Becky Tuttle is new Wichita City Council member; will leave YMCA

YMCA executive and community activist Becky Tuttle has been selected to serve as the next member of the Wichita City Council, representing parts of east Wichita.

She’ll replace Pete Meitzner, who is resigning the seat representing northeast Wichita. Meitzner was elected to the Sedgwick County Commission in November’s general election.

Tuttle is a familiar face around City Hall. She serves as chairwoman of the District 2 Advisory Board and was a key advocate for Wichita’s ordinance that banned indoor smoking.

She also was a key player in the establishment of Bike Share ICT, an automated bike-rental system in the central city.

Tuttle said her top priority as a council member will be to recruit and retain young professionals in the city.

“A vision for 10 years from now would be that the students who are in our middle schools and our high schools are still here,” she said. “They’re living in our community because they’re tethered here because of great jobs with a diversified economy, using skills that they’ve acquired at our institutions of higher learning.”

Tuttle currently works as the community development director of the mammoth Wichita YMCA system.

After the meeting, she said she’s been talking with her employers and plans to step down from that job to “put my full time and attention towards the new City Council position.”

Tuttle was the survivor of a process that started with seven candidates for the District 2 job.

The District Advisory Board she now chairs narrowed that field to five, each of who then individually interviewed with the council members. Each was also given three minutes to address the entire council at Tuesday’s meeting.

Tuttle was the top choice of the district board members, followed by former Goddard Mayor Marcey Gregory.

And that order of finish was the same at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Tuttle got five council votes. Gregory got one from council member Bryan Frye.

By city ordinance, Meitzner couldn’t vote on his replacement.

Tuttle will be sworn in to office at next Tuesday’s council meeting.

This story was originally published January 8, 2019 at 12:08 PM.