Independence City Council fires city manager Robert Heacock

The Independence City Council quietly voted to dismiss longtime city manager Robert Heacock on Monday.

During a council meeting that was not widely publicized — no notice of the Monday meeting was posted on the city’s website, although all others are advertised there — a 5-2 majority of the council jettisoned Heacock.

Heacock had been city manager since 2004, serving as assistant city manager prior to that since 1998.

Council members remained quiet on Wednesday Tuesday about their reasons for sending Heacock out of City Hall.

“We’re kind of waiting to get the official version,” Curt Dougherty, an Independence City Council member told The Pitch.

Two members — Marcie Gragg and Karen DeLuccie — voted against dismissing Heacock, indicating that there was no uniformity among elected leaders for removing the city manager.

“There’s just some people who, irregardless of what you do or don’t do, won’t terminate someone,” Dougherty added.

Other council members were not immediately available for comment. A statement from City Hall said there would be no further comment.

Heacock served during a development boom-and-bust cycle for Independence. Under his watch, Independence sought and landed a Bass Pro-anchored development and an arena for the Missouri Mavericks. 

While the development gives people reasons to visit the Jackson County suburb, some portions of it haven’t fared well financially. The Bass Pro development has been a millstone on the budget, with the city directing taxpayer dollars to support bonds on the project.

But Heacock weathered those storms, as well as a 2009 incident when a police officer in Lee’s Summit caught the city manager in the driver’s seat of his car with his pants down around his thighs and another woman with him. Heacock tried to talk his way out of it but got a citation for driving drunk.

Through much of his tenure, Don Reimal served as Independence mayor. Eileen Weir succeeded Reimal when he retired from public office last year.

Independence has also put its lobbying contract out for a public bid. That contract is currently held by Midwest Mediation & Consulting, which is run by attorney Phil LeVota. LeVota is brother of Paul LeVota, the Missouri representative from Kansas City who announced he would resign from office amid allegations of inappropriate advances to legislative interns in Jefferson City.