Rounding up KCMO’s City Council candidates as the 26th-floor shuffle begins
With Kansas City, Missouri, now four years divorced from an era of high-profile dysfunction at City Hall, the appeal of running for public office here seems to have increased. Thirty-nine people have declared their candidacies for City Council seats, all 12 of which come up for public vote in the April 7 primary.
With six current City Council members headed off the 26th floor due to term limits, and with Michael Brooks’ resignation in December after a term noteworthy only for bad behavior, the council’s chambers will probably look very different after June’s general election. And whoever is sworn in will likely have fought to get there. Only one candidate, Scott Taylor, is running unopposed, and three incumbents are facing serious challengers in their districts.
Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Sly James — certain to retain his office, thanks to a hefty campaign war chest and a pair of hard-to-take-seriously opponents in Vincent Lee and Clay Chastain — enjoyed a compliant council during his first term. That council included many holdovers from the Mark Funkhouser administration, after which the body was eager to avoid controversy. But some among this year’s diverse slate of new candidates might push against the mayor.
With the filing deadline just expired, The Pitch summarizes the races shaping up in each council district.
1st DISTRICT
The 1st District, covering most of the Clay County portion of Kansas City north of the Missouri River, has historically been a powerful seat on the council. Four years ago, Bill Skaggs was mayor pro tem while Deb Hermann occupied the next most powerful seat, chairing what was then the Finance and Audit Committee. The 1st District is the only race in which both incumbents are seeking another term. Dick Davis is in for a fight, while Scott Wagner will likely get re-elected.
IN DISTRICT
• Dick Davis (incumbent)
• Louie Wright
• Jane Rinehart
• Heather Hall
Dick Davis, a retiree who used to be general manager of the Kansas City Area Transit Authority and executive director of the Mid-America Regional Council, had an incident-free first term in office. But as vice chairman of the Finance committee, he advocated for pension reform — for years one of the most vexing line items in the city’s budget (at one point, the city faced a $600 million unfunded liability) — which may have drawn him a pair of opponents with ties to the public-safety unions.
“I would say that my leadership on the pension issue is one of the reasons I have opponents,” Davis tells The Pitch.
Louie Wright, the former president of the city’s firefighters union, and Heather Hall, whose husband is a member of the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police, are gunning for Davis’ seat.
The Kansas City Fire Department was never hit hard during periods of cutbacks and municipal austerity, due in large part to Wright’s tough negotiating skills as head of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 42.
Hall, a project manager for nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, is running primarily on a public-safety plank. She received an endorsement from the FOP the same day that she announced her campaign. (Her husband, Ebel Hall, is a Kansas City Police Department sergeant.) In a statement, she says the City Council must be “willing to say no to out of control spending” while at the same time working to “increase funding for law enforcement.” The KCPD’s $202 million accounts for 46 percent of the city’s general fund.
Jane Rinehart, who teaches debate at University Academy, is a first-time candidate for public office. Her sister, Cathy Rinehart, is a long-serving Democrat in various Clay County offices and the Clay County assessor. Rinehart was debate coach for Bryan Dial (who is running for council in the 3rd District), Brandon Dial (a former Funkhouser staffer) and Marcus Leach (a political consultant).
“I think we just need a more active voice north of the river,” Rinehart says, echoing a common refrain from Northlanders. “We’re just this no man’s land out here.”
AT-LARGE
• Scott Wagner (incumbent)
• Jeffrey Roberts
Scott Wagner lived in the Historic Northeast south of the river but moved north when council districts were redrawn five years ago. (Wagner is seen by many Northeast residents as their unofficial council representative.) The marketing executive has served capably on the council.
Wagner drew some criticism in 2013 when he led a proposal to regulate safety-net organizations that send food trucks to distribute meals to homeless camps along Cliff Drive, the riverfront and by downtown’s railroad tracks. His thinking was that if homeless people went to east downtown, where service providers such as City Union Mission are concentrated, their free meals could be coupled with drug and alcohol treatment, mental-health services, and job and housing referrals.
Wagner, if re-elected, looks like a contender to replace outgoing Cindy Circo as mayor pro tem. His opponent, Jeffrey Roberts, is mostly unknown.
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2nd DISTRICT
The 2nd District, covering mostly Platte County north of the river, is relatively wealthy, and sometimes seen as the Johnson County of Kansas City, Missouri. Accordingly, the district is home to one of the city’s sprawling new developments: Twin Creeks, north of Barry Road, which may put 70,000 residents on 15,000 acres of as yet undeveloped land at the city’s northernmost limits. The city has invested $40 million in sewers to prepare for the development. It’s also home to Kansas City International Airport, a magnet for controversy as the city looks to modernize a facility that some citizens argue is fine the way it is.
IN DISTRICT
• Dan Fowler
• Bill Super
Northland lawyer Dan Fowler looks like an early favorite for the 2nd District. A former board member of Northland Neighborhoods Inc. and a current board commissioner with the Port Authority, Fowler has been collecting support from a who’s who of City Hall insiders, including development lawyers Mike Burke and Jim Bowers, former Mayor Pro Tem Bill Skaggs, outgoing Councilman John Sharp, and BNIM planner Vincent Gauthier.
Bill Super is a newcomer to city politics. A retired pipe fitter, Super became interested in City Hall matters while attending meetings about the future of KCI. Super covets the convenience of KCI and laments the information-starved discussion surrounding the airport’s ultimate destiny.
“The pictures in the paper and the numbers — it’s just a picture someone drew,” Super says. “There’s not a hard-set plan. … We can do a lot of things with it. Do we have to go to the extent that we need to tear it down and build a new one? I’m not convinced yet.”
Fowler says KCI could use some type of fix-up but echos Super.
“Right now, I don’t think, on the information I’ve got that’s publicly available, that we can make an intelligent decision on what to do,” Fowler says. “Everyone recognizes, or should recognize, that something big needs to happen.”
Fowler was a 2009 appointee to the Port Authority, a development agency that was beset at the time with financial problems and had devolved into a temporary city-charter crisis when the City Council blocked Funkhouser’s removal of its then-chairman Trey Runnion. Since Fowler’s appointment, the Port Authority has cleaned up its balance sheet, but development along the riverfront, which the agency is in charge of, has been slow.
AT-LARGE
• Teresa Loar
• Jason Hodges
The at-large race is a battle between an old City Hall insider and a relatively new one. Loar was a Northland councilwoman in the late 1990s and early aughts. In those days, she represented the 1st District. She has also served on the North Kansas City School Board. Since her time in office, she has remained an influential Northland civic figure but now looks to get back into elected politics.
Hodges is a Democrat who used to work political campaigns in Colorado before coming to Kansas City as Sly James’ senior adviser for economic development. Hodges was the mayor’s point man for the airport discussions last year, and one of those who tried to lure the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Loar was something of a maverick in her time on the City Council, and she has the support of City Hall luminaries Kay Barnes, Troy Nash (former councilman, now a TIF commissioner) and Councilman Ed Ford. Hodges, who was confirmed late as a candidate and hasn’t yet formed a campaign committee, is likely to align with James on the council.
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3rd DISTRICT
The 3rd District is generally the most impoverished council district in Kansas City. It covers downtown east of the south loop, and midtown east of U.S. Highway 71 down to around Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard. It’s home to a high number of vacant and abandoned properties, and faces an overall lack of economic development. It also has had shaky political leadership over the years, including Saundra McFadden-Weaver, a councilwoman in the mid-aughts who was indicted for mortgage fraud.
IN DISTRICT
• Jermaine Reed (incumbent)
• Rachel Riley
• Shaheer Akhtab
• Bryan Dial
• Jamekia Kendrix
It’s unusual for an incumbent on the City Council to lose a bid for re-election. It’s also rare for an incumbent to draw as many opponents as Jermaine Reed has. As the youngest person on the council, Reed has been no stranger to opposition, facing a short-lived recall effort after siding with the KCPD on the construction of a new East Side patrol campus. Several residents were bought out of their homes to build the station, and some claim that they got a raw deal.
“He basically told them to get over it,” says Rachel Riley, a candidate running against Reed.
Riley, an East Side activist for 11 years, says the 3rd District has had poor representation on the council for 20 years. As such, she has seen other council districts benefit from city resources at the expense of the 3rd.
Shaheer Akhtab, elected to the Jackson County Democratic Committee, also has criticism for Reed.
“My view is, Jermaine Reed is handled by Alvin Brooks, the mayor and whoever else,” Akhtab tells The Pitch. “He’s there to represent their interests, not the people’s interests.
Reed has generally dismissed criticism about his performance in office.
Also in the race is Bryan Dial, a pastor at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. Dial is seen by political insiders as a formidable candidate, but his profile on the East Side has not translated into notable political contributions. (As of January 14, he had $535 in his campaign account.)
Jamekia Kendrix is making a bid to unseat Reed, campaigning on a “bridging the gap” plank that claims residents don’t know enough about how City Hall functions and how it helps neighborhoods, in part because the city does a lousy job of communicating with residents.
AT-LARGE
• Quinton Lucas
• Virginia “Dee” Evans
• Karmello Coleman
• Forestine Beasley
• Carol Gatlin
• Stephan Gordon
The 3rd District at-large is one of the more intriguing council races. Once upon a time, there were six such candidates, but former Kansas City Public Schools board member Crispin Rea dropped out of the race. Quinton Lucas, a graduate of Cornell Law School, once worked as an associate at Rouse Hendricks German May and is now a law-school professor at the University of Kansas. Lucas leads the fundraising race in the 3rd District, having gathered checks from fellow lawyers at such large law firms as Bryan Cave and Lathrop & Gage, as well as from federal prosecutors.
Virginia “Dee” Evans works in external affairs for the University of Missouri–Kansas City and has been affiliated with East Side political club Freedom Inc. (and will likely gain its support). Evans is also the vice chairwoman for the Jackson County Democratic Committee. Her supporters include real-estate developer Hugh Zimmer, real-estate lawyer and former councilman Mark Bryant, and KCFD Capt. Sherwood Smith.
Karmello Coleman is an East Side community organizer, having served on the Santa Fe Area Council [CHECK NAME]. Coleman is campaigning in part on a platform to direct more City Hall resources to neighborhoods.
Forestine Beasley is a commercial-real-estate broker with Greg Patterson & Associates. Beasley represents the 3rd District on the Public Improvements Advisory Committee. Last year, Beasley was on the James-appointed Airport Terminal Advisory Group to make recommendations about the future of KCI; she was one of only a few on the committee who did not vote for a single-terminal design but instead supported a renovation because cost estimates for the former were never made available.
Stephan Gordon and Carol Gatlin look to be the minor candidates in this race. Gordon is an assistant pastor at Blue Valley Missionary Baptist Church. He was Missouri’s 5th District Republican nominee for Congress in 2000 and again in 2002, getting trounced both times by Karen McCarthy.
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4th DISTRICT
Representing the 4th District is one of the more difficult jobs at City Hall because it is perhaps the most closely watched by its constituents. It represents most of downtown, midtown, the Plaza and a portion of Brookside. It also has been the recipient of the lion’s share of City Hall attention and resources. The latest issue in the district is the streetcar, the expansion of which is likely to be a political hot potato for the next council.
IN DISTRICT
• Jolie Justus
• John Fierro
Jolie Justus, a popular Democrat and former Missouri state senator, looks to be the front-runner to replace outgoing Councilwoman Jan Marcason. Justus faces John Fierro, a well-connected Kansas Citian who is president and CEO of the Mattie Rhodes Center and was chairman of the Parks and Recreation Department while Mark Funkhouser was mayor. (Fierro and Funkhouser clashed at times during those four years.) Parks and Recreation can be a springboard for higher office, but Fierro (also a Port Authority commissioner) has a challenger in Justus, who raised more than $20,000 in the last four-month reporting cycle and drew support from Missouri state Sens. Kiki Curls ($1,000) and Jason Holsman ($1,250), and well-heeled law firm Dentons ($500), among others.
AT-LARGE
• Jim Glover (incumbent)
• Katheryn Shields
• Jared Campbell
• Bryan Stalder
Hyde Park fixture Jim Glover battled health issues and rumors that he was not going to seek another term, but the longtime councilman and one-time mayoral candidate will seek 4th District voter approval once again.
Glover faces a crowded field. Most prominent among his opponents is former Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields. The last big public stand that Shields took was a bid for Kansas City mayor in 2007, when she was among 13 people vying to succeed Kay Barnes.
Shields, at the time, was under indictment on flimsy mortgage-fraud charges. Everyone laughed at her when she suggested that she was a target of a George W. Bush White House that used the Department of Justice to hassle Democratic politicians. It later emerged that the DOJ and, locally, then–U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman were, in fact, up to dirty tricks. Shields was somewhat vindicated (more so when a federal jury acquitted her). But the damage was done; Shields was obliterated in that race. She has kept a low public profile since and is a late surprise candidate in this race.
Jared Campbell, a young civic activist, downtown resident and public-transit booster, has been seen at 4th District community meetings since announcing his candidacy last year. Political insiders say Campbell could gather a surprising number of votes.
Bryan Stalder, a Northeast resident and cartoonist for the Northeast News, was a gadfly to streetcar supporters in last year’s expansion election. He may be the race’s dark horse.
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5th DISTRICT
The last four years have been mixed for the 5th District. After James was elected, Cindy Circo was elevated to mayor pro tem, and she worked hard to raise her public profile during her second term. At times, she alienated some of her constituents — she spearheaded a soccer complex in Swope Park that was opposed by schools and libraries in the area. The complex was eventually built, coming at the expense of a nearby working-class neighborhood. The 5th District had long been a struggling area, but it’s now the site of Missouri’s biggest economic-development deal, with Cerner promising to bring 16,000 jobs to an office complex that replaces Bannister Mall. If Cerner follows through, the project could transform a large swath of the district, which still struggles with aging commercial real estate and a slew of vacant houses.
AT-LARGE
• Theresa Garza Ruiz
• Dennis Anthony
• Lee Barnes
The 5th District race features two candidates with an electoral history — and the baggage that goes with it — and a newcomer to politics.
Theresa Garza Ruiz enters the contest with strong name recognition, owing to her time as a Jackson County legislator. Garza Ruiz’s husband, Genaro Ruiz, was hired four years ago to work for the Guadalupe Center, which receives nearly $200,000 a year from Jackson County. A county lawyer said the center would have to stop receiving public funding if Garza Ruiz was in the Legislature. Garza Ruiz suggested that she could work around the conflict by recusing herself from votes; the county lawyer said that wouldn’t be enough. Her husband eventually resigned his position.
Garza Ruiz later intimated that the standoff was political retribution for her having supported Crystal Williams, who had knocked Henry Rizzo out of the Legislature. (She admitted to The Kansas City Star that she had no proof for this theory.)
Lee Barnes is the chairman of the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, an obscure but powerful development agency. Barnes served on the Kansas City Public Schools board during a chaotic period (1998–2002), which included the sudden firing of then-Superintendent Benjamin Demps in a meeting that violated the Missouri Sunshine Law. Barnes also is director of Swope Corridor Renaissance, giving him familiarity with the 5th District’s vacant-housing problem.
Dennis Anthony is a retired KCMO codes enforcer, giving him knowledge of City Hall’s inner workings. But he will struggle as the least-recognized figure in the primary.
IN DISTRICT
• Ken Bacchus
• Bilal Muhammad
• Alissia Canady
• Lance Conley
• Edward Bell
In Michael Brooks’ four years as a 5th District councilman, his main accomplishment was doing such a lousy job that he brought five people out to replace him. Brooks ultimately resigned. Ken Bacchus, a former councilman, seeks the 5th District seat once again after losing a close race to Brooks four years ago. Bacchus used to run the city’s Housing and Economic Development Financial Corporation, an agency responsible for managing federal-housing funds. The HEDFC had problems before Bacchus took over, but he did little to steer the organization back on course before a federal judge put it in receivership.
Lance Conley, an administrator for Truman Medical Centers, has been an appointee to the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund and is a 5th District vice chairman for political club Citizens Association.
Alissia Canady, a prosecuting attorney in Jackson County, is also seen as a contender for the seat.
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6th DISTRICT
Since City Council districts were redrawn prior to the last municipal elections, the 6th District lost Bannister Mall. For much of the last decade, that might have been a good thing, given that property’s dilapidated condition. But with Cerner redeveloping the property into Missouri’s biggest office park, Bannister becomes the 5th District’s jewel. The 6th District also lost the future redevelopment of the Bannister Federal Complex. Covering much of southwest Kansas City, it remains one of the steadiest council districts. Office development along Interstate 435 has buoyed the district’s employment.
IN DISTRICT
• Kevin McManus
• Terrence Nash
• Henry Klein
Missouri state Rep. Kevin McManus has served four years as a Democrat for the state’s 36th District. Last November, voters sent him back to Jefferson City for another two years. Two months later, he announced that he may give up that seat before Independence Day if he’s elected to the City Council from the 6th District. McManus says state-level politics, much like in Washington, D.C., is increasingly gridlocked.
“I think, for me, the way I can have the most impact is by pursuing this seat,” McManus says.
(Full disclosure: McManus is a cousin of Pitch writer David Hudnall’s.)
Was McManus less than forthcoming with south Kansas City voters about his intentions to run for another office so soon after reaching another term in the General Assembly? And did he have a fundraising edge over other 6th District candidates by converting his House war chest to his council campaign fund?
McManus will likely face those questions during the campaign. When posed to him in an interview, he said the process of running for the 6th District keeps him close to his constituents, many of whom are the same for both seats.
“I think it’s an experience that will make me more connected to my district either way,” McManus says.
McManus faces two challengers. Henry Klein is a small-business owner who has twice run for mayor and has twice fetched more votes in the primary than anyone expected. Klein, for never having held political office, is adroit about municipal government.
Terrence Nash, an accountant in south Kansas City, is running for the 6th District once more. Nash is a fault finder but is smart about the targets he picks. He’s critical of community-improvement districts and other tax incentives for private developments. He watches City Hall closely and is quick to question its motives. He’s the type of person Kansas City should elect more often but usually doesn’t.
AT-LARGE
Scott Taylor
Scott Taylor is the only sure bet in this year’s election. Taylor has $140,545 in cash on hand, a staggering amount for a council candidate. There were meek rumors that he would run for mayor against James, but those were unfounded. It’s more likely that Taylor is waiting for 2019, when James terms out.
