Unfettered Letters

Proposed KC budget cuts risky

I hope Deb Hermann and the rest of the City Council realize they are playing with fire (no pun intended) by wanting to close three fire stations to balance the budget (3/18, A-1, “Third budget in the mix”). Time is the most important element in the event of any emergency, heart attack, auto accident or fire. Lives are saved in a matter of seconds.

The National Institute of Standards and Technologies building research laboratory report, taken from large-scale tests, shows how fast fires grow in furnished rooms from ignition to flashover — when all combustibles in a room burst into flames and the fire spreads rapidly. For example, a dry Christmas tree in a room will flash over in 45 seconds, an upholstered sofa in four minutes, and a wastebasket in an office in five minutes. That is why fire stations are strategically located.

Surely the Council is aware of the severity of these decisions.

Jack Stokes
Kansas City

While reading assurances that Kansas City’s budget proposal would not reduce the number of our police officers, to whom do we go for assurance that a number of those officers will not be moved from the streets to desk jobs to cover for the dismissed civilians?

Not until we have been assured of our basic services can we responsibly consider the optional services, about which so many seem unrealistically concerned.

M.E. Bryan
Kansas City

Marlborough Center

I hope our City Council will find a way to preserve the Marlborough Community Center (2/24, Local, “Cutbacks threaten a community asset”). In this economic crisis, drastic measures must be taken. However, closing down one of the only three public buildings in this community will only make matters worse in the long run.
Marlborough is not a wealthy community: 22 percent of residents live below the poverty line, and 55 percent are single mothers. This community center provides those families with important recreational activities and supports parents who are working hard to provide for their children.
I am sure the council is working hard to preserve funding to the Marlborough Community Center, and I support those efforts.
Missouri Rep. Jason Kander
District 44 (Kansas City)
Jefferson City

P&L District dress code

Once again, I am appalled at the dress code imposed in the Kansas City Power & Light District (2/28, Local, “Cordish faults proposed law on dress code"). At least Cordish has accidentally admitted that its code is intended in part to impose its taste in clothing on its patrons, underscoring the discriminatory nature of the practice.

Cordish bans, among other things, baggy pants, untucked or oversized white T-shirts and combat boots. I’m tempted, once again, to put on my Liz Claiborne white T, leave it untucked over my Liz Claiborne baggy jeans, tucked into my Doc Martens British racing green high-top leather boots, and sashay my small, female, white Anglo-Saxon booty downtown to see if I am admitted or denied entrance.

Come on, people. You know bigotry when you see it. I don’t know if the Kansas City ordinance will pass constitutional scrutiny, but I’m convinced that the dress code it is designed to prevent would not.

Corinne Corley
Kansas City

The proposed dress code ordinance for the downtown entertainment district and last year’s law prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants are strikingly similar in that both are good causes encased in very bad laws. The net effect is that we are gradually eroding the right of business owners to operate their businesses as they see fit.

Let’s recognize that as we create laws to attend to every need and preference in society, we are sacrificing another slice of our free enterprise system. If that’s not important to anyone, then we will steadily regulate ourselves to the point that small businesses are no longer viable and disappear. The remaining choices will be to work for the government or a large, government-subsidized corporation.

Tom Owens
Kansas City

Grow up, City Council

I have moved beyond outrage to sheer disbelief that our city government is so completely dysfunctional. We are facing a budget crisis that threatens basic services, and we look to our leaders to step up in the face of adversity. Instead, we are given mind-numbing pettiness.

Councilwoman Deb Hermann called off a budget meeting because the city manager was 56 seconds late (2/5, Local). The mayor is working out of the public library to defend his wife’s honor (1/31, Local).

It is only a matter of time before “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” shows up to give our elected officials their well-deserved 30 seconds of public shame.

Albert P. Mauro Jr.
Kansas City

As if we need further proof that City Hall has been taken over by the inmates, Deb Hermann’s childish action nailed it.

Deb, this appears to be yet another way to delay dealing with the financial problems facing Kansas City. As a disgusted taxpayer, I want to see adult behavior and actions from all of you at City Hall and other associated locations where Funk is to be found.

Sue Marshall
Kansas City

KC snow removal falls short

Let me start off by saying there is not one current City Council person in Kansas City who I would even elect as dog catcher. But what this is really about is the city’s poor road clearing and salting during an ice or snow event. This year I called to get my road cleared after a snow. The 311 call taker was pleasant but did not know if crews could come by and treat my road in a timely manner.

I live on a hill that gets really treacherous if it’s snowy or icy. The call taker suggested that I call my City Council person to see if it could be expedited.

It seems that living on a side street is not even a secondary thought to the city. A “one pass and it’s good” policy is what they follow. Last year I contacted my City Council person at least four times in reference to road conditions and got nowhere.

So, to the City Council: This is Kansas City. We have winters with bad roads. Budget for it!

Mike Partain
Kansas City

Even Texans are talking about City Hall saga

I find myself, for the first time in my life, embarrassed to be from Kansas City. When my mother-in-law called from El Paso, Texas, and asked what the heck was going on between our mayor and City Council, I knew the situation had progressed from merely irritating to downright infuriating.

Would someone please tell Mayor Funkhouser to a) grow up, b) listen to his City Council, and c) remove his wife from all matters regarding City Hall?

Failing that, could someone please start a petition to recall him from office and install someone who will conduct the business of the city in a mature fashion?

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Carol Hobbs
Kansas City

Council should bring spouses to work

Here’s an idea: Why not have the City Council bring their wives and husbands to work with them? They could spend a few days there answering for the council members and maybe even talk about a recall.

Bill Tate
Kansas City

Funkhouser-City Council saga

I believe that it has come to the time in Mayor Funkhouser’s career that he must say goodbye. I find it unbelievable that a man of his education and position cannot perform his duties without his wife at his side.

I sure wish I would have known this before I wasted my vote on Funkhouser for mayor. I now apologize to Alvin Brooks for not voting for him. He would have been a much better choice at this point.

And am I hearing this rumor that Funkhouser is thinking about re-election. Surely he is joking.

Mayor, please save our money and our time next election and stay at home with the little woman.

Carol Anderson
Kansas City

All of this nonsense going on at City Hall is pretty entertaining to read about. It’s kind of like reading the headlines of the gossip rags in the grocery store checkout lines. It reminds me of the Kansas City school board.

Why is all the blame on the mayor? Isn’t the council just as childish?

Debi Hunter
Parkville

Mayor’s lack of leadership

Kansas City councilwoman Cindy Circo has done an outstanding job as chair of the Housing Committee. She has worked countless hours and is trying to make Kansas City a better place to live for all of our citizenry.

Mayor Funkhouser obviously doesn’t agree, as he took the chair post from her (11/8, A-1, “Mayor takes council to court”). This is the second time he has taken a chair away from an excellent councilperson (Ed Ford).

Recently, two respected members of the mayor’s office have resigned (Ed Wolf and Joe Miller). I hope sooner rather than later we will receive effective leadership from the mayor’s office. It certainly hasn’t happened for the past 18 months.

John Tancredi
Kansas City

Funkhouser vs. City Council

In revoking support for Mayor Mark Funkhouser (11/8, Opinion, “In a funk about KC mayor’s misguided priorities”), The Star misidentified the battle involving his wife as his top priority. This battle has been represented by sensationalist journalism as his sole agendum, and his real work has gone unreported.

Rather than obsessing over Gloria Squitiro, a piece could have been written about Funkhouser’s New Tools for Economic Development program, which he worked on all last weekend with other government leaders in Charleston, S.C.

The Star’s previous support for Funkhouser was based upon his challenge to “politics as usual.” His legal actions (11/8, A-1, “Mayor takes council to court”) are a necessary response to an unlawful attack by those opposed to destruction of the status quo, those nostalgic for the days of limitless tax increment financing.

This will not distract Funkhouser from his top priority. He will continue to abandon the quid pro quo network that exists in City Hall and work toward better governance, even if it taints his reputation.

Andrew Squitiro
(Son of Mayor Mark Funkhouser and Gloria Squitiro)
Kansas City

Mayor Funkhouser looked to be such a great choice for Kansas City mayor, promising to focus on improving streets, sewers and infrastructure. Now that he has been shown to be petty, immature and self-centered (with Gloria-gate, moving his office to his home, continuing to pursue light rail instead of sewer repairs and filing a lawsuit against the city), it may be time for Kansas Citians to pursue a recall effort and take back the office that they gave to him in good faith.

After all, he’s only a year and a half into his four-year term. What’s going to happen in the next two and a half years? I don’t know if there is a provision for a recall in the Kansas City bylaws, but if there is, it certainly is time to use it.

Tucker Johnston
Lenexa

We are in a recession, at war, losing homes, jobs and retirement incomes, and Mayor Funkhouser’s priority is his wife’s ability to volunteer in his office? He has moved his office to his house in a residentially zoned area and has aides and council members commuting to him rather than going to City Hall. Now he has filed suit against the very council that should be part of our Kansas City team.

Funkhouser was a bean counter, is a bean counter and will always be a bean counter without any visionary talents whatsoever. His priorities are in the wrong place based upon the very real challenges facing Kansas City today, and he is an embarrassment to us all.

He should be removed from office immediately so he can spend all of his time with his wife without his job getting in the way. Separation anxiety problem solved.

Brian Thompson
Raytown