KC Mayor acts precipitously, again

The Mayor learned a lot from his last attempt, and oh by the way so did the Council members.

He learned that while he knew Cauthen was an incompetent boob, he couldn't ramrod his firing down the throats of the council.

They learned that He was right the first time and waiting around longer to prove what they've seen with Cauthen already would be criminal. Hopefully, they won't fare as poorly as Nero did while he fiddled.

Oh, and the Mayor learned something else. He didn't tell certain council members what was in the works, because he wanted it done and didn't need a chamber full of ministers and agitators who like to mug for the camera while the city deteriorates.

Funky is wising up. He won't win another election, but he's learning that Politics is a Full Contact Sport. Bring your A - Game and Brassknuckles would be a good idea too.

....is this the same Kay Barnes that the Star endorsed for Congress, saying her "knowledge is needed in Washington".

Doesn't that speak directly to the agenda of the blog columns and editorials written today?

KC Star , Cauthen and Kay Barnes

In 2005, the newspaper sought and received city approval for a 10-year, $12.8 million property tax abatement on the press facility. The Star is to pay full property taxes on the facility after 10 years.

http://www.downtownkc.org/content.aspx?pgID=875&newsID=196&exCompID=82

Press building near completion, 7/14/2005
By Dan Margolies, The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star’s new press facility has begun trial press runs in anticipation of the plant’s official opening next year.

Much of the interior of the massive, $199 million, glass-enclosed plant has been completed, and three of its four presses have been installed. The facility, which will eventually house all of The Star’s printing operations and its 550 print workers, is expected to be fully operational in May 2006.

At that time, The Star will stop using its 40-year-old presses, which are housed in The Star’s historic headquarters at 1729 Grand Blvd. The old machinery there will be sold for scrap and the resulting space eventually will be converted to offices for T he Star’s news, advertising and administrative employees, currently housed in the main building.

“We’re going from 1960s technology to a state-of-the-art printing facility,” said Mac Tully, president and publisher of The Star. “When we throw the switch to go live, we’re going to be operating with the newest plant in the world.

“That’s not only exciting for the newspaper, that’s exciting for all of Kansas City. In a lot of respects, the newspaper and the city are joined at the hip, and this transformation for us will reflect well for the entire area.”

Also this week, a storage building immediately north of The Star’s headquarters will be torn down. Another storage building immediately north of that structure will be razed by the end of the month. The two buildings are being demolished to make way for more parking.

Ground breaking for the new press pavilion, which is immediately northeast of The Star’s headquarters, took place in May 2003. The building takes up two city blocks and occupies more than 420,000 square feet of space, or the equivalent of almost 10 acres of land. It sits just south of the downtown loop, overlooking the site of the planned downtown arena and entertainment district to the northwest.

The building’s sloping roof ascends to the equivalent of eight stories on the building’s north end. At nearly 378 feet, the area containing the presses is longer than a football field.

Curbs and sidewalks surrounding the press pavilion have been completed. In the fall, trees and bushes will be planted around the facility’s perimeter. A museum display about The Star and the newspaper industry is planned for the lobby.

Although the facility won’t be fully operational for 10 months, The Star expects to begin using the new plant’s packaging equipment to insert the Sunday comics and other sections in the next few weeks.

“As soon as we get a partial occupancy permit from the city, we’ll do our inserting operations there from now on,” said project manager Randy Waters, vice president of production for the newspaper.

The new presses will give the newspaper printing capabilities it currently does not have, such as the ability to produce 40 four-color pages. The newspaper will undergo a top-to-bottom redesign in conjunction with the presses’ startup, including a reconfiguration of the paper’s width and length.

Tully said the paper would be “brighter, cleaner, crisper than ever before” once the new presses are fully operational.

“We’re going to have a ton more color capacity. And just as exciting, which may be a little bit more invisible to our readers, is our zoning and targeting abilities will be significantly enhanced,” he said. “We’ll be able to put more specific products in the hands of people who need, want and desire them rather than what we do now, which is mass production products.”

The newspaper sought and received city approval for a 10-year, $12.8 million property tax abatement on the press facility. The Star is to pay full property taxes on the facility after 10 years.
First glance

■ Three of the four presses have been installed in the press pavilion for The Kansas City Star, which has begun trial runs.

■ The $199 million plant is scheduled to be fully operational by May 2006.
To reach Dan Margolies, call (816) 234-4481 or send e-mail to .

The developments downtown were done without a minimum of fiscal prudence and appropriate objective project appraisal. In this process, residents and taxpayers were continually told by the incompetent Cauthen that P&L would never "cost taxpayers a dime." P&L and other projects were done with a total lack of both financial know-how and understanding of development contracts. First, while this specific recession may not have been easily forecast, certain principles of sound fiscal management exist and are widely known by professionals of which the unqualified Cauthen (by education and experience) is clearly not one. Let me remind you that I have been predicting this debacle even PRIOR TO the recession. If I could see what was coming, "professional" full-time administrators should have too. Second, a story in the Star about a year ago indicated that Cauthen had not even read and understood the provisions of the P&L contract that have placed all of us at risk. I am tired of Cauthen, his "team", and some on the City Council. Even the civic association now and finally have these circus performers on its radar screen. It is time for citizens to clean house at City Hall and get rid of the existing STUNNING incompetence perpetuated by Cauthen, his gaggle of circus performers, and some members of the Council.

with art but he is correct hj. That man should have been removed long ago. The lack of city growth can be tied to his rein. The p&l and sprint center are not bad ideas if you are attracting business. Tax policies have prevented this as well as the lack of development of the airport.

He was a small city man who liked to line his own pockets.

This post by Pepper appears to be among the more ignorant that I have read in the Star. Cauthen was never experientially or educationally qualified to be a Big City City Manager. He ran this City into the ground as the recent ballooning subsidies to P&L unambiguously testify. Indeed, these alone would lead to termination in any other city. But, this is merely one of an extensive chain of bad and apparently corrupt public decisions that profited private individuals while emptying City coffers. The Mayor directing Cauthen? KCMO is a Council-Manager government, and Pepper is too ignorant to understand how these should operate. Additionally, how can one direct a poorly educated inexperienced political fixer with no professional expertise, who bought "friends" and support with public funds. This guy deserved a kick in the rear on his exit, a formal complaint to the ICMA for violations of its Code of Ethics, and a through investigation of all his activities, those of his associate Kay Barnes, and their developer buddies (aka Rip-off Artists). Not only has Cauthen sliced up this City, but this ignorant columnist wants to rub salt in the wounds of its residents and tax payers.

Ahhhh ... this has been brewing for years.
It's the times, the city budget,and the economy.
Not exactly a surprise. Somebody has to be the scapegoat.