Lisa Weakley, currently a city commissioner for the city of Leavenworth, didn’t plan on running for a county office.
A graduate of Leavenworth High School and Saint Mary College and a former banking employee turned small business owner, she said she was planning to lay low for a while, put her son Alexander through college at the University of Kansas and finish up remodeling work on a building in downtown Leavenworth with her husband, Terry.
But as the filing deadline approached for the 1st District county commission seat currently held by J.C. Tellefson, Weakley said she was approached by several different people about a rumor that she was running.
It wasn’t until later, after a talk with a close friend, that Weakley said she decided to make the rumors true.
The 1st District includes the northern portion of the county and part of the city of Leavenworth. Weakley said she would bring her previous experience with her to the county commission, including an idea of how governments work that would allow her to some extent to “hit the ground running” if elected and a familiarity with some of the larger ongoing projects like a possible expansion of Highway 92 in Kansas and Missouri along with the Centennial Bridge over the Missouri River and a potential county airport and business park.
She said she was energized by the thought of continuing some of those large projects at the county level and addressing some of the other issues affecting the area.
In terms of the question of whether the county needs its own administrator, Weakley said the position is a good one to have as it provides an opportunity for better management of the county’s finances. However, she said she would have started with a dedicated finance director, and if elected would consider restructuring the administrator position.
But according to Weakley, controlling the budget in tough economic times is perhaps the biggest issue facing the county as well as other governments.
One part of the solution, Weakley said, is to encourage economic development, some of which can be tied to transportation projects. She said the area along County Road 1 leading up to the interchange with the Kansas Turnpike that opened late last year is a good place to start stimulating some growth, if the commission can set some good guidelines.
“I would like to see planned development on that,” Weakley said.
Closer to home, she said she would like to build on the strengths of the county’s first district, including the defense industry and corrections.
For all projects and especially transportation improvements, Weakley said she would like to establish a new level of partnership between the cities and the county.
“Everything is so big and costly that you have to have a good basis of partnerships,” she said.
Having been a Leavenworth city commissioner since 2003, including two one-year terms as mayor, Weakley said she has experience with creating and maintaining those partnerships — not only with county staff and local organizations like LCDC, but also with state and federal legislative delegations.
“It’s a lot easier to get things accomplished when they know your face,” she said.
