I’ve got two things for you today — both of the utmost urgency and importance.
Let’s deal with Mike Fannin, KC Star president and editor, first. As most of you know, he was arrested in Johnson County last week on suspicion of drunk driving. It was his third DUI arrest in about the last 15 years. I think this one took place in Olathe, and I submitted an open records for the arrest report. The Police Department records custodian replied promptly, saying that “arrest information is considered criminal history record information and therefore is mandatorily closed.”
Well, now, if something is mandatorily closed, they surely don’t want some damn blogger getting his hands on it.
The writer went on to say, “I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the information for the person…you named in your request.”
For that sentence, I want to give records custodian Karri Barker an A+ for grammar because a majority of Americans have no clue how to correctly use neither/nor.
At any rate, I said in my June 9 post that I wouldn’t be surprised to see McClatchy upper management put Fannin on a leave of absence while the case worked its way through the courts.
Apparently, that hasn’t happened. If it has, The Star is not reporting it, and I have found nothing on the internet.
If he manages to avoid getting placed on leave, there are two points to be made. First, Fannin is the the luckiest DUI guy on the face of the earth and, second, McClatchy, owned by a New Jersey hedge fund, just doesn’t care.
When I told a friend, retired Kansas City regional manager at the national accounting firm KPMG, about Fannin and his three arrests, my friend’s immediate reaction was, “He’s out!”
Well, that’s the way it would have been at KPMG but apparently not at McClatchy, which makes me suspect that McClatchy managers are betting that if they can make Fannin more indebted to them than he already is, he’s likely to comply with any request they make of him down the road…Fire 10 reporters? Yes, boss, gone yesterday!
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I’m sure most of you didn’t see it, but The Star published a long and comprehensive story yesterday about significant problems at the ATA, including service cuts and long wait times for buses.
Interestingly, several hours before I saw that story, a longtime friend with good political connections told me he had been told Mayor Quinton Lucas wanted to see ATA president and CEO Robbie Makinen replaced with Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority.
I wasn’t extremely surprised at that because while the ATA is old hat, the streetcar is the new, hot and hip way to get around. It’s going to be even hipper once cars start running along the extension from Union Station to UMKC. And Gerend, younger and hipper (I guess) than Makinen, is the beneficiary.
Once I saw The Star’s story, the Gerend-replacing-Makinen rumor took its proper context. With that, I pored over the story for clues to the political machinations….and I found one. Instead of Makinen speaking to The Star on behalf of the ATA, he delegated the reaction role to ATA vice president Dick Jerrold.
While Jerrold did a nice job of explaining the ATA’s position (he contended finances were a big part of the problem), I would have expected the “top gun” to be out front on a story of this magnitude. I theorized that if, indeed, Makinen thought his job was at stake, he was reluctant to be out front on a critical story for fear he’d say something Lucas could use against him later.
In a series of tweets yesterday about the ATA problems, Lucas gave no indication he was dissatisfied with Makinen but did allow as to how he would “continue to work to address (the problems) with the ATA board.”
Now, Lucas can’t fire Makinen. The ATA’s 10-member board of commissioners hires and fires the CEO. There are five commissioners from Missouri and five from Kansas, appointed by various governmental units. Lucas appoints some board members of the board, although I don’t know how many.
**
Makinen, who is blind, has been president and CEO several years. Before that he was chairman of the ATA board — an unpaid position.
Personally, I would like to see Makinen turn the situation around and stay on. It seems to me he’s provided good leadership of the sprawling bus service. But if Lucas wants him out, he probably has good reasons.
I don’t have a strong preference on this; I just want you to know what could be going on behind the scenes. It helps when you know who the players are and what they might be up to.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Fitz,
The Star article I read about Fannin’s DUI said the latest DUI arrest was his second, not his third. Did I miss something?
Mike — Definitely his third. Here’s the last paragraph of The Star’s June 8 story…
According to court records, Fannin was previously arrested in April 2006 in Wyandotte County for driving under the influence, second conviction. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor.
Okay. I stand corrected.
Let’s see, he’s the president, editor, (editorial page editor?) of a “newspaper” that doesn’t have an office, has horrible delivery problems, is overpriced and understaffed with virtually zero institutional memory and is owned by people who don’t give two shits about journalism. Yeah, I’d probably have a nip or ten now and again also.
I don’t indulge in emojis, but that deserves a smiley face.
Nailed it!
PS: 2006 is a long time ago. If he had a serious drinking problem, it wouldn’t take 14 years to get DUI #3. Keep in mind that there is also no indication his vehicle lost any major parts (like a wheel) so he does have that going for him.
You’ve got to know your KC Star history to know what John’s talking about there — the wife of former Star publisher Mark Zieman getting arrested for DUI in Midtown while driving (slowly) a vehicle that had lost a wheel.
I love how Mr. A. brings up that story at every available opportunity. 😏 (Props to emojis…🙂)
The ATA leadership might change because The World Cup will put pressure on the system. I think the Streetcar played a part in the pitch to the FIFA selection committee.
I thought the Toy Train (thanks Tony’s KC) was a waste but now that it is here and seems to be thriving I hope it keeps traveling down the Trolley Trail and also heads to the airport.
Sorry, no thoughts about Fannin. And, yes, I get the Star delivered daily.
Yes, Susan, it’s hard to believe Tony was wrong about the streetcar…He’s usually quite the visionary.
Gayle — That’s why we love “Mr. A” — although he sees the politics differently than I, he’s always been part of the loyal opposition.
👍 (Aren’t you sorry you mentioned emojis?)
Among other things, Fannin remains listed as a member of the editorial board. Do you have any information on who is running the editorial board these days? I would assume it’s not Fannin, since my impression is presidents of newspapers don’t typically get involved in the day-to-day activities of the editorial board.
Fannin is the head of the editorial board, but he doesn’t write editorials. Besides Fannin, I believe they are down to three full-time and one part-time editorial members…
Mara Rose Williams, heir apparent to succeed Melinda Henneberger as ed page editor.
Toriano Porter, who I don’t think writes very much.
Derrick Donovan, letters to the editor editor, who seldom writes.
Dave Helling, who is part time and has always been prolific.
Just curious: Do you think Williams would make a good editorial page editor? Or did you label her Henneberger’s heir apparent simply by process of eliminating the other editorial members?
I think she would be very good, and it would be great to have, as far as I know, the first African-American editorial page editor.
It was she who pushed Fannin and the other editors to reconsider The Star’s coverage of Black people and W.R. Nelson’s racism. Because of her, Nelson’s name and mug are no longer on the masthead. (He looked like a disgustingly self-important person, anyway.)
As a reporter, Williams was always very responsive to questions about her work and I assume she would continue in that vein (unlike Henneberger). She would be a good choice.
Sadly, as the professional ethics, values and a general disregard of behavior of semi-public figures such as Star Editor Mike Fannin decline, DUIs no longer generate public outrage. The fact the three incidents happened over a total of 15-years makes them even less compelling and important in this era when so many worse public behaviors draw little to no attention. Unfortunately, it is no longer a “big deal”. If I was running the Star, I’d be drinking MUCH more! !