Paul Muehring, Randy White vie for Derby mayor

“You ever come to Derby?”

It’s a question both men who want to be the city’s next mayor spring on outsiders.

Paul Muehring and Randy White say Derby is a much different and better place today than it was 20 years ago, thanks to a good school system, commercial development and effective city administration.

“I think Derby is probably one of the greatest little cities in the heartland of America,” Muehring said, citing recognition such as Family Circle magazine naming the city one of its “10 Best Towns for Families.”

White likes to talk about taking his daughter out for an ice cream cone years ago, when she was 4 and there was only one place within miles of their home to get one.

“Derby is a great place,” he said. “The only difference now is you have several choices of ice cream. It’s still a fairly small town from a lot of standpoints.”

Muehring, 70, is retired after 24 years in the U.S. Air Force and 22 years in real estate. He served four years on the Derby school board in the 1990s. His wife, Carolyn, is a long-time educator. They have three grown children.

White, 56, works for Spirit AeroSystems. He has served one four-year term on the Derby City Council. He and his wife, Pam, have three grown children.

Both candidates say the city is well governed, and they praise three-term mayor Dion Avello, who is not seeking re-election.

A caretaker, guide and peacekeeper

Muehring has lived in Derby for 29 years, since being stationed at McConnell Air Force Base, where he was chief of public affairs and a lieutenant colonel. He has served as president of the Oakwood Valley homeowners association in the city’s southern 4th Ward and was on the committee that pushed for a half-cent sales tax to fund the city’s aquatic park. He said he has also supported bond issues for the school district.

He describes himself as a “pretty conservative guy when it comes to money. There was no question … (the aquatic park) was going to work.”

The park helped spur commercial growth, which is what has allowed Derby to keep taxes low, he said.

Muehring also said the city must also work closely with the Derby school district. Although he is conservative, he called the approach that Gov. Sam Brownback and conservative legislators have taken toward education “an abomination.”

“You’ve got to have strong schools and a lot of other things to make sure you continue to grow and continue to attract new residents to the area,” he said.

If elected, Muehring said, he would pattern himself after Avello.

“The way I look at it, the mayor’s really a kind of caretaker and a guide and a facilitator and a peacekeeper. The most important thing he does is represent the city of Derby when it comes to going outside the city and meeting with other groups and governmental entities. You have to have a pretty broad background, and I think I do.”

‘Listening to the people’

White, who has lived in Derby for 28 years, said his interest in politics came late in life and was “just kind of typical. I was just watching what happens in our city and got interested in how decisions are made.”

Avello recommended him for a two-year term on the city’s planning commission. “I was thoroughly impressed with how things went,” said White, who won a seat on the City Council four years ago.

When Avello decided not to run, he said, “I just wanted to make sure the people of Derby have someone who will listen to them. I don’t have an agenda except for listening to the people of Derby and making sure people get a fair shake. My political career is not that complicated.”

White said he, too, would take a cue from Avello.

“Dion has been the guy who always wears the T-shirt, always shows up to the event, always mentions whenever he gets the chance that Derby is a great place.”

White said he has learned a lot in the last four years.

“I feel a little more positive that I do have a grasp of the issues. I’ve been through the budget four times. I now know generally what a public works department does and what they need. Quite frankly, I didn’t know what they did.”

White said planning for the city’s future is a priority. That includes ensuring the city has an adequate water supply and sufficient funds when a half-cent sales tax approved by voters last year expires.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Paul Muehring, Randy White vie for Derby mayor."