Mayor's Initiatives

Mayor Mark Funkhouser decided early in his term that, in addition to day-to-day city issues, he wanted to focus on issues that affect the entire city. In his town hall speeches, the Mayor talks about the loss of residents from the urban core. Some of those residents leave Kansas City entirely. But even those who move to other areas of the city create higher service and infrastructure costs.

Three main things drive these residents away: a lack of basic services, limited educational opportunities, and a dwindling perception of public safety.

Mayor Funkhouser learned early on that the best way to tackle a long term solution to this problem was to engage specific community leaders, specific council members and specific city staff and let them go!

Therefore, Mayor Funkhouser has implemented five initiatives that operate independently, but are complementary, and have a unified objective: To restore economic vitality by being smart with the money, promoting safe and livable neighborhoods, enhancing citizen engagement and citizen satisfaction, developing a world-class workforce, and ultimately, expanding the city’s tax base by increasing population density and individual income.

These initiatives are (click each for the initiative's home page):

Schools First

Mayor's New Tools Task Force

A City That Works

Education Summit

Zone 2-7: Anchor of Hope