to that council seat in November 2015, and his next term went into effect from January 2016-December 2019. He wasn’t intending to run again, but in November 2019, with just two months left in his term, the current mayor decided to resign. Since Kennedy was the Council President and per council code, he needed to step in and fill the unexpired term. He went from two months left on his term to two years from November 2019 until it ended in December 2021. In wearing both hats as mayor and a full-time banker, Kennedy used his experience in the trust industry to deal with the stress that came up from being in both jobs. “You could get caught up in the dayto-day noise, but you really have to be diligent by taking a 30,000-foot view out of everything and look at everything as a process,” Kennedy said. In dealing with the stress of being mayor, Kennedy looked to his experience in his bank’s trust department. Some stressful examples might include helping with an individual’s retirement funds. Different phases of a client’s life bring about unique challenges, whether he or she is in the accumulation phase of retirement planning or entering the distribution phase. Decisions we make every day can have a huge impact on the rest of a person’s life. Kennedy said he thought his experience equates well in government because a) how slow things can move and b) little things can happen every single day, such as hiccups in city projects. He said he wouldn’t let the little issues become bigger by worrying all the time about every single little thing that came up. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re important,” Kennedy said. “But you have to look at the whole thing as a process, and the ultimate goal is where you want to be at the end of a project.” His experience in banking specifically helped with the financial aspect of city government. Kennedy said that in small rural communities, they needed to really rely on individuals expertise and the makeup of their council. When he was mayor, they had an individual who was an engineer, another that worked for the local power company and one who was an extension agent. “There’s no way you can know everything about every different topic, so you need to lean on those individuals,” Kennedy said. “For me, my role as a banker really helped us out when we were talking about financing projects, the timing and issuing of debt, our financial advisors and going through the bond indentures and various things like that. Hopefully, my work in areas like that daily made that process a lot smoother for everybody else.” When working with people, Kennedy said banking and mayorship ran parallel. People are at the forefront, whether it is citizens at the city council or their customers in the bank. He had to find a way to work with people, even individuals he might not have agreed with or maybe had a rocky relationship with in the past, to find common ground. “People appreciate and respect you more if you are upfront and honest and act with a high level of integrity,” Kennedy said. Ultimately, he said that people generally understood that he was in it to see the community succeed, and they were willing to work with him. Shortly after becoming mayor, Ellsworth was without a city administrator for about six months. During that six-month period, Kennedy said he felt like he was doing double duty. He had to put his head and time together with the City Attorney and the City Clerk to do the role of the City Administrator while that position was vacant. “The bank was very gracious,” Kennedy said, and there were times when he felt like he was giving too much time to one and not the other. When they found the right person for that position, it made that situation so much better. This was also during the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit Kansas, and communities needed to quarantine to fight off the virus. “One thing I told incoming council members throughout the years I was on was you have to be willing to put in the time,” Kennedy said. Kennedy is an alumnus of the KBA Bank Leaders of Kansas (BLOK) class of 2017. This opportunity was a neat carryover for him to fill the shoes of the mayor. “It was immersive on both federal and state side of things,” Kennedy said, “to not only be able to work with Steven Johnson (who was the Kansas State Representative at the time) but get to know him through BLOK but also through work on the City Council and ultimately then as Mayor.” And on the federal level, Kennedy was able to get to know Senator Jerry Moran throughout that period where Moran would even pop into the bank on a Mark Kennedy (middle), Assistant Vice President and Trust Officer at Citizens State Bank & Trust Co. in Ellsworth, at a ribbon cutting. Photo taken by Ellsworth County Independent Reporter. Kennedy served as mayor for Ellsworth from January 2016 to December 2019. 17
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