Squitiro says discrepancies in campaign reports will be reconciled

Well, there you go. At least this answers absolutely nothing.

They have been too busy making a mockery of the Mayor's office to worry about petty things like campaign funds.

If $80 thousand were unaccounted for from a TIF account, Kansas City's former city auditor would have left a trail of blood until all was properly reconciled.

That's the man who stood up for taxpayers. That was the man who worked tirelessly for fairness and equity and transparency. That was the man I supported and believed in.

I don't know who this one is.

David R. Peironnet

I wonder what Gloria did to "earn" her six grand (that she reported). Surely she wasn't polishing toilets. My guess is she was paying herself for lookin' purty standing next to her "man." I can't believe that a city official whould have his wife as treasurer. So where's the 80 grand? Maybe we should look in Gloria's closet. Shades of Imelda Marcos.

Imelda Marcos comes across as endearing and trustworthy in comparison.

Gloria is well-documented to go shoeless. Look somewhere else.

how the campaign finance process worked."

They don't appear to understand how a lot of things work. Talk about an understatement.

kcolddog

Gloria's answers are almost funny in respect to her most recent comments in her xmas letter saying how political consulting was so easy and she should hire herself out. Anybody who wants their campaign in turmoil should hire her for sure. The campaign finance forms are not that hard to figure out if you just look at them. Especially for a former auditor. At the level she is playing she should have made sure that all the t's were crossed and i's dotted before this was turned in. The "We are busy" comment just doesn't wash. Other elected officials get theirs in without such problems. Also, if you are going to reimburse yourself you had better have receipts for legitimate items. Her explinations show that she does not pocess the political knowledge to be a top advisor. Just one olddog's opinion.

For Pete's sake, no for OUR sake...what's with this former auditor, his wife and money? To admit that you should have kept a better eye on the funds is - DAH! I am dazed and amazed at what comes out of this woman's mouth. In fact, she frustrates me to such a degree that I avoid reading her comments. My blood pressure starts creeping up when I see her name. Back to this money thing (sorry I get rattled over "the wife") the fact that a former municipal auditor cannot keep track of his campaign funds is almost laughable. I could go on and on about internal controls, GAAP, etc. The Funk would know exactly to what I am referencing. Gloria needs to go. Funk needs to go. I am sick of the both of them.

Excuse me, Gloria, but YOU are the treasurer of the Funkhouser campaign. YOU and YOU ALONE are responsible for getting filing finance reports on time and making sure they are correct. Not Funk, not the campaign volunteers, YOU.

Stand up and take responsibility for YOUR mistakes.

I don't know what's funnier. It's either she wrote herself five checks for a total of $6,000, and wants us to believe she wrote only one. Or that Gloria is so incompetent she reports the campaign cut those checks when it didn't.

Either way, she can't balance a checkbook worth a damn. How you make an $80,000 mistake is beyond me.

Now all of you are amazed the former city auditor cannot keep the books straight?? First he had NO professional credentials to be an auditor. He is not a CPA for example. We now know he rigged his audits and the citizen satisfactin surveys for several years as he plotted to run for Mayor. And the Star has yet to reveal to the general public that if you check his mortgages at the county courthouse you will see he has run mortgages in excess of 150% of the market value of his house. Smart with the money? And Shields is the one who got indicted for mortgage fraud ???

"We now know he rigged his audits and the citizen satisfactin surveys for several years as he plotted to run for Mayor."

Actually, we know no such thing. I'd guess it'd be difficult to even prove such an accusation.

"if you check his mortgages at the county courthouse you will see he has run mortgages in excess of 150% of the market value of his house. Smart with the money? And Shields is the one who got indicted for mortgage fraud ???"

Last time I checked, a whole lot of Americans were up to their eyeballs in similar debt. Stupidity with personal finances, in and of itself, is not a crime.

Thanks for assuming the role of crazy-eyed Funk hater though. Inafunk must have taken the night off.

Does Gloria file a Personal Financial Disclosure form with the Missouri Ethics Commission? I am thinking about her role in City Hall and rather than her role as Campaign Treasurer, but I am not sure where one begins and the other ends.

It appears that she should file, because it filing is based on the person's role and not their employment status. I think she would fall under Section 11 of the Missouri Ethics Commission rules. The commission takes a very broad view of who is covered by the provision.

For example: "Please note that even if you are a volunteer and not compensated for your services for one of the above positions, you may still be required to file a personal financial disclosure statement."

The entire section of rules related to the filing requirement follows: (Copied from the Missouri Ethics Commission Web site)

Who is required to file the personal financial disclosure statement?

Individuals required to file under Chapter 105, RSMo, are described in Section 105.483, RSMo as follows:

1. Associate Circuit judges, circuit court judges, judges of the courts of appeals and of the supreme court, and candidates for any such office;

2. Persons holding an elective office of the state, whether by election or appointment, and candidates for such elective office, except those running for or serving as county committee members for a political party pursuant to section 115.609, RSMo, or section 115.611, RSMo;

3. The principal administrative or deputy officers or assistants serving the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor and attorney general, which officers shall be designated by the respective elected state official;

4. The members of each board or commission and the chief executive officer of each public entity created pursuant to the constitution or interstate compact or agreement and the members of each board of regents or curators and the chancellor or president of each state institution of higher education;

5. The director and each assistant deputy director and the general counsel and the chief purchasing officer of each department, division and agency of state government;

6. Any official or employee of the state authorized by law to promulgate rules and regulations or authorized by law to vote on the adoption of rules and regulations;

7. Any member of a board or commission created by interstate compact or agreement, including the executive director and any Missouri resident who is a member of the bi-state development agency created pursuant to sections 70.370 to 70.440, RSMo;

8. Any board member of a metropolitan sewer district authorized under section 30(a) of article VI of the state constitution;

9. Any member of a commission appointed or operating pursuant to sections 64.650 to 64.690, RSMo, sections 67.650 to 67.658, RSMo, or sections 70.840 to 70.859, RSMo;

10. The members, the chief executive officer and the chief purchasing officer of each board or commission which enters into or approves contracts for the expenditure of state funds;

11. Each elected official, candidate for elective office, the chief administrative officer, the chief purchasing officer, and the general counsel, if employed full time, of each political subdivision with an annual operating budget in excess of one million dollars, and each official or employee of a political subdivision who is authorized by the governing body of the political subdivision to promulgate rules and regulations with the force of law or to vote on the adoption of rules and regulations with the force of law; unless the political subdivision adopts an ordinance, order or resolution pursuant to subsection 4 of section 105.485;

12. Any person who is designated as a decision-making public servant by any of the officials or entities listed in subdivision (6) of section 105.450.

In reference to number eleven (11), a political subdivision is a special district or subdistrict of the state that has the authority to assess a property tax. Examples of political subdivisions are cities, villages, counties, schools, library districts, fire districts, ambulance districts, public water supply districts, nursing home districts, hospital districts, and road districts.

Please note that even if you are a volunteer and not compensated for your services for one of the above positions, you may still be required to file a personal financial disclosure statement.

Individuals and candidates serving in political subdivisions that have an annual operating budget under one million dollars are not required to file personal financial disclosure statements. However, it is the responsibility of that political subdivision to notify the Missouri Ethics Commission each year that their annual operating budget is under one million dollars.

Alas, Midtown Fella, I didn't take the night off. But I must say the entirety of the Funkhouser Debacle and the cost to the citizens of Kansas City weigh deeply upon me and have tired me out. I used to be a fan of Mark and Gloria. They are awful, what they have done is awful, I wish I never knew them. And I don't need validation from you as to what has been going on and what carnage has been don't to all of us.
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Squitiro added that she was certain the discrepancies would quickly be reconciled. “I know this will all come out in the wash, because there’s nothing improper,” she said.

I presume she will reconcile this as quickly as she has been replaced as the Temporary Treasurer? It's been about a mopnth and a half. Anyone ask her how long she has left to go in this mos inappropriate of roles?
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“I think everything was legal and aboveboard,” Asjes said Wednesday.

Anyone ask him why he resigned? A new baby to watch out for? Preparing to run for his old Council seat? Or is he preparing for the under oath testimony he's going to be asked for soon enough.
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But Squitiro said it’s wrong to conclude that $80,000 is missing from the campaign’s accounts, despite a discrepancy found in spending reports revealed by The Star.

What should we conclude, G-gal? As one of th bloggers pointed out, didn't you crow about how skilled you are at all of this? As I have stated before, this is all going to come out. Mark's reputation has already been seriously tarnished by this latest gaffe. He was forced to say that he really didn't know much about this which exposed him to being thought of as a buffoon not the Internationally Known Auditor of the Century and a fellow that you called a master politican and the smartest guy in the room. Oh well, tick tick tick... I hope you all didn't misappropriate or inappropriately appropriate any of the Campaign Funds. That would be yet another reputation shatterer and cost you money that you all don't seem to have.
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How you make an $80,000 mistake is beyond me.

Midtown guy, I am not sure that this is a mistake. These people are arrogant egomaniacs... maybe they thought that they would never be called to account. It happens all the time and many times the person/people get caught and punished and sometimes they escape prosecution. We will see.
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Last time I checked, a whole lot of Americans were up to their eyeballs in similar debt. Stupidity with personal finances, in and of itself, is not a crime.

The crazy Funk hater asks, who accused the Gruesome Twosome of a Crime? You yourself have labled this as "stupidity" so don't people, regular folk/citizens have the right to have expected more fiscal sanity and financial masterfulness from the Man Who Told Us How Smart With the Money He Is and Frugal he is? The point is that these two clowns pulled the rug over everyone's eyes... they are hocked to their eyeballs and probably break even with the extra few hundred dollars that the Funks grabs out from the City for his car allowance. Fiscal Foul-ups is the term I would use to describe them. A little bit more colorful than stupid... your term.
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However, Squitiro said the bookkeeping problems extend beyond the most recent report. An accountant working as a volunteer for the campaign is trying to reconcile the entire campaign’s finances, which totaled more than $390,000.

Mark, think about getting a paid accountant/CPA type with expertise in election finance/law. You are going to be investigated. You may be the smartest most underestimated guy in Kansas City but your line of BS isn't going to work with trained professionals who know how to root out this type of corruption and malfeasance. And if you really left Gloria in charge, you will need not a political consultant but an image/pr person. This is a fish that stinks from the head... as City Auditor I betcha you know how those kinds of situations wind up. Don't you?
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Squitiro said they continue to look for a replacement.

Gloria, how long could it possibly take. Hiring a monkey would have produced a better result than what you brought down on the Funk and yourself. Agreed, Midtown Guy? Or am I being too critical?
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“We should have stayed on top of it and we didn’t,” Squitiro said. “That’s completely our fault.”

A well known political given that is a must do for the smartest politicians in the room (eh, Gloria?) is that they never never ever go near the campiagn finance function of their campaigns. They don't take checks, they distance themselves from all finance issues up to and including who the donors are, what they spent the money on and never sign checks or approve expenditures. And they don't have their Co-Mayor wives doing any of this either. As smart as you think the two of you are, this is going to take a big bite out of the two of you. It already has (Super Auditor Funk playing one of the Blind Monkeys when asked about what happened) and it is only going to get worse.
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One more separate post for midtown and then I am done for the night.

anthony posted:

"if you check his mortgages at the county courthouse you will see he has run mortgages in excess of 150% of the market value of his house. Smart with the money?

You replied:

Last time I checked, a whole lot of Americans were up to their eyeballs in similar debt. Stupidity with personal finances, in and of itself, is not a crime.
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I presume you have conceded the point that their house is mortgaged for more than it's value and that that is a stupid thing to do. If you don't I will do a better job than the other blogger... I will pull and post the records, pull and post the appraised value and if that wouldn't be enough, get an appraisal of Casa Squitiro and post that too. I wonder if she has allowed him to have his name on the deed? A side point.

I think you have been critical of the Two Mayors at times. I wonder why you don't think I have the right to be critical or even more critical than you. And I challenge you to pick out something I have posted that isn't true. Not that I care any more about what you think than you seem to care about what I think.

Until I am no longer inafunkaboutthefunk an no matter how tired I get, I will post here and on other blogs. I think they have three and change years left but they are working on proving me wrong. There is no joy here either... since he has become the Mayor chaos, hatred and lunacy have ruled the roost and have become coins of the realm. This doesn't apply to just Mark and Gloria; certainly Cauthen, the Council People, and of course our friends over at the Board of Ed just to name a few. And don't be funny and retort by asking me to name more names or explain why the abovementioned officials qualify. You know why and I expect you know some of the names I would add on and probably you would add on some names that I didn't even know about.

An email was sent to me by my source and said Funkhouser paid Tony, TKC $10,000 to write good things about him.
Tony betrayed him as we can see.

Funkhouser gave Cris Medini $20,000 to get La Raza to stay in Kansas City.
Cris betrayed him as well.

Funk gave Rita $20,000 to kick Tony, Rita's son. Out of the basement.
Rita betrayed the Funk too.

Mayor gave $20,000 to the leader of Freedom Inc to sway black voters to vote in favor of the 1% sales tax.
Freedom Inc came thru.

Funky gave $10,000 to Minutemen to stay to have convention in Kansas City to piss off Tony and his hispanic comrades.
They said OK.

Thats where all the money went to.

from what I have read, you have about as much credibility as the Mayors.

In this case that is not much.

If you were trying to be funny...

You were not.

"The new report also showed five reimbursements to Squitiro for $5,883.52.

"But Squitiro said Wednesday that’s a mistake and that she didn’t receive those reimbursements. As campaign treasurer, she said she wrote only one check during that period. That check was to Funkhouser for about $2,400 for what she called legitimate campaign expenses."
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Sorry for being so naive, but so who filled out the latest report then, if not Squitiro? I thought there wasn't a deputy campaign treasurer. Maybe these are related to the "communications related to the campaign fund" that Asjes was "worried" about when he resigned from being the treasurer.

I am so tired of this three-ring circus. Get it together, Mayor, so the city can deal with real issues instead of this political incompetency. This isn't just a fluff "image" issue.

Does that mean she'll come out in the wash? Where do we start?

My point is that many Americans carry an unhealthy amount of debt around. It is so common that it is not worth noting. And carrying debt most certainly does not constitute a crime.

And you are correct inafunk, I have been critical of the co-mayors. However, I have not allowed my dismay and disappopintment at Funkhouser's performance become an obsession. There's also a difference between criticism and much of the venom you spew day after day.

__________________________________
Squitiro said she and her husband didn’t pay close attention to the bookkeeping issues because they were busy with the new duties and demands of his office.
__________________________________

I simultaneously cringe and laugh when I read that statement. Why is she busy with the new duties of his office? She has no duties . . . or at least, I don't recall electing her to have any, and she does not hold an official/recognized position with the City.

Yes, yes, I know the whole co-mayor thing; that's my point.

Humbly submitted,

Tiberius the Calm

My point is that many Americans carry an unhealthy amount of debt around. It is so common that it is not worth noting. And carrying debt most certainly does not constitute a crime.

Most of these very same Americans, the regular folk as the Two Mayor's are fond of saying, don't run for Mayor touting their financial acumen and that they are smart with the money. You're not saying that having a house mortgaged for more than it's worth is a smart idea, are you?

As to the "venom" I spew, it seems to be well deserved. The two Mayor's have shown themselves to be arrogant, nasty, mean, spirited, clueless, not smart with the money, lying twofaced and in some ways racist insensitive foulmouthed inappropriately behaving loonballs. There is factual material to back up every adjective I employed. They have created chaos, ill will, further divided a racially divided town (on his 15 minutes of stardom on the newly minted weak and pathetic Steve Rose Show, the Funk touted that some racial statistic indicating that the racial divide has inched down a little (not during his term but a study that had been done prior to his Mayoral Term) and basically got themselves run over after trying to do the same to everyone they came in contact with.

Why shouldn't I be angry? My question is why aren't you angry? They are making a laughingstock of our town, set back the government, attempted to "rule" imperially and seem to have no intention of changing anything.

I left out the new item about the unaccounted for Campaign money, the inappropriateness of Gloria's being the Campaign Treasurer and what we are going to find out when these two cluelesss buffoons get investigated. And I don't mean by the Kansas City Star and Yael T Abouhalkah. Neither of the last two would do a good enough job, don't have subpoena
power and in the case of Mr. A, are also conflicted to the maximum. If you gave these clowns any noticeable amount of money, you should be a bit more than mildly disappointed.

Their day of reckoning on this item is coming soon enough. The smartest and most underestimated guy in the room not only is going to be humiliated (I think he already did himself in on that count), he will get held to account for what he and Gloria did with the money. Something is really wrong with the campaign account/accounting. The fish stinks from the head and now everyone knows. What we find when the fish is gutted is yet to be determined and exposed. We will just have to wait and come back to it. Won't we Funk? And Yael?

I think that someone from the Star, some good government type or maybe one of regular people on this blog better keep an eye out for the Funkhouser Campaign Finance Debacle.

I am hereby formally announcing my candidacy for the position of Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s campaign treasurer. I have absolutely no qualifications for the job, but so what? Neither does Mrs. Mayor. And, trust me. If under my stewardship the books come up $80,000 short, you won’t have to fire me. I will have long since left town for Vegas.

No I really didn't, but I figured if I said that I did then The Star and other news media outlets might report on the story a bit more gusto. The story deserves more attention than it is receiving.

If the treasurers for any other elected official had lost 80 Grand, you would be all over the SCANDAL.

Where is the money and how was it lost?

You Clark Kent types have to get over the fear of reporting negative things about the Mayor's wife. She is playing a public role; therefore, she is a public figure. Why doesn't she file a personal finance disclosure form with the Missouri Ethics Commission?

Furthermore, who is watching over the money that Funkhouser is raising for his "education summit?" Did he fail to raise money for his campaign fund last quarter because he has been putting the screws to contributors for the education summit?

And you are correct inafunk, I have been critical of the co-mayors. However, I have not allowed my dismay and disappopintment at Funkhouser's performance become an obsession. There's also a difference between criticism and much of the venom you spew day after day.
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Fiddle while Rome burns. I choose to take a stronger stance and to down down fighting. Not only am I inafunkaboutthefunk, but with all the lunatics we have managed to put in charge of the asylum (Cauthen, Funk, Gloria [we got her by accident], Gottstien, Ford, Underhill, Yael T Abouhalkah [hopefully he isn't in cnarge of too many things any more if ever], and most of the rest of the Councilfolk) I am getting nervous that something irreversibly awful is going to happen to Kansas City [as if awful hasn't been the coin of the realm here for many years... just ask the children who tried to get educated at a public school]. We get what we pay for, us regular folk, but that doesn't mean I can't be Mad As H-ll and Not Willing To Take It Any More. If I am not mistaken, an Academy Award Winning movie came out of that sentiment. So I feel, not counting you it seems, that I am in good company.