McKern to serve as Kasson mayor

When Kasson Mayor Steve Johnson made the choice not to run again in early August, the people of Kasson knew that they would have a new mayor in 2017. After the Nov. 8 election, the voters have chosen Chris McKern to be the new mayor. 
With a little over 60 percent of the vote, McKern was elected as mayor of Kasson. His opponent, Bruce Prescher, was the only candidate running against McKern. In his term as mayor, McKern plans to do what he has been talking about doing for the entirety of the election. 
“I’m going to work with the city administration, fellow council members and just try to move the city forward,” McKern said. 
He also hopes to push for open communication and transparency to build trust with the public. In its current term, the Kasson council has generated a lot of controversy through its actions. McKern believes that as mayor, the transparency will help mend the distrustful relationship with the public that has developed. He hopes to lead the city into an era in which citizens can have their voices heard before the council makes decisions. 
But McKern doesn’t think this lack of trust is a Kasson-specific problem. This problem exists with 
“With the relationship between taxpayers and they’re local government, regional government, state government and federal government, there’s just a big lack of trust there,” McKern said. “I’m hoping to take a swing at that to help solve that.”
The idea of running for mayor is not a recent idea that McKern had