Disarray

The city council passed a budget last week with hardly a ripple in the local journalistic waters. Almost unnoticed for its lack of acrimony the council had an air of stealth as it went about its business. Last year there was a demanding and thoroughly delusional city manager backed by equally delusional councilmen and women on one side of the process and the much-maligned but wiser Mayor on the other.


Somehow confused that he was sitting on a pile of money, former city manager Wayne Cauthen (yeah, they cut him loose) steadfastly insisted his misguided budget was achievable and reasonable. Never very distant from the fore was always a streak of indigence in his demeanor, as if he were felt less respected because of his minority status and was constantly brooding. Maybe because of this he was able to enlist the weaker council members in his support; hell, I don't know--maybe they just agreed with him, because most of them don't seem too bright either. He seemed to have plenty of respect, but just didn't get what services the city really needs.


In opposition was Mayor Mark Funkhauser, a former city auditor who labors under the onus of supporting the Obama administration. Nonetheless he has years of city hall experience that told him and reasonable people there was no way in hell that budget would be manageable. A nasty fight ensued. Compromises were effected, and the city is still here but the city manager abruptly was dismissed several months ago with very little said.


Can't say that I miss him. He never had the professional attitude that is demanded of someone in that line of work. He built an empire of assistant city managers, aides and assistants, actually appointing a "chief of staff." Perhaps we can make a case for the President to have a chief of staff, but a less delusional city manager might get by with two or three assistants and some good department heads. Cauthen didn't get what Funk does: The public wants cops, snow removal and pothole patching, not neighborhood development and organizing.


Despite backing Obama, Mayor Mark Funkhauser is otherwise exhibiting uncommon common sense day after day. He realizes that the livability of the city is fading, along with its tax base. Block after block of the urban inner core is worthless. No one wants to live there, among drug houses, gangs, weed-covered vacant lots and abandoned dwellings. The school district is a mess, administered by a board of union hacks and big-shots. Amid all this people want to feel safe in their homes, want their trash picked up and want the water to run when they turn the tap.

I wonder how much of this the councilmen get. Kansas City is only surviving because of a large surrounding suburban area in the extreme north and south, annexed decades ago mostly as farmland while the core city was still livable. Now it provides the heart of the residential tax base, and the council's biggest issue in three years has been the mayor's wife. Perhaps now, a year before elections, they are just getting around to genuine concerns as witnessed by the smooth budget passage and Cauthen's ouster.

Then there is Power and Light, thought to be the savior of downtown, which may become the next albatross around the city's neck if the enterprise can't make its interest payments and the city has to pick that up too. Hey, thanks Kay Barnes. (Can't imagine what kind of nonsense she would have supported in Congress.) It's a nice area but parking is rare and prices are high. Perhaps the city didn't need this debt at this time, and should have worked to bring offices back downtown from elsewhere in the city. Maybe some big retailers could have been enticed back on to Petticoat Lane. You get some people on the street and the bars and restaurants will follow anyway if the city cleans out the drug dealers and bums. Make it easy for cafes and clubs to open up, cut license fees and permits. Back the inspections off. Get government out of the way.

But that isn't what happened. Kay left a mess for the Funk to clean up. She left him debt, a deluded city manager and a rapidly escaping population and business community. I've heard Funk refer to livability for those of us left here. I hope the council is beginning to get it. Cops, snow removal, pot hole repair. A swimming pool in the summer and a growing--not shrinking--tax base. And maybe a little humility; I'm beginning to think I work for them.