Residency rule unseats appointee
Staff writer
A recently appointed Marion planning commissioner will have to decline his appointment because he doesn’t meet the position’s residency requirements.
Gene Winkler, a former city council member who now works as a soundboard technician, was one of three people appointed to the planning commission Sept. 21 by Mayor Mike Powers.
Council members unanimously approved all three appointments.
But Winkler lives within Marion city limits, according to appraisal records, meaning he can’t fill the vacancy he was appointed to.
When the planning commission was established in 1968, its bylaws required that five of its seven members “shall be residents of the city,” while the remaining two “shall reside outside the city, but within … at least three miles of city limits.”
State law also establishes similar residency requirements under KSA 12-715b, subsection (a).
Winkler was appointed to replace a planning commissioner who resigned and lived within the designated three-mile area outside city limits.
Winkler can decline the appointment himself, or the council can ask one of the other appointees to decline so the council can make a new appointment. Winkler is expected to decline, based on comments from city administrator Brian Wells.
“He won’t be able to fill the role,” Wells told the Record. “When we get into the council meeting again, probably next time, we’ll go make the correction.”
Wells and planning commission chairman Darvin Markley both said Markley notified Wells by phone after the Sept. 21 meeting that Winkler couldn’t serve.
“As soon as I heard Powers mention Gene,” Markley said, he knew there was a problem.
“They’re not going to get ahead of me, I guarantee that,” he said.
Wells, who was hired as administrator in 2025, said he was unfamiliar with the planning commission’s bylaw and was “excited” to have a full board again.
“You get people volunteering, and it’s kind of hard sometimes,” he said.
The other two people appointed during the meeting Sept. 21 were Mike Smith and Duane McCarty.
Smith, who previously resigned because of military obligations, is husband of council member Amy Smith. McCarty, a former police officer and code enforcement officer, also has previously served on the commission.
Both Smith and McCarty are Marion residents.
Under the commission’s bylaws, planning commissioners are appointed by the mayor, with the consent of city council members, during the first regular council meeting in January.
Vacancies, however, can be filled at any time through an appointment for the remainder of an unexpired term.
J.R. Ewing, a Marion resident, resigned from the commission in August. Bruce Skiles, who lives within the designated three-mile area, also resigned.
Their resignations came shortly after the council voted to ignore the commission’s advice and approve a zoning ordinance requiring outside medical services to receive approval before establishing practice within Marion city limits.
Ewing’s term expired Dec. 31, 2025, while Skiles’ term was set to expire Dec. 31, 2027.