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

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.

I love Kansas City, I like St. Louis, and Columbia is OK.

But as far as I’m concerned, if the rest of the state slid off the earth, it wouldn’t bother me very much.  That’s mainly because it has become so politically hidebound.

Missouri used to be a “bellwether state.” Now, it’s just of that big midwestern blob of red that also includes Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Missouri, as a whole, is so backward-thinking that it was the subject of a front-page, New York Times story comparing how two states were handling preparations for practical application of the Affordable Health Care Act.

The “good” state that was featured in the story, which appeared on Saturday, was Colorado. I guess I don’t have to tell you what the “bad” state was.

In Colorado, where Democrats control the governor’s office and the House and Senate, the new insurance market is gearing up for sign-ups, and market employees are traveling the state to explain how the market — called Connect for Health Colorado — will work. Connect for Health is even running TV commercials.

A separate article about Missouri, on the other hand, painted a stark and depressing (to me, anyway) picture. The author of the Missouri story, Robert Pear, wrote:

Show Me

While states like Colorado, Connecticut and California race to offer subsidized insurance to their citizens, Missouri stands out among the states that have put up significant obstacles. It has refused to create an insurance exchange, leaving the job to the federal government. It has forbidden state and local government officials to cooperate with the federal exchange.

That’s just dandy, isn’t it? Missouri getting nationwide headlines for throwing up “significant obstacles” to implementation of a federal law?

I have written about this before — that successful implementation of this law is not just a matter of principle with me. It’s got a very practical dimension. Our 25-year-old daughter Brooks has been dealing with a serious case of anorexia for more than three years. She has been in and out of hospitals, residential treatment facilities and residential support houses (where she is now).

She will turn 26 next March, and at least by then she will no longer be eligible to remain on my private health-insurance plan. My wife Patty and I are banking on her getting into a state or federally sponsored marketplace.

Looks like we’re going to get zero assistance from state government.

One of those whom Pear quoted about the Missouri situation is state Sen. Rob Schaaf, who represents Buchanan (St. Joseph)  and Platte counties.

Schaaf wrote and sponsored a 2012 ballot measure that prevented the state from setting up its own insurance exchange. Of course, Missouri residents — many of whom loathe President Obama — approved the measure overwhelmingly. And, naturally, our tip-toey governor, Democrat Jay Nixon, has kept his trap shut because he doesn’t want to alienate the outstate voters. What a wuss!

But back to Schaaf…The Times quotes him as saying: “We (Missouri) can’t afford everything we do now, let alone provide free medical care to able-bodied adults. I have a philosophical problem with doing that, and I’m also worried about our country’s financial situation.”

What the hell is he talking about — “free medical care to able-bodied adults” ??? Public hospitals already provide that, and for-profit hospitals are supposed to provide some measure of free care to indigents.

And he’s worried about the country’s financial situation? Obviously, he’s not worried about the 850,000 uninsured Missouri residents.

…Now, here’s what Pear did not tell his readers about Schaaf. He is a physician with a family practice and is on the staff at Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph. The hospital is owned by a for-profit conglomerate called Heartland Health. To put it bluntly, Schaaf is in Heartland’s pocket, and I predict that one day he’s going to have a very big administrative position at Heartland.  

Heartland and other health care conglomerates like the health care set-up just the way it is — where they can monopolize various areas and charge just about whatever they want for treatment.

The conglomerates see the Affordable Care Act as the first step toward health care reform, including more pressure for more reasonable pricing.

Schaaf

One provision of the bill that Schaaf sponsored and that voters approved is that state and local officials cannot provide “assistance or resources” of any kind to a federal exchange unless federal law explicitly requires it.

So, Schaaf and the voters essentially thumbed their noses at the state’s uninsured residents and said, “Getting health insurance is between you and the federal government. Good luck.”

I trust that most of you have read or heard about the newly unveiled plan of Cerner Co. executives to redevelop the Bannister Mall site as an office park, with 12,000 to 15,000 employees.

The first two phases of the “Three Trails Redevelopment Project” would cost about $200 million and cover 236 acres — all but 15 of which have been acquired by a company established by Cerner Chairman Neal Patterson and Vice Chairman Cliff Illig.

It’s great news for Kansas City, and for southeast Kansas City in particular.

The road to hope for the Bannister Mall site has been circuitous and neck snapping, as most of us know.  And today I heard a story that might hold the key to the crumbling of the earlier redevelopment plan that Patterson and Illig abandoned in 2009.

Indeed, the story I heard could explain a sequence of events that led to the pivotal, 2009 decision by Patterson and Illig to take their huge Cerner office complex and Sporting Park soccer stadium to western Wyandotte County.

This is a single-source story, but it’s from a knowledgeable businessman with a wide network of connections. He cannot be identified because…well, he doesn’t want to be. But he says of this story: “You can put it in the bank.”

So here it is:

The Cerner-Sporting Park proposal came along, in the mid-2000s. In 2007, Mark Funkhouser was elected mayor. Slowly and surely, you will recall, his wife, Gloria Squitiro, installed herself as his de-facto chief of staff, working as a “volunteer” and maintaining a desk just outside her husband’s 29th-floor office.

Squitiro’s overbearing and over-controlling manner prevented the office from working effectively, and it got worse after one African-American employee, Ruth Bates, sued the city for discrimination because Squitiro called her “Mammy.” The city ultimately settled the suit for about $500,000, but before that, Squitiro was forced to move out of City Hall.

But Funkhouser — ever the loyal husband — decided she was so important to the functioning of the office that he (and she) began holding important city meetings at their home on 57th, between Main and Wornall.

Coincidental to the brouhaha on the 29th floor, the Patterson-Illig plan was bogging down.

As development reporter Kevin Collison recounts it in today’s Star, “Kansas City and Missouri offered a $273 million incentive package, but the developer was unable to attract enough retailers to generate the tax revenue to finance the plan.”

So, it started crumbling. But it wasn’t altogether dead. Sometime in 2009, after Squitiro had been banished from City Hall, a last-ditch meeting took place between city and Cerner officials. It took place on 57th Street, at the mayor’s home. The subject at hand, apparently, was whether the city was willing to boost the proposed subsidy.

Squitiro

Attending the meeting, my source said, were Illig and three other Cerner representatives and Funkhouser, Squitiro and a city development official.

During the meeting, Squitiro — remember, she was not a city employee in any way, shape or form — did a lot of the talking. So much so that, along with the setting, it gave Illig and the other Cerner representatives the heebie jeebies.

Soon afterwards, as Collison put it in his story, “the deal jumped the border.”

***

So how do you feel about that?

At the time, as I recall, Squitiro’s meddling was viewed mainly as an irritating sideshow.

But what if Gloria, in her own “I’m the queen” way, effectively altered the landscape of southeastern Kansas City and western Wyandotte County?

Is that a good thing? I think most Jackson County residents would say, “Hell, no!” while most Wyandotte County residents would say, “Why, thank you, Gloria!”

Fortunately, it looks like southeast Kansas City is going to be made whole, so to speak, and the ghosts of Bannister Mall will be laid to rest.

But the ghost of Gloria still hangs in the air.

If you read the obits in The Kansas City Star, you know that family members, in preparing obituaries for the deceased, usually strive to capture the essence of the person. That is, what he or she excelled out, where he or she made his or her mark.

Frequently, it comes down to something like this…”Above all, he (she) loved his (her) family and was a devoted father (mother) and spouse. He (she) took his (her) greatest joy in spending time with family members.”

That is well and good. But I think that most of us want to be remembered for something other than being loving, loyal family members. Don’t the vast majority of us strive to make some kind of mark outside the home? Something that people will remember us by?

Marti Dolinar
Photos courtesy of Sherri Parker

Marti Dolinar, who died last Wednesday from an infection run amok, was such a person. He was seeking to do something that would allow him to sit back and say, “I’ve done something special here.” And he managed to do just that, in his role as The Smartman, a regular commenter on this and other blogs. He was consistently witty, outrageous, insightful and combative. He gave me and other commenters a target to shoot at. And he liked that.

One of his best catches was on a post I put up on Thursday, July 18, just six days before he died. Always a cheerleader for the Power & Light District, I giddily cited a KC Star story quoting a Downtown Council survey reporting that 13.4 million people had visited downtown last year — compared with 2.5 million in 2012.

The Smartman weighed in early the next morning, saying:  “If you take 13.4 million visitors per year divided by 365 days in a year, that averages out to 36,712 visitors per day. Explain that? Are we counting everyone that works downtown as a daily ‘visitor’? ”

That stopped me cold. I e-mailed the fellow at the Downtown Council who was in charge of the so-called “self-reported” survey but didn’t hear back. Then I e-mailed the writer of the story, Kevin Collison, and asked him about it, especially what the term “self-reported” meant. Collison said that the individual venues, such as Sprint Center, Gordon Biersch, the Bristol, Johnny’s Tavern, etc., submitted their numbers to the Downtown Council, and the council simply compiled and reported them.

That changed the whole complexion of the “survey” and essentially discredited it.

The exchange between me and The Smartman prompted “Chuck,” who has been the second most prolific commenter on this blog, to say, “Hell of a nice catch, Smarty.”

And now, to send Marti along on his eternal journey, I want to give him the floor, once again…Here are some classic comments that The One and Only Smartman penned on this blog the last few years.

***

:: July 11, 2013, in response to a facetious rant in which I said I was “sick and tired of playing second fiddle to this guy The Smartman.”

Fitz, at best I am Ed McMahon to your Johnny Carson, Keith to your Mick, (Lewis) Diuguid to your Hemingway……that may be a bit extreme……but I remain your humble commenter.

:: July 10, 2013, on whether Kansas City should build a new single terminal at KCI:

I’d get more on board with a new airport if it served any real purpose other than stroking the Slyborg’s ego. (Slyborg is Mayor Sly James.) It will not improve tourism, convention business, or anything for that matter…At this point, with all the other social, operational and mechanical problems we have, $1.2 billion is just insane. The majority of that burden will fall on the local business traveler, not so much (on) inbound and departing tourists or business travelers. As time goes on more and more people will use Skype or Go To Meeting as option one for business meetings versus business travel. In the big scheme of things we are porcine in KC. We don’t need a new pig pen, just some fresh mud.

Ah, Fitz, welcome back, your pictures brought a warm smile to my face. Glad you enjoyed your trip. Hope you enjoyed the Reagan Library. Every time I think of my visit there, sitting in the final exhibit that shows the video from the funeral I well up with tears. Got to get back their soon.

:: Also July 9, 2013, on my account of going to an upscale Los Angeles restaurant filled with beautiful people:

I discovered a long time ago that when dining in LA, there are no ugly people.

I think upon my death I’ll have a website launched with my last lecture. It will start with, “To all of you idiots that voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.”

:: March 10, 2012, on a post that included a photo of our 25-year-old daughter, Brooks:

I’m assuming that your daughter got her good looks from her mother.

:: Jan. 18, 2012, on a response I had made to one of his comments:

One more thing. I’m not sure whether you complimented or insulted me, Fitz. I’m calling it a draw. Remind me not to send you a Christmas card again next year.

:: Dec. 1, 2011, on a post highlighting some of Chicago’s landmarks:

Fitz, Portillo’s is to Chicago what Gates and Bryant’s are to KC. Not the healthiest place to eat, but the dogs, ribs and Italian beef are BIBLICALLY good. The downtown location is as good of a place to people watch as Central Park or Venice Beach.

:: Oct. 30, 2011, recounting a chance meeting with former KCTV-5 anchorwoman Anne Peterson:

I was 18 at the time. She was covering the funeral of KCK Commissioner Tom Lally. As I approached her she smiled sweetly at me. For one of the few times in my life I was positively speechless. She moved on. I was frozen in time like a pillar of salt at the intersection of Sodom and Gomorrah. To have that moment over again. What might have been? I do think I’ve aged better than her so perhaps it’s all for the best.

:: Aug. 27, 2011, on my equivocation about using the F-word to describe my frustration at John Covington having resigned unexpectedly as Kansas City school superintendent:

With all due respect to your wife (who had succeeded in urging me to remove the word), put the F BOMB back. There are times, even in polite and civilized journalistic discourse that it is required to drive home a point. This is one of those times.

***

Today, Marti’s funeral is being held at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kan.  He was 52 and, for most of his life, made his living selling plastic packaging. He lived in the Brookside area with his girlfriend, Sherri Parker.

As his obit (published in Saturday’s Kansas City Star) said: “He had an overwhelming enthusiasm for life and a clever sense of humor.”

Amen.

Yes, readers, this is terrible news…and, unfortunately, no joke.

The most entertaining and prolific commenter to this blog and at least one other — KC Confidential — died on Wednesday, apparently from an infection that spread from a leg to his brain.

I did not know The Smartman, but Hearne Christopher, who governs the KC Confidential blog, identified him as Marti N. Dolinar, 52. He was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and lived in the KC area his whole life. He was a resident of the Brookside area, I believe.

Here is Hearne’s account, which he posted on Thursday.

…I first got an inkling of trouble this morning, after reading a comment from our second most frequent commenter, “Chuck.”

At 9:59 p.m. last night, Chuck wrote this, “So long, Smarty.”

Naturally, that sounded an alarm, and a little reporting then led to the awful news.

Coincidentally, Dolinar’s obit ran in this morning’s KC Star. Here it is…

Marti N. Dolinar, 52, died unexpectedly Wednesday, July 24, 2013, at St. Luke’s Hospital, KCMO. The Funeral Mass will be 10 a.m. Monday, July 29, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on Strawberry Hill in KCK, where visitation will begin at 9 a.m. Marti’s wishes were to be cremated. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations in Marti’s memory to Wayside Waifs, 3901 Martha Truman Rd., KCMO 64137 or to the St. John’s Church Restoration Fund.

Marti was born June 27, 1961, to George M. and JoAnn (Goodack) Dolinar in Kansas City, Kan. He was a graduate of St. John the Baptist Grade School and Bishop Ward High School Class of 1979. Some of Marti’s favorite childhood memories involve his years as a Boy Scout and Eagle Scout of Troop 19. Early in his career, Marti worked as a music-promotion entrepreneur. He devoted the remainder of his career to working in the plastic packaging industry in sales. Marti loved music, animals, reading and spending time with his family. He had an overwhelming enthusiasm for life and a clever sense of humor.

He has now joined his devoted mother, JoAnn in heaven; leaving behind his dear father, George and beloved sweetheart, Sherri Parker; uncle, Ed (Fran) Dolinar; aunts, Josephine Uniak and Rose Gerkovich; many nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews.

“…a clever sense of humor.” A-men!

God, I’m going to miss you, Smartman, and so will our readers…May you be with God in heaven.