The city of Prairie Village last week held a legislative forum to discuss city issues and interests at the state level ahead of the 2020 legislative session, which begins this week.

Four panelists — Johnson County Commission Chair Ed Eilert, Johnson County District 1 Commissioner Becky Fast, Rep. Stephanie Clayton and Rep. Jerry Stogsdill — answered questions prepared by the city. Mayor Eric Mikkelson said the city’s interests are more pertinent than ever before, and the city council recently passed a 2020 legislative platform.

“The city of Prairie Village has historically done a legislative platform,”  Mikkelson said. “We do have interests in Topeka, as do most cities, but particularly over the last few years, some of those have taken on new urgency.”

Panelists discussed a variety of topics, from top legislative issues at the county and state levels that could have a direct impact on Prairie Village to what the county and state legislature are doing to address the dark story theory. Additionally, audience members posed a range of questions from solar panel issues to gun reform at the end of the forum.

A livestream video, recorded by the Shawnee Mission Post, is available below. Issues discussed and their timestamps on the video are as follows:

• At 6:35, the top legislative issues heading into 2020
• At 16:37, actions taken to address dark store theory
• At 28:24, environmental sustainability policies at the county and state level
• At 39:18, the possibility of a non-discrimination ordinance at the county or state level
• At 46:34, restoring ad valorum tax revenues to cities
• At 49:52, thoughts on tax lid bill, putting property tax increases out to public vote