton school board for 12 years, noting that his time on the school board was “a real eye-opener” but nonetheless enjoyable because it gave him a chance to participate in the process of government. That, he added, was also what motivated him to seek the city commission position.

“I like to know how the city runs,” Meerpohl said. “And being a homeowner, I’m interested in keeping the taxes as reasonable as possible with the income the city has.”

Campbell said stepping down from the commission position marked “a real bittersweet moment for me,” owing to his pride in working with “a group of people (who) work so hard for the common good of their fellow man… not only in this room, but through the entire city staff and employees.” He also recognized the commission as being a “synergistic” group that works for the better of the city.

“The power of all of us together is greater than the power of all of us alone,” he said.

Campbell’s departure from the commission was also marked with a few humorous touches. Commissioner Twila White joked that Campbell, as a magistrate judge, should “remember us if you get a traffic ticket,” and Campbell replied, “It’ll be more for you, since you know better.”

In other business on Monday, commissioners approved an ordinance bringing the city into compliance with new state laws setting the election of city officials in the fall, instead of in the spring as the case has been. Holton City Manager Bret Bauer reminded commissioners that the new election law would take effect with the 2017 election rather than with the election coming up in April.

The new law means that for a three-year period, starting with the commissioners elected in the spring 2014 election, commissioners will serve a term lasting three years and eight months. The regular commission term is three years.

Bauer said one of the reasons he had heard for state legislators voting to move city and school elections that normally take place in the spring to coincide with fall elections was to “increase voter turnout,” since spring elections in Holton have, more often than not, had low turnouts. However, Brenner said the new election law simply represented “our state telling the cities what to do.”

Commissioners also:

* Approved the minutes from the commission’s Dec. 31 and Jan. 4 meetings, as well as budget appropriations made in recent weeks.

* Approved contracts for health and life insurance for 2016 from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Bauer said premiums for 2016 health insurance represented a 7.57-percent increase on average; the commission had budgeted for a 15-percent increase in 2016. The life insurance contract will also mean an increase from $5 to $5.60 per month for city employees, he said.

* Approved a resolution setting a 3-percent cost of living adjustment raise in salaries and wages for full-time city employees (totaling $67,152 in increased wages for 2016), as well as a 20-cents-per-hour raise for permanent part-time employees and a 5-percent flat increase for the city commissioners, city attorney, city treasurer, fire chief, animal control officer and municipal judge (all totaling $4,960). The commission had adopted a budget for 2016 that included an increase in the base pay schedule with a COLA allowance of up to 6 percent, or $210,749.

* Approved the appointment of White to the Public Wholesale Water Supply District 18 board of directors, replacing Rich Mulroy.

* Approved the appointment of Bauer and Dennis Klahr as voting delegate and alternate voting delegate, respectively, to represent the city in the affairs of the Kansas Rural Water Association.

* Adjourned the meeting at 8:25 p.m.