Archive for the ‘Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions’ Category

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Something’s Fishy With the Recall Excuse

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

The Recall Group is claiming that the only reason it is not seeking a recall in court is because they don’t have $10,000 to bankroll a lawsuit. The Star does its best to bury the smelly corpse with the remarkably gullible claim that “In the end, the effort to recall Mayor Mark Funkhouser simply ran out of money.”

Folks, I don’t think they’re telling us the whole truth.

First off, there’s no way they couldn’t find $10,000 if they really thought they had a chance in court. Friends of other candidates would find a way to make it happen overnight. Barring that, they could have gone back to the streets and raised the money in a couple weekends. Not even counting the bogus signatures, that would be less than a dollar each. This thing has been headed up by a real estate lawyer and an experienced campaign professional – no way in hell are they giving up because they can’t raise $10,000.

Second, they had a lawyer right there. Harris Wilder, their long-winded spokesperson, is an attorney in good standing, fully capable of typing up a petition and filing it. Dividing the $10,000 by $200 per hour (a fairly low rate for experienced attorneys), they’re ballparking the thing at 50 hours of time – a long week of work, perhaps, but dwarfed by the hours other people put in on this whole misguided effort.

Third, there wasn’t a deadline here. If they thought they had a valid claim, they could spend the time they need to raise the funds for the suit. Why would they throw in the towel so quickly? Remember when, a few weeks ago, they made a big deal out of hiring an experienced Civil Rights lawyer to give them legal advice?

And that, friends, is the fly in the ointment.

They’ve received their legal advice, and they know it’s time to exit the stage. They failed to gather enough signatures, and no lawyer can change that fact. On top of that, I imagine those volunteers who submitted bogus signatures begged for this thing to go away as quickly as possible, in the hopes of avoiding criminal charges. When you ask someone for $10,000, they ask smart questions, and I imagine every donor lost interest the moment they saw the legal grounds proffered.

By pretending that their effort is shutting down because they could not raise $10,000, the Recall people are refusing one last time to admit the truth. They failed, plain and simple. $10,000 was not going to bring them any success, or they would have their $10,000, and plenty more where that came from. But they don’t have to admit that to themselves if they can point the finger at someone else for failing to rescue them from their own failure.

Posted in KC Star, Mayor Funkhouser, Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions | 27 Comments »

Recall Petitioners Came Up Short With Cheating??

Friday, June 12th, 2009

I was surprised to see how close the Recall petitioners came in their attempts to force a half-million dollar election on a city strapped for cash. While I had accurately predicted that the effort would fail, I had expected them to come up with fewer than they turned in. It turns out that they inflated their totals with bogus signatures.

How sad is that? What’s the point of cheating if you’re not even going to do enough of it to win? That’s kind of like hiding a deuce up your sleeve in a poker game, instead of an ace.

It’s also kind of disappointing that the recall organizers are changing their story now that violations of the law are coming to light. A few short weeks ago, they were crowing about how their percentage of valid signatures would be much higher in the second batch of signatures they turned in, because they had screened and checked them. Now that the excrement is headed toward the cooling unit, they are claiming they didn’t provide their volunteers any formal training on how not to cheat (why not?), and that they did not review all the petitions.

To be crystal clear, there’s no way, in my opinion, that any of the organizers of the recall movement actually condoned any cheating. Some of their followers drank too deeply of the anti-Funk kool-aid and went too far. Given their failure to train their volunteers and the fact that they turned in bogus petitions, I think it’s time, however, that they stop wasting everyone’s time and money.

If they file a lawsuit to force a recount of their bogus petitions, I hope that the judge is wise enough to insist that they, not the Kansas City taxpayers, be forced to pay the costs.

Posted in Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions | 19 Comments »

Shake Up at Pitch’s Fat City??

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Maybe I’m just a cynic, but my BS meter is on high alert. Last week, CJ Janovy posted an item on Fat City claiming to be looking to hire “another” Fat City blogger. Now, I think the world of CJ, but methinks she’s stretching the truth here. No way, in the newspaper business, in this economy, is the paid staff expanding at Fat City.

I think either Charles Ferruzza or Owen Morris is on the way out.

Owen Morris has brought us fresh stories about all kinds of topics from drinking blood to what it’s like to go through culinary classes, while Charles Ferruzza has fallen back on photographs of icons and reworded press releases. While Morris is out exploring the world of Christopher Elbow’s sweet-corn ice cream, Ferruzza is appearing with Walt Bodine and grumbling about how you just can’t find a good meat loaf sandwich these days.

Fat City just isn’t big enough for two such divergent voices.

So who’s going to win?

I’m putting my money on the old guy. Surely, hanging around with Walt Bodine has to give some insight on endurance.

Posted in Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions, blogging, food | 2 Comments »

Gone Mild Election Results – Day 81 of the Jackson County Ethics Blackout

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

I asked, and got 110 responses, to my completely nonscientific poll on which Jackson County legislator is least likely to be retained in 2010. Here are the results:

Henry Rizzo 27.3% 30

Scott Burnett 16.4% 18

James Tindall 15.5% 17

Dan Tarwater 14.5% 16

Theresa Garza Ruiz 11.8% 13

Dennis Waits 10.9% 12

Fred Arbanas 1.8% 2

Greg Grounds 0.9% 1

Bob Spence 0.9% 1

Interesting results, and not entirely what I expected. I should note that 12 of the 13 votes for Garza Ruiz came in during a 10 minute span – I suspect someone was stuffing the ballot box against her, but that was the only voting irregularity I noticed.

One of the flaws in my method was that it only called for a vote on who is most likely to not be retained. Henry Rizzo, with his aggressive stand against Ethical Home Rule and a district that includes the politically-active Ward Parkway corridor, was a fairly obvious choice, especially in the absence of a specific opponent.

I was a little surprised to see how high Scott Burnett ranked in the poll. As Chair of the Legislature, he will be in the hot seat if the voters do not see a return to Ethical Home Rule, so perhaps the readers have a good point. Personally, I think Mr. Burnett has done enough outreach and has enough donor friends to make him hard to beat, but time will tell how much this Ethics Blackout will damage his “good guy” image.

A low surprise was Fred Arbanas. Only two voters chose him as least likely to be retained, but I think there’s a decent shot that he will decide to step aside at the last minute and try to handpick a successor to a seat that he has held since the very first County Legislature met. That’s kind of like having James Madison still sitting in Congress today. Look for Mr. Arbanas to act as if he’s running until the day of filing, to discourage any competition, and then for him to walk in with a “team player” to take his place. I think Arbanas’ seat is one of the most likely to become a pro-ethics seat, but only if someone bright and aggressive takes on the seemingly daunting task of pushing a rock up the mountain of Fred Arbanas’ county-sponsored popularity. Trust me, that mountain may suddenly become a molehill when Fred Arbanas puts a backroom hack on the ballot in his place.

Perhaps future polls ought to ask how many of the County Legislators will not be returning, and we can also test different names against some of the more vulnerable legislators. It’s going to be an interesting year and a half for the Jackson County legislators – perhaps the last year and a half in public office for several of them.

Posted in 2010 Elections, Jackson County Ethics Blackout, Scott Burnett, Theresa Garza Ruiz, Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions, jackson county Ethics Crisis | No Comments »

COMBAT, Crime and Ethics – Day 61 of the Jackson County Ethics Blackout

Friday, February 6th, 2009

In 1989, the COMmunity Backed Anti-Drug Tax (COMBAT) was approved by Jackson County voters with a mission of “Making substance abuse history…“. 2 decades have passed, and literally hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been “made history”, but substance abuse appears undiminished as a problem in our community.

Who is in charge of this humongous pot of money that has failed utterly to accomplish its mission for two decades, and supports such lofty goals as paying a favored citizen a thousand dollar to put a sticker on his car (yes, I’m serious)? The Jackson County legislature, the same group of arrogant politicians who have passed an ethics code that can be enforced against everyone but themselves.

Does anyone else here think the spending of twenty million tax dollars without an ethics code is a good idea?

Oh, it gets worse. Much worse.

The COMBAT slush fund gets handled by a three person committee on the legislature. Guess who’s on it? Hint: the majority has a rap sheet.

Here is the composition of sterling characters spending twenty million of your tax dollars in 2009 while insisting they should not be held to the Jackson County Ethics Code. The Chair is Dan Tarwater. As far as I know, Dan Tarwater does not have a criminal record, unlike his two friends on the committee. But, as if to assure that he has “street cred” with his two criminal friends, Dan did manage to get into a fistfight with a fellow legislator over money. Unsavory, but unconvicted.

The other two people that the Jackson County legislature has put in charge of spending twenty million tax dollars are actually, literally criminals. James Tindall was convicted of income tax evasion, though he managed to get off on the bribery charges. Henry Rizzo had to go to the Supreme Court to even get on the ballot, because he had “pled guilty to a charge of providing a false statement to a financial institution in 1991″.

I think it’s great that Rizzo and Tindall have returned to public life and won the voters’ trust after breaking the law in matters involving the handling of money.

But does it make any sense at all to trust them to be the majority in a committee that controls twenty million tax dollars? Does it raise some concern in anyone’s mind that all three members of this committee voted in favor of exempting themselves from enforcement of the Jackson County Ethics Code?

Please take a moment today and drop an email to members of the Jackson County legislators and tell them that you think that anyone in charge of spending twenty million of your dollars ought to be subject to enforcement of an ethics code, especially if they have a rap sheet. Here are their email addresses:

Scott Burnett – sburnett@jacksongov.org
Theresa Garza Ruiz – tgarza@jacksongov.org
Henry Rizzo – hrizzo@jacksongov.org
Fred Arbanas – farbanas@jacksongov.org
James Tindall – jtindall@jacksongov.org
Dennis Waits – dwaits@jacksongov.org
Dan Tarwater – dtarwater@jacksongov.org
Greg Grounds – ggrounds@jacksongov.org
Bob Spence – bspence@jacksongov.org

Remember to be polite, but firm. All we want is for them to reverse their exemption from the Jackson County Ethics Commission.

Posted in Jackson County Ethics Blackout, Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions, jackson county Ethics Crisis | No Comments »

Will Jackson County Legislative Arrogance Kill COMBAT? – Day 57 of the Jackson County Ethics Crisis

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

One of the joys of being a Jackson County legislator is the thrill of dishing out buckets of pork through the COMBAT tax. About $21 million dollars gets doled out to support over 80 anti-drug programs, and every nickel of it goes through a legislature that refuses local ethical oversight.

Personally, I’m in favor of the COMBAT tax, despite its many flaws in implementation, but many taxpayers will not support its renewal if the Jackson County legislature refuses to answer to the Jackson County ethics code. Already, the Legislature has been caught funneling $1000 to an anti-crime activist to put a sticker on his car (no, really, I’m serious), so, in a down economy, who can blame people for opting out of a slush fund for unaccountable legislators?

Voters vote on COMBAT renewal in 2010. In 2003, the .25% COMBAT sales tax was renewed with a margin of 64-36% (not quite the “more than” 2:1 margin claimed on the COMBAT website, but what’s a little lie on a taxpayer funded website in a county governed by legislators with so little regard for ethics?), but times have changed, and, unless the legislators drop their sneaky exemption from local ethics oversight, they will bring the COMBAT tax down with them.

Jackson Countians have demonstrated that they will support a good tax if they believe it is well-administered. Unfortunately for those of us who support the good things accomplished by the COMBAT tax, the image of the Jackson County legislature will be horribly tarnished by that point. Last week, I spoke with a bright, well-connected, well-liked woman in Henry Rizzo’s at-large district and Dan Tarwater’s local district, and she is thinking of filing for office. If she goes after either one of them, she would make ethics the theme of her campaign. Who could blame her? It’s a natural.

If the Jackson County legislators really, truly believe that the COMBAT tax is a worthwhile endeavor, and accomplishes good things, then they owe it to their constituents to give it the best renewal chance possible. To do that, they must reverse their exemption from local enforcement of the Jackson County Ethics Code.

If they fail to do so, Jackson Countians will have every right to assume the worst possible reason that they want to spend $21 million without ethical oversight, and vote the tax down.

Posted in Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions, jackson county Ethics Crisis | No Comments »

Jackson County Ethics – Is Someone Drinking on the Job?

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Does someone on the Jackson County Legislature have a serious drinking problem?

One of the mysteries surrounding the Jackson County Legislature’s violation of the County Charter has been their motivation for making themselves “Untouchables” for the Jackson County Ethics Code. They claim that they are covered by the Missouri Ethics Commission, but informed citizens know that the MEC is strictly limited by law to “enforcement of conflict of interest and lobbying laws (RSMo 105.450-498) and campaign finance disclosure laws (RSMo 130).” The MEC does not and will not enforce the Jackson County Ethics Code, and anyone who says they will is either lying or misinformed. Even if the MEC wanted to, Missouri law does not give it that power.

Obviously, there are major differences between the Jackson County Ethics Code (here it is in pdf format) and the Missouri Statutes policed by the MEC, but yesterday evening a political insider asked me for specifics. Beyond the point that one is enforced locally and in public, while the other gets enforced behind closed Jefferson City doors, I pointed out that they differ in various specifics. I was unprepared to answer the question forcefully, though, so, when I got home, I started looking at some of the differences.

There are a bunch, of course, but the one that jumped off the pages last night was this one:

In addition to being a violation of other laws, it is also a violation of this chapter for any public servant to: . . . Be found guilty of violating the County’s policy prohibiting the possession or consumption by employees of alcohol or any controlled or illegal substance in any County facility, vehicle, or work site, including lunch periods and rest breaks; prohibiting public servants from driving or reporting to work, performing work, or visiting a work site while under the influence of alcohol or any controlled or illegal substance.

Setting aside the obvious fact that this provision completely demolishes Rizzo’s argument that the County Legislators dislike “double jeopardy”, this might be the key to understanding the whole thing.

The MEC will not investigate allegations of drinking on the job.

As a determined advocate for Jackson County ethics, I knew that it would help my cause to come up with a term that encapsulated the controversy in a phrase. A couple weeks ago, I tried out “Unethical Enablers“, because the legislators had made it much easier for future, less exemplary politicians to get away with unethical behavior. At the time, I had no idea that their behavior could also be explained in terms of enabling other problems, but, wow, there it is. The Jackson County legislature has exempted itself from an Ethics Code that encompasses drinking on the job, or showing up at a Legislative session drunk.

Why?

Now that the voters are paying attention, will they amend their ordinance so that they are governed by the Jackson County Ethics Code, and overseen by the Jackson County Ethics Commission?

(Note on comments – this is not the place to speculate about whether any specific elected official has an issue, and I will delete all such comments.)

Posted in Ethics, Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions, jackson county | No Comments »

Is It Time to Give Up on Jackson County Ethics Legislation?

Friday, January 16th, 2009

It’s been a little more than a month since the Jackson County Legislature violated the Jackson County Charter and passed ethics legislation that purports to exclude the Legislature from the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission. It’s been weeks since the Ethics Commission responded to that “untouchable” approach by resigning, and sometime soon a committee (not the Legislature) will appoint a new committee (if they can find people willing to play along with an illegal sham of an Ethics Commission). It’s a New Year. We have a new Chair of the Legislature. Is it time to let bygones be bygones, and move forward?

Not just no, hell no!

This is a battle that is going to drag on, even if the bodies won’t hit the floor until 2010. The traditional media have started to pay attention to it. Rumor has it that at least a couple legislators are feeling like they were lied to when they were assured that it was legal, and that the Missouri Ethics Commission had the authority to enforce it. They don’t want to take the risk of drawing a strong challenge in their next election, having already tainted themselves with a permissive attitude toward unethical behavior.

Here’s the end game on this flap. I intend to focus on the Jackson County Legislature, its ethical shortcomings, and how to challenge each of the “Untouchables” until they reverse themselves on violating the Charter. I’ve talked to a couple well-connected people who share my disgust for what the Legislature has done, and they have promised to make a few calls to people who might be interested in running for the Legislature on a pro-Ethics platform. The next round of elections for the Jackson County Legislature is promising to be a battle between the Pro-Ethics candidates and the Untouchable Incumbents.

I won’t predict that each and every incumbent will lose in the next race. Based on what I’ve seen and heard, though, I will issue my prediction today that, unless the Jackson County Legislature submits to local ethical oversight, at least 4 and perhaps 5 will, in fact, be driven from office. There are some bright people out there inspired to get involved in politics, and the Jackson County Legislature provides the next golden opportunity to run for office on an anti-incumbent, pro-ethics platform.

Some entrenched incumbents are going to lose their seats, and almost every one of them will face a serious and very expensive challenge, unless they reverse themselves on the Ethics Legislation, and do it soon.

Here are my predictions on this matter. The furor about this will not fade away. Scott Burnett’s term as Chair of the Jackson County Legislature will be dogged by questions raised by the refusal to submit to local oversight, and the violation of the Charter. Several new members of the Ethics Commission will resign after questions are raised about whether it is ethical to serve on an Ethics Commission that is being barred from following the Charter that creates it. Other blogs and other media will join in the fun. Sometime over the next few months, someone will file an ethics complaint against one of the legislators, and the Ethics Commission will refuse to hear it, and will forward it to the Missouri Ethics Commission, which will also refuse to hear it. Regardless of the merits of the complaint, citizens will be outraged by the Untouchable legislators. A few of the legislators will develop a conscience and file legislation that will reestablish the oversight called for in the Charter. Rizzo, Burnett, Tarwater and a couple other “old school” will persist in arguing that they are above local oversight, and new candidates will start making their plans known. It will be a bloodbath.

And we WILL get a Jackson County legislature that respects ethics.

Posted in Ethics, Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions, jackson county | No Comments »

Gone Mild Prescience

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

From April of 2007, “Has Kit Bond Lost his Mojo?“:

Bond may wind up not even trying. He’ll be 71, and he’s not going to be having much fun as a non-influential minority member of the Senate for the next 3 years. When the lobbyists dial down their level of attention, Kit Bond is likely to figure out that he can have more fun elsewhere, without the occasional scrutiny of the press. It might even be worth paying for his own Alaskan junkets.

Gonemild says that Kit Bond is finished in 2010.

In rereading the rest of the post, I was a heck of a lot funnier before I tried to stop being mean . . .

Posted in Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions | No Comments »

EXCLUSIVE – MCCAIN WILL PICK PALIN FOR VEEP!

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

I had this story all written up last week, but forgot to hit “Publish Post”. Sorry. I plumb forgot.

If you don’t believe me, you probably think Andi Udris is lying, too.

Posted in Uncanny Gone Mild Predictions | No Comments »

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