Mark Funkhouser for Mayor

For the last 18 years I’ve served as auditor for Kansas City. My job was to study City Hall, to identify what works and what doesn’t, and to come up with solutions to problems that affect us all. It was my job, and it was my passion, because, like you, I’m a Kansas Citian. I want my city to be a clean, safe and prosperous place to live.

We’ve all heard our leaders talk about how we can make Kansas City a “world class city.” And it can be. Indeed, it will be. But only if we first handle the most basic tasks at hand.

In other words, forget Paris – let’s compete more effectively with Prairie Village.

Let’s make Kansas City the best place to live and work in the metro area.

My message is simple: We need to get our finances in order, and we need to do a better job serving Kansas Citians.

Of all the candidates for mayor, I am the most qualified to make this a reality, because for almost two decades I’ve been immersed in City Hall, diligently crafting realistic plans to make Kansas City a city that works!

FINANCIAL STABILITY
First and foremost, we need to get our finances in order.
In 2002 I convened a forum of experts who concluded that the Kansas City’s financial condition was so “precarious” that there’s a real danger the city could “go down the tubes with a couple of bad decisions.”

Yet since then, our leaders have taken on more risky and expensive projects. To pay for these, they’ve maxed out the credit cards, saddling our city with well over a billion dollars in debt.

And they did this without adequate analysis of how much these projects will cost over the long haul, not how much revenue they’ll generate.

My analysis suggests that these projects may well bring in less than half the money city leaders expect to receive.

That means that you and I – the city’s taxpayers – will have to make up the difference.

We’ll have to pay for these projects with money we desperately need to repair our streets and sidewalks, to make our sewers and drainage systems function properly, and to provide public safety with well-trained and well-equipped police and fire departments.

I’ve studied these projects inside and out. Now that they’re underway, I am the candidate with the most knowledge about how to pay for them all without cannibalizing basic services.

The city’s budget is tight. But there’s still room for us to make smart decisions and bring our finances in order. One area where we can save is payroll, the biggest line item on our budget.

In the past, we have managed this part of the budget through pay raises. Some years city employees get a bump in salary, others they don’t.

Instead, we need to focus on the very structure of City Hall. We’ll save far more money – and do a better job – when we find ways to work with fewer employees who are better paid. We don’t need layers upon layers of managers. We need a solid workforce of dedicated people who have the training, resources and support they need to do their jobs with enthusiasm and pride.

As auditor, I have scrutinized the most vital and costly departments in City Hall down to the finest detail. I have identified their problem areas and I’ve come up with practical strategies for making them work better. These plans of action – all of which are free for anyone to read on the city’s website – will help us solve the city’s budget crisis.

BETTER SERVICE
One of my most important responsibilities as auditor was to find out whether or not Kansas Citians are satisfied with how the city is being run. And invariably, year after year, residents said they were dissatisfied with public safety, parks and recreation, maintenance, code enforcement, and city communication.

Kansas City’s survey results were weighed against those of 13 other comparable-sized, and our ratings were below average in all areas. When matched up with 21 other cities in our metropolitan area – cities that are in direct competition with Kansas City in economic development – Kansas Citians’ satisfaction with their leadership never exceeded the average.

In fact, in many areas of citizen satisfaction, Kansas City ranks dead last.

This is unacceptable.

My audits offer hundreds of practical solutions to the problems that leave Kansas Citians feeling dissatisfied. These reports have resulted in real changes in the way City Hall does business, changes for the better. But often these solutions haven’t been fully acted upon because the city has lacked the leadership necessary to do so.

What Kansas City needs in a leader can be summed up in four words:

Authenticity
Integrity
Competence
Transparency

We need authenticity in dealing with each other. We need straight talk with no spin, no baloney and no “happy talk.” Kansas Citians are too smart for that. As leaders, we’re expected to talk about problems and face facts, to look at things as they are and to deal with them practically and effectively.

Our city government must have integrity. That means having good control over the finances and the way City Hall conducts business. But it also means no insider deals that benefit the well-connected few at the expense of the tax-paying many.

Our city government needs competence. That means employing highly trained professionals and using professional standards and practices to make informed decisions and operate efficiently. It means continually measuring and managing performance, paying close attention at all times to the satisfaction surveys that are conducted each year.

Finally, our city government needs transparency. Citizens deserve to know what is going on with their government. Kansas Citians have a right to information that is readily available and easy to understand and use. Residents need to be a part of the decision making process. We have a pattern in Kansas City of ramming through big decisions quickly, too often behind closed doors. As mayor, I will make sure that the days of the “ram through” are through.

I want to be mayor because I love this city and because I’m best equipped to do the job. In 2003, while many of my fellow candidates were serving on the city council, making fast-track decisions that have put our city in a precarious position, I was named by Governing magazine as one of the nation’s Public Officials of the Year.

More importantly, I know better than anyone else what it will take to make Kansas City financially secure, to provide better service, to be a city that works!