http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-874128.mp3
Kansas City, MO –
A 33 million contract with Motorola for new emergency responder radios sailed through the city council Thursday without a dissenting vote. The council also decided unanimously to take one more week to work out the details of a monitoring commission for the Power and Light District dress code... then turned its attention to getting some major bricks and mortar. KCUR's Steve Bell reports.
The council endorsed a location for a proposed new $175 million dollar building for the GSA - on the edge of downtown in the East Village area.
The decision was on the advice of Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, Senator Kit Bond and the city's chief Washington lobbyist, Anita Estelle, who said time is running out to get the building in the president's budget.
"The "heaviest lifting in the world" is "after budget," said the lobbyist, "so if you get a helping hand and a shot in the arm by being in the president's budget, that's a wonderful thing, particularly for a building that's going to cost as much as the GSA."
The new GSA building was proposed in 2006, and would house 1200 employees, most of them now at the aging Federal Complex on Bannister Road.
Cleaver and Bond said two weeks ago they have the right combination of persuasion and leverage to get it in this year's budget if city leaders would come up with a good location.