Hyde Park - Making Kansas City Just a Little More Dangerous?

Just north of 38th Street, between the north and southbound lanes of Gillham Road, is one of Kansas City's prettiest little parks. It consists of a small valley or a large ravine, with stairs leading down into it from the north end, while the south end is open and inviting. There are few improvements - a couple picnic tables, a swingset, some tennis courts, and street lights.

I've walked down there, and it's a quiet, open, slightly cooler place to escape road noise and surround yourself with pretty stone formations. You can imagine what it was like when it was a golf course, and cows would graze on the greens.

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking on this little gem. Over the years, it will be transforming into a heavily wooded sinkhole choked with leaves and littered with crime. In recent months, some insane arborist has planted dozens of trees throughout the park, transforming its future into a dark forest where crime can flourish and its bucolic past will be obliterated.

Right now, the impact is minimal, but the 30+ trees are sprinkled throughout the small park, spaced as if intended to block sight-lines and create a claustrophobic forest from a secluded open space. They are merely saplings now, but, if allowed to grow, they will change forever the look and feel of what our ancestors saw on the wagon trail between Independence and Westport, perhaps on their way to Santa Fe.

I'm sure that whoever decided that this small patch of historical ground could somehow be improved by jamming as many trees as possible into its open spaces was well-intentioned. Trees are beautiful and they help the environment.

But when trees become a dense, dark forest and crowd out an historic, beautiful space, they lose some of their beauty. If you want to enjoy Hyde Park, you'd better do so in the next couple years.

Blogger Appreciation - Midtown Miscreant

The best writing going on in Kansas City right now is being published at Midtown Miscreant's blog, and it's there for free.

Specifically, go read this post. Then, read this post. If you're a fan of brilliant writing, you'll find yourself impatiently waiting for the third part of this 3-part series.

You may not believe this, but years and years ago, this kind of thing might show up in the KC Star, written by a columnist. Check out the archives of the Kansas City Star columnists, and see if you can find anything approaching Midtown Miscreant's level of skill in bringing a fresh angle to a compelling story. Heck, go ahead and check the New York Times or any other newspaper. If you find it, please let me know.

Midtown Miscreant is not writing this for money (though I wish he would put a paypal link up). He's not going to win a Pulitzer, and I doubt anybody asks him to come speak to their Rotary Club. On the other hand, he's not trying to please a mercurial editor, and he's not worried about getting fired.

Midtown Miscreant is gutsy, honest, compelling and talented. Those of us who read him are lucky that he gives us his stories.

Fraud and Perjury in Recall Effort? (See above)

(This entry remains posted only to place the entry two above it into context. The information provided in this post is erroneous and should not be relied upon.)

I stopped by my local grocery store yesterday on the way home from work, and finally had an opportunity to see the "Funkhouser Recall" petition effort under way.

I suspect the effort has resorted to paid signature gatherers, because the woman posted at Brookside Market yesterday afternoon was lurking out in a lower traffic area than is typically used by the many solicitors that frequent that location. (As an aside, the entrance to Brookside Market is one of my favorite "free speech" zones in Kansas City - it is a hot spot for petitioners, Girl Scouts, school groups, etc., and a real asset to our community.) When I noticed her clipboard, I asked her what she was gathering signatures for, and she replied, "For the Mayor."

I told her that I consider myself for the mayor, and she handed me the petition.

Of course, the petition was not "for the mayor", as she claimed, but it was for a recall of the mayor. When I saw that it was one of the recall petitions, I asked her what the legal grounds for recall were. She replied, "Uhh, he's not doing a good job."

Folks, those are not legal reasons to recall a Mayor. Telling someone that it is, in an attempt to gain his or her signature, is a form of attempted fraud.

More significantly, however, I saw no statement of the reasons to recall the Mayor attached to the Petition. The notary certification, however, promises that each submitted signature was put onto the petition paper "to which was attached at the time of signing a list of the grounds alleged for such removal". If there had been such a listing, the signature gatherer could have simply shown it to me.

If the petition circulated outside the Brookside Market on April 28, 2009, gets submitted as part of the recall effort, with a sworn signature that the signatures were gathered with a list of the grounds for recall attached, we may be looking at perjury.

Make Way for CONVICTS in Public Office!? - Day 142 of the Jackson County Ethics Blackout

From Jefferson City comes an extremely troubling rumor - a Kansas City area Democrat is rumored to be attempting to remove laws barring felons and federal criminals from serving in elective office.

Right now, laws on Missouri's books attempt to prevent convicts from holding elected office in Missouri.

115.348. No person shall qualify as a candidate for elective public office in the state of Missouri who has been found guilty of or pled guilty to a felony or misdemeanor under the federal laws of the United States of America.

115.350. No person shall qualify as a candidate for elective public office in the state of Missouri who has been convicted of or found guilty of or pled guilty to a felony under the laws of this state.

Unfortunately, the first law has been held unconstitutional because it was passed as part of a bill that violated the "single issue" rule for legislation. It was additionally found unconstitutional because, back in 2006, Missouri criminals were not prevented from serving in elective office, and it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. That flaw was subsequently remedied by 115.350.

The long and short of it is that we need our Missouri legislators to pass a new and clean version of 114.348. Instead, rumor has it that a Kansas City Democrat who has ties to James Tindall is working to loosen up the rules against criminals in elected office. Those rules laws need to be tightened, not loosened.

A lot of weird stuff gets passed in the late hours of a Missouri legislative session. Please, let's not use the legislative process to clear the way for more convicts in elective office for Missouri.

Influence-Peddling and Failed Ethical Oversight - Day 123 of the Jackson County Ethics Blackout

Jackson County legislators have influence. With a few words, a handshake, or a backroom meeting, they can change the fortunes of a company, an individual, or a nonprofit organization. On a small scale, they do stuff like give a friend a thousand tax dollars to put a sticker on his car. It's an expensive form of fondness, but they're only spending our tax dollars, so who cares?

On a large scale - well, we don't know how large a scale their corruption has achieved. We hear that close friends have been hired. We have money getting siphoned into expensive arts programs that employ friends and benefit few. All of this money gets divvied up in backrooms to "certain outside agencies" with only cryptic messages offered to the public. And please don't forget that a majority of the committee that controls the COMBAT money has a criminal record, and one of the criminals on the committee is using county resources to falsely claim that he is the Chair of that committee.

Plainly stated, when you have shady dealings involving county money, legislators who are overstating their own influence and a complete absence of local ethics enforcement, the situation is ideal for influence peddling. This whole situation stinks to high heavens.

In a closely related development, press reports claim the FBI has been conducting an investigation into influence-peddling in Jefferson City. Apparently, the Missouri Ethics Commission, a "toothless" body that "takes too long to investigate complaints and announce its conclusion, and is too timid about fining lawmakers found to be in violation of ethics law", has failed to keep a close eye on the legislators down the hall.

Believe it or not, this toothless, timid and ineffective oversight is exactly what the County wants for a watchdog. The legislators, including Dan Tarwater, Henry Rizzo, Scott Burnett and Denny Waits, have loudly claimed that they don't need Ethical Home Rule, because they are also supposedly "watched" by the MEC - a group that has allowed things to slip so badly that the FBI is stepping in.

Meanwhile, the Jackson County Legislature has exempted itself from the Jackson County Ethics Commission's oversight, and, in the face of legislative hostility and probable litigation, the Jackson County Ethics Commission remains completely vacant.

It is hard to overstate the degree of danger Jackson County government faces. It really, truly has convicted criminals (Tindall and Rizzo) on its legislature, controlling millions of dollars. The legislature has exempted itself from local ethical oversight, in violation of the County Charter, and submits only to a toothless, ineffective and timid entity that is housed miles and miles away.

If influence-peddling is happening in Jefferson City, what do you think is going on in the halls of Jackson County Courthouse?

Criminal Lessons Learned from the FBI

My FBI Citizens Academy completed its 5th week last night, and I've picked up a few tips that ought to come in handy for anybody contemplating a life in crime. In the spirit of sharing, here goes:

1. Be Nice to Support Staff. 10 years ago, Charles Cacioppo, Jr., had a pretty good thing going. He had lots of highly profitable work getting funneled to him from Rockhurst University, in exchange for a few bribes to the guy who parceled out the work. The problem was, he treated his secretary like dirt. And, when he brought his son into the business, and the son started treating the same secretary like dirt, she called an FBI agent she knew, who had treated her respectfully even as he was helping to prosecute one of her relatives. Secretaries know everything, and this secretary was fed up enough to provide all the details to the FBI. If Cacioppo's son had called her "ma'am" instead of "stupid b****" that day, who knows, Cacioppo might never have seen the inside of a prison cell.

2. Don't Talk So Much. Especially if you're in prison. Even if there isn't a guard around, and you think your cellmate is your buddy.

3. Pay Attention to Your Surroundings. If you're a jet-setting corporate executive, flying all over the world working with other companies to set up an elaborate price-fixing scheme, take a second to look around. Don't you think it's odd that the exact same lamp shows up in your hotel rooms and conference rooms all over the world?

4. But Not Always. On the other hand, sometimes looking around isn't a great idea. If you've taken hostages, and the FBI hostage negotiator wants you to come to the window for a second, it's probably not a good idea. Just sayin'.

5. Stop Trusting Criminals. This is the biggest and most important tip of all. The problem with most crime is that it involves other criminals, and, really, criminals tend not to be the most dependable of associates. Think about it. If your freedom hinges on somebody doing what you want them to do, and that somebody happens to be a criminal, there's a serious flaw in your plan. Eventually, somebody's going to get caught for something, and they might benefit from offering information about you. Or, they might get greedy, and figure out ways to cut you out of the enterprise. Or, even if they happen to be loyal and non-greedy criminals (a rare breed), they might just be colossally stupid, and expose your enterprise accidentally. Perhaps by not following the above lessons 1-3 (if they violate lesson #4, you probably won't have to worry about them ratting you out anymore).

All of these rules are supplemental to the number one rule of crime that my father taught me years ago. I can't remember what the transgression was that triggered his sage advice, but he told me, "Dan, go ahead and lie, cheat, and steal. But before you do it, make sure that you can get away with it, and that you'll wind up with enough to live in luxury for the rest of your life. Otherwise, don't do it. It's not worth losing your integrity for less than that." A whole lot of criminals would be in a much better position today if someone had offered them that lesson.

Jackson County Legislature Extraordinary Secrecy, Without Ethics - Day 99 of the Jackson County Ethics Blackout

When a legislative body sttempts to exempt itself from an Ethics Code, and to deny the Charter-granted right of its citizens to oversee its ethics, the wisest course of action is to start with the assumption that they are up to something untoward. No benefit of the doubt goes to those who insist they are above the scrutiny and accountability they would impose on others.

In that light, yesterday's hijinks at the Jackson County Legislature ought to be raising eyebrows. Chair Scott Burnett introduced a last-minute resolution calling for a closed meeting, excluding the press and citizens from knowing what the Legislature is up to. Typically, such resolutions are introduced at the meeting preceding such an extraordinary action, but this one was introduced and acted upon without normal notice. The exception to the Sunshine Law relied upon by the Legislature was RSMo 610.021(1) - "Legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body or its representatives and its attorneys."

The Jackson County legislature is lawyering up again? What is it this time? Is somebody trying to explain in simple terms to Henry Rizzo that the City is under no legal obligation to spend $2,000,000 on public safety rather than entertainment for suburbanites? Are Tarwater and Tindall fighting it out over the disputed chairmanship of the Anti-Drug Committee? Is yet another federal investigation for corruption focusing on the Jackson County Legislature - a fresh chapter in the rich history of Jackson County crime and corruption?

We can only guess at what went on behind those closed doors. We can be certain, however, that the Jackson County legislature has exempted itself from Ethical Home Rule, and now it feels the need to have emergency meetings about secrets.

Is that the type of government Jackson County deserves?

FBI Citizens Academy - Looking Inside the Case Files

Last night's FBI Citizens Academy meeting was another great opportunity to hear from the agents who work hard at solving and preventing horrific crimes. Last night, we heard about the work of Behavioral Psychologists - a term they much prefer to "profilers", and went through the process of trying to deduce what type of person murdered three people from the clues found in photographs of the crime scene. We also heard about the work done to find the bodies of the children murdered by Daniel Wayne Porter.

It really is fascinating stuff, on multiple levels. On a moral level, we heard a perspective on the death penalty from one who has sat in rooms and talked with the most vile criminals our society has produced. Does that experience bring a sharper perspective on the need for society to put people to death, or does the experience lead one to lose the self-doubt that should accompany moral decisions. Personally, I remain passionately opposed to the death penalty, while acknowledging that I could kill under certain circumstances. I can see how people develop personal yearnings for revenge or retribution on behalf of coldly slaughtered innocents, though morality frequently calls for us to rise above understandable yearnings.

While it was not highlighted as an issue, we also heard an anecdote about how the zeal to solve a compelling case led two great, dedicated FBI agents to violate FBI procedures to look at a crime scene. Together. While the incident was entirely understandable and did not involve anything that violated anybody's civil rights or jeopardized a case file, it certainly makes the point that a gap exists between official procedures and actual practice, and the gap is big enough that two exemplary agents can fit through it together. A rogue could fit through even smaller gaps.

The hour spent on what I will not call "profiling" was also fascinating. After hearing how a skilled agent dissects a crime scene and draws information from clues the entire class overlooks, and uses that information to narrow or expand the scope of likely suspects, I can only be impressed. It's a blend of hunch, experience, knowledge and science. In the case we examined, it could all have been a useless distraction if the murderer had been a black teenager with no criminal record, or an elderly Asian neighbor who committed the rape and triple homicide because the voices in his head told him to. But, playing the percentages and zeroing in on the clues and behavioral psychology, the FBI was able to focus its resources on white males, 30-34, with a criminal record involving assault who would have had occasion to meet the victim, and ultimately found their man. It's a little like CSI, but it doesn't get wrapped up in a tidy bundle after an hour, and I found myself staring at photos of three very real corpses - a man a little older than me with multiple stab wounds, an 11 year old boy run through with a knife, lying over a board game he had been playing, and a naked young woman, beaten, stabbed and raped.

If I met the man responsible for the death of those people, stabbing the boy so hard the knife plunged entirely through his body, through the carpet, through the sub-floor and hard enough into the concrete slab that it broke the tip off the knife, and then raping, beating and stabbing the frantic girl while her wrists were duct-taped - might I change my position on the death penalty? Does more complete information always lead to better moral decisions?

Cozy Cash Committees Closely Controlled - Day 87 of the Jackson County Ethics Blackout

Why are the "Big Money" Committees on the Jackson County Legislature controlled by only 5 legislators?

Why are 3 legislators (Theresa Garza Ruiz, Greg Grounds, and Fred Arbanas), excluded from the three committees (Anti-Drug, Finance & Audit, and Budget) that have the most financial influence on Jackson County (Anti-Drug, Finance & Audit, and Budget)?

Dan Tarwater serves on all three of the Big Money Committees. Theresa Garza Ruiz serves on none.

James Tindall (convicted of income tax evasion) serves on two of the Big Money Committees (Budget and Anti-Drug). Greg Grounds serves on none.

Henry Rizzo (convicted of providing false information to a financial institution) serves on two of the Big Money Committees (Budget and Anti-Drug). Fred Arbanas serves on none.

It can't be based on experience, because Fred Arbanas has been on the County Legislature since it started.

It can't be based on knowledge, because Theresa Garza Ruiz is completing a Master's Degree in Public Administration with an emphasis on Government Business Relations and Public Management.

It can't be based on qualifications, because Greg Grounds has over three decades of government and business experience, including a stint on the Jackson County COMBAT Commission.

It can't be based on public trust, since two of the Financial Five (controlling 4 of the seven seats on the Budget and Anti-Drug committees) have criminal records for financial improprieties, while none of the other three have rap sheets.

It just doesn't make sense. Any auditor knows "there is safety in numbers", meaning that you should have as many people as possible involved in oversight of financial matters - a rule that would apply with special force where some of individuals involved have been caught and convicted of financial improprieties.

At the same time this bizarre and unsettling committee structure was being set up, the Jackson County Legislature decided (in violation of the Charter) that it should not have to answer to the Jackson County Ethics Commission anymore.

Why does the Jackson County Legislature oppose Ethical Home Rule? Is there Big Money involved?

Retraction Regarding Criminal Dominance and Influence on the Jackson County Legislature - Day 86 of the Jackson County Ethics Blackout

A couple days ago, I referred to the Jackson County legislature as "dominated by criminals". A commenter questioned my description, and, to be completely fair (as always), the legislature is not necessarily, in fact, dominated by criminals. It is, however, influenced by criminals. And, in its infinite wisdom, the legislature has chosen to appoint two of its legislators with rap sheets to a three person committee handling every nickel of the COMBAT Fund, which gives those individuals unusually strong influence over the disbursements of the Legislature.

So, I'd like to retract my previous statement about the Jackson County legislature. I am not sure it is 100% fair to claim that it is dominated by criminals. Instead, I would prefer to make the 100% accurate claim that "In boom times or tight times, though, one thing remains constant - the Jackson County Legislature is scandalously under-regulated, influenced by criminals and defying local ethics oversight."

My apologies for any confusion.

Selection Committee Violating the Law Under a Shroud of Secrecy?! - Day 59 of the Jackson County Ethics Crisis

The Jackson County Legislature's desperate attempts to avoid ethics accountability have dragged more good people into their distasteful mess. On Monday of this week, the Jackson County Ethics Selection Committee, composed of three good and admirable people, announced their intention to violate the law and risk fines and attorneys' fees.

In their announcement soliciting candidates for the Jackson County Ethics Commission, the Selection Committee includes a surprising promise: "Every effort will be made to maintain the confidentiality of applications, but the applications of those selected as finalists may become public. Finalists will be notified prior to their information being made public." The promise is not only surprising because it seems weird for the ethics process to be conducted under cover of darkness, but also because it is a clear violation of Missouri law!

The analysis supporting this conclusion comes from no less a source than Jean Maneke, Missouri's leading expert on the Sunshine Law. She maintains the blog Sunshine in Missouri, an indispensable resource for those of us who care about transparency in government. Yesterday, she posted the following analysis:

The ethics commission is an entity created by the Jackson County Charter, and therefore it is clearly a "public governmental body" as defined by the Sunshine law. That means everything it does must be done in public. The selection committee is established by the county charter. That makes that selection committee a public governmental body, also.

The Sunshine law mandates that all meetings of public governmental bodies must be held in public and all records of public governmental bodies must be open to the public, unless there is a provision in Section 610.021 which allows closure. Case law is absolutely clear, as is the law itself, that the exclusions in Section 610.021 must be read narrowly. Therefore, unless there is a clear provision in Section 610.021 to close a record or meeting, you as a member of the public must be allowed access to that information or meeting.

The commission's website has posted a sentence at present that states "Every effort will be made to maintain the confidentiality of applications, but the applications of those selected as finalists may become public. Finalists will be notified prior to their information being made public."

That is absolutely wrong! There is nothing in the exceptions contained in Section 610.021 that would allow any of this information to be closed. None of these persons are applicants for employment with the county. Each of these appointments are political appointments and for them to claim in any fashion that this would be confidential is legally wrong and an affront to the Jackson County citizens, myself included.

Read the rest of her analysis, including her opinion of the members of the Jackson County legislature, in this scathing post.

Sadly, all this is completely predictable, and completely the fault of the Jackson County Legislature. All the shenanigans surrounding the resignations and the rewrites of the Ethics Code to exempt the legislators from its enforcement are the fault of a couple legislators who resent public accountability. The thirst for secrecy that drove the legislature to avoid accountability to the "old" Jackson County Ethics Commission is the same backroom preference that is guiding the Jackson County Ethics Selection Committee now.

Secrecy is not healthy for government. Ethical government does not crave secrecy. The Jackson County legislature craves secrecy. Why?

(MUCH more is on its way in this series, including the announcement of an Ethics opponent for Henry Rizzo, a call for the Selection Commission to include a disclaimer on its solicitation of candidates warning them of their duty to ignore the ethics ordinance's provisions that violate the Charter, a profile of each district and solicitation of a pro-ethics candidate for each, and a potential Ethics Initiative Campaign. The Ethics Crisis Series will continue until the Legislature accepts local enforcement of the Ethics Code, or each of the legislators who voted for it is driven from office.)

any man's death diminishes me

21 deaths in the month of August. 21 living, breathing human beings turned into insensate lumps of cooling flesh through the violence of others. On Sunday, the Star took the time to write about them as a group, and try to draw statistics together with portraits of the victims.

I wasn't one of them. Nobody who looks much like me was in the group.

21 bodies, and not one of them was a middle-aged Caucasian. Sure, lots of middle-aged Caucasians died during the month of August, but we died from stuff like heart attacks and car wrecks. Hot lead doesn't go ripping through our bodies.

Does that lessen the impact of crime on our community? Would we be handling things differently if half the victims were middle-aged whites? What would we do?