In a surprise move Friday evening, the Olathe City Council elected to cancel its search for a new city manager — instead, current manager Michael Wilkes will stay on for another year.
This decision was approved on a 4-3 vote. Mayor John Bacon, Robyn Essex, Marge Vogt and Kevin Gilmore voted in favor, and Matthew Schoonover, Dean Vakas and LeEtta Felter voted against.
Bacon said he wasn’t comfortable replacing Wilkes during a time of several major developments, and “numerous community and business leaders” have raised concerns about how a leadership change could affect those plans. He specifically named Garmin campus expansions, the Halo Ridge amusement park and hockey arena site, the downtown post office and the massive Santa Fe, I-35 road project.
“The consistent feedback I have received is that now is not the right time for such a transition,” Bacon said. “In my view, maintaining stability in our leadership during this period is essential to ensuring [the projects’] successful completion.”
Schoonover said the decision was “a tremendous mistake.”
“We have identified, through a national interview process … a confident and capable candidate here in the city of Olathe, that I think each one of us would trust if, God forbid, something happened to our city manager today, to take over the reins of the city without hesitation,” Schoonover said. “I believe the city council should have hired Susan Sherman for the role as city manager.”
Sherman is the current deputy city manager, and she has been with the city since 1989. She is someone who Wilkes has directly credited as a large piece of his success at the city.
“I’m very upset, quite frankly, that the last act of this council is to usurp that interview process,” Schoonover continued. “There is no reason for this council to take the action it is taking today. Michael Wilkes’ resignation was effective quarter one 2026. This council could have not acted by doing anything, and maintained the status quo.”
He argued the next council should have been able to make that decision, and he said he hopes the next council revisits the decision to make sure it’s in the “best interest of Olathe.” Felter and Vakas echoed Schoonover’s comments, also alluding to wanting to hire Sherman.
Felter made note of barriers keeping women out of leadership roles.
Two outgoing council members voted to keep Wilkes on — Vogt and Gilmore. Vogt lost a reelection in November after 28 years on the council, and Gilmore decided not to run. Jeff Creighton and Kevin Deneault are replacing them in January.
The Olathe Reporter has requested a copy of Wilkes’ new contract and a list of city manager candidate finalists — the city confirmed there were three unnamed finalists earlier this month, and since that confirmation, the council has interviewed them and held several closed meetings to discuss the city manager position.