Northland Council People Should Look In The Mirror Before They Talk About Process And Norms
Whew…what a day in Kansas City, Missouri politics!
At 11:30 am, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced two ordinances that essentially would take more control of around just 1/5 of the $240 million! police budget.
A revolutionary idea for Kansas City where, unlike every other major city in the country, we don’t have control of our own police department.
It was passed using a legal procedural maneuver just a few hours later.
It’s not a crazy idea but for Kansas City and some people that still live in 1930s in the Pendergast era, it is.
There are plenty of analyses and reporting about the actual day and what went down. I recommend the great Kansas City Star reporter Steve Vockrodt’s recap.
That said, there was a stark geographical divide on the council as the ordinances were introduced. All four northland council people did not support the ordinances and were blindsided by it. Perhaps on purpose. Hardball politics, I guess.
Every council person south of the Missouri river was for the changes.
But what struck me was the arguments the northland council people made about process, procedure, and norms.
They argued these ordinances should be sent to committee for vetting like majority of other ordinances are.
Generally, I would agree with them.
But as a member of the City Plan Commission, those arguments were rich with hypocrisy for two reasons that occurred this week.
As a City Plan Commission, we recommend approval or denial for certain rezoning cases like should a property be commercial or residential and other land use decisions. We spend basically two entire days a month reviewing cases, listening to applicants, the staff, and the community, and then making a recommendation.
In most communities even though the City Plan Commission is just making a recommendation, it carries weight with city council and the mayor—the final decision makers.
Not in Kansas City, Missouri though, where the City Plan Commission recommendations are routinely ignored. But in Merriam that is different, as I found out.
During my first year on City Plan Commission, I have normally kept to my corner doing my duty to try and make sure standards are adhered to and the most egregious of changes are recommended denial. We recommend approval of 95% of cases, if not higher!
Recently, though, we had a case that we unanimously recommended be denied. It was a trucking distribution center right next to a residential neighborhood.
Who the hell would want to live next to that?
I wrote about our decision here:
But like some cases we recommend denial, it started to move forward.
The northland council members decided to legally move this project forward despite objections from staff, the City Plan Commission, and the neighborhoods and this stood in obvious contrast to their objections today to procedural maneuvers by Mayor Quinton Lucas and the majority of the City Council.
They, along with the applicant, pushed the project forward, which they legally are allowed to do. They passed it out of committee, despite pleas from the neighborhood to hold it a week because they believed a City Plan Commission recommendation for denial was absolute.
Not only did they pass it out of committee but they tried to “advance” the ordinance meaning that it would be on the agenda the NEXT DAY rather than a week later like the path most ordinances take. You can read more about it here.
Welp…from my sources it was apparent they didn’t have the votes that day and held the ordinance it for another two weeks. Unfortunately, it passed today buoyed by the unwritten rule that other council people can’t oppose projects that have in-district support, which is as stupid as the unwritten rules of baseball.
So the northland council members ignored the recommendations of City Plan Commission, city staff, and the neighborhoods and tried to pass this as quickly as possible.
Not exactly great “process” or in keeping with “norms.”
Second, Council person Dan Fowler, who howled about the transparency of the police budget ordinances, filed an ordinance in committee before City Plan Commission had even heard the case. This was an extremely out of the ordinary move but to his credit like the moves made today by Mayor Quinton Lucas still legal and allowable.
We have yet to make a recommendation on the case and it has been held.
It struck me as odd that during the same week and even same day that northland council members were complaining about process, procedure, and norms they were pushing through one project and teeing up another project in ways that are completely legal and allowed.
But are they good process and procedure and do they follow acceptable and productive norms?
I think the answer is no.
It would do them good to reflect on how their other actions are detrimental to their valid critiques of what happened today.
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