In a memo Tuesday Mayor Mark Funkhouser took city manager Wayne Cauthen to task for failing to find $3 million for the city's police department, a complaint he's had for weeks.

   In the memo -- attached below -- Funkhouser also attacked the council's decision to allocate $500,000 to study a convention hotel, a decision made while he was absent.

   "This fallacy is further highlighted by the approval last week for yet another study of a downtown convention hotel," Funkhouser wrote Cauthen.  "The money for that project came easily, yet our residents still don't know if their city government is going to maintain our police force at the current force level."

    Funkhouser's memo doesn't directly link the hotel spending with the police budget, but we should be clear: That $500,000 could not be used for more police, or virtually anything else in the city.

   That's because the money comes from the city's voter-approved restaurant tax.  State law 92.336(3) says money from that tax -- which is deposited in a separate account -- can only be used for "capital expenditures, including debt service, for sports, convention, exhibition, trade and tourism facilities located within the city limits of the city."

    Reasonable minds can debate whether a $500,000 study is a "capital expenditure," but the money clearly can't go for cops. 

   Councilman Russ Johnson pointed out the requirement in a memo of his own to other councilmembers.

    And, while Funkhouser's memo suggests the "city government" is responsible for maintaining force levels for the police, the Board of Police commissioners, and the chief, are responsible for staffing decisions under Missouri law.

   (Still don't believe us?  Click here.)

  The city is required to spend at least 20% of the general fund on police, a figure it easily exceeds.

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june23memo.pdf292.54 KB