Kansas City’s mayor exerts influence through appointments to parks and KCATA boards

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Facing fierce pushback from defenders of Kansas City’s parks system, Mayor Quinton Lucas shelved a plan last spring that would have stripped the parks board of the special status it has enjoyed for more than a century.

Almost every other city board or commission is toothless when compared to the parks board, which uniquely has the power to hire and fire the parks director and decide where most parks funds are spent.

That has lead to friction over the years with mayors, city managers and others in city hall who would rather make those decisions.

But Lucas did not give up. While he failed in that first attempt to reduce the board’s power, he’s now taken another approach to possibly rein in the board’s independence by appointing an almost entirely new roster of board members.

He did that in October by replacing two commissioners and filling two seats that he had left open for months on the five-member board. Those vacancies had made it difficult for the board to conduct business. If someone was absent, meetings would have to be canceled because there wouldn’t be a quorum.

The new members took office this week. The only holdover from the previous board was the one who had the least experience, having only served since February.

Most notably, Lucas removed the board’s president, financial executive Jack Holland, who had hoped to keep the unpaid, volunteer job that Lucas appointed him four years ago.

Holland’s sin: he’d spoken out against the mayor’s proposed charter change that would have lessened the board’s power.

Some former parks board members saw the manner in which Holland was dismissed an insult. He learned second hand that he’d been let go because he claims to have never gotten the dismissal letter that the mayor’s office says it sent him.

“The way Jack was treated, and not even having a passing of the gavel ceremony in the parks department, that is another de-emphasis of the importance of the board,” said former parks board member David Mecklenberg, who got a similar, terse letter from the mayor’s office 18 months ago.

He thinks he, too, was removed for pushing back on issues, particularly the city administration’s growing habit of spending parks levy revenues on central administrative functions while questioning the parks department’s spending priorities.

“Over a good deal of my tenure on the board, having the funds to be able to do what was being expected was difficult to do,” said Scott Wagner, a former city councilman who served on the parks board from late 2019 until early this year when he took office as a Clay County commissioner.

Holland declined to comment on his removal other than to say “I just wish the best for the new board of parks and rec commissioners.”

KCATA appointments challenged

Was his ouster political payback? Or was it merely time for some fresh faces on the board at the beginning of the mayor’s second term, as Lucas maintained through his press secretary?

Either way, it wouldn’t be the first time that Lucas was accused of using board appointments to exert more influence on an arm of government that receives city funds but is not under the director control of Lucas and City Manager Brian Platt.

In October, Lucas faced criticism in a joint statement issued by the presiding commissioners of Clay and Platte counties for his reliance on a loophole in state law that they say disenfranchised their constituents. Lucas ignored their lists of nominees in choosing members to fill seats on the commission that runs the bi-state Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.

“Without proper representation, will Northland taxpayers get their fair share of tax revenue and KCATA services?” asked Jerry Nolte, the presiding commissioner in Clay County, and Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker.

Half of the KCATA’s 10 board members represent Kansas and half Missouri with the mayor of Kansas City picking three of those appointees. One he picks directly and the two others are supposed to come from lists of nominees forwarded to him by the county commissions in Clay and Platte counties.

But the statute does not specifically compel him to choose from the names on the lists, and Lucas ignored the nomination lists and picked people who weren’t on them. Clay County’s new representative on the KCATA board is Kansas City deputy aviation director Jade Liska, which Nolte and Fricker said “raises concerns about the independence of the KCATA Board and the undue influence of the Kansas City Mayor.”

That makes it two city employees on the KCATA board, as two years ago Lucas appointed Michael Shaw, public works director and husband of Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw as Kansas City’s representative.

Nolte and Fricker went on to say their constituents might want to take into account the way Lucas ignored their nominees for the KCATA when deciding how to vote next week on the proposed extension of the 3/8th-cent sales tax supporting KCATA bus service.

“Before Northlanders vote to extend this tax, Kansas City should comply with the law and appoint members to the KCATA Board of Commissioners as required by Missouri Statute. On November 7, Clay and Platte Kansas Citians should consider whether or not to support this taxation without the legitimate representation as guaranteed to us by law.”

Lucas did not respond to their statement, Fricker said, and the mayor’s office did not respond to The Star’s requests for comment.

Advocating for parks

In response to The Star’s questions about her boss’ handling of the parks board appointments and why he had kept two seats empty since April, Lucas’ spokeswoman Jazzlyn Johnson had this to say:

“Given both an upcoming election and a new Council term starting in August 2023, the mayor elected to wait until the new Council term to name new members to the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners and other City boards and commissions, which are currently all being evaluated after the expiration of a commissioner’s four year term.”

She said the mayor advised all members serving on Kansas City boards and commissions in early July 2023 that he may be replacing them.

“With Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, the Board of Zoning Adjustment, and several other boards, he followed up directly informing commissioners several months later that he would appoint new members,” she said in that email.

Beth Haden, a partner at the law firm Lathrop GPM, was sworn in Tuesday afternoon as the new president. Joining her and recent appointee Stephenie Smith on the board are construction company executive Pat Contreras, investor Tom Gorenc and DePrice Taylor, executive director of community relations for the Kansas City Current soccer team.

Holland, Mecklenberg and Wagner say they will be happy to help the new members learn the board’s history and provide background on current issues in order to provide the continuity that was lost.

“At the end of the day, the City Council of Kansas City tells the Parks Department what budget it has. They have the power of the purse,” Wagner said.

But what he would tell new members is that it’s the duty of the parks board to advocate on behalf of the parks system, even if that means taking positions that make city hall unhappy at times. It’s a tradition, he said, that goes back to the formation of the board and the Kessler plan that was the basis for the city’s system of parks and boulevard.

“That board has always depended on its advocates,” he said. “Almost 130 years later now, someone may say these advocates for our parks department are too loud, well then I guess they’re performing a function that has been necessary for 130 years.”