Unfettered Letters

Women vs. mayor’s wife

Just as women are the most vicious of the Sarah Palin bashers, the women of Kansas City’s City Council just like to pile on (9/25, A-1, “Women lead push against KC mayor’s wife”). It’s like a catfight.

While they say they seek “professionalism,” I believe what they really long for are the good old days when Carol Coe and Saundra McFadden-Weaver brought real “professionalism” to City Hall.

Stephen G. Spruill
Pleasant Hill

I couldn’t disagree more with Councilwoman Jan Marcason when she said, “If you work in an office environment, you know you need to separate your personal life from your professional life.”

This attitude is a throwback to the ’70s and ’80s. Perhaps it’s a philosophy of her generation, but the modern female professional is striving for a work-life balance. Perhaps Councilwoman Marcason should take a time-management course to learn about this concept. Or take a look at how extremely successful corporations — including IBM, Microsoft and Southwest Airlines — allow their employees to strike a balance more easily between personal and professional commitments by offering flexible alternatives.

If Mayor Funkhouser and his wife choose to work side by side, then that’s their choice. I agree with East Side neighborhood advocate Mary Mittenfelner, who said the people of Kansas city voted for Mayor Funkhouser to be mayor, not for the City Council to run the mayor’s office.

Marci Braybrooks
Overland Park

Fed up with drama at city hall

Mayor Mark Funkhouser has clearly made it known to the citizens of Kansas City that he is incapable of conducting the duties of his office. I think it is admirable he thinks his wife is his “emotional anchor,” but what does that have to do with being an elected official? If all of the former mayors were capable of conducting the duties without their spouses, why is Funkhouser not capable of doing the same?

Is she his seeing-eye dog or his conjoined twin? Either way, they should stay home together and stop embarrassing the city and citizens of Kansas City.

Karen Grigsby
Kansas City

Why is it that Mayor Funkhouser cannot do his job without his wife, Gloria, being present every day with him? The people of Kansas City elected Mark Funkhouser as the mayor, not his wife.

If she wants to make our city a better place to live, she should recognize the fact that her presence in City Hall is causing too much disruption and controversy, and she should step aside and be supportive to the mayor after office hours.

Norma Carpenter
Kansas City

As a Kansas City taxpayer who has had enough, I have a very simple message for our mayor and City Council. It is abundantly clear to me that common sense, compromise, consensus and conclusion are not part of their collective vocabulary when it comes to the seemingly simple matter of managing volunteers at city hall. I, therefore, will choose to vote no on the proposal to increase sales tax by nearly a half cent for a light rail starter system.

Why, you ask? Because I don’t feel comfortable allowing this bumbling bunch of characters to manage implementation of a complex, costly and important asset to our city when they can’t even handle daily operations at city hall.

Cindy Sullivan
Kansas City

The issue of unwed mothers

It’s amazing to me that Lewis Diuguid and others who comment on the unwed motherhood issue stress Christianity and morals (9/17, Opinion, “Unwed mothers often face racial disparities”). Why is nothing ever written about the cost to the greater society in supporting these mothers and the children from public funds?

And they almost invariably set up a chain reaction where the children grow up and have children of their own who are on the dole. Then the grandchildren repeat the behavior. And prisons are bursting at the seams with inmates who were born to unwed mothers.

It’s not a matter of race, but of responsibility. Perhaps we could enact some laws that those who advocate for unwed mothers be responsible for their welfare payments. Sounds fair to me.

Jane Milligan
Kansas City

Views on Mark plus Gloria

As a non-resident of Kansas City, I am taking the liberty of offering my perspective on the mayor problem (9/19, A-1, “Emotions in city hall near the breaking point”).

It is not unusual for an elected leader to have an unpaid spouse in an adjacent office, to share problems and bounce them off her or him for valued and trusted advice. Who can forget Bill Clinton moving Hillary close to the Oval Office and telling the public they were getting two for the price of one? Soon after Bill took the reins of power, Hillary got involved in Travelgate. No one called for her head. Then she undertook development of a self-appointed, top-secret national health plan, which went down in defeat after details became known. Again, no one demanded that she be removed.

It appears to me the City Council doesn’t understand that Mayor Funkhouser functions best in governing as a team with his wife. True, this is not found in most workplaces, but this is the management style that he finds effective.

I believe allegations by one individual, leading to litigation, have unduly influenced the City Council. Let the mayor do the job for which he was elected.

Glenn Audsley
Lexington, Mo.

Our mayor, with his stubborn, petulant, childish, egomaniacal attitude toward his job, has proved once again that he is too immature to lead this city. He’s like a little spoiled brat who says, “It’s my ball, and I can play any way I want!” The mayor’s job calls for an adult.

The people of this city did not elect Gloria Squitiro to be co-mayor. Their duo has brought more embarrassment to this city than anyone could have ever imagined.

Mr. Mayor, you can’t seem to do your job without your wife’s advice and recommendations, and not a single person on the City Council agrees with you. Nor do they want this totally unqualified person conducting city business by proxy. So I strongly suggest that you guys fold your tent and retire from public office and take up another hobby. Take a hike. Or take up crocheting. Anything!

Just go away and play someplace else, so the adults of this city can take care of business.

Charley Hutto
Kansas City

The city of Kansas City just continues to try to one-up itself as the area’s laughingstock. It goes back to when the city tried to get voters to approve a rolling roof over Arrowhead to get a Super Bowl. Luckily, that effort failed.

More recently Kansas City was able to chase off NASCAR. The city stood its ground while the track was built in Kansas City, Kan. We all know what has happened in that area since then. Kansas City, Kan., now gets the Super Bowl-size crowd every year for the race, and the area just keeps experiencing explosive growth.

The government of Kansas City, after months of hard work, was able to kick the mayor’s wife out of city hall. Quite an accomplishment.

Even schools have fled the city.

Kansas City has tried for years to get cities in Kansas to join them in different bistate projects, but Kansans have seen Kansas City, Mo., bungle so many projects that they’re scared to join in.

Watching the mayor, the city manager and the City Council is like watching the Three Stooges, only not as funny.

Steve Alexander
Raytown

City hall soap opera hurts KC

Puh-leeze. Can’t we all just get along? As the Mark Funkhouser-Gloria Squitiro saga continues, my thoughts have gone from distaste to utter disgust (9/19, A-1, “Emotions in city hall near the breaking point; Council members vent frustration and the mayor responds in a tense meeting”).

No matter what the outcome is now, does anyone believe that the atmosphere in city hall will be one of cooperation and collaboration? The damage is already done.

The mayor and his wife have gone way beyond foolish and stubborn. They have completely alienated the public and the City Council members. The mayor’s ability to get any work done is dead on arrival. Now he is going to veto the vote and is threatening litigation? Unbelievable!

Here’s an idea, Mr. Mayor. How about threatening to resign? I bet no one would veto that idea.

Susan F. Weiner
Overland Park

Do the honorable thing, Gloria. Pack your bags and go home! You can advise Mark from there.

You must take the high road and have the integrity to end this debacle. He has already proved to the world how much he loves you and to what extent he will defend you. Now let the city move forward.

Gloria, please, please, please go home. I voted for Mark Funkhouser, not Mark and Gloria.

Lesa Gonzalez
Kansas City

The obvious pettiness and the inordinate amount of time this entire stupid Gloria Squitiro affair detracts from the real business of Kansas City, to the detriment of the people of Kansas City.

It is indicative of small-town politics and will ensure that Kansas City continues to look small-town and remain small-town.

Charles Brents
Greenwood

Choose your sin

This is in response to Bill Schutte (8/26, Letters) about Hallmark’s gay marriage cards.

When are they going to make cards about the other sinful lifestyles, such as murder and stealing? Life is a choice. Read your Bible. You reap what you sow.

Helen Martinez
Grandview

Bravo to wedded Wheatons

Refreshing story, (8/25, A-1, “5 times 50: A wedding band of brothers; The Wheatons share something besides kinship: Each has been married at least half a century”).

Nice going, Wheatons. Nice going, Wheaton wives. Bravo! This is much of what makes America a great country. People who are faithful and stick to a commitment. They work out problems and go on with life. Well done.

D. Bruce Stahl
Overland Park

Hallmark’s gay marriage cards

As a former resident of Lenexa, I would like to personally thank Hallmark for including gay marriage cards as one of their many offerings (8/22, Business, “Greeting card maker says ‘I do’ to gay marriages”). Although not all customers may appreciate it, it is great to see that gay marriage is being at least acknowledged as an everyday occurrence.

Regardless of your personal opinion on gay marriage or homosexuality, in the year 2008 most gays and lesbians are treated as second-class citizens. They pay the same taxes, work the same jobs and have the same relationships as you, yet important civil liberties such as the right to marriage and all of its incorporating benefits are denied at a national level.

Bravo to Hallmark for taking a stand to show that gay and lesbian marriages are just as valid as heterosexual marriages.

Bill Schutte
Chicago

Mr. Pelosi, take your wife, please

The person who can be most beneficial to our country at this time is not President Bush. It is not Sen. McCain, and it is not Sen. Obama. It’s Paul Pelosi.

Mr. Pelosi, please bring your wife back to San Francisco and keep her there. We have suffered enough. She’s in over her head.

Jim Kudlinski
Overland Park

Gloria an asset to City Hall

The City Council’s proposal that targets the volunteer work by Mayor Funkhouser’s wife, Gloria Squitiro, is mean-spirited and unwarranted (8/15, Local, “Limits on family at City Hall proposed”).

I have visited City Hall and brought fellow legislators in to discuss how we could deal with Funkhouser’s plans for a regional light rail system on several occasions. In each case Ms. Squitiro made all the arrangements. She acted as a gracious social secretary, welcoming our delegation and ensuring that we were comfortable and had sufficient coffee. Then she withdrew and let us get to work. It is clear that she is a great asset to her husband and to City Hall.

A lawsuit by a disgruntled employee who was offered alternate employment at the same salary but chose to quit and file suit smacks of a sour-grapes attitude by one who cannot come to terms with the reality that the mayor beat her candidate. It certainly does not require the kind of remedy suggested.

Perhaps the council should wait and see whether this nuisance suit does, indeed, incur any liability for the unpaid work performed by the mayor’s wife.

Rep. S. Mike Kiegerl
Kansas House of Representatives, 43rd District
Olathe