City Council Posts Bizarre Memo Refusing to Comment on Kansas Newspaper Raid 

The Marion City Council in Kansas is scheduled to convene on Monday — but councilmembers will not discuss the police-led raid on the city’s local newspaper, according to an agenda of the meeting posted online. 

Monday's city council meeting is the first since its August 7th meeting, where a local restaurateur raised allegations against the paper that sparked the raid.

On August 11th, police seized laptops and other electronics from the office of the Marion County Record and the homes of other residents associated with the newspaper, including the newspaper co-owner, whose death just a day later was attributed to the stress of the incident. 

The Marion County Record is a family-owned weekly newspaper that was first published in 1869. Its coverage focuses on the central Kansas county of less than 12,000 people.

The raid occurred as its reporters were investigating allegations of misconduct surrounding a local business owner and Marion’s police chief.

On the agenda of the city council meeting, scheduled for Monday at 4:30 p.m. local time, are routine updates and a scheduled public forum. Notably, the agenda does not include any scheduled discussion on the raid. 

But written in all caps and splashed across the page in red is the following message: “COUNCIL WILL NOT COMMENT ON THE ONGOING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AT THIS MEETING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Additionally, Marion Mayor David Mayfield, who has been a longtime critic of the Record, according to the Kansas City Star, said in a letter to the council that he does not plan to attend the upcoming meeting due to a family vacation.

“I have not missed any meetings in the three and a half years of service being the Mayor. I didn’t want there to be any confusion as to why I am not present at this meeting,” Mayfield said in the letter. “It has absolutely nothing to do with the current happenings in Marion County.” 

In its own reporting, the Marion County Record noted that Mayfield and other city councilmembers have been largely quiet on the raid.