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

John Carnes, one of the Kansas City area’s most colorful and checkered political figures, is back in the news for alleged shady dealings. And, in typical fashion, Carnes is defending himself with glib and sardonic comments.

Carnes, who is in his mid-60s, is a convicted felon who served two years in federal prison more than 25 years ago for bribing an Independence councilman. He himself is a former Independence councilman, as well as a former member of the Jackson County Legislature.

Since getting his law license back in 2006 — he was disbarred after his 1989 conviction — Carnes has stayed under the radar, for the most part, in Independence.

John Carnes, now…

On Wednesday, however, KSHB-TV published an investigative piece, saying that Carnes participated in some “backdoor meetings” that led up to the Independence Council approving deals that cost the city millions of dollars. In one of those deals, a council majority awarded a $9.7 million contract to a politically connected St. Louis firm, Environmental Operations Inc., to buy, demolish and remediate the city’s old power plant.

One of two council members who voted against the contract said the old power plant, located in a desolate area of Missouri City, had been deemed safe by the EPA. “EPA was not requiring us to do anything, so my position was, why spend $10 million?” Councilman Scott Roberson said.

As journalistic investigations go, this is pretty thin. The biggest smoke cloud the reporters were able to generate revolves around this paragraph, which was well down in the story…

While digging through city records, the 41 Action News investigators found a dinner receipt that shows within days of Environmental Operations meeting exclusively with the City Council, council members Curt Dougherty, Tom Van Camp and John Perkins met with John Carnes about the project.

That meeting took place in 2016. The council approved the contract with Environmental Operations in 2017. Carnes told Channel 41 he was involved in the meeting because he had a client who was interested in financing the clean-up. That explanation seems ludicrous, however, in light of City Manager Zach Walker telling reporters that outside financing was never considered for the project.

Channel 41’s story does not quote any law enforcement officials, and it is unknown if officials are looking into the deals — or if they might do so as a result of the station’s story.

**

I go way back with John Carnes. We aren’t exactly friends, but we’ve been acquaintances for decades. I’ve always found him to be funny and engaging.

…and then.

I remember him when he was young and handsome and a budding politician. For a while he dated a woman I knew through my City Hall connections. One summer night, according to my friend from the city (and she was in a position to know), Carnes and his date got drunk and took a dip in the Meyer Circle Fountain. It bordered on scandalous, given that he was a lawyer and on the fringe of politics, but nothing came of it.

To the best of my knowledge, I never wrote about him; he was involved with Independence and later Jackson County while I was covering City Hall, but I would cross paths with him occasionally. After he got out of prison, I ran into him one night — I think it was a New Year’s Eve — at the old Jimmy and Mary’s Steakhouse, 34th and Main, and I said, “You’ll probably be back in politics pretty soon.”

He smiled and said, “I doubt that.”

More than any other disgraced, local politician, Carnes has always stood out for his contentious, unrepentant statements in the face of personal — and self-inflicted — adversity.

Here’s a sampling of some of his public responses…

:: After being sentenced to five years for bribery in 1989, Carnes told reporters (this is not exact but close to it): “At least the judge didn’t sentence me to spend five years with you guys.”

:: When asked, on the same occasion, if he had learned his lesson, he said (again, this is not exact but close), “No, I’m having so much fun it makes me want to go out and commit more crimes.”

:: At a county courthouse ceremony when he was sworn back in as an attorney after regaining his law license, he acknowledged that his problems were of his own making but couldn’t keep from lashing out at a political enemy. Former Independence Mayor Barbara Potts belonged in “the rat hall of fame,” he said because she had cooperated with investigators.

:: When approached recently by a Channel 41 reporter about his role in the Missouri City contract, he told the reporter, “I’d rather stand out in a snow drift than talk to you.”

:: He later put out a statement that read: “The negative comments of my critics are fiction and fantasy. However, these comments directed toward me on your newscast concern me because it will increase a demand for my legal services at a time that I am attempting to retire.”

:: He capped that statement with this sentence: “It should be noted that vendettas, feuds and grudges are recreational activities in Independence.”

**

Carnes looks a lot different now than he did when he was young and handsome and doing laps in the Sea Horse Fountain. Video of him taken outside an office by a Channel 41 camera person shows him to be paunchy, balding and a bit disheveled.

In the video, which is not accompanied by sound, he pulls off his sunglasses, removes a cigar from his mouth and gestures toward a reporter as if to say, “Get out of here!” Then he pulls on the office door to go inside.

Alas, the door doesn’t open; it’s locked.