Oh my Goddard: Political ambush puts Hunter Larkin back in mayor’s seat; manager fired | Opinion
After a palace coup at the Goddard City Council on Tuesday night, city residents woke up to find they have a whole new government.
Ethically challenged ex-mayor Hunter Larkin is now mayor again, two of his yes men were appointed to seats on the five-member council, the city administrator was fired and the assistant city administrator quit.
To say this has been a tumultuous 18 hours or so is a gross understatement. Here’s how it went down:
The council had to fill the vacant seat of Mike Proctor, who resigned from the council as of Dec. 31.
They picked Aubrey Collins, a home-solar-panel salesman, former car salesman and former country-music radio host on KWLS 107.9 FM.
After he was sworn in, Larkin moved to add an item to the agenda to discuss “unelected personnel,” which turned out to be City Administrator Brian Silcott.
When the council returned from a closed-door session, Larkin immediately moved for the removal of Larry Zimmerman as mayor. Zimmerman, a longtime council member, replaced Larkin as mayor last May, after a column I wrote raised serious ethics questions about contributions to Larkin’s planned campaign for state Legislature and his actions on behalf of those donors’ development projects in Goddard.
Vice Mayor Sarah Leland assumed the chair of the meeting. She immediately announced she doesn’t think she has the capability to serve as mayor and nominated Larkin. That motion passed on a voice vote, with Zimmerman apparently the only “no.”
Larkin and Leland switched chairs and he nominated her as vice mayor.
Then Larkin added another off-agenda item, ”removal of certain city staff,” ie, Silcott.
At that point, Zimmerman had had about enough. He interrupted and resigned his council seat “effective immediately” and walked out.
At Larkin’s urging, the council quickly appointed Keaton Fish, a Wichita school district paraeducator who had earlier in the meeting competed for Proctor’s open seat, to take Zimmerman’s.
Fish, who was conveniently still in the audience, was unanimously approved and immediately sworn in.
That taken care of, Larkin then moved to fire Silcott. Calling the roll, the city clerk had to be reminded of the names of the two new council members, it all happened so fast.
Then the council did another closed session, of questionable legality, to discuss Silcott’s remaining contract and what to do about it.
I’ve requested that contract, but haven’t gotten it yet.
Late in the meeting, Larkin left no doubt that he and his handpicked council are now the sole authority running city government.
“The day and age where unelected bureaucrats ran this town is over,” he proclaimed. “This governing body is going to be more involved than ever before.”
So, the people of Goddard trade “unelected bureaucrats,” also known as professional managers, for unelected council members with little to no knowledge in how to run a city for the benefit of its residents.
Early Wednesday, Assistant City Administrator Thatcher Moddie tendered his resignation.
Larkin is now free to do whatever favors he wants for his developer buddies without regard for ethics or integrity.
I have to hand it to Larkin. I’ve covered cities for a long time and have seldom seen a political takeover that was this sleazy, and yet this well-orchestrated.
It would have actually been illegal if the plotters had all been on the council when the plans were laid.
It certainly caught Zimmerman off-guard. He even voted for Collins for a seat on the council, believing him to be a public-spirited citizen instead of part of a plot to depose him and the city administrator.
It was positively cringeworthy watching Larkin try to convince the remaining city staff and the public that this was “a good thing” and “It was done out of love.”
Love of power, maybe.
It was even more cringeworthy watching Collins unveil his new Trumpian slogan for Goddard: “City First.” He said it twice just in case you missed it the first time.
The one silver lining here is that former councilman Proctor and some other concerned citizens are starting a petition drive to try to recall Larkin — and maybe others in Goddard’s new ruling cabal — before they do too much more damage.
Proctor’s citing Larkin’s shady dealings with developer/donors and a recent DUI conviction as potential recall grounds.
They’ve already got a Facebook page set up called “For Goddard’s Sake.”
Indeed.
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 5:41 PM.
CORRECTION: This story has been changed from an earlier version to correct the makers of some motions in the meeting.
