It was a really big shew ( in Ed Sullivan speak).
The mayoral candidates — six of them — sat on a stage on the Sprint Center floor this morning, looking up at the audience. Their images were displayed on the video screen above the arena scoreboard, and the LED ribbon on the face of the upper deck said, “2011 Kansas City Mayoral Candidate Forum.”
It would have been nice if 15,000 or so political fans had been in attendance, but the Kansas City Industrial Council, which sponsored the forum, had to settle for a couple of hundred people in Section 117.
Council officials weren’t expecting thousands, but they were ready.
And having the event at Sprint Center was a brilliant stroke, in my opinion. In recent weeks, some of the candidates — Jim Rowland, most notably — have wrung their hands about Kansas City’s direction the last four years, but Sprint Center stands as a credit to our city; it’s one of our recent success stories.
Even without an anchor tenant, Sprint Center is one of the busiest arenas in the nation. Along with the Power & Light District, it has helped resurrect Downtown and keep Kansas City in the hunt as a convention and visitor destination.
For the most part, the people at this morning’s forum were interested in capital improvements and infrastructure issues, such as river levies and the massive sewer-system improvements that Kansas City is launching.
As he has in most of the forums, Roland banged away at Mayor Mark Funkhouser and the current council, saying that a “toxic atmosphere” had settled in at City Hall, preventing the city from moving ahead on any front.
With that line of attack, Roland, a councilman from 1999 to 2006, aims to tar not only Funkhouser but also Councilwoman Deb Hermann, a leading mayoral contender who is completing her second term on the council.
Interestingly, another leading contender, Sly James — whose stock rose considerably over the weekend after he received The Star’s endorsement, along with Mike Burke — came to the defense of the current council, while managing to avoid mentioning Funkhouser specifically.
“I believe our council has worked hard to keep us in the best possible position,” James said. “We have some good people trying to do good things, and they deserve our respect for that.”
James didn’t give the council a complete pass, however, saying that the city seems to be “wandering around from crisis to crisis, putting Band Aids” on its problems, instead of devising a strategic, overall plan of action.
For her part, Hermann got a chance to return fire at Rowland, after Rowland noted that the city had boosted sewer rates by about 15 percent last year and water rates by about 10 percent — and was planning to implement similar rate increases again this year.
Hermann suggested that the current rate increases might not have been so large if the council had not frozen water rates in the year 2000. She didn’t even have to say that Rowland was on the council then; Rowland had told the audience in his opening remarks that he was elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.
The third leading contender, Burke (whom I support and have contributed to), made his mark in the forum by proposing a way to accelerate progress on capital improvements projects.
The city brings in about $70 million a year for capital improvements from a one-cent, voter-approved sales tax. In May of each year, when the council approves the city budget, it also approves the capital improvements expenditures for the coming year.
Burke proposed separating the $70 million in sales-tax, capital improvements projects from the regular budget and approving the capital projects in the fall so that those projects would be ready to go the following spring. As it is, he said, those projects often aren’t ready to get underway until fall or winter, about the time the construction season is winding down for the year.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Fitz, I was covering a meeting this evening where Airick West and Funk spoke and the one thing folks found very likable about Funk was the fact that The Star hated him. It seemed to give him an instant credibility with the crowd.
Indeed, I seem to remember one of the union folks in WYCO saying that they had done a poll and found that a Star endorsement hurt a candidate more than it helped them.
Look at the criticism The Star has come under from John Landsberg owing to the endless litany of hateful columns emanating from Yael’s poison pen. Endorsements only mean something if people absolutely agree with you, or you have a record as an honest broker. I would suggest that The Star fails miserably on both accounts.
I think it would be interesting to read why you’ve put your money where your keyboard is and give us a detailed explanation for why you like Mr. Burke, his manipulation of the budget calendar aside.
You’ve laid down a fair challenge, John. I will write a full piece in the coming days, explaining why I am fully committed to Mike Burke and why I believe he would be the best mayor.
As for The Star, while I recognize that some people turn the other way when it speaks editorially, I think that many, many more regard it as the voice of “an honest broker,” to use your nice turn of phrase. I believe that The Star has shown since its inception that, by and large, it makes its recommendations based on who it believes will do the best job of advancing the city’s, the region’s and the nation’s interests. There is more disagreement on this point when it comes to partisan elections, of course, but in nonpartisan races — like mayor, City Council and school board — many people look more closely to The Star to sort out large pools of candidates and point the way.
Just watch. At least one of those two candidates, James or Burke — or both — will make it to the general election. And he, or they, will have The Star to thank.
Jim
I believe The Star’s endorsement of city council and mayor races does make a difference, but mainly for voters who don’t actively follow the races. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve talked to people who say that they really don’t pay much attention to the race; they just look at The Star’s endorsements for direction. It amazes me. But then again, I am still amazed how little attention most people pay to these races, given the direct and significant impact they have on our lives.
Sadly, I think you’re both correct. I do think that many times the uninformed will grab any source of information for their journey to the polls and The Star is a handy reference for many.
Where we disagree is The Star’s ability to be an honest broker of information. Given the composition of the editorial board, ideological bias is often present and, worse yet, too many times I’ve seen the editorial board choose establishment candidates over quality reform candidates. That’s not a healthy practice in an area George magazine (correctly, in my view) ranked in America’s Top Ten corrupt cities.
As John Landsberg has been pointing out, all too often, The Star also becomes very spiteful, and I would argue hateful, towards a candidate and fairness goes out the window. (Witness Yael’s current obsession with Funk).
Thanks for taking the challenge on touting your candidate. I think that would make for a much better endorsement system. Find well informed folks “outside the paper” who support each candidate and then devote space for them to make their case. That way the paper’s reporters are less likely to be tarred with promoting the paper’s endorsees.
I still have a lot of KC Star ink intertwined with my blood, and at major elections, when there are lots of candidates and issues to sort through, I’ve been known to take The Star’s “sample ballot” to the polling place and vote it straight up and down the line.
I’m not concerned at all about Yael’s attitude toward Funkhouser. Yael wants him out for two reasons: 1) He is embarrassed that he strongly recommended Funkhouser to the voters four years ago, and 2) Funkhouser has been bad for the city and needs to go.
Jim
And that’s what elections are all about. In this case, you clearly have more riding on the outcome than I do. That said, we’re all in this boat together and problems don’t stop at artificial lines drawn on a paper map.