Marion narrows field for top job
Staff writer
A city inspector from Lyons is one of two finalists vying to be Marion’s next city administrator.
City council members interviewed Brogan Jones — and one other candidate — last week and followed up with a discussion Monday behind closed doors.
The council did not take any action.
Two other candidates chosen for interviews withdrew. One did so the same day as interviews.
Mayor David Mayfield told council members before a break that he had received a text saying the candidate had decided not to interview.
The city received nine applications for the job. The council met in executive session March 1 to narrow the list to four. It then met last Wednesday in executive session to interview Jones and another candidate.
Jones, 27, grew up and lives in Sterling and works in Lyons as a building and code inspector.
After his interview, he told the Record he was interested in working in Marion because “it’s very similar to the community I grew up in and similar to the community I work in.
“It would be a good starting point in my career,” he said.
Jones expects to graduate in May with a master’s of public administration from Wichita State University.
He called Marion a “beautiful little community” in his interview with the Record.
He said he had talked to council members about how the city had faced “some interesting challenges recently,” including the firing of city administrator Mark Skiles, who showed a city employee a photo of an adult model and also was accused of using the “N” word.
The city obviously has had “some trying times,” Jones said.
“I wanted to know what their perceived needs of the community are, what the perceived needs of citizens are, and share what my perceived needs are,” he said.
His questions for the council “pertained to what were they looking for, what type of environment would I be coming into, big projects and needs seen by the community,” Jones said.
The council struck him as a “pretty run-of-the-mill” council — “not very different than any other city council I’ve interviewed for.”
Jones has been Lyons’ building and code enforcement inspector for about two years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that, he worked as an equipment operator for the Lyons County road and bridge department.