Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City city council passed enabling ordinances for development projects in the northland... and a resolution endorsing Aim4Peace that members hope will help the organization find grants to replace city funding eliminated in the new budget.
Last-minute wording revisions sent an ordinance requiring council approval of line-item transfers of funds sent it back to committee for another review. But not before a confrontation over its subtle slap at Mayor Mark Funkhouser.
The main concern of the council was department heads that restored expenditures the council had stricken from their budgets. But Sponsor Ed Ford said another concern was $50,000 the mayor's office paid for a private attorney in a discrimination suit: "If the council recalls," Ford told his colleagues "we specifically voted down an effort to pay Mr. Wirken any more than the initial 25-thousand we approved."
Mayor Funkhouser protested the allegation that he had exceeded his powers. He said the city attorney advised him that the city was the responsible party for the debt, but the legal department had no funding for it in their budget.
The city attorney said when Funkhouser and the council disagreed over letting the suit go to trial his office could not represent two conflicting points of view.
The ordinance goes back to committee for a week so members can study last-minute wording changes.