TOPEKA (KSNT) – A local expert is commenting on the Topeka City Council’s decision to fire City Manager Stephen Wade.
The Topeka City Council voted 10 to zero to fire City Manager Stephen Wade at Tuesday night’s meeting after just 10 months on the job. Now, questions are swirling about what the city plans to do next.
In an exclusive interview with KSNT 27 News, political expert Bill Fiander weighs in on his thoughts. Fiander served as a planner for the city of Topeka for 25 years and is now a professor of public administration and political science at Washburn University. For Fiander, the fact that the council vote was unanimous was very telling.
‘Simple Memories’ will be shown at the Mexican Art Exhibition with Fiesta Topeka
“Clearly a line was crossed because they’re invested in who they’re wearing,” Fiander said. “This is their person they hire and expect to run the day-to-day operations of the government to implement their vision and their policies.”
He said it took a lot of courage for the city to come to this decision and there are three potential paths it could take moving forward.
“One is for the interim to eventually become the permanent city manager,” Fiander said. “If you want to move on to your second option, which is to go through a full process, a recruitment interview, whether it’s national, regional or whatever.”
However, the second option could take at least nine months to complete. The third option is to eliminate the city manager structure entirely and explore a new form of government. Fiander said that’s unlikely, but it’s a topic that comes up every time there’s a turnover of city managers.
The city announced that it has promoted Richard U. Neinstedt from active to interim City Manager while it decides how to move forward. City Councilman Spencer Duncan told KSNT 27 News the city will likely go the traditional route and hire someone new.
He doesn’t think Neinstedt will serve as interim manager for long, as the city is already looking to replace him with another interim city manager. However, Duncan expects the city to bring in a hiring company to find a permanent manager after that.
Meanwhile, Duncan said Neinstedt’s plan to keep the city running as smoothly as possible.
“Day-to-day operations will continue, they won’t skip a beat,” Fiander said. “The bigger things are what, the bigger projects and maybe some of the visions that come from the Council might be something you could pause until you have the person in there. But I doubt they want to slow down much.”
Fiander said regardless of the process, finding a city manager is the city council’s most important job. The search is about finding someone who will best serve the community.
This is a developing story and we will provide updates as we learn more.
