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

The best thing that can happen for this community as far as David Jungerman is concerned is for him to be transferred from the Jackson County jail to the Missouri Department of Corrections and never to be heard from again until he dies.

I thought the transfer process might have begun on Friday, when the 84-year-old killer was to have been sentenced for the October 2017 murder of lawyer Thomas Pickert.

Unfortunately, the sentencing was delayed after Judge John Torrence granted a defense request for a mental evaluation. Last week, Jungerman’s lead attorney requested a continuance, alleging that Jungerman’s physical and mental condition has continued to deteriorate.

After a conference call Friday, Torrence ordered a mental evaluation and scheduled another conference call for Jan. 20.

As a result, the conclusion of this awful case is going to carry over into 2023.

As badly as I would liked to have seen the sentencing take place Friday, I trust that Torrence is just being careful to protect the conviction that the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office won in September. Daniel Ross, lead defense attorney, is expected to base his appeal, at least in part, on his contention that Jungerman was not competent to stand trial. So, Torrence probably doesn’t want to give him any ammunition.

Near the end of the trial, Torrence halted the proceedings for a couple of days because of Ross’ contention that Jungerman did not understand what was going on. The trial resumed, however, and the jury took only two hours to return a guilty verdict.

It was clear at the trial that Jungerman was in worse condition than he had been a year or two earlier. He no longer walked normally; he shuffled. Instead of paying attention to what his attorneys were saying and what was transpiring in the courtroom, he frequently yawned and had a vague look in his eyes.

Some people suggested he could be faking it to advance the “not-competent” assertion, but he’d have to be as good an actor as Brad Pitt to pull that off.

As I said, Jungerman is now 84, and he looks every bit that old.

He doesn’t have much to live for, either. He was a multi-millionaire, but he had to transfer control of the family trust to his daughter, and his attorney bills have probably exceeded $1 million.

He has been married and divorced three times. One of his ex-wives might have attended an early session of the trial, but otherwise it appeared there was no one in the courtroom with personal connections to him.

He seemingly has alienated even the daughter, his only offspring, partly because he appealed a monetary settlement she had agreed to in a civil case brought by Pickert’s family. (A judge summarily rejected the appeal.)

Only once during the trial did I see someone other than his three attorneys approach him in anything resembling a friendly manner. One day, I heard Ross call to his attention someone who was in attendance. “He likes you…a lot,” Ross said to Jungerman. A few minutes later, during a break, Ross summoned a man forward from the audience, and Jungerman smiled as he and the man exchanged a few words.

Why Jungerman thought it was a good idea to kill Pickert — and to think he could get away with it — is beyond comprehension. He was angry because Pickert had represented a man whom Jungerman had shot, and the jury returned a $5.75 million civil verdict against Jungerman. That was in July 2017, three months before Jungerman shot Pickert with a rifle while Pickert was standing in his front yard in Brookside.

But to kill him because of that? Especially when Jungerman had assets estimated at more then $30 million? It doesn’t make sense, not to normal-thinking people anyway. Of course, murder is almost always a bad idea, and fortunately most criminals become less violent as they get older.

Jungerman, obviously, was an outlier. He got more violent as he aged. I believe he shot a total of four people, in two separate incidents, for trespassing on his business property. One of those victims was the man whom Pickert represented. In that case, the huge judgment came about mainly because Jungerman chose to represent himself. He foolishly thought he was so smart he could save money and argue successfully on his own behalf.

Jungerman has said he suffered a serious head injury some years ago, and it’s possible the injury contributed to his plunge into late-life irrationality. But I don’t think that was the main factor. He’s just a bad guy with a low level of goodwill and a high quotient of evil.

We can’t get this guy down to the Missouri State Penitentiary — or some other state facility — soon enough.

In a column posted on The Star’s website this morning, Greg Farmer, the paper’s managing editor the last six years, thanked readers for their loyalty and talked about “connecting better” with them.

However, as we used to say in the newsroom when the biggest news was not played prominently at the top of the story, Farmer “buried the lead.”

Clear down at the bottom of the story, where there is customarily a line identifying the writer and his or her title, the sentence describing Farmer said simply, “Greg Farmer is The Star’s interim executive editor.”

That would mean little or nothing to the casual reader, but to insiders who have been around journalism, it was a ground-shaking sentence. What those eight words said was that Mike Fannin, who has been on leave twice since being arrested June 7 in Olathe on suspicion of DUI, is out. (The arrest was his third on a DUI charge.)

Heretofore, stories in which Farmer has been mentioned have described him as managing editor. Today that changed, and it was a back-door way of saying that Fannin was no longer the editor. If Fannin was still the editor — even if he was on leave — The Star would not have have bestowed the title of interim editor on Farmer or anyone else.

Unfortunately, a failure to be straightforward with readers regarding top management changes, has plagued The Star in recent years. Just three years ago when Fannin was announced as president and editor, the paper did not once mention the name of Tony Berg, the president who had either been let go or left on his own volition. (He’s now president of The Wichita Eagle, which is part of the McClatchy chain.)

That was extremely odd because Berg’s arrival had been announced with much fanfare in January 2016.

In a prominently placed story announcing Berg’s appointment, Mark Zieman, then vice president of operations at McClatchy, was quoted as saying: “This job sparked a great deal of interest both inside and outside of McClatchy. I’m confident Tony has the skills to get us through the digital transformation. He has the drive.”

It’s a big deal, being named publisher and editor at a major metropolitan newspaper…And yet, when Berg departed, his name was never mentioned. That’s not right. That’s poor journalism.

**

Now, I admit the current situation, with Fannin having personal problems, is difficult. But The Star reports on difficult situations all the time; that’s one of its most important roles. So, The Star should be equally forthcoming when the news is inside its own operation.

In this case, as soon as upper McClatchy management determined Fannin could not stay on, The Star should have run a story saying Fannin had resigned or been relieved of duty and that Farmer would serve as interim editor until a successor had been selected.

That’s how The Star would report a change in top management at any of KC’s biggest companies, such as Hallmark Cards or Cerner, which was purchased by Oracle in June. But when it comes to self-reporting, The Star has proven itself to be dodgy. And that’s not the way to cultivate trust with readers.

Not that readers need to know everything that’s going on inside the paper, such as who’s going to be city editor. But they certainly deserve to know who’s running the show.

…I like Farmer and think he will do well, assuming that he becomes the next editor. As I wrote last month Farmer has been at the paper since 1997 and has been managing editor (the No. 2 post) since 2016.

He’s about 50, making him about six years younger than Fannin, who is 56. When I was at The Star (I retired in 2006), Farmer was highly regarded by almost all staff members. He is reasonable and calm; he knows the city; and he’s a good leader.

I realize that Farmer can’t order up a story about his elevation to interim editor — that call probably would be made by McClatchy CEO Tony Hunter — but if he is serious about “connecting better” with readers, he should encourage Hunter to authorize a story informing readers there’s been a change at the top of the hometown paper.

After a year of anteing up tidbits and teasers, Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman has shoved all his chips to center table.

It’s a huge bet that Kansas City and Jackson County will come up with the bulk of $2 billion to finance a new downtown baseball stadium, to be ready by the time the Royals’ lease of Kauffman Stadium expires in 2031.

Until Tuesday, when Sherman laid out his plan in an open letter to “Royals fans and the Kansas City community,” the idea of a new stadium was sort of fanciful — at least to me — and a shot in the dark.

But now it’s out there in black and white, and green, and we have to deal with it. Here are some of the questions the community will have to cope with…

:: How would a downtown stadium be paid for?

:: Are the Royals — a small-market, mostly cellar-dwelling team — worth that kind of investment?

:: How long would people go to the stadium in large numbers to see a mostly perennially losing team?

:: Would Sherman move the team to another city — not Lenexa or KCK, but Louisville or Nashville — if his proposed abandonment of Kauffman Stadium is rejected?

This is all very difficult to swallow. We’ve had it so good for so long with the Truman Sports Complex on I-70. It was the best-ever stadium deal anywhere, by far. As a result of a 1967 bond issue that required two-thirds voter approval, we got two stadiums, complete with access roads, all for the bargain-basement price of $100 million.

(To give you an idea of how far $100 million goes these days, that’s the price tag on a two-hotel project, with a total of about 300 rooms, going up near 46th and Broadway.)

And even though hundreds of millions of additional dollars have been poured into Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums, both facilities remain top notch…Well, I have to admit I can’t say that first hand about Arrowhead because I quit going to games there several years ago, but I sure haven’t heard any complains about the facility.

…Now, let’s get back to those questions I posed above.

How would a downtown stadium be paid for?

Sherman is looking primarily at the city rather than the county, which built the Truman Sports Complex. The project Sherman has in mind is out of the county’s league, and that’s why most of the questions about a downtown stadium have been put to Mayor Quinton Lucas instead of County Executive Frank White.

Only the city could take the lead on a project of this scale. My guess is Lucas and the other members of the City Council would ask voters to approve a hefty sales tax to finance the bulk of the cost. They might consider an increase in the one-percent earnings tax, but I think they would decide against that because it could drive a lot of residents out of the city. A sales tax, on the other hand, while it hits hardest those who can least afford to pay, seems like nickel-and-dime outlays to most people.

The county would still have a role. Without a doubt, the County Legislature would put to voters an extension of an existing three-eighth-cent sales tax that voters approved in 2006 to finance sports complex improvements. The tax is scheduled to expire in 2031.

Are the Royals worth that kind of investment?

It doesn’t seem like it, does it? I think I went to one game this year, by far the least number of games I’ve ever been to in a season. The problem isn’t just with the team’s win-loss record; it’s also with the TV situation. Unless you have cable TV — which a lot of people, including us, have given up — it’s difficult or very expensive to catch Royals games. And what happens when you can’t easily watch the games? You lose connection with the team and interest in it.

How long would people go to the stadium in large numbers to see a mostly perennially losing team?

Two or three seasons at most, I would say. Of course, it would be a novelty, even exciting, at first, but the blush would wear off pretty soon without remarkably different results on the field.

And think about the thousands and thousands of people who currently come from nearby states, mostly Iowa and Nebraska, for games and outings to the Plaza and Westport. They’re used to shooting down I-29 or I-35 and pulling into the spacious, surface parking lots at Arrowhead and Kauffman and getting out just as easily, with few worries about their personal safety.

It would be different downtown. Oh, yeah. In the minds of most out-of-towners all kinds of terrible things could happen downtown, the least of which would be finding close-in parking. And the price of parking? Forget the deals we get on downtown parking now — $15 to $20. It would shoot up to $50 to $60, easy.

Would Sherman move the team to another city?

That’s the two billion dollar question, and I don’t have an answer. But unlike the previous sports-franchise owners we’ve had, other than Ewing Kauffman, Sherman is not an absentee owner. He lives in Kansas City. And I mean Kansas City, not Mission Hills, like Kauffman did. So, he deserves a lot of credit, and earns a load of goodwill, for that.

But keep in mind he was part owner for years of the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) and is a successful businessman. (He made his fortune in the energy business.)

In his nearly three-page, open letter, he said nothing about what might happen if he’s denied a new downtown stadium. Nevertheless, the words “would he move the team” hang unwritten over every paragraph.

The big advantage he’s got is that unlike the absentee sports-franchise owners we’ve had, including the Glass family in the past and the Hunt family currently, Sherman has a deep trough of goodwill with many residents. I’ve got friends who say, “He wants to do something good for Kansas City.”

I believe them, but at the same time I wonder, “Don’t we already have something pretty damn good with the sports complex? And is there any reason it shouldn’t last another 50 years with some improvements along the way?”

…Man, this is a tough one. As a community and individually, we’re going to be chewing on this piece of rawhide for a long time. As I sit here tonight, I don’t know exactly how I feel about it. But I do know that with today’s letter, Sherman has not only thrown the biggest pitch of his life, but he’s also officially started the arm-twisting.

Step by step and day by day, the Dominic Biscari case is becoming the city of Kansas City’s worst nightmare.

The Kansas City Star reported today that survivors of three people killed in a horrible fire-truck crash last Dec. 15 have filed a lawsuit contending that the city is liable for an arbitration award of $32.4 million that a Jackson County Circuit Court judge approved on Nov. 1.

Biscari, the “fire apparatus operator” who was behind the wheel that night, almost certainly isn’t a millionaire and won’t be able to pay much of the award.

The city, on the other hand, has an annual budget of more than $1 billion, and it probably will be coughing up money that otherwise could have gone toward basic services like community center improvements, street resurfacing and bulky-item pickup.

The night of the crash, Biscari apparently was getting such a rush wheeling his big rig fast and recklessly that he failed to apply the brakes after a dispatcher told the crew to “stand down.”

In layman’s terms, “stand down,” means what it sounds like: Stop. The emergency is over. A minute later, however, Biscari was proceeding at 50 miles an hour through the intersection of Broadway and Westport Road when he plowed into two pedestrians and a car in which two people were riding. Both occupants of the vehicle were killed, as was one of the pedestrians.

The victims were Jennifer San Nicolas, 41, Michael Elwood, 25, and Tami Knight, also 41.

Here is a screen shot that shows the fire truck about to slam into the vehicle in which San Nicolas and Elwood were riding.

This disaster was set in motion over many years — years during which Local 42 of the International Association of Fire Fighters extracted concession after concession from an obliging City Council and years during which Fire Department management became gun shy of reining in a problematic fire fighter like Biscari.

Why was the City Council so obliging? Because Local 42 is the most powerful force in city elections, and in election after election, City Council candidates seek its endorsement. If they get it, their chances of winning are greatly increased.

Mayor Quinton Lucas is one who enjoyed Local 42 support in his 2019 election, and he will undoubtedly have it when he runs for re-election next spring.

I have no beef with Local 42 endorsing candidates, but Dominic Biscari was a proven, reckless driver who should have had his driving privileges taken away before the crash. Three months earlier, in September 2021, an EMT reported that Biscari, while driving an ambulance (the Fire Department also runs the ambulance service) had accelerated to 70 mph on Broadway during an emergency run. Biscari was driving so fast and taking turns so hard that EMTs were tossed out of their seats in the back of the vehicle.

Tellingly, the complaining EMT reported that she had been on two previous runs when Biscari was speeding unnecessarily and driving recklessly.

Given that report, Fire Chief Donna Lake should have demoted Biscari or set that process in motion, if that’s what it takes under the collective bargaining agreement. But that didn’t happen, probably because it would have meant the city would have had to engage Local 42 on a contract “grievance,” which the city might have lost because of the power the union has assembled over decades. So, apparently, no action was taken.

Complicating this case is the fact that after kissing Local 42’s ass for decades, the city tried to distance itself from Biscari after the crash. What happened was that in the course of the lawsuit the city withdrew its legal representation of Biscari. The city’s collective bargaining agreement with the union appears to require that representation. And there is no question that on the night he killed three people Biscari was a full-fledged, union-protected city employee. Consequently, it’s almost impossible to imagine the city will be held harmless for what he did.

As Tim Dollar, an attorney for the survivors’ family members said a few months ago, “It is important for accountability…that at least we hold people accountable and…that there be better training, better supervision, better enforcement of standards.”

In this case, the city almost surely will pay dearly for abdicating its responsibility to train and properly supervise Biscari and, more generally, to maintain acceptable Fire Department standards.

From yesterday’s election, it is now clear that a City Council action a year ago regarding Police Department funding has backfired badly.

By a whopping 63-37 percent margin, Missouri voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that will force the city to appropriate five percent more of the city’s general-revenue budget to the Police Department.

The outcome represents another hard-to-swallow escalation of state control of KCPD, and it could mean the City Council will have to spend millions of additional dollars per year on police operations.

The bottom line politically is that what looked last year like the Council successfully ambushing the Board of Police Commissioners now looks like the Council having stepped into a bear trap.

Here’s how Constitutional Amendment 4 unfolded.

In March 2021, the Council approved a $224 million budget for the Police Department for the 2021-22 fiscal year. In April 2021, the Board of Police Commissioners approved the same budget.

In May 2021, the month the new budget took effect, Mayor Quinton Lucas and the eight City Council members living south of the Missouri River approved two ordinances reallocating $42 million from general operations to “community services and prevention.”

That prompted immediate charges of “defunding” from some of the four Northland City Council members and from many Northland residents.

It turned out, however, that the Council members who had executed the slippery move had not done their legal homework, or, if they did, they didn’t get good legal advice from the City Law Department.

The police board, on the basis of better legal advice, filed suit seeking to overturn the action. In October 2021, a Jackson County Circuit Court judge ruled that state law grants the police board “exclusive management and control” of the Police Department and said that the two City Council ordinances interfered with the board’s management of the department.

The judge went on to say that while the Council has some leeway in adjusting the Police Department’s budget, it has none after the Council and the Police Board have approved the budget.

At the time of the police board-City Council skirmish, state law required the city to allocate a minimum of 20 percent of the city’s general fund for police operations every year. The $224 million significantly exceeded the 20-percent threshold, but pro-police politicians in Jefferson City nevertheless wanted to further crack the knuckles of the Council members who had had the impudence to pull a fast one.

So, the Republican-dominated General Assembly passed a law, which Gov. Mike Parson signed, putting on the November ballot the constitutional amendment giving the legislature the power to increase the minimum level of general-revenue police funding from 20 to 25 percent.

As presented on the statewide ballot, Amendment 4 sounded innocuous and pro-police, which made it appealing just about everywhere in the state except Kansas City south of the Missouri River.

The amendment read like this: “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to authorize laws, passed before December 31, 2026, that increase minimum funding for a police force established by a state board of police commissioners to ensure such police force has additional resources to serve its communities.”

Most voters outside of Kansas City probably had no idea that the amendment applied only to Kansas City, which is the only major department in the state that is overseen by “a state board of police commissioners.” (St. Louis engineered its emancipation from state control 10 years ago.)

So, in the election, a whopping 63 percent of voters statewide gave “thumbs up” to Amendment 4. Kansas Citians living in Clay and Platte counties gave it a slightly larger ratio, 65-35. It only lost south of the river. The ratio there was 61-39 “yes,” but that amounted to a few drops in the statewide bucket.

Retrospectively, the City Council’s 2021 ambush of the police board was a huge miscalculation. That impulsive action will not only result in the city spending more on the Police Department than it has in the past, but it served to deepen the gulf between the two Kansas Citys — the one south of the Missouri River and the one north of the river.

Mayor Quinton Lucas is in line to be handily re-elected next year, but if he has an opponent, that opponent — whoever it might be — could well win the Kansas City vote in Clay and Platte counties. And if Lucas should ever run for statewide office, the 2021 caper could haunt him further.

All in all, Tuesday was a bad day for us residents south of the river.

It was a shock to learn last Thursday night that two outstanding Kansas Citians, lawyers Paul E. Vardeman and W.H. “Bert” Bates had died.

Then, this morning, news came that former Mayor Charles B. Wheeler, who served on the 29th floor of City Hall from 1971 to 1979, had died.

I knew all three men from my years at The Star.

You can read Vardeman’s obituary here. I have not seen obituaries for either Bates or Wheeler.

They all had long lives. Wheeler and Bates made it to 96, and Vardeman to 92.

…I’d like to tell you some of the things I remember about each man.

Wheeler

I got to know Wheeler about the time he was elected mayor in 1971. I was just getting my start as a political reporter, and I had been assigned to cover the Jackson County Courthouse several months after George W. Lehr defeated Wheeler for presiding judge of the Jackson County administrative court in August 1970.

Wheeler told me later that on the night he lost to Lehr, he got on an elevator wherever the “victory” party was being held, and a Channel 4 reporter named Don Keough got on the elevator with him. Keough put a microphone in Wheeler’s face and said, “Now that this is over, are you planning to run for mayor next year?”

Wheeler said he had never given a thought to running for mayor, but at Keough’s mere suggestion he made an instantaneous decision. “Yes,” he said. “I’m going to run.”

Six months or so later he defeated the “silk-stocking” candidate, Dutton Brookfield, even though Brookfield had The Star’s endorsement and that of the Citizens Association, then the main political group in city politics. The endorsements weren’t enough to overcome Wheeler’s inherent popularity, due mainly to his openness, sense of humor and penchant for big ideas.

Wheeler and his wife Marjorie liked to play golf at Swope Memorial Golf Course (then known as Swope No. 1), and I was fortunate enough to play with them a few times.

What I remember most about the Wheelers, though — and not a lot of people knew this — was that they lost one son to suicide and another in a plane crash in Colorado. A third son, Graham, died at age 63 two years ago. Marjorie was housebound with a heart condition for many years before dying in 2019.

It was not an easy life for Charlie and Marjorie, but Charlie never let any of kind of setback get him down very long. He was a brilliant man, and that brain was always working…He is survived by two daughters, Marion of Kansas City, and Nina Wheeler Yoakum of Orlando, FL.

Vardeman

My first “beat” at The Star was the Jackson County Courthouse, which I covered from 1971 to 1978. Vardeman was one of the judges I got to know early on. He was one of the very best judges — maybe the best — at the time. He was also gregarious. He and another judge, the late Tim O’Leary would frequently drop by the press room on the fourth floor mezzanine to chat. Both called me “Scoop.”

I remember that Vardeman used to drive a yellow Karmann Ghia — pretty sporty for a judge, I thought. I also remember that one time when we were talking about my journalistic career, he said something like, “Scoop, you ought to be willing to go anywhere that a good opportunity takes you.” Already, though, Kansas City was setting its hooks into me, and the prospect of leaving didn’t agree with me.

Unlike a lot of judges, Vardeman didn’t consider the bench the capstone of his career. After serving for 18 years, he joined the Polsinelli law firm in 1982 and stayed with the firm until he retired in 1997. I don’t recall ever seeing him after I left the courthouse.

Bates

I didn’t know Bert very well, but I will never forget the time our paths crossed. Once in the 1980s, when I was covering City Hall, I discovered that the City Council Finance Committee had held a secret meeting at a Plaza restaurant to work on the upcoming city budget. It was — and is — a violation of the Missouri Open Meetings Law for a quorum of any legislative body to meet without posting public notice.

The afternoon that I learned about the meeting, I raced back to 1729 Grand and went straight to the office of publisher Jim Hale.

“Jim,” I said, “the City Council Finance Committee held a secret meeting at Fedora’s last week, and I think we ought to sue.”

Hale, who loved an adventure and was something of a vicarious reporter, said, “Yes, I agree…We’ll sue them!”

The firm of Lathrop & Gage represented The Star, and Bert was the managing partner. The two Lathrop lawyers who worked on the case (it was civil, not criminal) were Tim McNamara and Jon Haden, who were First Amendment experts.

When the case went to trial in Jackson County Circuit Court, I testified, and Judge Forest “Frosty” Hanna quickly found the meeting participants — Bob Lewellen, Katheryn Shields and Joanne Collins — guilty. He fined Lewellen, the committee chairman, $100 and Shields and Collins $50.

A week or so later, Bert took us out to lunch at the River Club to celebrate the victory. Everyone involved in the case, with the exception of Hale, who didn’t particularly like parties, attended.

I remember opening the luncheon by offering a toast to the legal team at Lathrop & Gage for “not only winning but obliterating the opposition.”

It was a sweet day, and Bert picked up the check. Of course, Hale had paid the legal bill, which, even back then, was probably a few thousand dollars.

Let’s have three cheers for a new voting provision in Missouri that has cried out for years to be implemented: Starting today, residents can vote absentee without any excuse, such as incapacitation or being out of the city on Election Day.

Many times I have gone down to the Election Board at Union Station and lied in order to vote absentee, motivated largely by simply wanting to avoid the long lines on general election days.

Now, I will be able to go down and vote with an entirely clear conscience.

I urge you readers to do the same — any time between today and Monday, Nov. 7 — because this is a long and complicated ballot, and there will be long lines at some times during the day on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

**

Now that we’ve indulged in those three cheers — that made me hoarse — let’s move on to the ballot itself.

Before every election, two or three people call and ask me for my voting recommendations. While I certainly am not a font of political and election knowledge, I probably know more than the average Kansas Citian, simply because I’m a news and political junkie.

So, this year I’m going to make my recommendations here.

Disclaimer: I’m only making recommendations on races and issue that I know something about or that I consider more important than some of the others.

:: For U.S. Senator, Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine over Republican Eric Schmitt

:: For state auditor, Democrat Alan Green over Republican Scott Fitzpatrick

:: For U.S. Representative, Democrat Emanuel Cleaver II over Republican Jacob Turk

:: For state senator in the 8th District, Democrat Antoine D. Jennings over Republican Mike Cierpiot

:: For Jackson County Executive, Democrat Frank White over Republican Theresa Cass Galvin

:: For 3rd District at-large County Legislator, Democrat Megan Marshall over Republican Lance Dillenschneider

:: Retention on judges, “YES” on all

:: Constitutional Amendment 1: This would broaden the list of options for the state treasurer to invest funds in higher-interest-bearing securities. Currently the constitution limits the treasurer to investments in federal or agency bonds. “YES”

:: Amendment 3: This would legalize recreational marijuana — good — but it contains provisions that would give an unfair advantage to existing medical-marijuana commercial entities. The political “fix” was in on the approval of medical-marijuana licenses, and it would be the same here. This is almost guaranteed to pass…and guaranteed to be implemented unfairly. “NO”

:: Amendment 4: This largely Republican-backed measure, aimed specifically at the Kansas City Police Department, would increase the percentage of general-fund money the city would be required to spend on the police department. Even though it applies only to KCMO, it will be voted on statewide because the police department is run by a state-appointed board of commissioners. Many voters will not understand it, and many will vote for it because, on its face, it sounds reasonable. It’s not. “NO”

:: Amendment 5: This would create a state Department of the National Guard. Currently, the National Guard is under the wing of the Department of Public Safety. In recommending against this amendment, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the military “does not need a seat at the table of civilian government” and that the measure “seems like a quick way to politicize a position that must remain apart from politics.” “NO”

:: Also on the ballot is an unnumbered question asking if there should be a “Constitutional Convention.” By law, this question must appear on the ballot every 20 years, and that is the only reason it’s on the ballot now…The Post-Dispatch said a constitutional convention “would have a tendency to attract wackos and weirdos at a time when the state already has a bumper crop of them.” Enough said. “NO”

:: Jackson County Question 1: This would renew a quarter-cent sales tax for the Community Children’s Services Fund. “YES”

:: KCMO Question 1: This would authorize issuance of $125 million in general obligation bonds, consisting of $45 million for convention facilities and $80 million for Parks Department facilities and services. “YES”

:: KCMO Question 2: This would authorize the issuance of $50 million to provide affordable housing. “YES”

:: KCMO Question 3: This would remove about 12 acres from the parks system to make way for realignment of Tiffany Springs Parkway in the Northland. “YES”

**

For detailed information on the issues and candidates in your area, you can go to the League of Women Voters website and enter your address.

In KCMO, you can vote absentee at Union Station, 30 W. Pershing Road, lower level, Suite 610, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, from today until Monday, Nov. 7.

It would be nice to think that Donna Lake, chief of the Kansas City Fire Department since 2019, actually ran the department, wouldn’t it?

You know, like generals being in charge of armies and c.e.o.s running companies, you’d think the top person at the fire department would actually be in charge.

Well, as many of you well-informed readers know, the chief has some say in how the department is run, but the actual power — the people who call the shots — are the leaders of Local 42 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

There’s no better example of the department’s upside-down management than the case of “Fire Apparatus Operator” Dominic Biscari, who killed three people last December after careening into the intersection of Broadway and Westport Road while on a fire run that had been called off.

Yes, called off. Canceled. Finished. At least it should have been finished, and Biscari’s foot should have been on the brake instead of the accelerator.

The fire dispatcher had instructed the responders to “stand down” about a minute before the crash — — a very long time in the world of emergency response — because the fire was under control.

But Cowboy Dominic was in no mood to slow down. He was at the wheel of 40,000-pound Pumper 19, speeding unnecessarily and driving recklessly, just as he had done in other, previous incidents.

In one such case, three months earlier, an EMT reported that Biscari, while driving an ambulance — the fire department runs the ambulance service — had accelerated to 70 mph on Broadway while transporting a critically ill patient. The complainant said Biscari was driving so fast and taking turns so hard that EMTs fell off their bench seat in the back.

The complainant also reported two other occasions when Biscari was speeding unnecessarily and driving recklessly.

The complaining EMT wrote: “I went home in physical and mental pain because of my shift yesterday. I will not be getting into another ambulance with [Biscari] ever again. Please something needs to be done. Not only for the safety of other personnel and other citizens but he is tearing up a brand new ambulance.”

And yet, on the night of Dec. 15, Biscari was once again at the wheel — this time of a fire engine — foot depressed on the accelerator, despite the order to “stand down.”

His giant, northbound rig collided full speed with an SUV driven by Jennifer San Nicolas, 41, and carrying a 25-year-old passenger named Michael Elwood. (San Nicolas and Elwood worked at the restaurant Ragazza, a few blocks to the east on Main Street.)

As the fire engine propelled the SUV onto the sidewalk, a woman named Tami Knight, also 41, was about to enter her vehicle on the northwest corner of Broadway and Westport.

The fire engine propelled the SUV and the three victims into the front of a brick building.

San Nicolas and Elwood were killed outright, and Knight was buried in a wall of bricks. She was in the rubble for 10 hours before being discovered by rescue workers who pulled out her out, dead.

**

Now, if Donna Lake was in charge of the fire department, she — or maybe a deputy chief — would have tried to demote or reassign Biscari to a non-driving position. He obviously had no business driving any kind of emergency vehicle. His record clearly announced that fact.

But rank and status in the fire department are sacrosanct. The fire union has made it that way by chipping away — quietly and relentlessly — year after year, City Council after City Council, at management’s power. City administrators go along because their bosses, the City Council members, don’t want to take on the union for one simple reason: the union is the largest and most powerful voting bloc in town.

If a candidate has the fire fighters’ endorsement, he or she has a big leg up over an opponent running without Local 42 support.

And woe betide any Council candidate who gets elected with union support and later has the gall to go against some concession the union wants. Such members will quickly get an “X” marked on their backs, and the union will do all in its power to take them out at the next election.

Fire chiefs traditionally play the same go-along-get-along game with the union; they enjoy their lofty titles but don’t do anything to upset the practical balance of power.

Consequently, a rogue fire apparatus operator was still at the wheel the night of Dec. 15, keeping his foot pressed on the accelerator for 60 long seconds after being told to “stand down.”

**

The result of this is that a retired judge who is overseeing a civil suit against Biscari has determined that the victims’ relatives deserve to be paid $32 million by Biscari. That news came out yesterday.

The arbitration award is awaiting approval by a Jackson County Circuit Court judge, but as a practical matter, the chances of the families getting any substantial amount from a “fire apparatus operator” are remote. And whatever they end up getting, if anything, will not have to be paid by the city but by Biscari.

The city’s and the fire department’s day of reckoning is coming, however. The families have also filed suit against both entities, and one day a year or so from now we’ll be reading about a multi-million-dollar payout by the city.

On the criminal front, the Jackson County prosecutor’s office has been evaluating the case for months but has not filed charges so far.

…Will any of this change the Local 42/City Council dynamic? No, not at all. The lives of Jennifer San Nicolas, Michael Elwood and Tami Knight will soon be forgotten by everyone but their friends and families. But for incumbent City Council members and candidates who want on the Council, there will be campaigns to be run and endorsements needed.

Now and for a long time to come, no endorsement is or will be more pivotal in city politics than that of Local 42 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

I don’t spend a lot of time reading The Kansas City Star these days — the website features far too many entertainment, restaurant and Chiefs’ related posts for my tastes — but I have a feeling some changes could be coming to the paper.

I heard recently that longtime president and editor Mike Fannin is on leave…again. He took a leave of absence shortly after he was arrested in Olathe in June on suspicion of DUI, and now, I understand, he’s taken another leave.

While I’m not 100 percent sure of that report, I got it from a very good source and got enough confirmation that I’m fairly confident in it.

Two people told me that Managing Editor Greg Farmer is running the show from The Star’s new, rented headquarters in the 2500 block of Grand Blvd.

I have no idea what this leave — if, in fact, Fannin is on one — is about, but it doesn’t bode well for the leader of any organization to take two leaves within several months.

I don’t wish Fannin, who is 56, any ill will, but he’s been a lightning rod for a long time. His biggest problems, in my opinion, are 1) that he has downgraded coverage of local and state government at the expense of focusing on winning prizes (particularly the Pulitzer Prize), and 2) his policy of minimal community engagement has continued to push the paper away from the readers.

Subscribers have always taken a proprietary interest in their local papers, but in these days of corporate journalism, with hedge funds owning a significant portion of local papers, the newspaper-community bond has eroded significantly, not just here but in many metro areas.

Editors have the power to limit that erosion, however, by their coverage decisions and by doing all they can to engage the public with the paper. That can be done in a number of ways, including…

• Inviting members of the public to meetings where editorial decisions are made
• Sponsoring public forums where candidates and topical issues (for example, should there be a downtown baseball stadium?) are discussed
• Soliciting guest commentaries on a regular basis
• Featuring letters to the editor prominently
• Loading the website with meaningful, informative stories instead of frothy items designed to get “clicks.”

**

Fannin has worked at the Star since 1997 — 25 years — and he’s been the editor since 2008. That’s a good long run. In May of this year, he achieved his longtime goal of The Star winning a Pulitzer Prize on his watch, when former editorial-page writer Melinda Henneberger won for her editorial campaign against former Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski. Almost certainly because of Henneberger’s many columns, Golubski was indicted last month on charges that he violated the civil rights of two women by raping, sexual assaulting and kidnapping them.

Having achieved that goal and having held the top job nearly 15 years at KC’s still-largest news operation, maybe Fannin is now looking ahead at his post-KC Star days.

…Greg Farmer, who’s also been at the paper since 1997 and has been managing editor (the No. 2 post) since 2016, would be an excellent choice to be the next editor. He’s about 50, making him about six years younger than Fannin; he was highly regardeded by almost all staff members when I was at the paper; he is reasonable; and he has a calm and even personality.

The first orders of business for whomever succeeds Fannin should be to reassert local and state government news as top priorities and to get more “news” on the website. (That might be difficult, with hedge-fund ownership’s demands for clicks, but it should at least be the goal of the local editor.)

I have no idea if there will be a change at the top, but if there is, and if Farmer moved up, I think The Star could start regaining some of the ground and some of the good will it has lost over the last 15 or so years.

A new and hopefully grand chapter is unfolding in the saga of the finest home in Kansas City,

That would be the Louis Curtiss-designed house at the northwest corner of 55th and Ward Parkway.

Curtiss, once called the Frank Lloyd Wright of Kansas City, was Kansas City’s most famous architect. His local work also includes the Boley Building at 12th and Walnut and the Folly Theatre, which he designed along with Frederick Gunn.

The home at 55th and Ward Parkway is considered to be one of the best examples of Prairie Style architecture in the Midwest. It features beautiful and extremely expensive leaded-glass windows, antique exterior light fixtures and an unusual, L-shaped footprint. Other singular features are its reinforced-concrete foundation and gray limestone exterior walls, with a medium-rough, or “shot-sawed” finish.

I’ve written about this house two or three times, once out of absolute horror and rage because one former resident, Keith Tucker, a former Waddell & Reed C.E.O., erected a veritable wall of tall shrubs on the east and south sides of the house, concealing it from passers-by on Ward Parkway and 55th Street.

Tucker, who died last February, had plenty to hide. He was a tax cheat, but in the end he had to pay. My theory was the enshrouding of his house was in keeping with his secretive, slimy ways.

The owner before him was a Jackson County Circuit Court judge named Michael Coburn, who tragically died in December 1994 after falling into an unsecured elevator shaft at an abandoned building that he was inspecting as part of a court case. His widow Linda sold the house to Tucker and his wife in 1998.

At this stage, I should show you a couple of photos. The first one shows what the house looked like in the early years, after it was completed in 1913. The other shows the house walled by shrubs.

To show you the arc of the value of this house, I believe Judge Coburn and his wife bought the house in the 1970s for about $150,000. The Tuckers paid $1.65 million for it in 1998. I believe Ann Dickinson, former chairwoman of a holding company that formerly owned Bank Midwest, bought it for $6 million in 2005…On her watch, unfortunately, the shrubs remained in place.

Now, let’s fast forward to June of 2021, when a daughter of Joe Brandmeyer, one of several people who started with Marion Labs and made fortunes on their own, bought it. According to Zillow, the sale price was $4.77 million in June 2021, which seems low, if indeed Ms. Dickinson paid $6 million in 2005.

At any rate, one of the first things Ms. Brandmeyer did was have the shrubs removed…When I drove by there one day and saw that those hideous shrubs were gone, I gasped with excitement…Ms. Brandmeyer was, at last, pulling back the drapes so people could see that fabulous house!

(I don’t know Ms. Brandmeyer’s first name. If any of you knows, please share that information.)

Removing the shrubs was just a start. Ms. Brandmeyer is renovating the entire house and the grounds. Here’s what it looks like now…

For months, day after day, work trucks have lined 55th Street. When I went by today, the trucks were most of the way down the hill, almost to State Line Road. During the time I was there, traffic was stopped for a few minutes while a large fork-lift vehicle transferred a load of building materials from a truck to the grounds of the house.

I can only imagine how much Ms. Brandmeyer is putting into the house. From looking at those trucks on 55th Street, I would estimate she’s investing at least $10,000 a day.

Undoubtedly, she can afford it. Her father who is in his 80s and living in Florida, I believe, sold a company in 2008 that manufactures skin disinfectants for surgical and vascular procedures. Joe Brandmeyer’s company, Enturia Inc., was bought by a much larger company called Cardinal Health for — gulp — $490 million.

When the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts was under construction, the Joe and Jeanne Brandmeyer Family Foundation contributed $12 million. Today, Brandmeyer Great Hall is the glass-enclosed lobby area between Muriel Kauffman Theatre, home of the Lyric Opera, and Helzberg Hall, home of the Kansas City Symphony.

The Brandmeyers have three sons and two daughters. Perhaps the highest-profile offspring, Mark Brandmeyer, bought the T-Bones in 2019 and renamed them the Kansas City Monarchs.

At least for the present, though, my favorite Brandmeyer is the daughter who bought the Louis Curtiss house with an incredibly rich history.

I fervently hope Ms. Brandmeyer will not erect shrubs around the house as part of her renovation. That would be a crime, and it would mark a return to the years when Keith Tucker — that rat — sealed that spectacular residence from public view.