One of the most interesting things about journalism to me, from an insider’s standpoint, is how high-level journalists sometimes needle newsmakers they don’t like by giving them derisive “handles.”
This has happened twice in the last eight days with editorial writer Yael Abouhalkah in writing about Clinton Adams Jr., a longtime public figure who, over many years, has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
For years, Adams was a critic of various Kansas City School District officials, including some school board members, and he lobbied and fought fiercely for changes he favored. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes not.
The Star’s editorial board has long been critical of Adams, and the board has usually put its criticism in perspective. In his last two, signed weekly columns, however, Abouhalkah has taken clear and unwarranted shots at Adams, seemingly just to pillory him because, well…because he holds the pen and has a guaranteed forum for disseminating his views.
Abouhalkah
Last week and this week, Abouhalkah took gratuitous shots at Adams because Adams supports a referendum petition that is seeking to halt the proposed $5 million tax break for the proposed BNIM project in the Crossroads. It’s a contentious issue, and it appears that the leaders of the petition drive either have gotten the 3,400 signatures they need to put the issue on an election ballot or they’re going to get them. Just getting the signatures will delay the project long enough that the BNIM architecture firm is likely to bail out on the project because firm officials want to get on with getting new quarters.
The leaders of the petition drive are mainly a group of parents who don’t want to see the Kansas City School District lose the significant tax revenue the district would get absent the Tax Increment Financing deal the city has agreed to — and which The Star’s editorial board supports.
In his column last week (it appears in the Thursday morning paper and goes up on the website a day earlier), Abouhalkah had a line that read “one of the mayor’s longtime irritants, Clinton Adams, has signed the petition, ostensibly to help the school district’s revenue situation.”
The line related to absolutely nothing in the story, and Abouhalkah didn’t develop it. It was completely out of context and served no purpose other than to satisfy Abouhalkah’s desire to put the shiv to a person who obviously has gotten under his skin. Abouhalkah simply left the main road and went down a side street so he could paint Adams as “an irritant.”
The fact is, though, Adams is a lot more than an irritant to the mayor.
Adams
For one thing, he heads the education committee of a seven-year old organization called the Urban Summit, whose mission is to “develop initiatives to foster community relations, enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the urban core.” The Urban Summit has come out against the proposed TIF project, and three of Urban Summit representatives, including Adams, testified against it recently before the City Council’s Plans and Zoning Committee.
In addition, Adams is legal counsel to the powerful black political organization Freedom, and he’s a key leader of the group. Freedom has a big constituency, primarily thousands of inner-city residents who feel the side of town they live in is much more in need of TIF-endorsed projects than the Crossroads, a booming district that is attracting market-rate projects without tax incentives.
Although Freedom has not taken a position on the TIF proposal, the vast majority Freedom’s constituents undoubtedly share Adams’ opposition to the tax break.
Adams should have complained immediately to Abouhalkah last week — and perhaps to editorial page editor Steve Paul — about Abouhalkah’s characterization of him. But he didn’t.
That’s a mistake many people make after a journalist has taken a cheap shot at them; they either don’t want to go to battle with “people who buy ink by the barrel” or they don’t want to let the writer know that he or she bothered them.
In this week’s column, Abouhalkah went after Adams yet again. The column includes this:
Activist Clinton Adams, a constant thorn in James’ side, has signed the petition aimed at getting a referendum on the ballot to put the tax break deal to a public vote in 2016. Adams has long been involved in roiling the waters when it comes to Kansas City Public Schools — and the district’s officials and some school parents have emerged as prime critics of the…project.
Of course, his opposition to the TIF has nothing to do with “roiling the waters” of the school district; he’s working to help the district from losing what could be hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue…And, again, no reference to Adams’ testimony before the City Council committee or his association with a legitimate organization that works to advance the quality of life in the urban core.
**
This is simply an example of a powerful writer using his position and his virtual impunity to malign a newsmaker and a hard-working advocate of a better quality of life for East Side residents. Just because Adams has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way over the years, he in no way deserves to be labeled “an irritant” in the paper. And when referring to someone as an “activist,” the writer — any writer — should put it in context. Activist for what? In what arena?
Don’t get me wrong here. I admire Abouhalkah and think he’s done a great job over the years of advocating for the best interests of all Kansas Citians. He holds the powerful to account, and he’s beholden to no one. If The Star is “a paper for the people,” Abouhalkah is “an editorialist for the people.” But in this instance, he let small-mindedness get the better of him. In fairness, he should write a clarification, which should include an apology to Adams…Let’s see if it comes to pass.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
What about Clay Chastain? Would HE qualify as an “irritant” or a “thorn in the side” of the mayor and council?
Yes, Bob, but that’s because he’s the ultimate Lone Ranger. He has no organization, doesn’t work with any organization, doesn’t even live here. He has no stake whatsoever in Kansas City’s future; he’s just out for self-aggrandizement. Biggest mistake KC voters ever made was voting for one of his lame-brain petition proposals 25 or more years ago. They soon realized they’d made a big mistake.
It takes a big person to apologize. I’m not sure Mr. Small Mind is up to it.
That’s pretty rough, Gayle. Like I said, I have a lot of respect for Yael, and I’ve always liked him…He just went haywire on this one.
Time will tell, I guess. He just strikes me as someone too proud to apologize. Of course, I would like to believe differently.
(Just remember, small mind are your words.)
Two grifters, Helzburg and Adams, which one would you rather eat BBQ with? Either way, they will leave you with the check.
I think Yael’s references to Adams are fair comment. He is being polite when he calls Adams a thorn and irritant; a more thorough description would be a self-serving meddler with more interest in his personal power than the welfare and education of children. For me, the point of the Adams reference is to portray some of the opponents of the TIF as seeking a political victory for their own purposes while using the holier-than-thou “it’s for the children” cloak to conceal their base motives.
Plus, Yael is an opinion columnist. He gets to express his opinion.
Of course, he’s entitled to express his opinion, Mike. But I don’t think he’s entitled to be mean spirited just for the sake of lampooning a person he doesn’t respect. In both columns, he sharply digressed from the issue at hand to fire aberrant arrows — neither of which advanced or shed light on the TIF issue.
In both columns he said that Adams had signed the petition. So what? Thousands of people, including me, signed the petition.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” It’s an editorial, after all. Yael neither slandered nor libeled Mr. Adams. Still, the bigger issue is why the city continues to throw TIF money around like its confetti at a Royals celebration parade as the school system continues to deteriorate and infrastructure crumbles: a discussion I had with Sly several weeks ago.
“Balls,” said the Queen. “If I had them, I’d be King.”
That is the big issue, Joe, and Yael ought to stay focused on that instead of veering off down blind alleys.
There are plenty of racists in Kansas City to whom the name “Clinton Adams” conjures fear and resentment. With no plausible argument to support the $5 million corporate welfare for BNIM, Yael resorted to “guilty by association” tactics.
And lest we forget…
The STAR enjoys a huge TIF, so naturally its aligned with other companies and developers seeking the same. Afterall, The STAR wouldn’t want to be seen as hypocritical.
Everyone knows Clinton is a dogged fighter for what he believes in. I like it a lot better when I’m on the same side he is, although we’ve been on opposite sides on at least one issue and on a couple of candidates, including the City Council race between Katheryn Shields and Jim Glover, where Clinton was on the prevailing side. (And Katheryn is turning out to be a good addition to the council, I readily admit.)
…Great point about The Star’s TIF, BB…
Another well-known political “activist,” Phil Cardarella, attempted to post this comment earlier but somehow it ended up in the wrong place. Here it is. (Thanks, Phil.)
While Yael can be an ass, I doubt Clinton minds being labeled an irritant. I suspect he glories in it. Especially since the Starboy gave tacit support to the foolish referendum.
A dose of reality: This referendum is about NOTHING but drumming up an issue for the KCMOSD elections. The TIF had already been agreed to by the KCMO District — because it would get $2.3 MILLION in payment is lieu of taxes, plus scholarship donations from Helzberg. Almost HALF the entire TIF OVER the present taxes! Best. TIF. Deal. Ever!
Who do you suppose muscled them into reneging on the deal? “Concerned parents” concerned that the extra $2.3 Million would be an undue burden on the District’s accounting system? Better to have the low taxes on an unused building — or a parking lot?
There are good TIFs and bad ones. This is a good one that would have been built with cutting-edge (so, expensive) environmental aspects and kept 100 jobs in downtown/midtown KC.
Losing this will be a real loss to KC.
The Star’s editorial board stills seems to reflect the legacy of Art Brisbane (who followed in the footsteps of his namesake), i.e. mouthing left wing platitudes out of one side of his mouth while shilling for the establishment out of the other.
This column reminds me of when the dudley duo of Abouhalkah and Shelly chose to endorse a felon convicted of public corruption over Nolen Ellison, a former community college president for a seat on the KCKCC board. Ellison, a liberal incidentally, had called for an audit of KCKCC’s books and was hence pilloried in his re-election bid in favor of the felon.
Conversely, one of my favorite endorsements came after conservative Karin Brownlee jumped on board the latest JOCO establishment scam and The Star in turn endorsed her for re-election in an editorial in which you could sense Shelly throwing up in her mouth after each sentence.
Currently, The Star has taken sides supporting the inept Mark Holland, a KCMO stooge, over the highly dynamic and equally independent Ann Murguia.
Murguia has a list of accomplishments for her constituents as long as her arm while Holland is a buffoon detested by both the fire and PD. His most recent accomplishment was the loss of almost 3 million in bad UG investments in a restaurant at the Legends. Again, both are liberal, but only one is an establishment puppet, the one the Star supports.
Bottom line for me is that both Yael and Babs are a slime on our community and are most aptly described by the term Frank Sinatra gave to journalists.
Clinton is quite capable of defending himself when necessary. But Phil Cardarella makes ridiculous and untruthful claims against KCPS. The actual PILOTs granted on this TIF total $295,500 for all taxing jurisdictions, with $182,500 of that amount going to KCPS. It’s actually one of the worst TIF’s ever to be approved by a Kansas City Council.
Thanks, Kelvin…
Readers, Kelvin Perry is chairman of the Urban Summit’s sub-committee on tax abatement. The term PILOT refers to “payments in lieu of taxes,” which developers often make in return for tax abatements.
If you will note, Kelvin says that on the Crossroads TIF project, the Kansas City School District would have received just $182,500 in payments in lieu of taxes…Phil Cardarella contends the amount would have been $2.3 million.
Kevin Masters, the KCPS employee/lobbyist who replaced Kelvin Perry as the KCPS representative on the TIF Commission, voted IN FAVOR of giving Helzberg/BNIM the TIF subsidy!!
The ONLY person to reject the proposal was mayor-appointed developer Phil Glynn who the Mayor then immediately forced off the Commission!
Check the records — KCPS never saw a TIF it didn’t favor no matter the impact on the students!
It was a ramrod job all the way by Mayor Sly…Remember the name Phil Glynn. He’ll probably be running for council next time around and later he’ll be running for mayor. I haven’t talked to him about that, but I’ve known him a long time and watched his increasing political activity.
For the complete record, it should be noted that the W 17th Street TIF Plan and Project A of that plan (Vittagraph) were never approved by the TIF Commission. Both failed a 5-5 vote of the Commission in June of 2008. All taxing jurisdiction representatives and Margaret May of the City Commissioners voted against the plan. It was the City Council that chose to adopt an ordinance to approve the TIF Plan, without recommendation of the TIF Commission.