The City of Independence commissioners meet for the first time in 2023 and assigned roles including a new mayor.

 

Louis Ysusi was nominated and elected Mayor and Dean Hayse, who had been serving as Mayor, was chosen as the Vice Mayor.  Ysusi has served two previous terms as Mayor, from January 2019 to January 2020 as well as January 2021 to January 2022.

 

In other business, commissioners announced January 15th will be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Day and the city will provide funding to the Diversity Taskforce for the recording and live streaming of the community events this weekend.  Additional items of discussion were the adoption of a resolution pledging commitment to a Multimodal Transportation and Enhanced Trail Project policy regarding the use of Pathways to a Healthy Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas grant dollars. There was also an executive session regarding data relating to second parties' financial affairs or trade secrets.

 

Independence city commission meetings take place on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the lower level of Memorial Hall in downtown Independence. Meetings are open to the public, and recordings of all meetings as well as agendas are posted to independenceks.gov.