"They" think a third party candidate could never win a major election.

I am an independent. This confounds most of my friends, seeing as how they are blue-dyed in the wool Democrats. My dad was a labor democrat. Growing up in Independence it was hard to be anything but. My earliest memories are of my mother taking me shopping on the Square and seeing an old man in a fedora walking briskly with a cane. We would say hello if we passed him on the sidewalk. I figured all 3-year olds had "Good morning Mr. President" in their vocabulary. "This is not the party of Truman anymore." I hear that a lot. I hear the same type of laments from my Republican friends too. Those of us in the middle, the issues voters are left with what we consider to be no choice at all. Local blogger Thou Shalt Not Suck compares the choice between the Republican and the Democratic candidates for MO US Senate as... Well you'll just have to read for yourself. Last week I pulled an insert out of The Pitch. It was from the MO Progressive Party. I was surprised to read that there is another candidate on the ballot. Lydia Lewis obtained the required 12,000 registered voter signatures to get on the statewide ballot. As it turns out, so did Libertarian candidate Frank Gilmour. Why haven't I heard of these candidates? Because the powers that be have determined that "third party" candidates don't have a chance so they were not invited to any televised debates. How is this even possible? We have four choices on November 7th but the media has determined that we should only hear from two? That doesn't sound very democratic to me. I know the Libertarian Party has some views that I do not agree with. So does the Progressive Party. But you know what? So does the Democratic Party and the Republican Party! The fact remains that 12,000 people think that Lydia Lewis deserves a chance to be heard. Another 12,000 think Frank Gilmour does too. That's 24,000 people for those scoring at home. Too bad the media thinks it knows better.

"What is it you do again?"

I work in the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry. My company, Mentor Graphics produces the software tools for design, simulation and verification of electronic circuit boards, all the way down to the tiniest of computer chips. Officially I support and consult for the Deep Sub Micron design and verification group. You can see why I usually just say "I work with computers." I telecommute from the attic office in my house. Since I work with companies across North America as well as the Pacific Rim and part of Europe it really doesn't matter where I sit. As long as I get the job done. Yesterday was one of those days where things just couldn't get done without me physically being there. I caught a morning flight to DFW, was pleasantly surprised that my "compact" rental was a Chrysler Crossfire, and was at the company's offices in a Dallas suburb by 11AM. One of the perks of the job is getting to see high tech gizmos in development well before even Wired Magazine hears about them. This particular company which I cannot name, is a well-funded startup developing a gizmo which I cannot tell you about for the consumer electronics industry. As with most things in the EDA industry its all top-secret and we're bound by non-disclosure agreements. But it's pretty cool! Anyway, my day was spent not moving from the keyboard. Anxious engineers watched over my shoulder as I typed, corrected, compiled, ran programs, moved files, etc. Finally with 20 minutes to spare before I had to leave to catch my flight back to KC, everything fell into place. We all watched anxiously (especially me) as I clicked "GO" and waited for the software to tell us if my trip was worth it. "Compiling, compiling, compiling. Parsing, parsing. Running, running. More compiling. More parsing. Run complete." Success! Disaster averted. The engineers are back up and running. They can now meet their deadline. And I got a plane ride, a test drive of a very cool sports car, and a glimpse into tomorrow's technology. All in a day's work. Aren't you glad you asked? ;-)

Tales From The Front Porch: Meet Sue

You meet all kinds of interesting people going door to door. It's my favorite part of campaigning. Last night was a good night for gathering ballot petition signatures. The constant drizzle had my hair matted to my head. I must have cut quite a pathetic figure and people took pity on me. Last night I met Sue. She's the self-proclaimed "Birdlady of Brookside." Sue is a retiree who spends her days watching and feeding the neighborhood birds. She has a huge feeder in her backyard that provides her with hours of entertainment. I learned the following things about Sue's backyard Wild Kingdom: There are three Red-tailed Hawks that hang around her neighborhood. They no doubt appreciate the bird feeder which lures plenty of game for them. One particular hawk hasn't figured out that if he actually sits on the feeder that no birds will come. He will sit there for as much as an hour waiting and watching with nary a bird or squirrel in sight. Sue finds this highly amusing. Another regular visitor is a feral parrot. He started showing up this past Spring. He arrives first thing in the morning and every afternoon about 4PM. Knowing that a parrot is probably someone's pet, Sue has diligently watched the newspaper for ads looking for a lost bird. She has tried to call him by whistling which has done nothing but earn her a loud scolding from the wayward bird. She tried to lure him into a cage on several occasions which earned her more loud chattering from the angry little guy. He doesn't want to be caught! The topper to my encounter was when Sue re-enacted the time she was luring a wounded pigeon to her back porch so she could care for it. The thing was actually walking along behind her like it knew what she was up to. About that time one of the hawks swooped in out of nowhere. Both the hawk and the pigeon were gone in an instant. Sue was just glad the hawk didn't grab her too. I know I violated the "5 minute rule" of door to door once again. I just can't help myself. When I meet people that want to talk to me and tell me their story, how can I refuse? It was worth it. I got to hear funny stories, make a new friend, earn a vote and secure a yardsign location on a very busy street. Some "rules" are made to be broken.

City Council For Sale. $1,500 OBO. As is. No returns.

Your City Council is for sale. The price? $2,500 will get you an at-large representative on speed dial. For the budget conscious, an in-district rep can be had for a relative steal at $1,500. I have blogged on this before. First, please go read my original post and pay close attention to the dollar amounts I listed. Go ahead. I'll wait. Click here. Okay. What did we learn? Somewhere between July 25th and now, somebody lobbied hard and got the originally proposed in-district limit doubled to $1,500. That's more than four times the current limit of $325. This ordinance is coming out of the Finance and Audit Committee with a recommendation of "Do Pass." That generally gets a unanimous vote from the full Council because (begin sarcasm) why take time to learn about what you're voting on when you can let four or five of your fellow councilpeople from a committee tell you how to vote? (end sarcasm) Look for that vote this Thursday. I'm guessing there will probably be one "No" vote because it's time to start grabbing press attention for the mayoral race. Losing 12-1 is an easy way to look good without actually accomplishing anything. I leave you with this final thought from the actual ordinance language: "WHEREAS, the City council further finds that regulation of campaign contributions is required because the costs of running political campaigns have reached levels that lead to a public perception that special interests and wealthy individuals may have undue influence on or access to elected officials;" Explain to me, no wait; explain to all of us how quadrupling the amount individuals and PACs can contribute to an in-district candidate is "limiting undue influence?" As a couple of good friends of mine say "If you're not outraged you're not paying attention."

I spell pushover P-I-E-A

The Planned Industrial Expansion Authority has granted tax abatements to the condo developer of the old J.I. Case building at 2117 Broadway in the Crossroads. The Business Journal reports the "present value" of the abatements to be $450,000. I assume they mean "net present value" which is just MBA speak for the value in today's dollars of how much free money we're giving the developer over the next 25 years. It seems the PIEA has never met a tax giveaway they didn't like. Do these guys even try to negotiate, let alone ever say "no"? The developer bought the building for $5.5 million in March. In my opinion that price was a bit high. What I don't understand is why they need another half mil other than they want the taxpayers to make up for their overpayment. It seems to me we were in a position of power that we quickly gave away. I'm sure the developer told the authority that they could not "make the numbers work" without the abatement. What I'm also pretty sure of is I doubt anyone on our(?) side said, "Okay Mr. Developer. Sorry things didn't work out. Enjoy your $5.5 million empty building, and oh, by the way, the County will be re-assessing your property taxes based on the sale price." I haven't looked at this deal in detail, but I know on the surface that there's $450,000 of "numbers" that won't be working for the taxpayers, and that's a shame.

But we get to keep the horn, right?

We used to have a small business firm in this town called Gill Construction. It had about 100 employees, won awards for its work and was the primary contractor for the Gem Theater and the American Jazz Museum. Owned by Rick Gill, it seemed on its way to becoming a huge success story. That is until the 18th & Vine Authority and the City conspired to run him out of business. I have followed this story for some time. It seems upon completion of his work, the 18th & Vine Authority, whose members included former Mayor Cleaver, informed Mr. Gill that they did not have the $400,000 that was owed to him. Gill Construction was forced to sue. He easily won the case and was awarded $1.7 Million including interest and damages. And what did the fine upstanding members of the 18th & Vine Authority do? On advice from an assistant city attorney's memo they dissolved the 18th & Vine Authority and created the American Jazz Museum Authority. The cast of characters was the same, it was just a legal maneuver in order to, according to the memo, protect the museum’s revenues and assets “from attachment by Gill Construction and Gill’s creditors.” I don't know whether the City should fire that attorney for being unscrupulous or stupid. Or both. It's one thing to try some legal sleight of hand, it's quite another to write it down. Yesterday the City Council approved an emergency measure to settle with Rick Gill for $3 million. That amount pretty much wiped out our contingency funds for snow removal this season so you can thank the 18th & Vine Gang this January when you're hopelessly stuck in a snow drift. Gill Construction has long since closed its doors. Being a small business he simply could not absorb a $400,000 loss. 100 people lost their jobs. An entire community of small business owners will now view the City with contempt (and they should) and be wary of doing business with them. And the American Jazz Museum, instead of being a symbol of our great musical heritage, has become a monument to corruption, irresponsibility and just plain stupidity. Oh well. At least we have Charlie Parker's plastic saxophone that I think he played all of one time. The 18th & Vine Gang couldn't find the money to pay the good people who built the museum, but they could afford a plastic horn? Good to know we have our priorities in order.

The Sweeney Family Horror

A Halloween tradition at my house is to head over to West 61st Street to check out the yard display known as The Sweeney Family Horror. The January family puts a tremendous amount of work into a very cool display with moving creatures, sound effects and even a narrative broadcast from a micro-station on 88.1 FM. Last night I stopped by at the end of my nightly door-knocking to see if the display was up and going yet. I was fortunate to catch John in the front yard making some tweaks to one of the features. Without a doubt this was my favorite voter contact to date. John took time out from working on the pneumatics of one of the displays to ask me a few questions about my stances on economic development policies. We also talked about blogging. Turns out he already has been to my blog. We talked about his, The Sweeney Family Horror. I snapped a few pictures and asked permission to post about it here. Check out the blog and if you have time take a trip to West 61st, don't forget to turn off your headlights! The display is much better in the dark.

Food for thought

When you run for City Council you learn a great deal about how small business perceives city government. People share their troubles with you in the hopes that you can do something about it if you're elected. One such thing I learned about recently is the Food Safety program administered by the Kansas City Health Department. Restaurants provide a lot employment in this town. Granted the jobs aren't the greatest but they are jobs. I've bussed a few tables and hauled a few kegs in my day, as have a lot of us. You would think government would go out of its way to help these small businesses be successful and provide employment. The last thing you want is government putting unnecessary hurdles in the way of getting a job. For example, our current food safety ordinance. It comes directly out of recommendations by the United States Public Health Service/Food and Drug Administration. So far so good. Of course once our local authorities got hold of it and started making changes things went downhill in a hurry. There's this text: obtain FOOD HANDLER cards for each employee who prepares, handles, or dispenses food for human consumption, or who comes into contact with food or food preparation utensils Fair enough. If you're touching my food or my utensils you should have to prove that you at least know not to do anything nasty. But a few sentences later in the ordinance we have this gem: Within three years of adoption of this Code: ninety (90) percent of employees shall possess a FOOD HANDLER card. We're past the three years so the law is that 90% of any restaurant's employees must possess the card. The first problem with that is the 90% applies to "employees" and not "food handling employees." Not a big deal I guess but a major pain if you're a busser or a hostess and never come in contact with food. Now the fun part. To get the food handler card you have to go to a food handling class put on by the Health Department at 2400 Troost. Three hours of "wash your hands" put on by some poor soul who would probably rather be anywhere else than teaching rudimentary food handling techniques to other poor souls who would rather be anywhere else. For $20 you get the class and a nifty certificate of completion if you score 70% or better on the test at the end. Of course the certificate means nothing. You still need the card. If you're lucky enough to get out of class during a time you can actually get a card, you pay another $10 and you're on your way. If not, you have to go back to 2400 Troost again during the established hours that Food Handler cards are dispensed. So you're trying to get a job washing dishes and before you can even put on an apron you're out three hours, $30 and two trips to the Health Department. Does that sound like government being helpful to you?

Dumpster diving

You never know what the hot topic will be when it comes to neighborhood issues. Here in Wornall Homestead, it's dumpsters. Under the City's recycling program, funds are provided which pay for most of the cost of putting out dumpsters for neighborhood cleanups. That includes both trash dumpsters and lawn waste dumpsters. The cost to the neighborhood is $50/dumpster which is a great deal. Our neighborhood brings them in twice a year. At least that is, until this year. Turns out the program is out of money for the year and my neighborhood didn't get its request turned in soon enough. Some neighbors are pretty upset because they plan their yardwork around having those dumpsters here every October. It got me to thinking about different ways to fund this program. I know there's only so much money in the City budget. How about private funding? Why couldn't we find a corporate sponsor for our neighborhood cleanup program? Dumpsters cost about $300. That's nothing as far as advertising costs go. Hang a banner on the side of a dumpster. "Clean Sweep with Swiffer" or something like that. We could have individual dumpster sponsorhips or one company could subsidize the entire program for a year in exchange for exclusive advertising space. I threw this idea out Saturday night at a fundraiser. Not one person in the room seemed to care if there was an advertisement on the side of a dumpster. As long as they get to rid themselves of leaves of brush, they were not opposed to seeing a little advertising. The brainstorming ensued and we talked about private sponsorship for a number of things. Concerns were raised, more ideas were generated. All in the span of about 15 minutes. Just some concerned citizens sitting around trying to make things better. If only government worked that way...

The results of a poorly conceived law

This picture should go on the desk of every councilperson who voted in favor of the breed specific spay and neuter law. With some municipalities in the area passing outright bans, the result has been innocent animals being thrown to the streets. This particular dog was found and turned in to the Brookside Animal Clinic. She was so weak from starvation she couldn't hold her own head up. Granted, I'm reasonably sure the owner of the dog in this picture is no model citizen. Any person that would treat an animal like this needs to be voted off the island. But... This is what happens when we pass legislation that is too narrowly focused on one issue. Has there been an increase of Rottweillers or Dobermans being left at animal shelters? No. The effect is obvious. Breed Specific Laws (BSL) are inherently irresponsible. It seems to me that government, especially local government spends too much time reacting and not enough time leading. Something happens, they react. A group complains loud enough, they react. Responding to the cause celeb is not leadership. Reacting to special interest groups is not making the "hard decisions" which is another term I'm sure we'll be seeing in campaign literature. I'm not saying I will ignore complaints, or refuse to react to unexpected events. All I'm saying is I never assume I have all the answers. There's always more information to be found. You just have to look for it.

Sometimes all you need to do is listen

Last night I invited to a forum and reception hosted by the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association. The forum was your usual fare. Elected officials given specific questions and responding with vague answers. It was the reception that was interesting. I'm still learning to "work a room" so I relied on my host to introduce me around. In hindsight I think I was the one who got "worked." I met some interesting people and learned quite a bit about the restaurant industry. One thing I noticed that successful restaurant owners have in common is complete knowledge of their business. I talked to one long time owner of a very succesful Mexican restaurant. He had immediate answers to all my questions. How many full time employees, how many part time employees. His percentage of food sales to liquor sales. His food costs. His margins. He could probably tell me the price of a head of lettuce on any given day if I had asked. The overwhelming desire of restaurant owners in Kansas City is for common sense policies, and a level playing field. Common sense policies as far as licensing, inspections and other administrative issues. A level playing field as far as wages, smoking ordinances and taxation. They seem frustrated with KC's elected officials. They feel ignored. I have to admit by the turnout of elected officials, or lack thereof, I can understand why. I didn't agree across the board with everything I heard last night, but I will say I have a deeper appreciation for the restaurant industry, its importance to Kansas City, and the need for government to help small business and not hinder it. Most importantly, I think I earned a few votes just for caring enough to show up and listen.

Please answer the door. It's just me.

As an in-district candidate you have to gather at least 300 but no more than 750 signatures of registered voters within your district to get your name on the ballot. Instead of standing outside a grocery store or some other high traffic area, I'm lugging my clipboard door to door. Sure it's the hard way, but it's also a great chance to meet voters in person. I like going door to door. You never know what that opening door is going to bring. Most people are wary at first, probably afraid that I'm selling something or trying to save their soul. They seem almost relieved that all I'm after is a signature. Most people are nice. I'd say about one out of ten are less than polite. I can't really blame them. I don't like getting interrupted by the door bell either. Everybody has a story. Some are willing to share it with you. Like Saturday the guy who signed with very shaky hands. He had just finished his first marathon and was still proudly wearing his "I Finished" shirt. There was the woman with the sleeping newborn in her arms who actually offered to sign left-handed (I declined. No signature is worth waking a little baby.) There was the retiree with the very thick accent who seemed thrilled that a candidate was talking to her. New immigrants appreciate our democracy in a way that most of us can't fathom. Last night I allowed myself to violate one of the number one rules of door to door. Never spend more than five minutes with a voter. If you have lengthy conversations with everyone, you will never cover enough ground. This particular person wanted very much to talk to me. Being an architect he had a lot of opinions about the City's competitive bidding process. He schooled me on the downside of design-build and I have to admit I'm going to revisit that topic. He gave me some things to think about. He quizzed me on my education. My experience. We talked about design guidelines, context, the relationship between contractors and architects. After about thirty minutes he signed my petition. It was getting dark so I headed home. My total signatures for the night? Three. I don't mind. I learned something and that's always valuable. I'll just have to make it up tonight.

I walk the line

I just spent a week in Portland, OR. at my company's corporate headquarters. At the end of long days, I definitely needed to unwind. For me, the best way to clear my head is to go for a nice, long run. I had forgotten how good the pedestrian environment is out there. Aside from the obvious infrastructure things like bicycle lanes and raised pedestrian crossings, the most fascinating thing to me is the drivers. They actually pay attention to bicyclists and pedestrians. I had too many experiences to relate in one post. More than once a vehicle that had pulled into a crosswalk backed up to get out of my way as I approached. Drivers check for traffic, then check again for pedestrians before pulling away from a stop. At my corporate campus, the bike racks were jammed with bicycles. I'm not sure how that culture comes about. Questioning the locals didn't reveal much. They have a "that's the way it's always been" attitude. The feeling is "how could you not keep an eye out for pedestrians?" "If you don't, you might hit someone and that would be awful. " Awful indeed. Maybe it starts with the next generation. When you're teaching your teenager to drive, teach them what you should have been taught. Look both ways, then look again for bicycles, walkers, strollers, and especially jogging city council candidates!

Thanks for everything Buck

Buck O'Neill 1911 - 2006

A bridge too far?

Today marks the opening of the new pedestrian bridge from the Freighthouse to Union Station. The bridge originally set unused and rusting in the Rivermarket. $5 million later it opens as a much needed link between the two attractions. I'm glad that we're finally doing something for pedestrians. I'm actually a bit stunned that someone actually realized that forcing people to get in their cars and drive to Main or Broadway to get from Union Station to the Freighthouse was a bad thing. What I'm curious about, as usual is the finances. First of all, did we really need to put a "tube" through the bridge? I'm sure that was costly. Why would you want to hide the people? It's pedestrian activity that attracts other activity. We spent a lot of money to hide the best quality of a pedestrian bridge; the people! I know you're not going to be surprised by this if you're a regular reader, but I studied the TIF plan. They didn't add any reimbursable costs to the plan, they just shifted $650,000 to the bridge. Sounds fair enough at first glance. No added expense to the taxpayers. Originally the reimbursable expenses for Maintenance and Infrastructure were $1,286,632.00. After they subtracted the $650,000 for the bridge, the new total for Maintenance and Infrastructure is $636,632.00. You can look at this three ways. They are simply shifting money, OR they're admitting that they had too much money allocated to infrastructure and maintenance, OR they're being irresponsible and robbing the future financial health of Union Station to pay for something they want right now. Any bets on which one it is?

Taking the LEED

Kansas City can do a lot better when it comes to environmental issues. Recently the City Council passed a watered down resolution proposing stricter environmental standards. I say watered down because the Chamber of Commerce got to hold private meetings with the City and basically re-write the resolution. And you thought legislators wrote legislation. Sure they do... There's doing the right thing and then there's doing the easy thing. Rarely do they seem to be the same thing. The right thing to do was to listen to the EPA back in the early 90's and quit dumping raw sewage into Brush Creek. The easy thing to do was to ignore it and throw down some sidewalks and landscaping, a couple of fountains and tell people to avoid the spray after heavy rainfalls (if it wasn't true it would be funny). The right thing to do was to stick to our original resolution that public buildings meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards. The easy thing to do was to double-back and exempt projects like the downtown arena and all other projects "already started." Years ago people scoffed at California for demanding higher emission standards for vehicles sold there. Predictions were made of a mass exodus of business and people leaving CA in the economic stone age. Last I checked, California is doing quite well and continuing to challenge the auto makers to produce vehicles that generate lower emissions. Lead, follow or get out of the way. I would like to see Kansas City do some leading for a change.

It takes a village

The final deal has been announced for the East Village Development Plan. On the surface I guess it's good news. Of course as usual we as taxpayers are going to be very generous with economic development incentives. This blog is not a good venue to give you my analysis of the East Village TIF plan. At 214 pages it's a literary as well as financial masterpiece. I haven't made my way through all of it yet (but I will) to determine if said masterpiece belongs in the Fiction section. From what I can tell so far we're going to be giving up millions of dollars to make sure the poor developer makes a profit. We are getting rid of blocks of useless surface parking in what should be a dense urban area. But then again we're building between 2000-3000 new spaces. So much for creating need for transit. I haven't seen whether this falls under the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIEA), the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) or both, but I'm sure there's plenty of tax abatement to follow. As I've said before, it's not the TIF but the tax abatement that really hurts. New buildings, new streets, sidewalks, curbs, sewers and utilities. New taxes? Not for at least 20 years. Good news? You decide.

Ask and ye shall deceive

I don't have anything insightful or witty to add to this story that hasn't already been said by just about every other local blogger. Even if it is the NFL and not the Chiefs that is pushing for the ticket surcharge lease change it's still a betrayal of the voters. The NFL was fully engaged during the stadium upgrade campaign and therefore I maintain fully aware of the ramifications and the great big "(insert your favorite verb here) you" to the voters of Jackson County by already coming back and demanding changes. I think Tony Botello over at TKC summed things up the best with this graphic that I ripped off from his blog. I figure Tony has given me enough blog love that I should throw some back his way (not that he needs it). Leave it to Charles Schultz to still be relevant after all these years. The guy was a genius.

I'm a "Consensus Builder"

Buzzwords. Platitudes. Cliches. Maybe that's all I have to use during this campaign. I get really annoyed with all of it, but I have to admit that it's very difficult to describe yourself, your abilities or the issues without using them. "Consensus Builder." That's my favorite expression to loathe. I think anyone that uses that tired old phrase should have to use finger quotes when they say it. Same thing with "people person", "goal oriented" or "synergy". Maybe I'm being too detailed when I discuss issues with voters. Saturday night I was cornered by someone who had immediately informed me that he was supporting one of my opponents. "Go ahead and tell me what you will do if you're elected" he said. I figured I was wasting my time but I wasn't going to be rude and dismiss him because of his professed allegiance to a competitor. I talked about economic development incentives, the budget revenue structure and what I could change and what I couldn't. He quizzed me on transit. Codes enforcement. I detailed the EPA and the Clean Water Act and what our financial options are for funding our billion dollar sewer problem. He quizzed me more on financial issues, my educational background. He quizzed me on a lot of things. His friend whom I had met earlier stood off the side the whole time needling him. "See?" "I told ya!" "I told ya!" he kept prodding. Finally he said with a troubled look on his face, "when I asked your opponent that question, all he/she said was "I'm going to do the right thing."" I worked pretty hard for it but I think I earned his vote. Should I just be paraphrasing titles from Spike Lee movies? Should I just go around telling people "I'll fight for you" or "I'll get things done"? I hope not. I like to think the voters are smarter than that.