YMCA exec, former Goddard mayor get top ratings in race for open Wichita council seat
Wichita will get a new City Council member on Tuesday, with YMCA executive Becky Tuttle and former Goddard Mayor Marcey Gregory emerging as frontrunners from initial screening by the District 2 Advisory Board.
The City Council has set Tuesday to select a member to replace District 2 Councilman Pete Meitzner, who is leaving the council after winning a promotion to the Sedgwick County Commission in the Nov. 6 general election.
The District Advisory Board interviewed seven applicants for the open seat and narrowed the list to five, according to city spokeswoman Jennifer Tribue.
After its Dec. 18 interviews, the members of the district board rated the candidates on score sheets that were tallied at City Hall.
That process eliminated two candidates, Meitzner’s brother Alex and Tyler Cooper, owner of an advertising company and the owner/operator of Wichita Magazine.
Tuttle, the development director of the Wichita YMCA and a member of the district board, got the highest score from the panel, with 544 points. Tuttle was instrumental in passing the city’s indoor smoking ban and starting Bike Share ICT, an automated bike-rental system in the central city.
Gregory, with 488 points, placed second on the district board members’ scorecards. She served 10 years as Goddard mayor and is the only applicant with experience on a city council. She said her husband, a graduate of Goddard schools, had wanted to raise their children there, but they moved back to Wichita now that their kids have grown up and left home.
Charles Schmidt, the former superintendent of schools in Independence, was third in the district board scoring with 463 points. In his interview, he highlighted his experience with bond issues and a cooperative relationship with city and county government running the school district.
Fourth in the scoring, with 424 points, was David Babich, also a member of the District Advisory Board. His pitch centered on replacing the Century II Convention and Performing Arts Center with a new facility and returning neighborhoods that are now part of District 1 back to District 2.
The fifth and final name advanced to the council by the district board is Daniel Rutherford, with 413 points. He’s an engineering manager at Spirit Aerosystems and said he wants to be involved with the building of the city’s new baseball stadium and help handle the downsizing of the city’s swimming pool system responsibly.
Those five candidates will each be given the opportunity to make a three-minute speech to the council before the vote on Tuesday.
To win the seat, the candidate will need four of six council members’ votes, because city ordinance prohibits Meitzner from helping to pick his replacement.
The new council member will take office on Jan. 15 and hold the seat until the next city election on Nov. 5.
The council will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 455 N. Main, Wichita.
This story was originally published January 4, 2019 at 6:49 PM.
