The City of Sedalia announced Monday, Mar. 16 that the person behind comments posted on social media over the weekend concerning candidates on next month’s municipal election ballot is no longer employed by the city.

Screenshots circulating on social media show a comment from the city’s Facebook account defending current mayor Andrew Dawson. The comment had been made on a community group post over the weekend that was critical of Traves Williams, a city employee running against Dawson in next month’s election. A statement released Monday afternoon announced the unnamed employee’s departure, noting that responsibility for the city’s social media accounts have shifted to the city administrator’s office. City administrator Matthew Wirt tells KMMO News the comments were not authorized by the city and did not meet expectations for how the city communicates with the public.
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Wirt says as of Tuesday morning, access to the city’s social media accounts is limited to three people.  He says city staff was in the process of updating its social media policy.

The changes were announced in a statement but were not addressed by the city council or Mayor Dawson during their meeting Monday night.

During Monday night’s meeting, the council adopted its budget for fiscal year 2027, moving to restore full contributions to employee health savings accounts, and made final amendments to the 2026 budget. Council members also approved a five-year Capital Improvement Plan approved another change order for the Washington Avenue Bridge project, adding $19,022 to the project total. Wirt noted that the project remains within budget, with the schedule still calling for the bridge to reopen to vehicular traffic by the end of the month.