JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Later today, the Jackson County Legislature will do its lap dog act and vote to put on the Nov. 5 ballot a proposed half-cent sales tax for medical research. We’ve just gotta beat Kansas to the cure for cancer, you know…And God forbid that we let down the group behind the proposed tax — the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, consisting of the c.e.o.’s of the area’s major businesses.

More about that soon, but in the meantime here are some photos from the fourth annual Lobsterfest, held Saturday night atop the Cosentino’s parking garage in the Power & Light District.

More than 200 people attended the event, which is a benefit for the Children’s Mercy Hospitals and clinics.

(The photos are courtesy of my good friend Jim Gottsch.)

This park-like setting is owned by the Cordish Company, developer of the P&L District.

In the shadow of the H&R Block headquarters building

And One Kansas City Place

Long live the lobster

The most beautiful dish at the party

Our group: Jim Gottsch, Julie Koppen, Donetta Shaw (hat), Bill Molini, Patty Fitzpatrick, Cindy Molini, Dr. Maxine Hetherington, an oncologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital, and a blogger in plaid trousers

Fight to the finish

Read Full Post »

Here’s an update on the death of former Kansas City Councilman Charles Hazley.

Jim Bowers, a Kansas City lawyer who was a longtime friend of Hazley, said Hazley died Monday of sickle cell anemia.

Bowers said Hazley, 71, had the disease about five years and that he had been hospitalized with complications several times.

A story about Hazley’s death appeared in The Star on Thursday, but the story did not say when Hazley died or the cause. An obituary has not run, but Bowers said he thought an obit might run tomorrow.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s web site says that sickle cell anemia is most common in people whose families come from Africa, South or Central America, the Caribbean islands, Mediterranean countries, India, and Saudi Arabia.

In the United States, the web site says, sickle cell affects 70,000 to 100,000 people and that the condition occurs in about 1 in 12 African Americans.

Wikipedia describes the disease as a hereditary blood disorder, characterized by red blood cells that assume an abnormal, rigid, elongated shape. The site goes on to say that “sickling decreases the cells’ flexibility and results in a risk of various complications.”

Hazley served on the council from 1971 to 1991. He went off after KC voters approved a ballot measure limiting council members to two consecutive four-year terms. The proposal was aimed partly at Hazley and a longtime council ally, Bobby Hernandez, who were elected in districts where they were virtually unbeatable.

Read Full Post »

Charles Hazley. Former City Councilman. A man I will not miss.

The Star reported today that Hazley died recently. The  news story did not say when.

The headline over political reporter Dave Helling’s story read “KC political powerhouse Charles Hazley dies at 71.”

I knew Hazley well. As a reporter for The Star, I covered City Hall from 1985 to 1995. Hazley was on the council from 1971 to 1991. It took a Kansas City Charter Amendment to get him and his long-term ally Bobby Hernandez off the council.

The charter change, which voters approved, limited council members to two consecutive four-year terms. The proposal was aimed partly at Hazley and Hernandez, who were elected in districts — not citywide — and had been virtually invulnerable to election challenges.

Council members are supposed to work part time, giving them time to work at other, primary jobs. But that’s about all that Hazley (and Hernandez and some others) did. They made a career out of part-time service on the City Council.

Helling called Hazley “one of the most important politicians in Kansas City for three decades.” If, by important, he means manipulative and crafty, that’s true. But, no, hardly one of the most important. Not compared to truly important former council members such as Bruce R. Watkins, Bob Lewellen and Emanuel Cleaver.

Hernandez and Hazley were in the pocket of the developer Frank Morgan and his cronies, including lawyer I.I. Ozar. They also kowtowed to development attorney Jim Bowers, a partner with White, Goss, Bowers, March Schulte & Weisenfels.

Morgan and Dreiseszun are dead. I believe Ozar is still alive, and Bowers is still going strong.

Hazley was fairly successful at rounding up the seven votes (out of 13) needed to get pet projects approved.

I remember one time (but not the issue) when he had the votes he needed but someone who had committed to him inadvertently voted the wrong way. The measure came up a vote short. Very calmly, Hazley rose and asked for a re-vote. The second time, the errant council members changed his or her vote, and the measure passed.

…Helling said that Hazley “often tangled with reporters.”

That’s right. And the main reason was that when reporters would challenge him on something, he often threw down the race card.

I recall a time when I was working on a story where it appeared that Hazley had a conflict of interest. This was before the council voted. The day in question a newly hired reporter was tagging along with me as I made my rounds.

With her in tow, I caught up with Hazley in the City Hall parking garage, below City Hall, and expressed my concern. Hazley immediately got defensive and started yelling at me, saying several times, “That’s racist!

The new reporter stood by, watching wide eyed. Just to rub it in, Hazley turned to her before heading for his car and said, “Good to meet you; if you ever need anything, give me a call.”

A few days later, when the issue came before the council for a vote, Hazley rose and asked the city attorney if the circumstances tying him to the issue amounted to a conflict of interest.

I’ll never forget the brief exchange that followed.

Rich Ward, city attorney at the time, stood up and said, “Not necessarily.”

As soon as Ward began to launch into an explanation, Hazley cut him off, saying, “That’s OK; that’s all I need to know.”

With that, he announced that he had a possible conflict of interest and would be abstaining on the issue.

I recall another time that Hazley tried to engineer a large payment of taxpayer funds — several thousand dollars — to a professional basketball player (I believe it was Sam Lacey of the Kansas City Kings) to appear at some event for youngsters.

When I challenged Hazley on that, he denied any involvement and said that Assistant City Manger James I. Threatt had put the deal together.

Threatt, a guy I liked a lot and who had a great sense of humor, came up with some vague, lame explanation and essentially took the fall for Hazley.

Thereafter, Threatt, who died several years ago, occasionally would greet me, especially when others were around, by saying:

“There he is — the man who tried to kill basketball!”

Anyway, I hope Hazley is in heaven today…But I hope we don’t see another one like him on the City Council.

Read Full Post »

Some very hard-ball politics is going to be played at City Hall over the next few weeks.

At stake is a $100 million pie, and local contractors and unions want to cut that pie and eat it by themselves and not let out-of-town contractors and workers get their utensils in it.

Maybe you saw KC Star reporter Lynn Horsley’s story on Saturday about this high-stakes squabble. The job in question is the streetcar line from the River Market to near Union Station.

The Kansas City Public Works Department has chosen a non-local and non-union team — Herzog Contracting Co. of St. Joseph and rail contractor Stacy and Witbeck of California — to build the line. Making the selection, Horsley said, was a group “made up primarily of pubic works engineers and transit representatives.”

The Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City (contractors) and the Greater Kansas City Building and Construction Trades Council (union workers) greeted the selection with howls of protest, prompting several City Council members to react as if they had touched a live power line.

“I’m not convinced they’ve actually picked the lowest and best bidder,” said Councilman John Sharp, a longtime friend of organized labor.

“The scoring criteria (in the bidding process) seems to be backward,” said Councilman Ed Ford of the Northland, a pro-labor area.

The two other teams champing at the bit to get the bid include a couple of local construction titans — Clarkson Construction and JE Dunn Construction.

Clarkson, which does virtually all the highway construction in the Kansas City area (on both sides of the state line), teamed up with Kiewit Corp., a nationwide firm with dozens of local and district offices around the country.

The third bidder was Dunn, which is known mostly for constructing buildings.

Based on Dunn’s lack of significant experience on roads, rails and streetcars, it would seem that the biggest threat to the Herzog/Stacy-Witbeck team is Kiewit-Clarkson.

Streetcar rendering prepared for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority

Against that backdrop, the important thing to note here is that the decision has now passed from the hands of the bureaucrats to those of the politicians. The City Council will award the contract.

And no one will have a bigger say in this than Mayor Sly James.

Out front, his voice has been measured…He was quoted in Horsley’s story as saying:

“I think we really have to be careful that every time there’s a contract let and it doesn’t appease somebody that we go back and find a way to redo it so that it does appease them.”

If you read that carefully — and those were the exact words that appeared in Horsley’s story — you could conclude one of two things: He doesn’t want to be in the appeasement business or…he does. Note that he did not say that the city has to be careful “that we don’t go back and find a way to redo it…” Maybe that was just a verbal misconstruction, or maybe he was leaving the door open precisely for a “redo.”

When confronted with a situation like this — and looking ahead to what might unfold — experience tells me one thing: Look at the campaign contribution reports. 

So, I looked at all of James’ reports last night, and here’s what I found.

:: Members of the Dunn family have contributed $2,600 to James’ campaign committee since January of 2011, the year James was elected.

:: Members of the Clarkson family have not contributed at all, to the best of my knowledge. That doesn’t mean they haven’t given in some fashion, or through friends and associates; I just didn’t find the Clarkson name in any of the reports. And there are several Clarksons, including William E. Clarkson Sr. and William E. (Billy) Clarkson Jr.

:: That brings us to the Heavy Constructors Association and the unions.

** The constructors association, one of the main complainants about the Herzog/Stacy-Witbeck selection, gave James $3,000 — the maximum contribution — a few weeks before the March 2011 general election, in which James defeated former Councilman Mike Burke.

** Operating Engineers  Local 101 also contributed $3,000.

** Laborers Local Union No. 264 gave $2,000.

** Heavy Construction Laborers Union Local 663 gave $500.

That’s a total of $8,500 from the constructors association and three key unions.

To me, the evidence points to Kiewit-Clarkson as the team most likely to get the job.

Clarkson is a sixth-generation Kansas City company, and they pay union wages. Kiewit is a nationwide powerhouse, with a district office in Lenexa.

Lenexa, as we all know, sucks…But it’s close enough.

Read Full Post »