New Face in Top Office

Recently elected Leawood mayor aims to continue predecessor’s legacy.

By Kari Williams

Photos by Strauss Peyton Portrait Studio, www.strausspeytonkc.com

Marc Elkins has served the City of Leawood for years, but he never planned on being the one to lead it — until then-mayor Peggy Dunn announced in summer 2023 that she would not seek reelection.

It was the first time in nearly 30 years that Dunn would not be at the helm of the Johnson County city of nearly 34,000 people.

“I had recently retired after nearly a 40-year career of practicing law,” Elkins says, “first for 20 years in a large law firm, and then for the last 19 years as associate general counsel and chief compliance officer at Cerner. And so, I had just started to enjoy my retirement between Peggy deciding to retire and my wife thinking that maybe I was watching too many Star Trek reruns.”

Elkins, who has served on the city’s planning commission along with several other area organizations for 20 years, faced off in the November election against Steve Hentzen. Elkins earned more than 5,000 votes, or 57.33%.

Between the knowledge he had gained from the planning commission and his belief in service, Elkins says he felt an “obligation” to offer to serve.

“I learned at a really early age, through my experience in (scouting), about the concept of servant leadership and the obligation that a citizen has to engage in community affairs,” Elkins says, also noting President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech as an influence.

Electoral Transition

Elkins says he and the former mayor have “many of the same beliefs” as far as servant leadership and serving Leawood residents.

“From the minute the election results were announced, she made herself available to help me with that transition,” Elkins says. “And she continues to be available today.”

The City of Leawood, according to Elkins, is in a time of transition. The most recent election saw three of the city’s most experienced council members and mayor retire, he says.

“They had 88 years of experience in city hall,” Elkins says. “And with city government, we have a new city administrator who just celebrated her first anniversary with the city.”

There also is a new IT director and a new finance director. And due to an early retirement, one of Elkins’ first responsibilities as mayor is to work with the city administrator in a search for a new police chief.

The real learning curve for Elkins has been the municipal finance side, he says.

I learned at a really early age, through my experience in (scouting), about the concept of servant leadership and the obligation that a citizen has to engage in community affairs.

–MARC ELKINS

“Certainly, citizens today are very concerned about property taxes, and we want to do everything that we can to be good stewards of their money,” Elkins says. “We want to figure out a way to figure out that balance between delivering the quality of municipal services that Leawood has always been known for while … doing so in a responsible fashion.”

City Prepares for Change

It’s important, according to Elkins, to serve as a “consensus builder” and manage the whole transition.

“We have one little strip along 135th Street that is currently being developed. And so, our traditional mantra of growing with distinction is kind of transitioning, pivoting to the idea of a city that’s living with distinction,” Elkins says. “And how we pivot from that growth mode into kind of a status quo that continues to be the quality and character of our neighborhoods and of our commercial areas that we’ve enjoyed.”

The city recently launched a monthly newsletter, and, shortly before Elkins was elected, brought on its first director of communications.

A conference for homeowners association presidents also has been scheduled. The concept, according to Elkins, is to create a venue for city council, city staff, and HOA presidents to discuss city initiatives.

“But even more importantly, we’ll have more than an hour of time set aside for the homeowners association presidents to engage with the city council members of their ward so that we can hear directly what their concerns are, what their perspectives are, and how they think that the city, especially along 135th Street, ought to continue to expand,” Elkins says.

Building a better relationship between the city and HOA officers is one of several goals listed on the city website. Others include:

• Providing an education program for bicyclists/motorcycles about obeying traffic regulations;

• Add strategic/master plan to a page on the city website.

In addition to engaging citizens, the city will revisit the 135th Street Corridor Plan, which Elkins says is more than 15 years old.

“We traditionally had a policy of being committed to mixeduse development, which contemplates a number of uses in the same geographic area for residential, commercial, and some office,” Elkins says.

“Certainly, the pandemic has changed the market for office space, and our friends at Amazon have revolutionized retail spending in a way that makes brick-and-mortar retail space different than it once was. And so, we need to revisit that, taking into account the input that we get from both the developers community as well as our citizens generally, through this community engagement.”

Regardless, Leawood is a wonderful place to live and work, according to Elkins, and it’s up to city leadership to ensure that reputation continues.

“One of the things that we’re really proud of is the fact that Leawood is statistically the safest city in the state of Kansas for cities with populations of 5,000 or more,” Elkins says. “And public safety is a real item of importance to us. All the statistics bear out the fact that we’re delivering on that promise of public safety.”

For More

City of Leawood

4800 Town Center Drive

Leawood, KS 66211

913-339-6700

www.leawood.org

Portal for residents:

https://leawood.civicweb.net/ Portal/Default.aspx

Learning from a Sister City

Shortly after Marc Elkins took the helm as Leawood mayor, the Kansas town hosted the mayor and city administrator from the Gezer region of Israel—Leawood’s sister city.

“The sister-city relationship is much stronger than just merely something on paper,” Elkins says. “And we talk to each other over Zoom every once in a while. (Mayor) Rotem (Yadlin) came along with her city administrator to tell us a little bit about their experience in delivering city services during the last 120 days at a really stressful time in their community.”

The Gezer region is halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and has been directly affected by the Israel–Hamas war.

“In their particular case, as an example, their fire department and their police department had all been pulled to the Gaza area when the (Oct. 7, 2023) terrorist attacks came,” Elkins says. “And they were faced with figuring out how to deliver police services and fire services to their citizens and other city services.”

“In their particular case, as an example, their fire department and their police department had all been pulled to the Gaza area when the (Oct. 7, 2023) terrorist attacks came,” Elkins says. “And they were faced with figuring out how to deliver police services and fire services to their citizens and other city services.”

Hearing what Leawood’s sister city was facing made the Johnson County city’s issues “pale a little bit in comparison,” Elkins says.

“It was really a humbling experience, is the best way to say it, when you think about what she as mayor has to do and accomplish in the environment that she does versus the relative luxury that we have here in worrying about plowing snow and things like that,” he says.