Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri

The Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri is the highest official in the Kansas City, Missouri Municipal Government.

Since the 1920s the city has had a council-manager government in which a city manager runs most of the day-to-day operations of the city. Unlike most cities of its size, by charter Kansas City has a "weak-mayor" system, in which most of the power is formally vested in the city council. However, the mayor is very influential in drafting and guiding public policy. He presides over all city council meetings that he attends, and has a casting vote on the council. Due to these combined factors the mayor, in fact, holds a significant amount of de facto power in the city government.

Since 1946 Mayors of Kansas City are elected by the voters of Kansas City to four-year terms, and are limited to two terms under the city's charter. Mayors initially served one-year terms until 1890 when they began serving two-year terms. Technically, according to the City Charter, city elections are non-partisan, meaning that the mayor and city council run without nominal political affiliation.

The mayor of Kansas City occupies an office on the 29th floor of the Kansas City City Hall, the building's highest floor.

Eleven of Kansas City's mayors are interred in Elmwood Cemetery (Kansas City, Missouri).

The current mayor of Kansas City is Sly James, who was elected to office on March 22, 2011.

As of May 2011^[update], five former mayors were alive, the oldest being Charles B. Wheeler, Jr. (1971–1979, born 1926). The most recent death of a former mayor was that of Ilus W. Davis (1963–1971), on September 4, 1996.

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