Kansas City Small Biz Disputes 'Culture Of Fear' From Mayor Q

A recent note our way offers and ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE on proposed resolution that the council finance committee will consider this week.

To wit . . .

SMALL BIZ FEARS MAYOR Q MIGHT LEVERAGE NEAR DICTATORIAL POWER AGAINST POLITICAL OPPONENTS!!!

Here's a sneak peak at an argument that's making its way to council . . . Check-it:   

"Please reconsider and vote NO on this dangerous ordinance that expands business closure tools. While code enforcement is important, bypassing established administrative hurdles eliminates the vital checks and balances that protect local citizens from government overreach. Removing these safeguards grants the Mayor’s administration unchecked, unilateral authority to shut down a business at a whim, creating a harmful consolidation of executive power that operates more like a dictatorship than a representative government.

"This measure directly destroys constitutional due process for Kansas City business owners. Bureaucratic procedures exist for a reason: it should be difficult for the government to take away a citizen's livelihood. By allowing the city to immediately declare an operation a "nuisance" and terminate its business activities without a prior hearing, you force owners to fight for their rights after they have already suffered irreversible financial and reputational ruin.

"Passing this regulation will create a legitimate climate of fear and economic instability across our city. Entrepreneurs and investors cannot operate successfully when their entire investments are vulnerable to sudden executive cancellation. We beg the Council to protect our local economy, preserve standard legal protections, and reject this extreme shift toward absolute executive power."

In fairness, here's the description of the 12th & Oak power move . . .  

A new measure would give the City of Kansas City broader tools to shut operations down of unlicensed and unpermitted businesses more quickly.

An ordinance would declare them a ‘nuisance’ too.

“In too many of those situations, we are hamstrung by bureaucratic hurdles. That’s the nature of things, as it should be. It should be hard to close down a business, in fairness, but we have rules set up for that,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Resolution #260557: Mayor Quinton Lucas Amending Chapter 48, Code of Ordinances, by enacting a new Section 48-52 for the purpose of declaring businesses operating without required licenses, permits, or other governmental approvals to constitute nuisances per se, thereby allowing for the abatement thereof to protect public health, safety, and welfare.

Developing . . .