Lenexa can make a City Manager raise retroactive. Apparently livestreaming takes longer.⁣
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On 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟏𝟒𝐭𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 the Committee of the Whole formally discussed recording and live-streaming City meetings. The City memo says staff had already been directed to research the legal, practical and financial impacts and bring back recommendations. The equipment has since been installed.⁣
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But on 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟏𝟕𝐭𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, when a resident asked when citizens would actually be able to access meetings by livestream, City Manager Beccy Yocham said the Governing Body’s Rules of Procedure still needed to be updated and that the City expected to complete that work in “the next couple of months.”⁣
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Then, on 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟏𝟖𝐭𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, Council was asked to approve a 5% merit increase for the City Manager, effective retroactively to May 1.⁣
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That contrast is quite compelling. More than four months after livestreaming was formally discussed, the equipment is ready, but the policy apparently isn’t. Yet a merit increase can reach backward more than three months.⁣
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This is really about whether the City of Lenexa follows through on what it says it is going to do. If the remaining hurdle is updating the City’s own rules, why wasn’t that work completed while the equipment was being installed?⁣
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If “merit” is worth rewarding retroactively, then follow-through is fair for the public to look at too. There is still time to get this done and leave behind a stronger legacy of transparency.