Mayor Mark Funkhouser today, June 17, 2010, said Kansas City has lost its focus, and needs to get back to basics: neighborhoods, schools, police, small business and local economic development.

In his annual State of the City address, which drew a crowd of almost 200 to City Council Legislative Chambers, the Mayor outlined five areas that he plans to focus on for the next year.

"Decades of neglect have left the city with a $13 billion ‘to do’ list," Mayor Funkhouser said. The Mayor said he hears from citizens every day that the city needs to deal with streets, public safety and neighborhood redevelopment before it tackles new "glitzy" projects.

"I choose you, over special interest groups," the Mayor told the crowd. "I choose you, over the well-connected few. And I choose you, even when it’s not the popular thing to do."

The Mayor issued a multi-part action plan calling for fiscal responsibility, neighborhood redevelopment, safe streets and neighborhoods, and business development.

Among the plans announced today:
 

Mayor Mark Funkhouser today voted against a City Council resolution that calls for the city to spend $250,000 to secure a site for a proposed 1,000-room, $315 million convention hotel.

“When I heard this was on the agenda today, my first thought is the one that continues to stick with me this afternoon,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “You have got to be kidding me.”

The city has spent nearly $500,000 over the last decade on studies that give conflicting projections for the success of a new hotel. “If history serves us, those projections also are overenthusiastic,” the Mayor said.

Convention hotel plans often don’t play out as consultants project, Mayor Funkhouser said. In St. Louis, for instance, the $277 million, 918-room Renaissance Grand Hotel & Suites went into foreclosure last year. Closer to home, taxpayers in Overland Park were called on to pay $2.4 million when the Sheraton Overland Park didn’t meet projections.

“Hotels have failed, are failing, across the country: Waikiki, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Scottsdale, Orlando, Boston,” Mayor Funkhouser said.
“There is no scenario that I can imagine that says now is the right time to do this,” the Mayor said.

In his weekly Town Hall meetings with city residents, the Mayor said, he often hears concerns about neighborhoods, schools, crumbling streets, inadequate sewers, sidewalks.

“Your city government’s main job is to provide the basic services every citizen expects, every day,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “Your city government’s main job is to make our neighborhoods clean and safe. Our families, at some point, have got to come first. Our families have waited long enough, and as Mayor, I have waited long enough as well.”

“The way to fix Downtown is to fix the neighborhoods around it,” Mayor Funkhouser said. "The way to grow our city is to take care of our citizens and our neighborhoods. This is the way to true economic development. This is the way to new jobs. It’s time to reform our government and go back to tried and true ways: a focus on our neighborhoods, and on our small businesses."

The Mayor noted that a $315 million hotel likely will require a commitment of tens, if not millions, of dollars from city taxpayers. “That makes absolutely no sense,” the Mayor said.

Beyond the financial commitment, Mayor Funkhouser called it “foolhardy” to pay for development rights for a “phantom” developer.

“This property isn’t going anywhere,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “What do we do if a developer flies into town next month and wants this piece of property for an office tower? Why would we want to stop them?”

Even if the city found financing and a developer for the property, adjacent to the Power & Light building, the Mayor noted it would be well over a year before the city was in a position to purchase the site. Such a purchase would, most likely, require submitting the matter for a public vote.

The Mayor noted that he asked a series of questions about the proposed hotel project last August.

“None of the questions I asked have been answered,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “And the hardest question has been ignored entirely. How will we pay for it?”

“One thing is sure,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “It will cost our residents dearly.”

The need for an ongoing public subsidy for the hotel project is likely, Mayor Funkhouser said. The city’s consultant says the project will not be profitable enough to make its debt payment.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Mayor Funkhouser said.

For more information contact Kendrick Blackwood in Mayor Funkhouser’s office: 816-513-3513, kendrick_blackwood@kcmo.org. 

 This afternoon the Mayor sent the following veto message to the City Council: