Kansas City's Funky Financial Mess

More on this later . . . But Mayor Funky has as much influence over Bond Rating companies as I have over hot strippers . . .

Here is the weekly pack of lies from his Co-Mayor wife:

Dear Folks,

This Week's City Business

The Mayor was in Chicago this past Tuesday and Wednesday to meet with the City's three bond rating agencies: Moody's, Fitch and Standard and Poor's. Troy Schulte, the new acting City Manager, and Randy Landes, the new Director of Finance, accompanied him. The trip was successful and the presentations went well.

Part of the reason for the trip was for the Mayor to introduce his new team to the bond rating agencies, but the primary focus was to seek bond ratings for the City's upcoming $35 million sale of general obligation bonds to provide funding for upgrades to the City's public safety radio system. When you sell municipal bonds, you can usually make do with just a conference call, but the Mayor wanted a face-to-face meeting to introduce his new team and provide assurance that they are fiscally conservative, responsible managers of the City's finances.

The agencies asked for additional information with respect to the City's financial situation, and the Director of Finance is pulling that information together. The Mayor believes the City has done its best to ensure the rating agencies will maintain the City's AA credit rating, which, in turn, ensures competitive interest rates for the City's bonds.

The Mayor's Schools First initiative is getting wonderful feedback, with the most often spoken sentiment being, "why has it taken so long to address our schools." Schools First is a new initiative created to help all schools in Kansas City - public, private and charter - by improving public safety and infrastructure around the schools. Schools First will:

Use a no tax increase bond to fix sidewalks, crosswalks and other city infrastructure around all schools

Use a portion of a renewed Public Safety sales tax to fund increased police presence around all schools

Focus Kansas City's basic service priorities on areas around all schools

Partner with all schools to apply for federal and private grants to improve neighborhoods and walk to school programs

Create a city based staff liaison to work with every school

To explain the program in more detail, the Mayor is holding a tele-town hall meeting, the details are as follows:

Tele-town Hall Meeting

For Kansas City parents, teachers and administrators

Tuesday, February 9

From 7 to 8 p.m.

After a brief overview of the program, Mayor Funkhouser will take questions from callers.

To participate in the Schools First Tele-Town Hall please call 1-888-886-6603 Ext. 13998#

For more information contact Mark Siettmann or schoolsfirst@kcmo.org or visit www.kcmo.org/schoolsfirst.

On a More Personal Note

We are finally going to our little cabin in the woods for a few days. Funk will be working on his budget message that is due on the 11th, and I will be catching up on correspondence. Last time we were scheduled to go, we had our amazing blizzard, and it looks like the sky is opening up again this time too. If it doesn't snow too much, we'll both have plenty of time to get our work done in peaceful, uninterrupted surroundings . . .