At the July 1 Olathe City Council Meeting, Olathe City Manager Michael Wilkes announced his plans to retire during the first quarter of next year. Wilkes has served as City Manager since January 1999, making him the longest serving City Manager in the city’s 168-year history. 

As City Manager, Wilkes led the city organization through immense community growth and dramatic change. During his tenure, Olathe has grown from less than 90,000 residents to over 150,000. He also saw Olathe transform from largely a bedroom community to one of Kansas’ economic engines with hundreds of new businesses opening and tens of thousands of jobs created. 

Wilkes’ tenure has seen Olathe consistently recognized as one of America’s best places to live, raise a family, and start a business. Within the government, Wilkes created and shepherded an organizational culture centered on excellence that is values based, customer-focused and metric driven resulting in a brand that is consistently recognized as one of the nation’s best performing local governments. In addition, Olathe has received several national awards for various innovative programs and has also remained one of America’s safest cities. 

Under Wilkes’ leadership, the City Charter was updated by voters to extend Council terms to four years, resulting in the ability for the City Council to take a long-term view of building community. The parks and streets sales taxes were passed and overwhelmingly renewed, helping create the city’s exceptional parks and trails system and community center and the ability to maintain critical infrastructure for generations. Wilkes’ tenure also saw the development and implementation of two 20-year strategic plans setting the course for Olathe’s future. Over the course of his leadership, landscape-changing infrastructure projects were completed throughout the city, recently culminating with transformational changes in Olathe’s downtown.   

According to Olathe Mayor John Bacon, Wilkes’ fingerprints are all over that change. “Without a doubt, Olathe would not be what it is today without Michael Wilkes,” Bacon said. “Our economic growth, exceptional services and unmatched quality of life can all be traced back to Wilkes’ leadership”. 

Olathe Chamber of Commerce CEO, Tim McKee, echoed the Mayor’s statement: “If you look at everything that has developed in Olathe, the jobs created, the thousands of families who have moved here, you can see the role Michael has played in helping build this community. He’s been a tremendous partner in the city’s economic development efforts.” 

According to Wilkes, his greatest blessing was working with the men and women who serve in Olathe city government. “I could not be more honored and blessed to spend the last 27 years working with the finest public servants in the country. They are incredibly dedicated and caring people who take pride in serving our community and strengthen our culture of excellence,” Wilkes said. “I’ve also been incredibly fortunate to serve dedicated and visionary City Councils who charted the course to where Olathe is today.” 

During his tenure in Olathe, Wilkes served on the Executive Committee and the Board of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce; two-time Board Chair and Board member of the Alliance for Innovation; two-time Board President and Board member of the Kansas League of Municipalities; and as a member of the K-State Olathe Advisory Board. 

Before becoming Olathe’s City Manager, Wilkes served as City Manager of Alpharetta, Georgia, a fast-growing suburban community located north of Atlanta.  Prior to that, he did stints in Gwinnett County, Georgia; Eugene, Oregon, and Jackson County, Oregon, serving in local government for 42 years.   

He is a proud graduate of the University of Alabama and received his Master of Public Administration degree from Georgia State University. He and his wife Holly plan to remain in their adopted hometown, Olathe, after his retirement.