KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
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In the first of multiple stories covering 2025 mayoral candidates in Kansas City, Kansas, KSHB 41’s Rachel Henderson spoke with the most recent candidate to file as of May 14, Rose Mulvany Henry.
“The city has big, big issues that we need to tackle,” said Mulvany Henry, who filed Wednesday morning at the Wyandotte County Election Office.
Mulvany Henry said the catalyst for her running was the May 1 Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, commission meeting, which ran about seven hours long.
“I had contemplated it previously, and I couldn't get there. And that meeting two weeks ago got me there, finally,” she said.
Multiple things caught her attention, including racial remarks Commissioner Phil Lopez made to a permit applicant.
Henderson spoke with Lopez the following week to learn his perspective.
Mulvany Henry also took issue with the meeting’s length.
She showed up a few hours in to support an economic development item about the Quindaro power plant.
“The initiative where people are investing multiple millions of dollars into the northeast part of this community, in Quindaro, was not taken up until almost 11:50 p.m.,” Mulvany Henry said. “I sat there for almost those two hours, and I couldn’t shake the feeling I had, which was: What are we doing here?"
In her mind, there’s no more time to waste.
“Yes, I'm trained as a lawyer,” Mulvany Henry said. “But I also know business, and I know what economic development can mean to a community, particularly like us, that is as diverse as we are here.”
Mulvany Henry has worked for the past 30 years as a telecommunications attorney.
She’s currently the vice president of regulatory affairs for Metronet, a high-speed fiber internet service provider.
Mulvany Henry has also served on the Board of Public Utilities Board of Directors for five years.
It's not the first time a BPU board member has run for the UG's mayor/CEO position.
Former BPU board member David Alvey was elected mayor/CEO in 2017 and was defeated by current Mayor/CEO Tyrone Garner in 2021.
"I don’t think there’s any question, having somebody in the mayor’s office not unlike Mayor Alvey was, who had sat on the BPU board previously," Mulvany Henry said. "We understand what BPU means to this community, and we understand the inner workings of BPU, and I think sort of just to fill those learning gaps."
Henderson covered multiple stories about tensions between BPU and the Unified Government within the past year, particularly surrounding the PILOT fee, or payment in lieu of taxes.
Mulvany Henry weighed in about the lack of communication between the UG and BPU.
“I do believe some of that relationship repair has been underway for some time now,” Mulvany Henry said. “I think there's an education that needs to occur on a lot of important issues.”
Education’s played a big role in her life, which is why she spoke with Henderson outside her former high school, Bishop Ward High School.
“This school means something not only to me and my family, [but] it means something to so many people in KCK,” Mulvany Henry said. “This is where I grew up, and these are where my roots are."
After graduating from Bishop Ward, she attended the University of Kansas and then Washburn University School of Law.
Now, she’s hoping her roots can travel even deeper into her community through her candidacy.
The three other candidates who have filed for the mayor/CEO position thus far are Tom Burroughs, Christal Watson and Janice Witt.
All candidates will compete in the primary election on Aug. 5, and the top two will face each other in the Nov. 4 general election.
Click here for information on registering to vote in Wyandotte County.
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