After math blunders, Cindy Miles emerges as favorite to fill City Council vacancy

A new favorite has emerged to complete former City Council member James Clendenin’s unexpired term after he resigned rather than face ouster proceedings.

Planning Commissioner and nonprofit leader Cindy Miles received the most points from the District 3 Advisory Board, which interviewed and scored answers by nine candidates for the job on Tuesday.

On the night of the interviews, the District Advisory Board reported that former television news reporter Jared Cerullo received the highest score. And based on the numbers provided by each DAB member during the open meeting, he did.

But the actual score sheets, which the Wichita Eagle obtained Thursday from the city through a Kansas Open Records Act request, showed multiple DAB members incorrectly added their scores on Tuesday. Miles had been shorted 32 points.

An independent calculation of the score cards found that every candidate’s final score was incorrect except Cerullo’s.

Candidates in first and second place were the only two whose rankings were affected by the math errors. Trailing Miles and Cerullo were Virgil H. Miller Jr., Joseph Shepard and George Theoharis. All five names have been sent to the City Council in alphabetical order.

After the numbers were added together, Miller, a retired Wichita police sergeant, and Shepard, director of multicultural engagement and campus life at Newman University, each gained nine points. Theoharis, a longtime community activist, gained 17 points.

The City Council will choose a winner on March 2. District 3 represents parts of southeast Wichita.

The winner could serve on the City Council until early January, when a candidate chosen by voters will be sworn into office.

Cerullo has been active in District 3 public service for several years and works as a freelancer for radio news stations. Miles is a Metropolitan Area Planning commissioner, executive director of the Kansas Nonprofit Chamber, Republican precinct committeewoman and former candidate for Sedgwick County Commission.

Cerullo, Miles and Miller, a retired Wichita police sergeant, have filed to run for the seat in the 2021 primary.

This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 5:26 PM.