KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
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The archway that serves as a welcome to Kansas City, Kansas, brings back memories for Gwendolyn Thomas.
“I remember when we built this, and there was this need that we need to have the connection between Missouri and Kansas,” Thomas said.
That’s where Thomas and KSHB 41’s Rachel Henderson met to discuss her candidacy for the Unified Government’s Mayor/CEO position in the August 5 primary.
The archway, which is covered in the colorful symbols of several countries, embodies the unity and harmony Thomas envisions in a perfect world for her local governing body.
“I think that people do not see that we are a government that is responsive, and I think the best way to do that is to bring leadership in that can build a bridge to where all of us can get over it, all of us can have the same vision, but trust and respect is rebuilt,” Thomas said.
She’s lived in Kansas City, Kansas, for decades.
Since then, she’s seen several things that need repair.
“Streets, the blight, our community, our unhoused population, the need for affordable housing,” Thomas said.
As mayor, she wants to engineer a different blueprint, one different from what’s led to the issues like high property taxes and crumbling infrastructure, she says she currently observes.
“I think over the years it has been leadership, and it has been by design,” Thomas said. “My agenda is really to build partnerships. It's to build back trust and respect.”
Thomas is familiar with that rebuilding process.
She worked in the Unified Government for over 28 years, including for the Board of Commissioners under former Mayors Carol Marinovich and Joe Reardon.
She later worked as Reardon’s professional assistant when he became mayor.
“I had been mentored by great leaders, and I felt like this was my time, and this was my moment,” Thomas said. “I think about the inharmoniousness of the commission, and I just remember a time when that wasn’t a thing. There would be times when there was disagreements, but no one ever knew about them. It never got to that level. It always stayed up on the ninth floor.”
She started working at the UG in 1997, the same year of government consolidation.
Thomas says she’s a fan of the consolidated form of government because it was intended to increase efficiency.
“If we’ve moved away from what it was, the philosophy of what it was, then we need to go back to it,” Thomas said. "It’ll be about getting us back to the table and realizing truly who we’re here to serve. We’re not in service of self, we’re in service of people."
Because candidates cannot run and be employed by the Unified Government at the same time, Thomas retired from the UG in March.
“Even though I had the ups and the downs, I loved being around people and feeling like I was making a difference,” Thomas said.
Those downs came to a head when she filed a lawsuit against the Unified Government in 2022. She accused the UG of discrimination and denying her jobs based on her race, despite her experience and expectations after Reardon left office in 2013.
The suit says the stress of the way she was treated by former County Administrator Doug Bach led to health issues, “including headaches, stomach pains and hair loss.”
Though she was not willing to get into specifics of the suit, Thomas did say that her later roles were not as high-ranking as her previous work in the UG.
After an extensive legal process, the suit was dismissed in September 2024.
Thomas confirmed the lawsuit wasn’t her only action.
She also filed two complaints with U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2021 for being denied “due to race and retaliation.”
“The Unified Government has a lot of people that have been there for a very long time, but sometimes they’re overlooked, and sometimes they’re not treated in the respected manner which they should be treated,” Thomas said. “Realizing who you have and what you have in your organization and utilizing that person for what they can bring to the table, that's also key.”
Her last role included overseeing about $87 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds for the county.
The county is struggling with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
Thomas says exploring grant funding could be a way to address the debt issue.
“For so long, the Unified Government has relied on its own funding,” Thomas said. “It’s general funds, capital improvement, things of that nature.”
Her first step in building lasting connections is bridging the gap in trust between residents and the government.
“They no longer hear the cry as a cry,” Thomas said. “They start to hear the cry as complaining.”
Thomas says zip codes shouldn’t define people’s sense of pride.
“We can work together, and we can bridge Strawberry Hill with Central, we can bridge Central with Minnesota,” Thomas said. “We’re one community. We just all have different zip codes.”
The five other candidates who have filed for the Mayor/CEO position are Christal Watson, Rose Mulvany Henry, Tom Burroughs, Janice Witt, and Mark Gilstrap.
Henderson's first interview was with Rose Mulvany Henry, her second was with Christal Watson and her third was with Tom Burroughs.
Thomas, Mulvany Henry, Watson and Burroughs are the only mayoral candidates who have attended the most recent candidate forums.
All of the candidates will compete in the primary election on Aug. 5, and the top two will face off in the Nov. 4 general election.
Click here for information on registering to vote in Wyandotte County.