Cleaver's response on 'costly vehicle lease'
I would like to respond to a recent media story entitled “Cleaver’s costly vehicle lease” from Sunday, May 6.
I was shocked and disappointed to see the piece, which, I am told was written based on a report from the nationally syndicated newsmagazine program, ‘Inside Edition’. The article mentioned my Mobile Office. I was not contacted for comment, clarification or explanation regarding the issue of ‘leased automobiles’.
While some Members of Congress utilize taxpayer dollars to drive expensive cars in their districts, this is not the case with me. I drive a ten year old Chrysler that my wife and I own.
The vehicle my office leases has never been used for my personal transportation. It is a handicapped accessible Mobile Office that brings government services to constituents who may not otherwise be able to get to an office building.
Constituents like the elderly woman who no longer drives, but wasn’t receiving her social security check. When the Mobile Office made a stop in her neighborhood, she was able to sit down with a caseworker, who began a Congressional inquiry on the spot.
Constituents like the gentleman, who was able to walk right down the street to a local library, where the Mobile Office was stationed. He wasn’t getting his IRS refund check. Again, within a matter of minutes, a caseworker cut through months of red tape and bureaucracy.
Despite past positive stories on the Mobile Office, some by the Kansas City Star itself, for reasons unknown, this story left out relevant and important facts. The article read, “Two years ago he (meaning me) defended making taxpayers shell out big dollars for a van that reportedly served as his mobile office.”
To be clear, I do not feel the need to ‘defend’ my efforts to serve my constituents. I do that unapologetically. But I do believe Star readers deserve to get an accurate explanation of where those taxpayer dollars are going, why, and to what end. Sensational, inaccurate and fact-free writing has no place in a respected paper like the Kansas City Star.
In fact, the Kansas City Star itself has called me a Jolly Green Giant for my national leadership role in environmentalism, singling out the energy efficiency of my Mobile Office and the fact that it runs on cooking grease. Because of that, it emits no sulfur dioxide, reduced amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
But the Mobile Office is not just an energy efficient vehicle that brings the services of a Congressional office to the people it serves – it also saves those same people taxpayer dollars. It would be much more expensive to open an additional, stationary office in the large Fifth District, staff it and maintain upkeep.
The Mobile Office is an idea that another member of Congress seems to have found useful to serve constituents, too. Republican Rep. Sean Duffy from Wisconsin, who ran as a fiscal conservative, also now has one. The original idea came from the iconic Fifth District Congressman, the late Dick Bolling, who converted an old RV into a much-celebrated Mobile Office.
Yes, the expenditure is listed as an automobile lease cost on the quarterly disbursement forms. That is the general, government classification that exists, and to continue to abide by all of the rules and regulations properly, that is where my Mobile Office must be listed.
But for a local news organization to omit important facts that put the story into context is misleading, a mischaracterization and does not live up to the high standards of The Kansas City Star. Readers deserve better.
Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Belton, Raymore and Peculiar, Missouri. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee. Congressman Cleaver also serves as a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus and Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Phil Cardarella
1 year agoGo Rev!
The Star article was an embarrassing hatchet job, misleading by what it left out.
We like to think that our hometown newspaper has higher standards than a headlin-grabbing TV “newsmagazine”.
Problem — as Twain put it — a lie will race around the world before the truth gets its shoes tied.
Brandon Lewis
1 year agoLeave it to YT Abouhalkah to write such a trash piece.
Thanks Rep Emanuel Cleaver II for the clarity.
Kent Mueller
1 year agoTwo things.
Obviously, Yael wrote before he knew anything other than what he saw on TV. I must say that I thought this was a different lease than the roving office because I certainly thought Yael would have done that homework for the readers. This is an astonishing thing, because I do not support Cleaver at all……but Yael owes him an apology.
Secondly, I am not at all convinced the roving office is cost efficient. The comparison should not be made with a staffed physical office, but cab fare to bring constituents to Cleaver. Or, car expense to get Cleaver or a staffer to the constituent.
It would be the number of visits divided into ongoing costs of upkeep plus a reasonable amount of the fixed cost.
Cleaver, would you provide that?
Yael, would you look into that?
Don DeCelles
12 months agoOff topic here, but I cannot seem to get anyone’s attention on an evolving story about massive waste of our taxpayer dollars by the IRS, so I will make as many people aware as possible by continuing to get this information out in media outlets that actually allow me to do so. I have sent this story to many national media outlets without a single response. Why is this not a major, national, front page story when $4.3 billion dollars of our US taxpayer dollars are being sent to illegal aliens living in this country ANNUALLY because they have figured out how to scam the IRS using their own tax forms. Watch this news story and your blood will boil like mine has been. http://www.wthr.com/video?clipId=7054149&autostart=true