KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Shawnee City Council met in a closed session Wednesday afternoon and voted unanimously to place City Manager Doug Gerber on paid administrative leave.
The City Council set a special meeting for Monday, Nov. 6 to select an Interim City Manager to serve while Gerber is on administrative leave, according to a statement from the city.
After council met in private and executive sessions for 2 1/2 hours, KSHB 41 learned a video put Gerber’s employment in jeopardy.
Jim Allen served as mayor from 1993 to 2003.
He said as far as he can remember, the city has never been put in this position before.
“There’s six of you up here who align with his values.” Allen said. “I strongly can’t accept that you six people continue to serve. This is one of the biggest black eyes on the City of Shawnee.”
The video in question leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Angela Stiens could not confirm the contents of the video or how many city employees received the video.
“I have not seen the video,”she said. “I haven’t seen it. I don’t know anything about it. I’ve talked to several other employees and my understanding is it was a spam video and most employees didn’t know about it.”
Councilwoman Stiens said a third party ran a background check during the hiring process and nothing came up as a red flag.
“No one in here knew that there were things from the past,” she said. “This video came out of nowhere from my understanding.”
Stiens said council is now in the position of making a tough decision.
“I mean, people’s lives are at risk, their livelihood,” she said. “When you make a decision like this, it ruins you.”
It’s a decision Ward 1 candidate Sierra Whitted said she has already thought about having to make if she is elected next Tuesday.
“If I am elected next week, I want to make sure if we have to hire a new city manager that they are properly vetted, keeping the highest standard of the city and the city staff are taken care of and not involved in those situations,” Whitted said.
Allen, the city’s former mayor, said he wouldn’t mind coming out of retirement to give citizens the leadership they deserve.
“I’m not looking for a job, but I care about this community and the image it currently has is not a good image,” he said.
City of Shawnee
The city manager is not an elected position.
Gerber was hired earlier this year, though the hiring process was not without concerns voiced by some involved in the process, including outgoing Mayor Michelle Distler.
In an email to KSHB 41 News, Distler said she raised her concerns to the council but they were “dismissed” and the council proceeded to appoint Gerber.
Distler didn’t immediately elaborate on the accusations or issues that were raised against him.
Distler wasn’t able to provide all the details of the incident that prompted the council to call the meeting, but said she wasn’t surprised when she received a Kansas Open Records Act request from the Kansas City Star related to Gerber.
“Depending on the action the council takes tonight, and the fact that we no longer have a deputy city manager, the council will have to immediately appoint an interim city manager and then I assume they would go through the recruitment process again,” Distler said in an email.
“Given this matter concerns a non-elected employee of the City, the City will provide no further comment at this time,” according to a statement from the city.
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