By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
I've been on the road for a week and missed all the action with the Wayne Cauthen firing.
For what it's worth, chiming in belatedly, removing Cauthen was probably a good move for Mark Funkhouser. A mayor deserves to work for a city manager who is in sync with his or her agenda. That wasn't the case with Funk-Cauthen.
If Funkhouser hadn't acted so hamhandedly, he could have ushered Cauthen out a couple of years ago. Still, better late than never. At least the mayor counted votes before pulling off his latest move.
I wish Cauthen well. As city manager tenure goes, he lasted a good spell in Kansas City.
You have to go back almost 30 years, to Bob Kipp's tenure, to identify a consistently successful city manager who was able to depart City Hall on his own terms. That says something about the system, I think. Count me in the ranks of folks who think KC would function better with a strong mayor form of government.
And that's another shame of Funkhouser's rocky tenure. Unless he turns things around in dramatic fashion, he'll forever be used as Exhibit A in why Kansas City should not have a strong mayor. Can he turn things around, improve basic services and win back the trust of voters? I'm doubtful. But working in tandem with acting City Manager Troy Schulte would be a good start.
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If someone needs to go....
....then they need to go...this idea that it was the "way Funk did it" two years ago is just plain stupid. And the incompetence and cowardice that exists on the city council is exhibit A of why this city is a joke.
What are the rules of Deletion?
Please someone post them. I, my friends, and even some whom I have disagreed with have been "deleted".
What are your rules MW Voices?
Share them with us, unless they are arbitrary, are they?
deletions
What are your rules MW Voices?
Share them with us, unless they are arbitrary, are they?
howdy, the rules of deletion aren't arbitrary. but they're being tested right now. Not by actual posters, but by ad robots, the things everyone on here has seen as is annoyed by. The problem has gotten a lot worse in the past couple weeks, so we're deleting them as fast as we can. When manually deleting 300 to 500 at a time, however, in order not to delete actual comments, I'm sure we're messing up on a couple.
Very sorry to any and all who had comments tossed out with the bathwater (in a sense).