By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Mayor Mark Funkhouser is locked in a battle with the City Council over who’s going to control City Hall’s agenda.
For the long run, I’ll put my money on Funkhouser.
Mind you, that’s not because he’s the world’s greatest politician. In an interview Tuesday, the mayor said he’d give himself a “C-minus, D-plus on the political side” of his 16-month tenure.
Too many snafus have nipped away at his credibility with his City Council colleagues (led by the controversy over wife Gloria Squitiro’s volunteering in his office) to give him a higher grade.
But there’s a simple reason Funkhouser has the best shot at controlling the agenda: He’s a strong-willed mayor who eventually could earn support from a council majority.
That counts for a lot in Kansas City, as history shows.
Former mayors Emanuel Cleaver and Kay Barnes had some difficulties getting their councils to follow them in their first terms. But both had far more successful second terms, with usually obedient council members.
Barnes in her first term had a council that, as I wrote in 2001, was composed of “12 lone rangers” who had “contributed to the general malaise that now grips City Hall.” But her second term included a strong and effective push to rejuvenate downtown.
Now along comes Funkhouser, who has had a positive start to his term when it comes to the policy side — the things that actually matter to residents.
A quick list:
Voters passed a capital improvements sales tax and renewed a tax for better buses.
The City Council backed Funkhouser on a new, stricter policy on handing out economic development subsidies as well as a new policy to rein in city debt. And the council approved a more realistic, belt-tightening city budget.
Funkhouser on Tuesday gave himself an “A-minus, B-plus grade” on following through with his campaign’s priorities.
With caveats — the development policy could have been tougher, the city budget leaner — I’d pretty much agree with his assessment.
Now let’s look at the council.
The 12 members held an unusual news conference last week. Stung by Funkhouser’s criticism over trying to push Squitiro out of his office, the elected officials sounded defensive, saying they were still working on the public’s business. True, this council has been active, if not always productive.
The worst mistake: Rashly and without much public debate extending the contract of City Manager Wayne Cauthen to spite Funkhouser, who had clumsily tried to oust him.
Another council mistake: Passing a weak smoking ban, which voters overrode with a tougher law in Apri.
The council does have some hard workers. On substantive issues that have received lots of public attention:
Russ Johnson led placement of a light-rail initiative on the November ballot, correctly putting off a regional transit plan backed by Funkhouser.
Jan Marcason has been a tireless advocate of better sewers and finding a good way to pay for them. She helped Deb Hermann promote good budget changes this year, with Funkhouser’s backing.
Cindy Circo worked with Johnson to help put together a reasonable capital improvements campaign, backed enthusiastically by Funkhouser.
Cathy Jolly promoted the smoking ordinance (with little help from the mayor).
Sure, Funkhouser’s relationships with council members could be better.
While he has staunch allies in Hermann and Bill Skaggs, he’s irritated others such as Marcason and Johnson in recent days. And he must work on building other alliances.
The mayor has a policy-wonk approach to government. He still has many attractive ideas — on a slimmer budget, economic development, better infrastructure — that would make him a valuable leader.
Funkhouser has the biggest bully pulpit and easily gets the most public attention. To make the most progress for Kansas Citians, though, he’ll need cooperation from a council majority.
It’s something he needs to earn in the future.
Editorial Board member Yael T. Abouhalkah can be reached at 816-234-4887 or at abouhalkah@kcstar.com. Read his blog postings at voices.kansascity.com
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what are you really thinking LT'er
then this type of pettiness is acceptable
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You cannot possibly believe that a public rebuke of a sitting Mayor by the council is petty. It is historic. Not because I believe tha Council People are great people or good legislators but because the amount of humiliation, bad government, innapropriate actions and ill will it must have taken to get these normally ineffective baboons to do something this controversial must have been gigantic. Certainly not petty...
Tell me how this repairs our budget problems and provides better service to our citizens?
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Mind sharing with us Mayor Smart With Nothinghousers contribution to the advancement of municipal solvency? He recommended a budget that runs at a deficit, knocked out the 20 promised cops, pushed TIF projects which even he said were in the best of circumstances due to lose money, is involved in a lawsuit (Bates) that is costing the City plenty of legal time and bills and looks like a few extra hundred thousand dollars to settle up, and took a raise for himself. Has he done anything that stands out as "smart with the money?" What has he done?
Tell me how this action addresses the fact that people died last night in the urban core?
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Do you think that referring to East of Troost as the "black part of town" has been helpful? Driving to visit groups in the Northland without police protection and then going to the aforementioned "black part of town" armed to the teeth with police at his side is helpful? Do you think stating that he couldn't abandon Semler because he didn't want to irritate his bigoted supporters in the Northland helped with this? Taake to us...
We have serious issues to address and that requires serious people...
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Would a serious person write a Christmas Card like the card sent by the Funkhousers last year? End of story.
They simply joined forces for an hour to defeat the Mayor.
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They didn't join forces to defeat the Mayor. They voted to eradicate a disease which Funk permitted to stay on much too long. A Disease that he was unable to put down by himself. A disease that he wasn't man enough to handle by himself. They voted together to remove Gloria because she caused to much of too many bad things that affected to many people and she didn't seem like she was ever going to stop.
Taking notes?
"Tell me how we are better off as a city because Gloria will no longer send thank you notes or take notes for Funkhouser? "
Well, gee, if that was all she was doing, it wouldn't be too bad.
But, according to our Mayor, a good portion of the accomplishments of this administration, whatever they may be, Gloria has been a part of.
That sounds a lot more like taking notes and sending out thank you notes....
strong-willed mayor could earn eventual council majority support
Unfortunately the source of your hope, Yael, for the Mayor's potential for future success is the reason for my own pessimism that the remainder of his term will show substantial improvement over the rockiest of beginnings.
I do hope you're right but the public wallowing in grief we're now forced to witness over the impending "loss" of Gloria at his side isn't an encouraging sign.
kcfella, if not this, what?
What would rise to the level of being called petty? Twelve people tasked with making the city a better place for all took their issues with the Mayor public and by their faces, took great joy in kicking his wife out. This is stuff for the PTA or Homes Association meetings not a government body. When people get so locked in to a goal that they can not see each issue for what it is then this type of pettiness is acceptable.
Tell me how this action addresses the fact that people died last night in the urban core? Tell me how this will build more houses or restore our failed housing program? Tell me how this action will address Light Rail? Tell me how this action will create jobs and attract new business to Kansas City? Tell me how this repairs our budget problems and provides better service to our citizens? Tell me how we are better off as a city because Gloria will no longer send thank you notes or take notes for Funkhouser?
We have serious issues to address and that requires serious people who can weed out the voices in their ear who have personal agendas and know what is deserving of their time. They are not the Mayor's keeper and he alone will be held accountable for the actions of his office and his wife's presense there. This was not for them to address. They simply created another show for us to watch at city hall and gave the media something to write about.
There is nothing united about this council. They simply joined forces for an hour to defeat the Mayor. That is the only time they are together. You praise them for this? Your bar is set way too low. But for his leadership in delegating responsibility and allowing them to serve to their highest potential, they would not have the list of accomplishments stated in this post. They had these opportunities because he gave them to them.
Abouhalkah's column: Don't count Funkhouser out, yet
Can we count him out now, Yael? Is this another Funkhouser win?
What say ye Yael T Abouhalkah?????
P.S. You know I am surprised you don't have the betzim to defend yourself. Maybe you don't care what your readers have to say, maybe you are worried about holding on to your job and maybe you don't like having to defend what you write about. Oh well... just an idle musing :) Still, my remark stands... no betzim.
What does unity mean? - re-posted from a post by cdm2p
Submitted by cdm2p on September 11, 2008 - 10:41pm.
Funkhouser asked the Council to work together. When the votes are called, 12 members of the Council vote one way and he votes the other way. Funkhouser, being the last one to cast a vote, had a chance to show that the he can cooperate after he saw 12 of his colleagues send him a clear message. Instead, he chose to be stubborn and go his own way, ignoring his own pleas for togetherness and cooperation. This defines who he is. Stubborn and unable to understand the concept of unity, even when unity stares him right in the face.
In the end, I think this is the best thing that could have happened to his office. He just doesn't know it.
Disappointment --- re-posted from a post by DRP
Submitted by DRP on September 11, 2008 - 10:30pm.
I read this with feelings of disappointment in a man who could have done better. Feelings of opportunity squandered.
Funkhouser brought a promise of openness and transparency to city government. I supported that. I believed in that.
Funkhouser brought a promise of making decisions based entirely upon best available information, and not just what a mayor wanted to do at the moment.
I expected the same principles which the former City Auditor applied to departments which came under his scrutiny. I supported that. I believed in that.
Once elected, it was as though none of the promises had ever been made.
For example, appointments were made in total secret. A particularly peculiar appointment was made to the city Parks board seemingly without any examination of the qualifications or background of the appointee.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Mayor can make any appointments he pleases without any consideration of whether an appointee is qualified or not. But, that's not what Funkhouser promised. To quote Funkhouser, "we can do better."
Transparency means transparency.
What came of the Parks appointee was that Funkhouser wasted much of his first months in office defending his right to make any choice he wanted. That isn't transparency.
And, even after all of the posturing that the mayor can do anything he wants -- even though he had promised to do things differently, the appointee turned on him, anyway.
Funkhouser could have used his fresh political capital on something substantive. Instead, a year's delay cost both Funkhouser -- and the entire region -- valuable time.
I supported Funkhouser on the basis that I firmly believed that he was going to bring more substance to the office of Mayor. Standing on "principle" to do anything he wants is a cruel reminder to those of us who believed he would defend "transparency" in government.
His handling of the campaign finance fiasco was equally disappointing. It makes no difference that he signed a consent agreement with the Missouri Ethics Commission to pay a fine and promise not to do as poorly in the future -- so is somehow behind him now.
You can't just do anything you want because you win an election. Funkhouser needed to stand up and set an example of compliance with the law. He should never have gotten into that mess in the first place. Once in it, he should have stopped everything and gotten the records straight.
Instead, he took months to reconcile records that should have been corrected in just a few hours.
You don't build respect by flaunting your power to ignore laws that mere mortals as myself have to follow.
There is no doubt but what people will continue to work with Funkhouser on broadly based issues. The KCMO City Council will do so as well as concerned citizens throughout the region.
However, working with someone out of necessity is different from working with someone from a sense of enthusiasm and determination.
Sadly, Funkhouser has lost the one thing which he came into City Hall carrying -- vigorous support from people who thought he could be the next L. P. Cookingham (the man who more than any other saved Kansas City government after the Pendergasts had looted the treasury). Even if you didn't know about the Cookingham legacy, you knew that Funkhouser could have been something special.
He's not. He has no one to look to except himself.
David R. Peironnet
pettiness?
Like Yael, you seem to have lost your way as well. The ordinance and the reaction of the council titans was anything but petty. The insane, vindictive, stubborn and idiotic actions of the Co-Mayors left the Council no choice. You can't possibly believe that a bunch of compromise prone elected officials went about striking a death blow to Gloria just for the heck of it.
Face it LT'er... Gloria and Mark have performed so badly and caused so much divisiveness, bad feelings and trouble that for the second time, the council people acted like people, not politicians and looked to rid the City of this vulgar, menace woman. Isn't it ironic that it was Funk, the leader of the Orange Revolution who was supposed to be the one who acted not like a politician.
No LT'er, this day was anything but pettiness.
As an aside, I am going to re-post DRP's comments about the leader of the Orange Revolution. So of his thoughts are very incisive and some are right on the money.
Most of us share his disappointment with the Funk. Maybe not as much as I do but from the obvious fact that nary a soul came to the Funk's aid during the death strike, not many people like what he and Gloria have been up to.
It is way past the time when she should have been removed. And for this you have no one to thank but the hapless Mark himself. And at the end of the day, Mr Unity for Allhouser chose to vote against the will of the people and their elected officials just for the heck of it rather than standing down and moving on. And you can bet that he isn't finished yet. Again, it's on him, not on the Council Titans.
2nd Term?
I saw that you mentioned how things get better during the second term. Let me tell you something: if you think Funkhouser is going to have a second term, you are on the same boat as those fanatical Ron Paul fans.
It is not going to happen. Funkhouser will be irrelevant by the end of 2009.
Mayor Funkhouser
From day one we have seen former Mayor Barnes and Steve Glorios's lapdogs at work to discredit the Mayor. Yes, Terry Riley and company!!
It is VERY unfortunate that all the energy has been spent on such trival issues. Where is the outrage with Councilman Riley regarding the "bloodshed" in his community? Why aren't the at Large Councilmembers outraged about the increased amount of violence in our city? Twelve small minded people voted today against a man of courage. It is time they took off their blinders and realized what a laughing stock they have made our great city. What a bunch of fools! "Throwing pearls before swine"