Funkhouser's stubborn endorsement of a vigilante/hate group member could cost Kansas City Millions!!!
A special thanks to a TKC Tipster who sent this item my way . . . Recently, an item on Prime Buzz clearly reveals the stupidity of Mayor Funkhouser refusing to accept Parks Board/Minuteman member Frances Semler's resignation and brings to light the fact that the controversy over her appointment is not quite finished.
The nation's largest Hispanic rights group is warning it may cancel its 2009 convention here because of a controversial Kansas City park board member.EVERYONE, the City Council and even his own staff told Funkhouser that being so stubborn on this issue was a mistake and now it seems as if the fact that he endorsed someone belonging to a vigilante group could dog him until it's time for re-election given that National Civil Rights groups have taken notice of this issue and reportedly plan to cut economic ties and embarrass Kansas City.
The head of the National Council of La Raza said Thursday that the organization is already looking at several other cities because of the appointment of Frances Semler.
Meanwhile, Kansas City officials have heard that the NAACP might be reconsidering its 2010 convention here, although no one on Thursday said they had heard directly from the national organization.
Losing the two national conventions would cost the local economy $15 million plus the incalculable hit the city's image would take, said officials, who added that they are working hard to prevent it.
I heard a bit of this talk about canceling the La Raza convention before but now it seems that a reaction to Funkhouser's dismissal of the Latino Community's concerns is gaining more momentum. Additionally, considering Funkhouser's "Black Part of town" ideology, his failed attempt to fire the highest ranking Black guy at City Hall and his overall inability to connect with the Eastside Leadership . . . Funkhouser just seems to be incapable of dealing with the diverse populace of KC Proper who who can't be sorted and written off like numbers on a balance sheet.
Furthermore, talk on this front has even more impact on the nature of political discourse in this City given that: In the early rounds of this debate Kansas City's suburban neighbors cried to the heavens about Semler's appointment and her controversial stance on immigration, yet these same people won't be around to pay the price of lost convention money or KC being portrayed as an intolerant town.
Put simply, the suburban pundits who spread their anti-Latino vitriol don't live here . . . They hide away in the "safe" suburbs and on talk radio radio stations based in JoCo and only show up to holler and scream their demands. If Funkhouser and his staff would have realized that KC politics doesn't work like a call-in talk show they might have handled this situation better.
The Prime Buzz article reports that other KC officals are scrambling to find some kind of compromise to the situation (City Manager Wayne Cauthen has already taken a meeting on the topic) but I suggest that only Funkhouser can remedy the situation that he created.
Furthermore, the damage doesn't stop there . . . Since Prime Buzz is reporting the talk from La Raza and other rumors I haven't heard from the NAACP up till this point . . . I might as well reveal that the same sentiments have been expressed (about skipping KC as a destination) from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Word around the campfire is that President & CEO - Michael Barrera doesn't want his membership of Latino business people spending their money in a town that is standing in the corner of nativists and Anti-Latino extremists. Undoubtedly, all of these groups flexing their economic muscle will take a toll but even worse the PR damage to Kansas City could be irreparable.
Yet I feel like I MUST reiterate that these extremist viewpoints of (some of) our suburban neighbors, who whole heartedly endorse the Minutemen and are decidedly hostile to any notions of diversity in Kansas City, don't really represent the true character of this town. In our golden era KC was a convention destination that greeted the world with open arms. Only earlier this summer this town was abuzz and rolling out the red carpet for a group of Japanese tourists. Therefore this backlash of against foreign people, languages and cultures isn't so much the product of KC's history but represents the inherent racism and intolerance of those lurking behind the dividing lines of the metro area and using their influence to prop up the same kind of intolerance which is largely responsible for the massive white flight to the suburbs in the first place. If you listened to talk radio during the controversy earlier this summer folks were constantly having to amend their viewpoints regarding the Semler debate, "I don't live in Kansas City, but . . ." Also, no matter where people in KC Proper stand on the topic of immigration it's safe to say that the large bloc of support Mayor Funkhouser received from liberal, progressive voters in Midtown has very little in common with the ultra-right wing agenda of the anti-immigration crowd. But I digress . . .
The point here is that "the Mayor having is way" is not a good enough reason for KC losing a hell of a lot of convention money and being labeled as an intolerant town. Furthermore, it makes no sense for Mayor Funky to continue being so stubborn when, in fact, he claims that he doesn't support Semler's viewpoints. During the first phase of this controversy Mayor Funkhouser simply ignored and wrote off the concerns of KC's Latino leadership when he wasn't trying to play "divide and conquer" at the behest of his naive and inexperienced (and now demoted) PR flack Joe Miller . . . Now that Kansas City's purse strings and image have come into play it's time for Mayor Funkhouser to stop pandering to to the carpetbaggers from the suburbs who don't have any stake in the future of KC Proper and he MUST realize that the interests (image and commerce) of Kansas City are more important than offering kickbacks to the people, like Frances Semler, who worked on his campaign.
posted by Tony Permalink
