Heath Gadbury, Army veteran and Junction City resident, pledges fiscal accountability, infrastructure fixes and procurement reform

Heath Gadbury, a Junction City resident and retired Army command sergeant major, outlined a platform focused on fiscal accountability, local procurement and infrastructure repairs at a public meeting where he urged residents to vote in the Aug. 5 primary.

Gadbury said Junction City residents face rising taxes while receiving fewer services and that "there is no such thing as a public surplus when it comes to money that was taken from you, the taxpayer," arguing the city must explain how every dollar is spent. He said the city "found $6,000,000 this year in the budget" and proposed that money be returned to taxpayers or reinvested in roads and utilities.

The candidate criticized current practices that he said repeatedly award the same outside firms both to design and construct projects. To change that, Gadbury proposed hiring a dedicated city engineer who would be a city employee and requiring at least two local bids for city projects so local contractors can compete. He said those steps would increase oversight and deliver "the best bang for the buck for our own tax dollars."

Gadbury also alleged the Police Department building project was not put out to public bid and said the arrangement appeared to have benefited at least one sitting commissioner; he presented that example as evidence of the lack of openness he wants to address. No commissioner response to that allegation was recorded in the meeting.

On grants and community funding, Gadbury said current practice allows groups to ask commissioners for money without a consistent vetting process. He urged a standardized application and review process so commissioners can evaluate grants by the same criteria and measure return on investment.

Discussing services, Gadbury said residents should receive the water, sewer and trash services they pay for and described local communications and water infrastructure as "antiquated" and in need of reinvestment. He called for quarterly tracking of program metrics to measure whether projects deliver the intended results and to inform future budgeting decisions.

Gadbury said he opposes a proposal to pay commissioners, citing a cumulative figure of about $48,000 per year, and questioned whether elected officials dependent on small stipends should be trusted with large budgets; he referenced a city budget total mentioned in his remarks. He said public office should be service, not a path to personal financial benefit.

Framing Junction City as a place with assets — including Fort Riley, Milford Lake and interstate access — Gadbury said the city should pursue "natural" growth that preserves the small-town character and requires all businesses, large and small, to play by the same rules. He closed by asking residents to vote on Aug. 5 and in November, saying it was his "birthday wish" that people participate in the elections.

The meeting record contains only Gadbury’s remarks and an occasional interjection from another participant; there were no formal motions or votes tied to his statements. The candidate repeated several specific proposals — a city-employed engineer, local bidding requirements, standardized grant vetting, quarterly metric reporting and opposing commissioner pay — that would be subject to later formal proposals or ordinance changes if pursued.