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The
early years
Kansas
City traces its beginnings to 1821, when Missouri was admitted to
the Union. In that year, Francois Chouteau,
a French man living in St. Louis, came up the Missouri River and established a trading post on the waterway
in the area that is now the northeast industrial district. Another young
trader, John Calvin McCoy, opened a store inland on the Santa Fe Trail.
He considered his land a portal to the  West
and thus named it Westport.
McCoy and 13 other men purchased a farm in
the area and formed the town/company that later became Kansas City's
downtown district. The new owners decided to name the township the Town
of Kansas after the Kansa Indians, or Kaws, who inhabited the area.
The
town retained its name when it was incorporated and granted a charter
by Jackson County on June 1, 1850. When it was incorporated by the state
Feb. 22, 1853, the town became the City of Kansas and in 1889, it officially
became known as Kansas City. More
history...
City
administration
The City of Kansas City, Mo., has a council-manager form of government
and operates in portions of Cass, Clay, Jackson
and Platte counties. A professional administration team (the city manager
and his staff) handles daily city government operations in accordance
with the city charter, ordinances and City
Council priorities.
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Wayne A. Cauthen
City Manager |
The city manager is the City’s chief administrator
and is responsible for seeing that city government is run efficiently
and economically. The city
manager serves and advises the mayor and the City Council, appoints
most department
directors and prepares an annual budget for City Council consideration.
The city manager does not appoint the
chief of the Police
Department or the director of the Parks and Recreation Department,
both of whom are appointed by the boards they serve. The city
auditor and the city
clerk are appointed by the City Council.
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