Funk's Front Porch

PFM Report

Below is a link to the report completed by PFM consulting firm regarding the city's financial health.

http://www.kcmo.org/manager/KCMOFiveYearFinancialPlan.pdf

Documents for Forum on Financial Preparedness

Below are several documents in regards to the Mayor's Forum of Financial Preparedness.

Download Federal Financial Condition Download Scope of project Download Invite Letter

Mayor Funkhouser Calls for Forum on Financial Preparedness: Protecting Kansas City’s Finances in a Time of Global Economic Crisis.

Mayor Mark Funkhouser testified at this morning’s Finance and Audit Committee Meeting and invited the committee members to join him in ensuring Kansas City’s financial stability in a time of global economic crisis.

The Mayor will soon hold a Forum on Financial Preparedness with community leaders, council members and experts, who will assess the city’s finances, consider the impact of the global financial crisis and begin to develop a contingency plan should Kansas City experience a dramatic decline in revenue.

"Right now, nothing matters more to this government than our city’s financial health. If we don’t take care of city finances we can’t deliver city services," Funkhouser said. "I want to begin the dialogue now so that it can shape our approach to the upcoming budget."

In 2004, as City Auditor, Mayor Funkhouser was called to participate in a forum in Washington, D.C., by Comptroller General David Walker to discuss how to communicate the nation’s fiscal challenges to the general public. This was followed in 2005 by a forum in Kansas City to discuss the national fiscal condition as well as Kansas City’s five year financial outlook. The forum resulted in recommendations to the City Manager to develop financial policies for Council deliberation, debt level and capacity and contingency planning.

"In 2004 and 2005 we saw this coming. That is one of the main reasons I ran for mayor, to shore up Kansas City’s finances and help guide us through the anticipated tough times," Funkhouser said.

Mayor Announces Town Hall Meeting this Evening

Mayor Mark Funkhouser will hold a town hall meeting today, December 3, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 11 East 40^th St. The hour-long town hall meeting will be sponsored by the Mainstreet Corridor Development Corporation. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a 15-minute introductory address followed by 45 minutes of questions and comments from the audience.

If you are interested in hosting a town hall meeting, please contact Crispin Rea in the Mayor's office: 816-513-3503, or crispin_rea@kcmo.org.

Mayor and First Lady Appeared on Fox News Channel

Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser and First Lady Gloria Squitiro appeared on the Tuesday morning edition of Fox and Friends, which airs on the Fox News Channel.

For more information contact Kendrick Blackwood in Mayor Funkhouser’s office: 816-513-3513.

Mayor Announces Town Hall Meeting Wednesday Evening

Mayor Mark Funkhouser will hold a town hall meeting this Wednesday, December 3, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 11 40^th St. The hour-long town hall meeting will be sponsored by the Mainstreet Corridor Development Corporation. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a 15-minute introductory address followed by 45 minutes of questions and comments from the audience.

If you are interested in hosting a town hall meeting, please contact Crispin Rea in the Mayor's office: 816-513-3503, or crispin_rea@kcmo.org.

Wall Street Journal

Below is a link to a Wall Street Journal article discussing the recent events surrounding the City Council's volunteer ordinance.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122723082748846583.html

Newsletter

13 November 2008

Dear Folks,

This Week’s City News

The trip to the Mayor’s Institute on City Design went very well. The Mayor received a lot of useful information from the experts who came from across the country for the conference and also from the other Mayor’s in attendance. Funk finds the other mayor’s inspiring, not to mention reassuring, especially when they speak of the similar, inherent challenges of the job. I’ll be imparting a few of the Institutes suggestions to you over the next several newsletters. For now, I’ll tell you about one of Funk’s favorite suggestions that had to do with the Mayor’s New Tools initiative. The Institute encouraged Funk to have the New Tools task force find a way to include transit as a new tool for economic development. My favorite insight came from Maurice Cox, with National Endowment for the Arts. He told Funk to, “slow down there a little bit Mayor, you’re on the right track, but you’re moving very fast and are probably frightening a lot of people. I don’t want your efforts to get thwarted by others’ fears.” Very wise advice. Unfortunately, there’s too much work to do to slow anything down.

To briefly touch on the local gossip: the Mayor has not moved his office out of city hall. Like the rest of the council, much of his work consists of meetings outside his office or out in the community with the people that he serves. And concerning the lawsuit that the Mayor had to file - it is not a lawsuit in the traditional sense - it is only a motion for declaratory judgment. The Mayor seeks no monetary damages from the city and the lawyer, Doug Carter, seeks no monetary compensation for his services. Given these facts, it should not cost the city or the taxpayers a single dime to ask a judge to make a ruling on whether it is the Mayor, or the City Council, that gets to control the Mayor’s office.

I heard through the grapevine that a well-known political consultant in Kansas City tipped the Wall Street Journal to the declaratory judgment filing, and sure enough, Funk received a call a few days later from a reporter with that newspaper. It seems that the consultant in question finds it amusing to create scandals where none exist. As usual, the Mayor answered the questions posed to him in his typical honest and straightforward manner, thus lessening the negative antics of the individual looking to cause dissention in Kansas City.

On a More Personal Note

I have been reading a book that my husband read 40 years ago – the story of Malcom X. It is strange to be reading this now with President-Elect Obama having just won the election. Malcolm X was a visionary change-maker, who in his day was hated by the establishment, but loved by the people. I cannot help thinking that if Malcolm X caved to the intense pressure that he received in his time - pressure to sit down, shut up, play nice and come across more appropriately - then President-Elect Obama would not be standing where he is today. There have been many occasions in my lifetime where I have silently said a prayer of thanks to the women who came before me. Because it is only through their efforts that my daughter and I enjoy the rights that we have today. Today, I find myself saying many silent prayers throughout the day to people like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi, and Malcolm X, for they are some of the change-makers that made it possible for this country to have made history last week.

The next Town Hall MeetingThe Southern Communities CoalitionWednesday, November 19, 2008, at 6 p.m. Baptiste Education Center, 5401 East 103rd Street, Kansas City, MO

In faith,Gloria & Mark

Mayor Funkhouser Participates in Mayor's Institute on City Design

Mayor Mark Funkhouser is in Charleston, South Carolina, participating in an intensive strategy session with the Mayors' Institute on City Design November 9 - 11.

The Mayors' Institute on City Design (MICD) is a partnership program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural foundation and the United States Conference of Mayors. The MICD organizes sessions where mayors engage leading design experts to find solutions to the most critical urban design challenges facing their cities. Sessions are organized around case-study problems. Each mayor presents a problem or project from his or her city for the other mayors and designers to discuss.

Mayor Funkhouser will present as his project the New Tools for Economic Development in Distressed Areas initiative. Kansas City's e

conomically distressed areas are defined as areas where the median household income is less than 70 percent of the median income for the entire city, as revealed in the 2000 Census.

One of Mayor Funkhouser's top priorities is to find new ways to revitalize these areas.

For more information please contact Kendrick Blackwood at 513-3513.

Joe Miller to leave Mayor’s Office

Joe Miller, Director of Communications for Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s office, has resigned from his position to focus on graduate school, do more writing and ultimately teach. His last day was today.

"I’m proud to have played a role in your early successes," Miller said in his letter of resignation. "In particular, I’m proud of the changes you have brought to the city’s economic development incentive initiatives, not only for the new policy that you spearheaded, but the changes you have made to the boards and commissions that oversee the use of these incentives."

"Joe was instrumental in guiding my campaign and has been an important part of my administration," Mayor Mark Funkhouser said. "I wish him well as he continues his studies and writing. I know he will be successful."

 

For more information contact Kendrick Blackwood in the Mayor’s office, 816-513-3513.