Grandview Alderman challenged by newcomer wanting economic change in the Ward III race

By Tony Madden

Three candidates are vying for Grandview’s Ward 3 seat on the Board of Aldermen on the April 7 ballot. Rodney McDuffie II, a newcomer and Grandview native, is running against incumbent Ward 3 Alderman Thomas Rousey as well as former mayoral and state representative candidate John Boyd, Jr.

Rodney McDuffie II has worked at multiple levels of government, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Kansas City Land Bank and as an assistant to former State Rep. Alan Green of St. Louis County. Born and raised in Grandview, McDuffie holds degrees in political science and public policy from the University of Missouri and Northwest Missouri State.

Thomas Rousey served on the Grandview Parks and Recreation Commission and the Planning Commission before he was elected to the Board of Aldermen Ward 3 seat in 2022. Born and raised in Cincinnati, the former Marine and his wife moved to Grandview from California in 1996.

John Boyd, Jr. is officially on the ballot for Grandview’s Ward 3 seat but could not be reached after multiple requests for an interview. Boyd ran unsuccessfully for Grandview Mayor in 2021 as well as the Missouri House of Representatives District 36 in 2022. 

The 2026 municipal election marks the first time Grandview will elect aldermen to four-year terms. The city voted to extend alderman and mayoral terms from two years to four years in the 2025 election.

Rodney McDuffie II

So far, newcomer McDuffie has knocked on 829 doors while canvassing, reaching 1100 constituents. Before the election on April 7, he plans to greet about 1000 more voters. Raised by public servants, McDuffie said he lives and breathes public service. His parents also owned a construction company, which McDuffie says gives him an adequate business background.

“Not only do I know how the sausage is made on our government level, but I also know what it takes to draw businesses here,” McDuffie said.

McDuffie wants to bring economic development to Grandview and make sure commercial spaces stay occupied. He also wants to ensure it doesn’t become a “pass-over city.” He pointed out that Grandview’s T.J. Maxx store at Truman’s Marketplace is closing while another T.J. Maxx store prepares to open in Martin City. 

Noting some citizens’ pushback on the city’s roundabouts, McDuffie said he is partial to stoplights and regular intersections. He believes traditional intersections are better for emergency responders and the general flow of traffic. The city added three roundabouts in 2022 as a part of the I-49 Outer Roads Conversion project, and two more are expected to be built as a part of the ongoing Blue Ridge Boulevard Expansion project.

If elected, McDuffie says he would also make an effort to keep Grandview emergency response teams equipped and staffed. He said Grandview Fire Station #2 in Ward 3 is currently staffed at one-third of its capacity, which could make his constituents vulnerable to longer emergency response times.

McDuffie also wants to establish a non-emergency city services hotline for Grandview like Kansas City’s 311 program. He said constituents have complained about the current protocol for reporting a problem to the city because it requires them to investigate the problem themselves. McDuffie proposes a 311 program like Kansas City’s that provides streamlined solutions to potholes, neighborhood cleanliness, or other issues.

Thomas Rousey

Incumbent Thomas Rousey has served on the Board of Aldermen since his election to the Ward 3 seat in 2022. A retired Marine Corps veteran and a resident of Grandview for over three decades, Rousey has volunteered throughout the city since he retired for the second time in 2012. He’s served on the Parks & Recreation Commission, the Grandview Assistance Program Board and the Planning Commission.

Rousey and his wife have lived in the same Grandview home for 30 years, he said, and notices a lack of neighborly camaraderie in the city. Rousey said that is Grandview’s biggest problem: a lack of community engagement. People must get involved if they want to see improvements in their communities, he said. 

If reelected, Rousey also wants to bolster recruitment and retention of the city’s emergency responders. He agrees with McDuffie that Grandview’s fire and police departments need to be adequately staffed and equipped. People retire, he said, and not enough young people are filling the spots left behind in Grandview.

Rousey is pleased by the progress Grandview has seen in his two terms as alderman, which has included the ongoing farmer’s market project on Main Street and improvements to Belvidere, Valley and Southview Parks. He added the city has been bolstered by recent infrastructure improvements, which were innovated by the use of a machine that allows crews to examine cracks under the surface of the asphalt. 

However, he agrees with constituents voicing concerns on the city’s roundabouts. He said traditional intersections are more pedestrian friendly, and he has voted against installing roundabouts in the past.

“The ones they’re going to put on Blue Ridge — I voted no,” Rousey said. “I really do not like roundabouts, but I got outvoted.”

John Boyd, Jr.

John Boyd, Jr. is on Grandview’s ballot for Ward 3 but could not be reached after multiple requests for an interview via . Boyd ran unsuccessfully for Grandview Mayor in 2021. He also ran to represent District 37 in the Missouri House of Representatives in 2018 and 2020 as well as for District 36 in the 2022 primaries, all races he lost.

Boyd ran as a Republican in the 2018 and 2020 races for District 37 seat, but he switched his affiliation to Democrat in 2022 and ran in the Democratic primaries. That April, the Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to kick Boyd off the November ballot, claiming he was actually “a longtime Republican and vocal opponent of the Democratic Party.”

“I had had several people telling me that [they] agree with everything [I] stand for, but said that as long as I ran as a Republican, they couldn’t vote for me,” Boyd told the Telegraph ahead of the August 2022 primaries. “I am not beholden to any party, I’m beholden to the people in my community.”

A 1997 graduate of Grandview High School, Boyd’s 2020 campaign centered on equipping municipalities with the power to make localized legislative decisions and “cut the red tape” of government minutiae and overreach.