Mark Funkhouser

Kansas City Council members are confirming that Mayor Mark Funkhouser is out to reshuffle his committee chairs.

The goal appears to be to place Terry Riley as chair of the powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Council members confirmed that Funkhouser or his staff has either approached them about taking over a new committee or they've heard of such a move.

Riley, the current planning and zoning chair, has yet to agree to discuss any moves.

Council members said part of the shuffle involved putting Riley over transportation and infrastructure.

That committee oversees millions of dollars of public works and water contracts. Even more are expected with the city's giant overflow-control program in the works.

2 October 2009

Dear Folks,

This Week's City Business

The Office Depot Foundation offered to donate 500 backpacks to a nonprofit agency of the Mayor's choice this past week. The Mayor selected three agencies to be the recipients of the backpacks: Guadalupe Center, St. Mark's Child and Family Development Center, and Operation Breakthrough.

He chose those agencies because he is working with them to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone here in Kansas City. This week, the Mayor gave disadvantaged children backpacks.

Through his efforts on education, he will give them a lifetime of hope. NASCAR driver Tony Stewart was also on hand for the backpack giveaway. And his stardom definitely outshone the Mayor's at this event.

Dear Folks,

In Honor Of The Rea Family

It is with heavy heart that we report that campaign volunteer and Mayor's office staff member, Crispin Rea, lost his Mama this past Monday evening.

The Mayor and his wife refuse to speak of Marie Rea in the past tense as her love and her work continue in the present.

While we didn't have the privilege of knowing Marie Rea well, that doesn't mean that we don't know who she is.

One only needs to look to her family to know the kind of a woman that she is.

She is strong.

Strong enough to raise a cocky - in all the right places - son.

And strong enough to raise that same son - to be soft in all the other right places.

Strong enough to raise two absolutely gorgeous daughters.

Daughters who will go on to strongly raise their own families - just as she taught them to do.

Dear Folks,

This Week's City Business

The major news last week was Kansas City's loss of the soccer stadiums at The Trails. While the Mayor is not in favor of taking large financial risks for non-governmental programs, he was in favor of this project for the social justice aspect part of the deal. In addition to the Wizards professional field and bringing redevelopment to an area of the city that it is greatly needed, twelve youth fields were also going to be built and they would have been as nice as anything that Overland Park provides for their youth.

As you know, Kansas City has taken large financial risks like this in the past and we are paying dearly for them today with significant operating shortfalls in our budget. Because of the risks taken with past projects like the Sprint Center, there was simply no room left in the city's budget to be able to make the Wizards the same offer that Wyandotte County was able to offer them.

22 August 2009

Dear Folks,

This Week's City Business

The Mayor is participating in the Yahoo! Sports Mayoral Fantasy Football Face-Off and has designated the Police Athletic League as his charity. He is urging all Kansas City area residents to join him in supporting the Police Athletic League. Kansas City area residents can help the Police Athletic League win $15,000 by voting for Kansas City at http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f2/mayoral-faceoff. The voting ends on September 11, 2009.

The Police Athletic League could win an additional $15,000 if the Mayor wins the league title. The Mayoral Face-Off draft was held Thursday, and the Mayor's staff drafted the following players: Brian Westbrook (Phi - RB)

Clinton Portis (Was - RB)

14 August 2009

Dear Folks,

This Week's City Business

The Mayor has been working out of an auxiliary office at city hall ever since May of this year when a roof leak caused the ceiling in his office to cave in. You cannot believe the damage that the leak caused or the mess that it made. The 1930's Art Deco Mayor's office was significantly damaged, with the ceiling, carpet and some furniture being ruined beyond repair. Luckily, the beautiful walnut paneling and the original lighting, desk and conference table were salvageable.

While the Mayor has "made do" in the auxiliary office, he is grateful that most of the repairs to his office are almost complete. Unfortunately, some of his staff had it even worse than he did as bits of the ceiling actually fell down on them. Thankfully, they didn't get seriously hurt, but they also had to move to an auxiliary office. The good news is that the Mayor's office was in very bad shape to begin with. It was long over-due for updating, with most items having served their useful life, and then some. The Mayor is hoping that the part of his office where his staff sits can also be updated someday as well.

Despite Mayor Mark Funkhouse's roller-coaster week -- from the Bates case settlement to a victory in the volunteer ordinance challenge -- the weekly Funk's Front Porch suggests a return to city business:

Funk's Front Porch

31 July 2009

Dear Folks,

This Week's City Business

The Mayor was asked to be a part of a conference call with Vice President Joe Biden and three other mayors yesterday to talk about stimulus funding and how the federal government can do a better job in serving city governments with the funds. All three mayors were asked for their advice on the subject. Our Mayor felt that the Vice President was sincere in trying to help cities get their fair share of stimulus funding.

Speaking of funds, Police Chief Jim Corwin applied for stimulus funding and was one of the few big cities to not only receive the funding, but to receive the full amount that he applied for. The Mayor is thrilled to have a professional Police Chief who is a partner with him in looking after his constituents highest concern - feeling safe in one's own home and city. The funding will allow the current training academy class, which will graduate next Thursday, to be hired by our city, instead of by neighboring communities. The current class also happens to be the most diverse class that the Chief has ever had, so this is good news all around. The grant will also allow the next candidate class to begin on time in September. The Mayor is still trying to restore cop funding so that the January cadet class can begin on time as well. The reason that this is so important is that if we don't keep the classes going as scheduled, then we lose too many officers on the street for our protection.

 updated 2:00 p.m. with Funkhouser's statement and judge's comment

A Jackson County judge ruled today that the ordinance, passed on September 25, 2008, is void as being unconstitutional. 

   (The full ruling is attached below.)

Mayor Mark Funkhouser filed the lawsuit last year to void the section of the ordinance barring family members who provide the mayor with “consulting or advisory” services

24 July 2009

Dear Folks,

This Week's City Business

We are sorry to have been so long getting a newsletter out the door to you. As you probably saw in the news, the Mayor has been diligently preparing for the discrimination lawsuit that befell his office and the city. He remains under a court order to not discuss the matter in any detail, and he is going to continue to honor that order. What he can say at the moment is that he was looking forward to going to trial because he knows that he would have been vindicated. The council voted to settle the case yesterday for $550,000.

On the advice of his legal counsel, the Mayor abstained from the vote. On a positive note, the Mayor is glad to have this behind him. While he has been moving his priorities forward all along, this ordeal has taken a toll on the city, his staff and his family. And while the Mayor's priority has always been to be fiscally conservative and a good steward with your tax dollars, in this case, he believed that continuing to improve his growing relationship with councilmember's would go much further toward that goal than putting his own needs first and selfishly forcing the case to trial in order to be publicly vindicated.

Jackson County Judge Ann Mesle, presiding over one of the hottest political trials in recent Kansas City history, has taken a step to quell the noise.

Mesle, in an order signed Friday, has issued a trial-publicity order that will require parties in the case, including a number of city officials, to limit their statements related to the Ruth Bates case.

The order cites Bates, any Kansas City Council member, Mark Funkhouser or these individuals: Michael Bates, Kendrick Blackwood, Burnetta Burtin, (City Manger) Wayne Cauthen, Mary Charles, Dottie Engle, Ed Ford, Joe Miller, Shawn Pierece, Joan Pu, Crispin Read, Jeff Roe, Mark Seittman, Jeff Spivak, Gloria Squitiro and Joyce Vidovich.

By DAVE HELLING

The Star 

UPDATE, 4:40 p.m.:

  Group director Gayden Carruth says she'll meet with Funkhouser and see if changes in the summit can be made that would make the event acceptable to school districts.

   And KC superintendent John Covington said he's "open" to a summit if other districts get on board.

   Earlier, Carruth told Prime Buzz that Covington and 14 other KC districts were "not interested in pursuing an education summit as proposed by Mayor Funkhouser."

  Funkhouser's office said he does not consider the letter the "end" of the summit, but will meet with the districts group again.

- - -

Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s plan for a major citywide summit on education has taken a big hit.

This week's letter from Gloria Squitiro:                

This week the Kansas City school board chose a new superintendent after a focused and transparent, nationwide search. Their unanimous vote on Thursday morning is a step forward both for the district and the Kansas City families it serves.

The Mayor looks forward to meeting and working with Dr. John Covington in the months and years to come. Board President Marilyn Simmons and the rest of the board deserve praise for a job well done.

The Mayor traveled to Harlem at the end of February to meet with Jeffrey Canada. Mr. Canada is the founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, which is a program that leads children out of poverty through the education of the whole family, from womb through college graduation.

The latest Funk's Front Porch:

Dear Folks,

This Week’s City Business

The City Council passed the budget yesterday on a 12-1 vote. Although the budget included a majority of the Mayor’s recommendations, the Mayor was the only dissenting vote.

The Mayor could not in good conscience vote for a budget that cut our police force by 12 million dollars. The Mayor said that this is a harmful cut that completely disregards his residents’ highest priority of having a strong police force protecting them.

According to Police Chief Jim Corwin, cutting his department by 12 million dollars will cut 220 people from his department and will take dozens and dozens of police officers off the streets. Worse is that this move undoes a promise that was made to the citizens of Kansas City to add 20 officers per year to the department, which the Chief has been doing for 10 years now.

By RICK ALM

The Kansas City Star

Did Platte County Presiding Commissioner Betty Knight’s lukewarm support for Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s failed regional light rail plan get her tossed off the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association board this week?