Ousted Goddard mayor speaks out following city administrator’s abrupt firing

GODDARD, Kan. (KWCH) - In a flurry of action taken in less than 20 minutes at Tuesday night’s Goddard City Council meeting, a mayor was voted off the bench, a vote returned a former mayor to the post and a city administrator was fired.

Hunter Larkin retook the position of Goddard Mayor, obtaining the council’s majority vote to do so moments after the city leaders voted to oust Mayor Larry Zimmerman. Wasting no time, Larkin then motioned to fire the city’s administrator.

Before the council took the decisive action to fire Goddard City Administrator Brian Silcott. Zimmerman tendered his resignation from the city council, effective immediately.

Mayor Larkin wouldn’t comment on the reasons the council took such drastic action but he said he thinks “it’s gonna be a good change.”

“The governing body made a different transition, right? What happened [Tuesday] night was pretty simple,” he said.

Zimmerman sees the situation differently.

“It wasn’t right. I didn’t see it as being fair to the employees and I refuse to be part of it,” he said of Silcott’s firing with no public discussion.

Zimmerman, who served on the city council for 23 years, said he was caught off guard.

“To the best of my knowledge, everybody was happy with everybody else,” Zimmerman said.

Regarding the abrupt firing of Silcott, Zimmerman said the now former city administrator “didn’t bow down to their bidding.”

“And to some people, that’s flagrant disobedience,” he said. “They’re your elected officials and they’re your superiors, but I look at it differently.”

Zimmerman said he hopes the city “comes through this without too big of a blackeye.”

“Because after 23 years, I care,” he said.

On the Facebook page, “For Goddard’s Sake,” another former Goddard City council member, Mike Proctor, called for a recall election beginning with Mayor Larkin.

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