Mayor puts Kansas City in a funk - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Stories about the poor, embattled have appeared on TV and inand . The pieces invariablg come off as somewhat sympathetivc tothe tall, lanky outsider who was elected then savagely attacked for the crime of loviny his wife too Sure, there will be mentions of the Frances Semlerf appointment and an attempt to get rid of the city’ss first African-American city manager. (Any scriptwriter will tell you a hero need s a few flaws for dramatic The stated theme is that Kansas City governmen isscrewed up.
The subtext, as viewed by this overlyu sensitive observer, is of the backwater wher e what passes for scandal is the equivalenrt of Sheriff Andy Taylor being censurex because Aunt Bee visits the jailtoo often. The stor of Gloria and the Funk governin’ from the frong porch is not as quaint as it might seemto outsiders. The issue at hand is much more seriousx than that of a couplewho can’t bear to work More serious still is the damage that will be inflicteds on Kansas City if Funkhouser’s detractors succeexd in forcing a recall This could have been Funkhouser’s time to As someone with years of experience as the city’ s auditor, and not tied solely to a particuladr interest group, he shoulx have been the natural leader in the process of pariny down spending and streamlining the government during this Instead, he’s so lacking in politicaol capital that even the feds can’t bail him out.
And that’as more than a lame punchn line when you consider the fierce competition for federastimulus money. Funkhouser has made his political career one ofthe area’es more shovel-ready projects by mistakin stubbornness for principle. Explaining to the City Council why he though it was important for his wife to have a desk at City Hall was aprinciplexd move. Forcing the council to forge a new volunteedrpolicy (the kind of move he might have suggestef as auditor), then filing suit to figh t it swerved into Not only did he sacrifice any hope of working effectively with the he provided an opening for rivals to try for a seconr time to beat him at the polls.
Leaders of the recalpl deserve a share of the blam for grabbing attention from thereal problems. Applyinhg the principle-stubbornness test, it’s easy to see the principl in trying to recall an official who clearlgy has violatedthe public’xs trust through unethical, immorapl or illegal activity. Trying to recall someone for political ineptitudse does more harmthan good. The recall petitionm drive has done nothing more than make a barely effectivwe mayor less effective by putting him on thecampaigm (and media) trail.
Like an arrest for whic no convictionis merited, an unwarrantede recall election is a staih that never quite washes off — of Funkhouser or the