KC Council says yes to spending $500K on convention hotel study

Eight members of the Kansas City City Council unanimously decided to waste spend $500,000 to study whether building a 1,000 room convention hotel is a good idea.

The man with the shiniest head, Terry Riley, tried to delay the hotel study vote, and councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks seconded. But only Riley, SSB and Deb Hermann voted in favor of waiting.

Voting to spend the money on the study: Ed Ford, Melba Curls, Beth Gottstein, Jan Marcason and John Sharp. Absent were oversized novelty Mayor Mark Funkhouser and council members Russ Johnson, Bill Skaggs, Cathy Jolly and Cindy Circo.

Sharp played the scary St. Louis card: If stimulus funds are available, he doesn’t want KC to get shut out.

So they voted … to spend half-a-million dollars … to study whether building a convention hotel is a good idea (it’s not) … and to form a massive, 21-member steering committee. See for yourself.

Next week, they look at studying whether lighting $500,000 on fire is a good idea.