By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

First-term Hays City Commissioner Lance Jones will not run for a second term.

Jones made the public announcement at the end of Thursday night’s commission work session. Jones did not give any reason for his decision. He noted the June 1 filing deadline for municipal office candidates and encouraged residents to “get out there and file.”

“We had a lot of applications put in for Eber Phelps’ open seat and I’d like to see voters have the amount (of candidates) to select from that we had to pick Commissioner Sandy Jacobs,” Jones said.

Three seats will be open on the Hays City Commission. Those are Jones, Jacobs and Shaun Musil.

As Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood explains, the Kansas legislature passed a bill in 2015 that moved local elections to Nov. Local elections were previously held in April.

“In order to account for the move to Nov. elections, the city extended the terms of current commissioners that were scheduled to expire in April 2017. There are three commission seats that are up for election in Nov. The three candidates who receive the most votes in the Nov. 7 general election will take office in Jan. 2018,” Wood said.

All candidates for municipal office are required to file with County Election Officer Donna Maskus. There are two ways to file for election.

Candidates must submit a declaration of intent to become a candidate, accompanied by a $20 fee, or submit a nomination petition signed by 50 qualified electors, or one percent of the qualified electors of the city of Hays, whichever is less.

The primary election is Aug. 1. There must be more than three times the number of candidates as there are open positions to hold a primary. In this case, 10 candidates would trigger a primary.