By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
At least twice a week, something happens that makes me think: What happened to the old Mark Funkhouser?
I'm talking about the guy who inhabited the city auditor's office. The one who made practical suggestions, respected different points of view and seemed more about good government than politics.
The new Mark Funkhouser -- the one in the Kansas City mayor's office -- is political in the extreme.
The old Mark Funkhouser never would have tossed out the City Council's housing committee chairwoman, when she was receiving accolades from all parties who have an interest in cleaning up the city's housing program.
Funkhouser did that to Cindy Circo, in a rude and ungracious way, apparently because Circo has been vocal about not having Funkhouser's wife work in the mayor's office.
A deposition by Ed Wolf, Funkhouser's ex-chief of staff, hit the news this week, and gave more details on just how deep the dysfunction in the mayor's office runs.
Funkhouser hasn't been in office two years and his list of estrangements is long. Nearly all the eager, idealistic people who worked on his campaign have broken with him.
At the root of the problem, of course, is Funkhouser's insistence on keeping wife Gloria Squitiro at his side, regardless of what havoc she wreaks.
This ongoing drama is alarming, frustrating and more than a little sad.
I miss the old Mark Funkhouser. It doesn't look like he's coming back.
Delicious
Digg
the funk ruth bates and the squid settle ?
http://www.kmbc.com/news/18002236/detail.html?rss=kc1&psp=news#-
And what could it possibly be that the Squid is unhappy with? Was she looking forward to Burnetta's deposition? Losing the lawsuit and living in the double wide?
Yeech! The details are slowly coming out... I don't expect to see them in the Star before the bloggers and the TV stations get to it.
What happened to the Star being on the leading edge?
What say ye Yael T ABouhalkah???
jenniferm
You are awesome :)
Midwest Voices commentators
Am I allowed to apply to become a Midwest Voices contributor??? I would write exclusively about the Funk and how his actions serve to humiliate the citizens who elected him, widen the gulf of the racial divide, make any hope of the Council acting in a business like way near impossible and detract from just about every other part of the municpal condition possible.
And I will do this truthfully, backing up what I say with facts and illustrations. And I will shy away from nothing!
Any thoughts?
Yael T Abouhalkah
Hey Again Ms. Shelly,
Why don't you ask Yael about some of this?? I think that not only was he the prime mover for the Funk at the Star, not only did he function as the unofficial campaign manager (unofficial because according to Big Ed Wolf there was no formal Campaign Manager and of course it would have been UNETHICAL for Yael T Abouhalkah to act in this role while being a paid employee of the Star, WOULDN'T IT???), but he was invloved deeply with the Funk for many years before the election and helped plan, counsel, guide and educate the Funk about how one goes about trying to become the Mayor).
What say ye about all this Yael T Abouhlakah, or are you Big Ed Wolf... not looking around your world to see what's going on, responding to no one and turning your head away from the truth????
He never existed.
I don't believe for one second that the "old Funk" described in this article ever existed. I believe this is an effort to clean the egg off the face of someone who was pretty easily duped.
Did Funk ever get along with the City Council in his 18 years? Did he ever get along with any mayor? I know he butted heads over his audits--and the Star always seemed to think that was AWESOME.
Do people really rise to the level of their incompetence--or in this case are they assisted?
The Funk...
The Mayor is doing a good enough job of taking himself down. He doesn't need the Star's hlp to do it....
Maybe the Funk
is tired of all the bs your paper has heaped on him...
You decided since he was not a part of the clique to take him down, and you're doing a pretty damm good job...
I wish him luck, but the council and the falling Star have a different agenda then fixing the sewers and the rest of our problems... too bad for the city and its residents...
the problem with mark funkhouser is...
Mark Funkhouser. Wake up Ms. Shelly! The Squid is a wretched and pathetic soul. She is enabled by the Funk. But the real problem behind the demise of the Funk and the Orange Revolution is the Funk himself. How this happened I do not know... apparently either do you. Choice after choice, maneuver after maneuver, decision after decision and appointment after apointment... he proved to be a clueless, hapless, hateful, lying two-faced buffoon and almost a complete retard. Go figure?
Maybe if you asked Yael T Abouhalkah, his chief booster at the Star and unofficial campaign manager... apparently he spent quite some time (years) with the Funk planning the masterstroke of getting Funk elected Mayor.
Cindy Circo
Not only has the Funk flunked on this one, he chose Sharon Sanders Brooks as her replacement on as chairman of the city council's housing committee. Ms. Brooks lives in my Longfellow neighborhood and it seems her house on Charlotte Street is in constant housing code violations!