Tyrone Anthony Garner, born in February 1969, is the first Black Mayor of Kansas City, Kansas. He is also the thirty-first Mayor of the city and the fifth Mayor/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since city/ county consolidation in 1997. Born in Portland, Maine, Garner grew up in San Jose, California, before he and his family moved to Kansas City, Kansas at the beginning of his first year in high school. Mayor Garner has a son and grandchildren.
In 1987, Garner graduated from Wyandotte High School and then enlisted in the United States Army, where he served in Germany, Texas, and Kansas. He earned his associate degree from Kansas City Kansas Community College in Wyandotte County, Kansas, his bachelor’s degree from Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas, a Kansas City suburb, and his Master of Arts degree in human resources from Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas.
Garner joined the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department after his honorable discharge from the Army. He rose through the ranks rapidly and became the youngest African American to be promoted to Detective, Captain, Major, and Deputy Police Chief within the department. Garner was also the first Black Kansas City, Kansas Police Officer to graduate from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Additionally, he was the first Black male to command the western part of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. Garner retired from the police force in June 2019.
The November 2021 general race for mayor of Kansas City, Kansas was a study in contrasts. It pitted first-time candidate Garner against the one-term incumbent mayor, David Alvey. Garner won the five-way mayoral primary in August and mounted an energetic general election campaign on a platform of changing the status quo. In the final results, Garner won the race for mayor with 8,413 votes to Alvey’s 8,049.
On December 13, 2021, Garner was sworn into the Mayor/ CEO office. During his tenure, he oversaw the official activities of the Unified Government while working with the Board of Commissioners and the County Administrator. He demonstrated bold, visionary, and decisive community-driven leadership, working alongside community members to make all of Wyandotte County a safe place to live, work, and raise a family.
Garner served on several Kansas City, Kansas commissions, committees, boards, and groups, including the Kansas City Kansas Housing Authority Board, the Ad hoc Group Against Crime, and as a Kansas governor-appointed member of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission. As an elected member of the Kansas City Kansas Community College Board, he was chair of the Finance Committee.
Mayor Garner is the recipient of many honors and Awards, including the 2016 Kansas City, Kansas Police Department Reasons to Believe Award Recipient; the 2018 SCLC of Greater Kansas City, Kansas Black Achievers Award; Kansas City Globe Most Influential Kansas Citians of 2015 Award; Eugene K. Patterson Community Service Award presented by the Heart of America Chapter of The Tuskegee Airmen; and the Rosalyn Brown and Betty Taliaferro Service Award presented by Friends of Yates, Inc.
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Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, “Mayor & Chief Executive Officer (CEO),” https://www.wycokck.org/Government/Elected-Officials/Mayor-Biography (2024); Facebook.com, “Mayor Tyrone Garner,” https://www.facebook.com/mayorgarnerkck/about (2024); NPR in Kansas City, “First-time Candidate Tyrone Garner Defeated one-term Incumbent David Alvey to win Election as Mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas,” https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2021-11-02/tyrone-garner-elected-first-black-mayor-of-kansas-city-kansas.
