All-America City 2010 Coming to KC!

Councilwoman Circo will serve as the host committee chairperson for the All-America City event to be held in Kansas City June 16-19, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center. The committee met for the first time Monday.

All-America City is a prestigious award given by the National Civic League for which cities and communities have been competing since 1949. The award is given based on elements such as community achievements, diversity, creative use and leveraging of resources, and how achievements positively affect the children of the community. Cities and communities apply and put their best face forward to compete for the honor. They are narrowed down to 30 cities whose representatives will attend the event in June to showcase their accomplishments in person to a panel of judges. Councilwoman Circo was able to represent Kansas City at the 2009 All-America City Awards in Tampa, Florida where 10 American cities received the award.

Previously, the All-America City awards event has been held in a different city each year. The National Civic League is exploring the possibility of holding the event indefinitely in Kansas City. Councilwoman Circo and the committee, made up of community and civic leaders and city staff, look forward to welcoming representatives from all over the country to share the best of Kansas City.

Gina Boucher
Assistant to
Councilwoman Cindy Circo

Urban Rangers Rehab

On Friday, December 4, Councilwoman Circo participated in a ribbon cutting at a Kansas City home rehabilitated by the Urban Rangers, a non-profit group of inner city teens who are making huge differences in our neighborhoods. The home is located at 3309 E. 60th Street. Check out the story here.

Gina Boucher
Assistant to Councilwoman Cindy Circo
5th District at-Large

Steering Committee Narrows Hotel Site List

Councilwoman Circo continues to meet regularly with the Convention Hotel Steering Committee Task Force. Yesterday, the group met and voted to accept the recommendations of the Site Selection Sub-committee. This narrows down the choices for a possible site for the proposed hotel. Those remaining sites are:

Power & Light
(13th & 14th between Wyandotte & Baltimore)
Barney Allis Plaza
(12th & Central)
Hereford
(Truman to 16th between Wyandotte & Baltimore)
DST
(14th to Truman between Wyandotte & Baltimore)

The group also decided to look into doing a study about how such a convention hotel would impact the rest of Kansas City’s economy. The Financial Review Sub-committee will meet today and decide how this study can best be accomplished. Recommendations will then be made to the steering committee at the December 21 meeting.

To follow the Convention Hotel Steering Committee Task Force meetings and its five sub-committee meetings, check out the City Clerk’s webpage.

Gina Boucher
Assistant to Councilwoman Cindy Circo
5th District at-Large

International Green Build 2009

I had the incredible opportunity to speak at the International Green Build Conference in Phoenix, Arizona last week. Our group, consisting of myself and representatives of BNIM and Burns & MacDonnell, presented a segment entitled “Building a Sustainable Future While Embracing Water.” I was able to talk about Kansas City’s Overflow Control Plan and the Target Green pilot program in the 5th District.


While in Phoenix, I met with Mayor Phil Gordon. Phoenix has experienced some of the same decisions we are currently facing. They did embrace light rail and constructed a new convention center hotel. Their tax revenue actually expanded this year, even with the sluggish economy, and Mayor Gordon feels that it is a direct result of expanding the downtown area. I had the chance to see the integrated Phoenix Fire and Ambulance Services in action. Like Kansas City, Phoenix once relied on private ambulance services.

In the Kansas City Star yesterday, I was surprised to see the article about the ramp signals being installed on I-435. Ironically, Phoenix has installed the same system and it seems to work.

As Kansas City faces so many “new” decisions, I realize they are not so new after all. Some city, somewhere, has already done these things. Phoenix is definitely a model of a progressive city.

Until Next Time,

Cindy

A Few Things I Did Last Week . . .

The Convention Hotel Task Force had its second meeting of the full committee on Monday. I will write more when there is more to tell. For now, we are divided into sub-committees (Site Selection, RFP, Communications, Financial Review and Legislative) so that each issue will get its fair share of scrutiny. Everyone on the committee seems to be taking their charge very seriously. The need for a convention headquarters hotel that brings economic development and real jobs has been established. There are still many questions to be answered and the committee is exploring all scenarios to put the best possible package together for Council review. All of the meetings are posted on the City Clerk's web site, so if you want to keep track and hear the facts first-hand we welcome you.

I know there are citizens who are upset about the dog park issue. But I am proud that the 5th District has a few sites in mind and we have set aside funds for our dog park. I want to thank Dr. Wayne Steckelberg and Leslie McLendon who sat on the task force for the 5th District.

Thursday.....what a day! It began when I took a very muddy tour of the construction site and future home of Metro Police Station. What an awesome project! If you get a chance to drive by 76^th and Prospect, please do. This building will be a game changer for this area and I am so excited to see it completed.

Thursday night after the legislative session, I attended a neighborhood forum at the Blue Hills CAN Center on building community. "Trash" ended up being the number one topic. But I have to tell you, Bill Hills is fortunate to have three strong groups supporting the neighborhood. Mark Porter at the Can Center hosted the forum; John Tancredi, with the Blue Hills Neighborhood Association, worked tirelessly along with others to change the zoning for the betterment of the area; and Blue Hills Community Services, led by Joann Bussinger, has been proactive in bringing PIAC dollars to Blue Hills Park for improvements.

After the Blue Hills meeting, I sat on a panel at KCPT for live discussion about homelessness in Kansas City. It’s impossible to keep a dry eye when you hear the personal stories. Kansas City is fortunate to have a strong presence of safety net providers. We have a lot of work to do but we have the people and tools to do it. Nick Haines has done a fantastic job covering the whole economic downturn and the effects to Kansas City. Take a look at the series Weathering the Financial Storm. It will be worth your time.

These are just a few of the multiple issues I deal with each day. Variety seems to be the norm in the day of an elected official. I don’t usually have the luxury to focus on one issue at a time. I have to be ready and able to move on multiple issues that effect citizens every day. I don’t get to choose one topic over another. If Kansas City is going to continue to grow its tax base to fully fund the basics services . . .and if neighborhoods are going to have their voices heard . . . and if we are going to have meaningful conversation on human issues, I have to be ready. Fortunately for you and for me I have wonderful staff and a public service-minded family.

Enjoy your week!

Kansas City Housing - Again Before the Federal Judge

The City was back in front of the judge last week regarding housing. As no surprise to me, we will be returning January 29th 2010. All is not lost considering the complexity of the entire situation. While most of the media attention is spotlighted on the drama at City Hall, people are spending hours upon hours working on issues that matter, like housing.

Kudos to staff!

Galen Beaufort and the legal team have kept these negotiations on track even with everything else on their plates. Shirley Winn and the Housing staff have been creating a Housing and Community Development Department while they have been dealing with policies and procedures of the Asset Transfer Plan.

I have written in depth about the complexity if this issue before, so I won’t get that detailed again. Here are the highlights of last week's hearing....

• Galen presented very strong testimony for the City.
• HUD and the Receiver have signed off on the Transfer Plan, both with some reservations to certain issues.
• At the last hearing the judge stressed he wanted politics to remain out of the housing process. At this hearing the recurring theme was the training, auditing and compliance management of the CDC’s. Judged Fenner wanted specifics on how CDC’s will be handled differently from the past.
• Terry Porter, who was representing HUD, reiterated that the City was “under a high level of scrutiny.” She also sighte the plan was a work in progress and HUD would be vigilant in the oversight.

I do have to remind everyone that nowhere in the country is there an example or template to unwind thirty years of housing and development deals and the restructuring of a brand new process. The Receiver's hope is that with oversight and scrutiny as we process through the Transfer Plan, five years from now Kansas City will be a model city for housing.

I took Judge Fenner’s closing comments as encouragement. He said “I appreciate all the hard work all of you have put into this. I’m generally impressed with the effort the City has taken and they are on the right track. They are close to the point of resolving this.”

I personally don’t think many people understand the magnitude and complexity of the task that needed to be addressed. Again, thank you staff!

Until Next Time,

Cindy

Jim Lehrer Interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

I was invited to be part of an audience for The NewsHour for host Jim Lehrer's interview with Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke. This event was the first in history of the Federal Reserve where a sitting chairman took questions from the public. The logistics and production to pull this off was interesting to watch. It was filmed right here in Kansas City at the Federal Reserve Bank.

I appreciate the Chairman's humility in admitting past errors. He noted that the Feds "missed the boat" on the subprime loan issues. He reiterated his disdain for bailing out Lehman Brothers. A focal point of his conversation was laying out the tools needed to prevent any future chairs from having to say the words “too big to fail.”

It is evident that there are those who have issues with Chairman Bernanke. Protesters were lined up outside of the Federal Reserve Building and, prior to the taping, I received a few comments from constituents expressing disdain for the Reserve. With that said, you have to love the United States of America when there are protesters within ear shot of the Chairman, and local moms, homeowners and small business people having the opportunity to question him.

Great questions were presented and, for the most part, the Chairman gave clear and concise answers. I believe he presented a fair perspective of what has happened to our economy and why, and what tools are being put in place to recover. The one hour allowed for questions was obviously not enough. I felt that we just skimmed the surface. I am an optimistic person. I like to deal with reality and facts. I mention this so my next statement doesn’t sound like "dooms day." We are not out of the woods yet and we need to know what we are facing so we can deal with it.

The Federal Reserve is reporting that delinquency rates on commercial property loans grew in the first quarter. The Kansas City Business Journal is reporting Chapter 7 and 11 have jumped in the region for the first quarter. Is anyone tracking the emerging mortgage crisis involving multi-family housing portfolios? These, I believe, tell the continuing story of our economy and are questions I wanted addressed.

After the taping I did get a brief thirty second conversation with Chairman Bernanke. I told him that as an elected official I was concerned about the commercial loans. With the default of these types of loans, we not only lose property tax revenue but we also face sales tax reductions and job loss. He said, “We are tracking it.”

I pressed on with letting him know that Kansas City dealt with a 90 million budget shortfall. His response? “You're doing better then California.”

I wasn’t satisfied with either answer, but enjoyed my experience and if you did not check out the show on KCPT this week, I encourage you to watch online.


Until next time,

Cindy