Thanks to another BRILLIANT idea from the Mayor we get to find out which members of the Finance and Audit Committee lean Republican. Mayor Kay was smacked back when she tried to privatize the Water Dept. Mayor Funky's piece by piece Water Dept. scheme is less ambitious but still offers a foothold for massive privatization that would basically mean City Employees laid off wholesale.
"Mayor Mark Funkhouser has introduced a resolution calling for Kansas City to explore private management of its wastewater treatment plants.
The Finance and Audit Committee is to discuss the proposal Wednesday."
Not a bad idea you say?
Fine.
Then why wasn't the same kind of idea used in the MAST hostile takeover mess?
Make no mistake . . .
THIS EFFORT AT PRIVATIZING THE WATER DEPARTMENT PIECE BY PIECE IS AIMED DIRECTLY AT TAKING OUT MORE CITY EMPLOYEES!!!
Again, I understand and even partially agree with the economics of it. However, it's HIGHLY hypocritical to tout prioritization in one context and not another (that would have avoided the current MAST mess) and only when a quick political victory can be gained. This kind of water sport (eww) speaks to the kind of twisted situational ethics that has defined The Funkhouser Administration.
Photobabe: Larissa Riquelme
When a Mayor and City Manager suddenly want to dump a few hundred city employees by privatizing it is a clear admission they are giving up on trying to fix a badly broken Water Department. 3 Directors in 4 years! They let a real professional go, Mr. Garcia, because he was "too rough" while attempting to shake things up in a Department that has thumbed its nose at every City Manager for decades. So Schulte cannot get control so he instead wants to pitch the entire thing, good employees and bad, to divert attention from the failures. Too bad because a lot of folks think he is doing a good job considering he is working for an idiot as Mayor.
ReplyDeleteActually, the proposed privitization of the Water Department is an admission, as though there needed to be one, that KCMO is incapable of running it. And with the department's aging and undermaintained system, who in the world would want to buy it?
ReplyDeleteAnd if this happened, you'd have yet another city "service" that the council had no understanding or oversight of, just like the KCPD is now.
On the bright side (for them), this would free up the elected officials to spend even more time playing developer and landlord, which they seem to feel is exciting and fun, and even less time bothering with those boring basic services we hear so much and see so little about.
This seems like the 4th of July fireworks finale of bad ideas from the Funkhouser administration.
This would give city hall more time to manage that 1,000 room hotel they want to build.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we just cut to the chase and sell the whole KCMO operation to Disney? It would be much less expensive and many of the characters are already in place!
ReplyDeletePrivatization of some city services has slowly happened. We hire outside janitorial services, private contractors mow city parks and boulevards, contracts for snow removal are a constant issue when we slip and slide our way to work. But privatizing parts of our municipal water service? That is a big step.
ReplyDeletePut the city worker issue aside for a moment... waste treatment facilities dump the treated waste water into the Missouri River. This is also our potable water supply. Most people want to have their water supply from local government. We are unwilling to let a private enterprise take over our drinking water because we want some say over how our water is sanitized and delivered to our taps.
Black and Veatch should have sat on their hands a while longer. Their hope of getting this contract is just about as solvent as our mayor's chances of getting re-elected. They should have listened when the council members they originally approached said "NO".
This will blow up in funkhouser's face.
Can we get the fluoride out of the water, please?
ReplyDeleteAlso, the city is not in charge of KCPD, the state is.
Do not worry. this plan will not make it out of committee. Look at the sponsor- funk'd.
ReplyDeleteLet's see: Schools First, New Tools, A City that Works, Smart With the Money, Nepotism is a Good Thing, Let's Bring Back Ed Wolfe, Gone With the Wind as retold by squit, First Lady, First Family status, Barefoot Bizarro Earth Mother, Quarterly Citizen Satisfaction Surveys, Blow Up MAST, KC Harlem Renaissance AKA Project 27, Frances Semler (Do not think of running John Fierro! You let Latinos down), Mammygate, Town hall bitch sessions, Sprint Center Town hall waste of money, hiring Jeff Roe employee for 6 months a year ago and still politically tone deaf. Using City Hall resources for private endeavor (Thanks Red Flag Auditor... for nothing).
and the list goes on...
No, Black and Veatch screwed up on this one.
how about the freebies he tried to get? Cars, used his position when trying to buy recreational real estate,
ReplyDeleteor the attorney fees we paid to Wirken? Putting all of that kitchen stuff into the 29th floor so she can get fatter? Or the car spots 2 of them. Or going to Rev. Miles church when they needed to have friends on the "black side of town"?
don't forget the raging at SECURITY AT THE AIRPORT! Homeland Security should have put her ass in fed jail.
ReplyDeleteThe Diane Sawyer interview
ReplyDeleteI WANT MY SMUDGE STICK! and it's almost time for my Xmas letter!!!
ReplyDeleteFunk. Please stop running for Mayor. You promised.
ReplyDeleteDo you want water that tastes so bad that you have to buy bottled? Do you want a for profit utility setting rates and standards? The water dept. had a leader with Garcia but when he challenged his upper management to perform, he was thrown under the bus. Mr. Schulte needs to hire a water professional to run this dept. and let him or her hire the staff to run it.
ReplyDeleteGarcia was an idiot and a sexist. Glad he's gone. Correct, the Water Department needs new leadership as many other departments as well.
ReplyDeleteLet's set the record straight. Bernardo Garcia was a patsy for Wayne Cauthen. If he was so good and hard charging why did he let so many top leadership positions in Water sit vacant. 10 yrs ago Kay and her clowncil should have heeded the EPA and put money into infrastructure and sewer fixtures, but no instead build an arnea. Water was always run in the black under Gunther and then Frank Pogge. Once Pogge retired Cauthen stuck his fingers into the Water $$$ and put it in the red for $110 million- such a damn good City Manager and then he brings in the idiot Bernadro Garcia who had not a clue as to water issues for Missouri. He said the effluent eventually goes back to the Ocean...hmmm maybe it does at some point. So if the past mayor and managers had actually alotted funds for Water sewer overhaul and not sat on their asses using the money for the enterprise fund for pet projects, then maybe Water would not be such a mess.
ReplyDelete