Oct. 2, 2007

It’s the beginning of a new month – time to take a few moments to reflect on the progress made on the ten priorities I’ve established for my term as mayor.

Finance
On Sept. 20, we made history at City Hall. By unanimous vote, the City Council accepted the recommendations of the Economic Development and Incentive Policy Task Force and enacted an economic development and incentive policy -- which the city has needed for many, many years but has been unable to create. I am very pleased with this policy. Indeed, I believe it will prove to be one of the most progressive policies in the country. It will certainly provide a solid foundation for us to begin to be “smart with the money” in Kansas City.

Also, I had the privilege of appointing two outstanding individuals to the TIF Commission – Claudia Onate Greim and Margaret May. Claudia Onate Greim is an attorney and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Kansas City Public Library. Margaret May is executive director of the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council. And I recommended that current member Ron Yaffe be named chair of the commission.

Council
My fellow City Council members and I have been making a lot of progress in drafting a new contract for City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Our efforts are going very well, and I feel confident that in the end we will have a strong contract with good performance measures.

Education
We are still moving forward with our education summit, which has been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 19 at the Sprint Center. Meantime, I want to draw some attention to a smaller development. Last week, my staffer Crispin Rea and other City staff were able to secure positions at City Hall for four Cristo Rey High School students. This private school has a unique curriculum in which they require students to fill jobs in the private sector to defer the cost of their tuition, and, of course, to get real-world work experience. This model has been used at schools in cities across the country, but Kansas City is only the second city in which students have gotten jobs with the local government.

Downtown
Nothing but good news here. On Sept. 25, I held a joint news conference with the Downtown Council, KCATA and Councilman Ed Ford to announce that downtown is open and ready for business, with plenty of parking and scores of new shops and restaurants. Turns out the news release wasn’t necessary – downtown has been getting plenty of buzz on its own, what with all the sold-out shows at Sprint Center. Things really got cooking when news broke of an exclusive show by Garth Brooks, who hasn’t toured in almost a decade. View the Downtown KC Resource Guide.

Neighborhoods / Sewers / Citizen Satisfaction
I’m combining these three priorities this month because they’re all addressed in some way by the renewal of the one-cent sales tax for infrastructure, which will go before voters on Nov. 6. We kicked off the campaign for this very important ballot initiative on Sept. 28. This will be a step forward for neighborhoods, because a larger percentage of the proceeds from this tax renewal will fund infrastructure projects in neighborhoods across the city. This also means relief for sewer problems that directly impact neighborhoods, which I often hear about at my town hall meetings. Addressing these concerns will help people feel better about City services.

Housing
In August, I created a new committee of the City Council that is charged with overseeing the implementation of the housing policy that was recently adopted by the City Council. One of the things I made a commitment to do when I ran for mayor was to make sure this policy, based on the recommendations of a task force headed by Father Norman Rotert, would be effectively carried through. To ensure this, I formed the Housing Committee, which is led by Councilwoman Cindy Circo. The group is beginning to dig in and tackle the task at hand. I’m pleased to see the way they are working together.

Crime
My staff has been investigating some of the measures other cities have taken to address the problem of illegal guns. In the course of their research, they came across a coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. This growing movement is aimed at building political muscle to compel the federal government to adopt more sensible policies to help cities reduce the number of illegal guns in their communities. One piece of legislation they’re working hard to overturn is the “Tiahrt Amendment,” an add-on to an appropriation bill that severely limits the amount of information about illegal guns that federal law enforcement officials can share with local authorities. This makes it more difficult for cities to reduce violent crime. I intend to join this coalition soon.

Transit
I continue to meet with metro area leaders, urging them to join me in supporting a regionally planned and funded light rail transit system. And now some of them are starting to come out and publicly take a stance in favor of the idea. We're making good progress in this area.

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Sincerely,

Mayor Mark Funkhouser