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

Fresh on the heels of shooting a big hole in The Star’s “coverage” of the proposed half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research,” I’m now turning the big guns on The Examiner.

It used to be the The Independence Examiner, but I guess they now see themselves as a mighty journalistic force throughout Eastern Jackson County.

Ever so often, it seems, The Examiner publishes something called the EJC Business Review, which essentially is a puff-piece special section that strokes various business interests, including local chambers of commerce and economic development councils.

At The Star, we used to publish similar sections, calling them “Progress” editions. The reporters and editors hated doing them, but the cop-out wasn’t as transparent as The Examiner’s Business Review.

The idea behind such sections, from a newspaper’s standpoint, basically is: If you advertise in the section, we’ll give you some good press.

You might say, “What about that so-called wall between the ad side and the editorial side?” Well, sometimes the wall is conveniently ignored for the sake of money.

Anyway, a friend whose office is in Independence gave me the section the other day, and it is the mother of all suck-ups.

It’s 32 pages and has lots of ads, including what appear to be a lot of legally mandated notices, such as patent filings.

But what really galled me was a front-page story titled “The next BIG thing?” — about the proposed half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research.” The measure will be on the Nov. 5 ballot throughout Jackson County.

As you know, I am consumed with the issue. It is the worst tax proposal I’ve seen during my 44 years in Kansas City, and I’m doing all I can to bring its many flaws to people’s attention.

(You can read all about it at stopabadcure.org, a website financed by a campaign committee that I’m leading.)

“The next BIG thing” was written by The Examiner’s main business reporter, Jeff Fox, who also edited the section.

Fox’s story covers 38 column inches, including a full inside page and part of another. The story features a photo of Dr. Wayne O. Carter, president and CEO of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, which is a big promoter of  the sales-tax increase.

The photo caption quotes Carter as saying…

“This is big. This is transformational for Kansas City.”

In the story, Fox does everything but beg readers to vote for the tax.

Fox quotes Carter extensively, but if you’re looking for balance — that is, the other side of the story — it’s in very short supply.

Jeff Fox

Fox relegates the opposition to three inches — out of, remember, 38 inches. In that space, he paraphrases — doesn’t even quote directly — Brad Bradshaw, a Springfield lawyer and physician who directs an opposing committee called Citizens for Responsible Research.

It’s clear that  Fox didn’t even bother to call Bradshaw — just gave him a couple of throwaway graphs. Of course, Fox didn’t bother to call me, although he has met and interviewed me and knows about my Committee to Stop a Bad Cure.

Fox’s one-sided tribute is not just bad journalism; it’s dishonest journalism.

If a national journalism commission existed, it would put The Examiner on five years’ probation. And if The Examiner went on to publish a similar dog-lapping section, the commission would order the paper to stop the presses permanently.

Oh, and there’s one more thing you should know about that section: Page 15 consists of a full-page ad paid for by the Committee for Research, Treatments and Cures, which is spending $1.5 million to $2 million trying to convince voters to approve this terrible tax proposal.

The Examiner probably got about 500 bucks for that ad.

I don’t believe what The Kansas City Star didn’t do…

On Thursday evening, well before The Star’s deadline, the vaunted east-side political organization Freedom Inc. voted unanimously to oppose Jackson County’s proposed half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research.”

With the League of Women Voters and the local NAACP branch already on record as opposing the tax, Freedom loomed as a pivotal bellwether of which direction the tax would go.

And yet, Thursday night — and all day Friday — The Star was nowhere to be found.

All-purpose reporter Mike Hendricks, who has been “covering” the campaign, didn’t show up outside Freedom headquarters, 12th and Brooklyn, to wait and find out what the verdict was. And neither did any other Star reporter.

None of the city’s four TV stations bothered to send a reporter, and none had a story yesterday. But that’s no big surprise; local politics is about the last thing on their agendas.

Slumbering while the house burns down

But The Star? Geez. After Hendricks’ no-show Thursday night, I thought surely he or someone else would call Freedom yesterday morning and at least get a short story on the kansascity.com website.

But, no. Nothing. (See correction in comments section.)

Holy crap, when I covered City Hall from 1985 to 1995, I would wait hours for political organizations to make decisions and come out of their closed-door meetings and announce the results. I’d race back to the paper, crank out a story and hope for good “play” (placement) the next day. (Long ago, an editor once said to me: “Fitzpatrick, you eat those bylines for breakfast, don’t you?)

Of course, things have changed a lot since then. The news cycle for The Star and the local TV stations runs about 16 hours a day (there is some down time between about 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.). Also, partly because of the TV stations’ indifference, The Star is under less pressure to cover political developments.

All in all, there’s a more casual attitude at 18th and Grand about getting news — other than stories involving death and destruction — online or in print in a timely manner.

On Monday, for example, I beat The Star to the punch on the Charlie Wheeler story — that is, Wheeler’s home being sold on the courthouse steps and mortgage banker Jim Nutter Sr. (who foreclosed) taking steps to ensure that Wheeler and his wife Marjorie and son Graham have a smooth landing in a Waldo area duplex.

When the threat of foreclosure first arose several months ago, political reporter Steve Kraske wrote a Page 4 story about it. (Page 4 is now the equivalent of what used to be the Metro section front page…Another sorry story.) But now Kraske has gone off to teach at UMKC — joining four or five other former Star editorial employees at the university — and nobody bothered to cover the Wheeler story the day it happened.

A good friend and The Star’s best reporter, Mark Morris, called me Tuesday morning, in the wake of my post, and asked for Charlie’s phone number. I gave him the number, of course, and Mark’s story ran online that afternoon and in print on Wednesday, although it was buried on Page 13.

On Tuesday, The Star will have a chance to redeem itself, when the Citizens Association, the city’s most influential, nonpartisan political organization, will hear speakers on sides of the issue and perhaps take a position on the tax. (The proposal will be Jackson County Question 1 on the Nov. 5 ballot.)

That meeting starts at 5 p.m. and should be over by 7. Maybe Hendricks can tell his wife Roxie to hold dinner awhile so he can cover the meeting and get a story up.

…By the way, I’ll be one of the opposing speakers at the Citizens Association meeting…But don’t waste your time looking for quotes from me in the paper. I think I’ve earned a lifetime ban. The only time you’re likely to see me in the paper again is after my family pays for my obit.

**

Editor’s note: For much more news about the proposed sales-tax for “translational medical research,” see stopabadcure.org

Also, Mike Hendricks’ wife’s name is Roxie, not Rosie, as I had it originally.

Freedom Inc., a powerful African-American political organization that runs up large vote margins in the Kansas City wards where it works, voted unanimously tonight to oppose Jackson County’s proposed half-cent sales tax for  “translational medical research.”

The development was a bitter blow to the hopes of tax proponents, who, earlier this week dumped another $400,000 into their campaign effort, bringing their campaign committee’s total fund-raising to nearly $1.4 million.

It was also a seminal moment in the history of 51-year-old Freedom Inc., whose slogan is “No permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.”

With the Committee for Research, Treatments and Cures – the committee working for the tax – dangling a reported $200,000 in front of Freedom to promote the measure leading up to the Nov. 5 election, Freedom’s board stood on principal and turned its back on the money.

Asked about the deciding factor in the decision, State Sen. Kiki Curls, a Freedom board member, said:

“Feedback from the community. We found very few people who supported the tax.”

She added that over the last five years, central city residents have lost, not gained, community services and that if there was to be a tax increase, “it would better be put to use for basic services” than translational medical research.

Curls noted that if Jackson County were to become “a research mecca, it would be an awesome opportunity for the city.” But the financing method needed to be rethought, she said.

State Rep. Gail McCann Beatty and State Rep. Kiki Curls, Freedom Inc. board members, at Freedom headquarters last night. They stood in front of a photo of the late Bruce R. Watkins, a Freedom Inc. founder.

Many opponents of the tax contend that most, if not all, of additional hundreds of millions of dollars for medical research should come from the private sector, such as corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals.

Proponents have acknowledged that 10 Kansas City area institutions, including Children’s Mercy Hospital and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, already are spending more than $550 million a year on research. The new tax would raise an additional $40 million to $50 million a year for at least 20 years.

Rodney Bland, a Freedom board member, said 36 of 72 dues-paying board members attended the meeting, which was held at Freedom headquarters, 12th Street and Brooklyn Avenue.

Curls led the meeting in the absence of former Freedom president Charles Hazley, who died recently.

Another board member said he had heard that the treatments and cures committee, anticipating Thursday’s board vote, had already begun to put together an African-American rump group, to be called something like African-Americans for Medical Research.

Historically, such groups have made very few inroads against the traditional, powerhouse political organizations.

Freedom’s strength is on the east side of Kansas City, from Independence Avenue all the way to Grandview.

Earlier this week, the Kansas City branch of the NAACP voted to oppose the proposed tax.

The local affiliate of the League of Women Voters was the first major organization to come out against the tax.

Editor’s note: The same story is on the stopabadcure.org website.

On Monday, the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City tossed another $400,000 into the $1 million-plus pool of money that is being spent to try to convince Jackson County voters to approve a new half-cent sales tax for medical research.

That brings the Civic Council’s total contribution to its campaign committee — Committee for Research, Treatment and Cures — to $600,000.

And it brings the grand total of contributions to the committee to $1,357,000. And Election Day — Nov. 5 — is still more than four weeks out.

Don Hall Jr.

The biggest pushers behind the proposal are the Hall family and the Hall Family Foundation. The Halls have long had the most clout with the Civic Council. Don Hall Jr., Hallmark Cards c.e.o., has contributed $100,000 personally.

It is puzzling to me why the Civic Council, consisting of the areas top business leaders, is dead set on the taxpayers ponying up $1 billion over 20 years for their pet project. My guess is that after having arm-twisted the County Legislature into putting the measure on the Nov. 5 ballot and now experiencing stiff resistance to their proposal, civic leaders are doubling down. They said initially that they planned on a $1 million campaign. Who knows? Maybe it will go to $2 million.

In any event, losing would be terrible for the Civic Council. After all, they’re the kingpins, right?

Their goal, I believe, is to fool just enough voters — with TV ads and feel-good brochures — to stick this tax on county residents for the next 20 years, at least. With inflation, it would generate $40 million to $50 million a year.

Here’s a closer look at the money being spent. For the sake of argument, let’s say that…

• 50,000 people vote in the Nov. 5 election – about 20,000 in Kansas City and 30,000 in Jackson County outside Kansas City. (This might surprise you but the county has about a third more registered voters than the Kansas City part of the county.)

• 24,999 people vote for the tax and 25,001 people vote against it. (Wouldn’t that be a bea-u-ti-ful thing?)

• Based on the $1,357,000 invested so far, that would mean the proponents would have spent about $55 for each “yes” vote.

That’s a pretty, pretty penny, penny, as Larry David might say.

One more hypothesis: Let’s say the proponents do, in fact, lose…

It would be the most ignominious political loss in Kansas City history.

No wonder they’re throwing money around like it’s grass seed.

**

Here is your updated contribution report for the Committee for Research, Treatment and Cures.  (Under state law, campaign committees must report contributions of $5,000 or more within 48 hours of receipt.)

**The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City**, $600,00

**Children’s Mercy Hospital**, $100,000

**Donald Hall Jr.**, $100,000

**Hallmark Global Services**, $100,000

**J.E. Dunn Construction**, $100,000

**John G. Sherman**, chairman and c.e.o of Inergy L.P., $100,000

**Robert Kipp**, former Crown Center Development president, $50,000

**Burns and McDonnell**, engineering company, $50,000

**KCP&L**, $25,000

**Tom McDonnell**, retired DST c.e.o., $25,000

**Irvine O. Hockaday Jr**., former Hallmark Cards c.e.o., $20,000

**William Gautreaux**, a top Inergy LP officer (see John Sherman), $10,000

**Wagstaff & Cartmell** law firm, $10,000

**St. Luke’s Foundation**, $10,000

**St. Luke’s Health System**, $10,000;

**Husch Blackwell** law firm, $10,000;

**Dr. L. Patrick James**, of the KC Area Life Sciences Institute, $10,000

**The Polsinelli** law firm, $10,000

**Lockton Companies**, $10,000

**Stinson Morrison Hecker** law firm, $7,500

Editor’s note: You can see the same post on my campaign committee’s website — stopabadcure.org. (Be sure to tell your friends. The key to beating this proposal is voter turnout. The greater the turnout, the more likely the chances of the proposal going down to defeat.

After months of uncertainty, the situation with former Kansas City Mayor Charles B. Wheeler’s Loose Park area home was resolved Monday.

The home was sold on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse because the Wheelers had failed to pay the property taxes and homeowners insurance premiums as required by their reverse mortgage. They owed more than $500,000 on the note.

James B. Nutter & Co., which issued the mortgage note and still controls it, bought the house on behalf of a Texas property management company for $399,000, which is the appraised value of the home. That was the only bid.

Photo by JimmyCsays

Jim Nutter Sr., founder of the mortgage company, is helping Wheeler and his wife Marjorie find a new residence. The Wheelers will have 30 days to leave the Loose Park area home, where they have lived since April 10, 1971, the day Wheeler was sworn in as mayor.

Wheeler, a Democrat, served two terms as mayor and later served a term in the Missouri Senate.

“Everybody’s been acting in a very honorable way in this situation,” Wheeler said Monday afternoon, sitting at “The Charles Wheeler Table” in his hangout, the Flea Market Bar & Grill on Westport Road. “The road is clear.”

Wheeler said he and a Nutter representative had identified a duplex in Waldo that the Wheelers would rent, occupying the first floor.

“I’m pleased with the way things are going,” Wheeler said.

Several months ago, when news of the situation surfaced, Wheeler was at odds with Nutter, who, for decades, has been a major contributor to Democratic candidates. Although he and Wheeler have not been close politically for many years,  Wheeler got a reverse mortgage from Nutter several years ago.

Pat O’Neill

The threat of eviction loomed for several weeks, but Nutter softened his position and brought in Pat O’Neill, a veteran public relations consultant who is friends with both men.

With O’Neill in the picture, the situation improved immediately, but it still took several weeks to iron out all the issues.

Referring to the upcoming move, O’Neill said after the auction, “It’ll be a whole lot better for him.”

Marjorie Wheeler had been in St. Luke’s Hospital for about 10 days, before moving on Monday to Bishop Spencer Place for a rehabilitation stint.

Wheeler said that he, Marjorie and their son Graham, who has lived with them for many years, would occupy the duplex.

Taking up where we left off last Thursday…

The Committee for Research, Treatments and Cures is now up to $907,500 in campaign contributions.

Since Thursday, the committee reported four contributions totaling $127,500, to augment the $780,000 that the committee had reported previously.

(Contributions of $5,000 or more must be reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission within 48 hours of receipt.)

If you will recall, there had been no contributions of less than $10,000. Now, there’s one: The law firm Stinson Morrison Hecker gave $7,500. Cheapskates.

Other recent contributions:

St. Luke’s Foundation, $10,000
Children’s Mercy Hospital, $100,000
William Gautreaux, a top officer at Inergy LP, $10,000.

Inergy’s chairman and c.e.o., John G. Sherman, gave $100,000 earlier.

(For your convenience, I have listed all the earlier contributions at the bottom of this post.)

Of course, St. Luke’s Health System and Children’s Mercy are two of the establishments — along with UMKC — that would reap hundreds of millions of dollars from the proposed half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research.” Election Day is Nov. 5.

It makes perfect sense that St. Luke’s and Children’s Mercy would put up tens of thousands now to ensure millions later. The capper would be if UMKC, a state-funded school, somehow weighed in with a contribution.

You have to ask yourself what some of these companies and individuals expect to get in return for their deep-pocketed support of the tax proposal.

Allow me to hazard a couple of educated guesses:

:: The new Translational Medicine Institute of Jackson County would have its home on Hospital Hill, and the Hall Family Foundation, along with individual family members, has pledged $75 million to build it (provided that voters approve the tax). Some company is going to have to construct the building, right? Hmmmm…I wonder which construction firm that would be? Oh, yeah, JE Dunn, which, as you can see below, has given $100,000 to the campaign committee. (The institute would be run by Board of Directors that would not have to award projects to the “lowest and best” bidders.)

:: At least three other boards would be involved in overseeing the institute or keeping an eye on the Board of Directors, so, naturally, a lot of legal contracts and ongoing representation would be needed. Who might the board turn to? Why, I’m sure they’d consider Wagstaff & Cartmell, Husch Blackwell and the Polsinelli firm to be fine, fine candidates. (And none of those law firms should worry; there’ll be plenty of business to go around.)

:: I would think these “rock star” researchers that are to be hired would need a lot of insurance, just in case, say, they came up with some treatments that ended up harming people…Well, hey, hey, lookie here! We have Lockton insurance to provide coverage. (The armada of lawyers also would jump into action, of course.)

Oh, my…All the money and all the possibilities make my head spin.

But, wait a minute, are any of these wheeler dealers thinking about the thousands of Jackson County residents who are not making enough money to qualify for Medicaid coverage but who would have to pay an extra $5 or so each month in sales taxes?

Apparently not.

Oh, and thanks so much to the Missouri General Assembly for refusing in this year’s session to expand Medicaid, even though the federal government would have picked up the tab.

If the legislature had voted to expand Medicaid, many of those who are not making enough money to qualify would, indeed, be picked up by Medicaid.

It all makes me reflect on the quote that the Rev. John Wandless, a member of our Committee to Stop a Bad Cure, gave me recently:

“The one percent is always ready to tax poor people.”

***

Here are the earlier contributions to the Committee for Research Treatment and Cures:

– Wagstaff & Cartmell law firm, $10,000
– Husch Blackwell law firm, $10,000
– Irvine O. Hockaday Jr., former Hallmark Cards c.e.o., two contributions of $10,000 each
– Robert Kipp, former Kansas City city manager and former Crown Center Development president, $50,000.
– Tom McDonnell, retired DST c.e.o., $25,000
– Dr. L. Patrick James, board member of the Kansas city Area Life Sciences Institute, $10,000
– St. Luke’s Health System, $10,000
– KCP&L, $25,000
– Polsinelli law firm, $10,000
– John Sherman, chairman and c.e.o. of Inergy LP, $100,000
– Hallmark Global, $100,000
– J.E. Dunn Construction, $100,000
– The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City,  two contributions of $100,000 each
– Lockton Insurance, $10,000
– Donald Hall, $100,000

***

Be sure to see the latest post — “KC Area Already Awash in Medical Research Dollars” — on the stopabadcure.org website.

(New posts go up frequently, keeping the presses running almost continuously.)

It’s a great day in jimmycsays land and also in the world of the Committee to Stop a Bad Cure, the campaign committee I registered last month to fight the proposed new half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research” in Jackson County.

(I put quotes around that term every time I use it because it sounds so weird, and a lot of people don’t know what it means.)

After several weeks of preparation, the committee’s website, http://www.stopabadcure.org, went live this afternoon.

I invite you to check it out and give me your comments and suggestions.

Our committee is now 27 members strong, including me. All are residents of Jackson County. (They are listed on the website.)

In addition to the website, we have purchased billboards, which will go up next week in strategic locations. If finances allow, we will advertise in The Star and have yard signs and fliers.

The committee has now raised and spent about $4,200. I have contributed all but about $300 of that.

If you would like to contribute and help pay specifically for KC Star ads (newspaper readers vote) and printed materials, send checks to the committee at 1209 W. 64th Terr., KCMO 64113.

I am the committee treasurer, and that’s my home address.

***

We are up against big bucks. As of last week, the Committee for Discoveries, Treatments and Cures, the committee working for the tax, had raised $780,000. Already, they are mailing four-page, full-color brochures. (If you are a frequent voter in Jackson County, you can expect to get a brochure almost every day in the final days leading up to the election.)

As of last week, the committee for cures had received 17 contributions of $10,000 or more, accounting for all committee revenue.

Here is a list of the contributors:

— Wagstaff & Cartmell law firm, $10,000
— Husch Blackwell law firm, $10,000
— Irvine O. Hockaday Jr., former Hallmark Cards c.e.o., two contributions of $10,000 each
— Robert Kipp, former Kansas City city manager and former Crown Center Development president, $50,000.
— Tom McDonnell, retired DST c.e.o., $25,000
— Dr. L. Patrick James, board member of the Kansas city Area Life Sciences Institute, $10,000
— St. Luke’s Health System, $10,000
— KCP&L, $25,000
— Polsinelli law firm, $10,000
— John Sherman, chairman and c.e.o. of Inergy LP, $100,000
— Hallmark Global, $100,000
— J.E. Dunn Construction, $100,000
— The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City,  two contributions of $100,000 each
— Lockton Insurance, $10,000
— Donald Hall, $100,000

Note: Missouri Ethics Commission disclosure reports do not indicate if the $100,000 contribution from Donald Hall came from Donald Sr. or Donald Jr. Both are members of the Civic Council, an organization of the area’s top corporate and legal executives. The Civic Council is the money and power behind the push for the tax increase.

***

Those contributions are eye-popping, aren’t they?

You need to know this, however: Those contributors realize that if they can foist this tax onto the taxpayers, they themselves will not get hit up for much bigger amounts to help fund the medical research program privately.

Privately, of course, is how the bulk of the money should be raised — from corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals.

It’s obvious from these contributions that oodles of private money is out there waiting to be tapped.

But in this case, as in many others before it, the sponsors decided they would prefer to have the taxpayers carry the load. They’ll be trying to fool just enough people to get this passed on Nov. 5

I say, let’s cram it down their throats, Jackson Countians.

Gotta tell you about my new hobby. Fly fishing.

Patty and I spent a long weekend at Roaring River State Park in southwest Missouri, and I came home with a fly-rod and reel combination and a newfound appreciation for rainbow trout.

Roaring River has one of four trout hatcheries in the state, along with Meramec Spring, Bennett Spring and Montauk Fish Hatchery.

At this time of year, the fishing starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 7:15 p.m., at least at Roaring River. A loud horn signals the start and end of the fishing hours. When the opening horn sounds, many fishermen have staked out their positions in the many fishing “holes” along the mile or so length of three distinct fishing “zones.”

It was by no means shoulder to shoulder along the river — as you sometimes see in photos from the traditional opening day festivities at Bennett Spring — but it’s safe to say that a few hundred people were fishing at any given time.

Each fisherman is required to have, visible on his or her clothing, a daily fishing “tag,” which costs $3 a day. A lot of people pin them to the back of their hat.

I started out fishing with a spinning rod and reel but soon spotted an old guy who wielded his fly rod confidently and effortlessly. With a slight, sharp movement of his forearm, he brought the line back, waited a second and brought the forearm forward quickly, setting the fly down softly on the far side of the river. With a fixed gaze, he watched the line for signs of a jerking movement. When the line jerked, he jerked back — and usually had a fish on the line.

I sidled up to him and asked him if I could take a few pictures. We got to talking, and I introduced myself. He said his name was Powell Adams and that he was “a cotton farmer from Lubbock, Texas.” When I asked him how old he was, he said, “Eighty-four…I’m going to be 84, uh, sometime this week or next week…It’s not too important.”

As we talked, one thing led to another, and that afternoon, Friday, I bought the rod-and-reel combination — ready to go — from a friend of Powell’s at a nearby resort. The friend was willing to sell his equipment because he has a rare disorder that has largely disabled his hands.

I kept checking in on Adams, when I would see his tan Mazda pick-up parked near the fishing hole that he most preferred. Not surprisingly, it turned out he was a veritable fish-catching machine. On Saturday alone, he caught more than 30 trout, ranging from less than a pound to two pounds or more.

Me? I caught two fish — one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The one on Sunday was pretty good — about a pound and a half, I would say.

While I don’t expect to become nearly as good as the “cotton farmer from Lubbock, Texas,” I see some nice trout fishing in my future.

Here are the photos:

Powell Adams, a Texas cotton farmer, works the line. He spends about six weeks at Roaring River each fall, before the cotton harvest begins in October.

In no time, he hooked one.

Looking south from a bridge close to the hatchery.

This is the hatchery area, where fish that are being raised for release into the river are kept in “raceways.”

Roaring River begins at this spring and wends its way to Table Rock Lake.

The spring is more than 200 feet deep. It produces 20 million gallons of water a day.

This is one of many large trout that stay in a “pool” area near the spring.

When we weren’t by the river or hiking in the hills, we relaxed at this cabin, built in the Civilian Conservation Corps era — from 1933 to 1942.

I’m headed to Colorado today to visit my old buddy Hubartos vanDrehl, the Prince of Paonia and self-described  “Zen-DaDa libertarian” and “charismatic underachiever.”

Regrettably, Hubartos has a bad case of the blues, and I plan on doing some listening and hope to cheer him up a bit. We’ve known each other since we were introduced as four-year-olds — each of us cowering behind his mother’s skirt — on Ruth Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky.

…But back to business. Before heading west, I wanted to give you an update on the Committee to Stop a Bad Cure. A dozen people have accepted my invitation to join on as committee members. So, it’s no longer a Committee of One.

Patty told me last week:

“If you’re going to have a committee, you’ve got to have people on it…Get cracking!”

I might have misquoted her on the “get cracking” part, but that’s what she meant. As always, her advice was sound. Some of the better stuff that you’ll hear coming out of my mouth, you’ll be able to attribute to her brain. (The stupid stuff will be all mine.)

Let me introduce our new committee members:

Pat Russell, Kansas City
Don Biggs, Kansas City (a former Kansas state senator, by the way)
Donald Hoffmann (former KC Star architecture critic)
Joe Arthur, Lee’s Summit
Richard Arthur, Lee’s Summit
Jim Gottsch, Kansas City
Jim and Sarah Weitzel, Kansas City
Claudia Freiburghouse, Kansas City
Patty Fitzpatrick (well, you know…)
Tom Minges, Kansas City
Kate Beem, Independence (another former Star staffer)

Welcome aboard, folks, I have a feeling it’s going to be a fun and wildly successful ride.

Down with the Civic Council Sales Tax!

***

People ask me what kind of campaign will we have…Quite simply, we’re going to have a low-budget, strategic campaign that will disembowel the other side’s empty-suit proposal.

We plan to have yard signs, door hangers and some other paid media that I don’t want to disclose right now. (Keep your eyes open, though, around early October.)

We will have a spectacular website — StopaBadCure.org — which should go up next week.

A brilliant young man named Jimmy Koppen is working with me on the logo and website…I’ve  known for a long time that Jimmy was brilliant, but he sealed it when he told me to dump the cigar-and-straw-hat-photo for purposes of the campaign.

Of course, the opposition will probably splash the cigar-smokin’/high-ridin’-dude photo on billboards all over town, saying things like:

“Can you trust a cigar-smoking former reporter to give you the straight story?”

I don’t care, I tell you!!!

I gave up cigars about a month ago, but I’m proud of that photo. (A buddy named Greg Corwin took it in 2010 at the J.C. Nichols Fountain.) In fact, I just enlarged it on the “About Me” page. So, go ahead, Glorioso-Gray-O’Neill-Roe and all you other bought-and-paid-for consultants, play it up big!

And if you want to bring up the only blemish on my journalistic career — a 25-year-old incident recalled by some as Asphaltgate — have at it!

…The gist of it was that Kansas City Public Works crew offered to fill potholes for $30 at some guy’s service station at 59th and Swope Parkway. He told them to come back later. The guy then called The Star and was transferred to me. I went out there and stupidly agreed — as the crew approached the station — to provide the 30 bucks. The asphalt guys ended up getting fired, and then-editor Art Brisbane wrote a column in the paper, admonishing me (without naming me) and apologizing to the public.

It all blew over in a few weeks, but The Star rewrote its Ethics Policy to specifically prohibit paying for news.

The way I look at it, I played a big role in raising the ethics bar at my beloved paper.

Now that I laid that out there, I’m trying to think of what else the opposition might use to try to embarrass me…But I’m drawing a blank.

I did have a long and relatively happy bachelorhood (until I got so lonely I thought I was going to die).

But who could hold it against a guy that he enjoyed himself during The Sexual Revolution?

***

P.S. The committee needs money ($$$$!) to get its message out and defeat the Civic Council Sales Tax on Nov. 5. I have contributed $3,500 of personal funds to the effort. So far, the committee has received just one other contribution — $95 from a CPA who lives in Independence. Thank you!

Please consider contributing. You can send send checks to:

Committee to Stop a Bad Cure
1209 W. 64th Terr
Kansas City, MO 64113

I guarantee you one thing: Your money will be put to good use.

Jim Fitzpatrick, treasurer

See you in a week!

Today, for the first time, I was on the other side of the notebook.

As the sole spokesman for the Committee to Stop a Bad Cure, I held a news conference on the steps of the county courthouse and laid out the elements of an alternative to the proposed Civic Council Sales Tax.

The Star, The Examiner and the KC Hispanic News had representatives. The two others attending were a blogger named Ryan Flowers and p.r. consultant Pat O’Neill, who is working for passage of the proposed half-cent sales tax to benefit “translational medical research.”

Here are the elements of my proposal:

1) The County Legislature and the Civic Council take the necessary steps to pull Jackson County Question 1 off the November ballot. (It can be done, easily, with a court order until Tuesday, Sept. 24.)

2) The Hall family and the Hall Family Foundation redirect its $75 million pledge — taking the onus off the taxpayers and challenging corporations, other foundations, wealthy individuals and the general public to raise $425 million.

3) With $425 million in pledges in hand, private funding would amount to $500 million, including the Hall family’s $75 million.

4) Then, the Civic Council could go back to Jackson County and seek voter approval of a one-eighth-cent sales tax, which would generate about $10 million a year. That tax would have a duration of 15 years (instead of 20) and would bring in a total of at least $150 million over the 15-year period.

5) That would provide at least $650 million in overall funding, thus reducing the program from $800 million.

I believe this is a reasonable and proportional approach, and I would support it.

As I said at the news conference, I am not an anti-tax crusader and have voted for almost every tax proposal that The Star has recommended during the 44 years I have been in Kansas City. (Can’t help it; I still look to my former, longtime employer for guidance on civic issues.)

Two years ago, I was a spokesperson for the committee that successfully campaigned to retain Kansas City’s earnings tax.

But I am strongly opposed to the county’s half-cent proposal, which would have taxpayers forking over $800 million to $1 billion over the initial 20-year duration of the tax.

I think the private sector should carry the biggest part of the load when it comes to additional medical research. As I have said before, additional medical research is a luxury not a top government priority.