Welcome back to “This Week at City Hall” where we give you weekly updates on what decisions are being made in City Hall that may potentially affect your community or neighborhood ! Everyday, various committees are making huge decisions that in turn affect our communities. If you have a tip about an upcoming agenda item – please email neighborhoods@umkc.edu with “This Week at City Hall” in the subject.

Kansas City News:

The Election

The Kansas City Council 2023 election results are in, and they have significant implications for the future of the city. On April 5th, 2023, Kansas City residents headed to the polls to elect members to their city council. The election was hotly contested, with numerous candidates vying for a chance to represent their respective districts.  The top two candidates in each race will now advance to the June 20 general municipal election.

Here are the April 2023 City council results! :

Mayor: Quinton Lucas and Clay Chastain

Kansas City Councilmember 1st District: Chris Gahagan and Nathan Willett

Kansas City Councilmember 2nd District: Wes Rogers

Kansas City Councilmember 3rd District: Melissa Robinson and Sherri Hall

Kansas City Councilmember 4th District: Eric Bunch and Henry Rizzo

Kansas City Councilmember 5th District: Ryana Parks-Shaw

Kansas City Councilmember 6th District: Jonathan Duncan and Dan Tarwater

Kansas City Councilmember At-Large 1st District: Kevin O’Neill and Rhonda Smith

Kansas City Councilmember At-Large 2nd District: Lindsay French and Jenay Manley

Kansas City Councilmember At-Large 3rd District: Brandon Ellington and Melissa Patterson Hazley

Kansas City Councilmember At-Large 4th District: Crispin Rea and Justin Short

Kansas City Councilmember At-Large 5th District: Darrell Curls and Michael Kelly

Kansas City Councilmember At-Large 6th District: Andrea Bough and Jill Sasse

Incentivized project construction timelines:

Mayor Quinton Lucas’s decision to enact a new Code of Ordinances Section 74-12, “Incentivized Project Construction Timelines,” is a significant step towards promoting timely completion of construction projects in Kansas City. This new ordinance establishes a framework in which contractors and construction companies can be incentivized to complete their projects within a specific timeline, through the offer of rewards or penalties.

The ordinance also requires the City Manager to seek Council approval before granting certain extensions of time and to negotiate parallel requirements with other incentive agencies. This ensures that the incentives provided to contractors are reasonable and aligned with the city’s goals and interests.

Councilmember Melissa Robinson RESOLUTION:

Directing the City Manager to implement actions to improve issues regarding equal employment opportunity in all City departments.

Have a regular and systematic annual dissemination of the City’s policies prohibiting discrimination, harassment and retaliation. All City employees should receive copies of these policies annually and be required to acknowledge receipt of and knowledge of the contents of the policies

Amend the City policies prohibiting discrimination, harassment and retaliation to be directive as opposed to suggestive regarding reporting observed or experienced discrimination, harassment or retaliation

Now let’s take a closer look at what’s happening this week in City Hall….

4/11/2023:

Charter review commission:

Tuesday @5:00pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83012213040

The charter is essentially a city or country’s constitution, outlining the organization, powers, and functions of the local government. They will be meeting this week to discuss possible changes in Kansas City’s constitution. Be sure to attend if possible!

Cohort graduates Linda Brown (5th District/Blue Hills) and Karen Slaughter (3rd District /Key Coalition) are serving on the Commission. Wilson Vance of the KC Tenants also serves on the Commission.

Central City Economic Development Sales Tax Board

Tuesday @12:15pm

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82061902806

Meeting ID: 820 6190 2806

The Economic Development Sales Tax Board will be meeting this week to discuss the following agendas:

• Treasurer’s Report
• Consultant’s Report, Round V Projects Recommendations
• Project Report o Rounds I, II, III, and IV
• Other Business
• Additional Business There may be general discussion of matters related to the Central City Economic Development Sales Tax Board

Board of Zoning Adjustment:

Tuesday @9:00am

Zoom ID: 873 9910 6530

The BZA of Kansas City is responsible for hearing and deciding on requests related to land use, zoning, and building codes. This includes requests for variances, special exceptions, and conditional use permits. They will be meeting this week to discuss some of the following agendas

• CD-BZA-2022-00204 – 421 Prospect Blvd – A request to approve a variance to the setback requirements of zoning district R-6 plus any other necessary variances on about

0.86 acres of land generally located at 421 Prospect Boulevard

• CD-BZA-2023-00023 – 2020 Brighton Ave – A request to approve a variance to the setback requirements of zoning district R-2.5, plus any other necessary variances on about 0.14 acres of land generally located at 2020 Brighton Avenue.
• CD-BZA-2023-00016 – 14324 E 96th Ter – A request to appeal zoning violations related to a swimming pool on about .3 acres generally located at 14324 E 96th Ter.

4/12/2023

Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee

Wednesday @1:30pm https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84530222968#success

The neighborhood planning and development committee are planning on meeting again this week to discuss upcoming developments as well as new jurisdictions. Here are some highlights on what they will be discussing this week.

230287: Estimating revenues and appropriating funds in the amount of $101,461.27 to the Community Dev. Block Grant Fund (CDBG) to provide funding for projects that meet the CDBG minor home repair requirements; and recognizing this ordinance as having an accelerated effective date

230293: Sponsor: Director of the Municipal Court Authorizing the acceptance of a $92,020.00 grant from the Jackson County COMBAT program to fund the Kansas City Municipal Court Truancy Court Program; estimating and appropriating $92,020.00 for the Jackson County COMBAT grant in the General Grants Fund to fund the Kansas City Municipal Court Truancy Court Program; designating requisitioning authority; and recognizing an accelerated effective date

230296: Sponsor: Director of the Health Department Accepting and approving a one-year

$135,072.00 grant from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services that provides funding for a comprehensive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) surveillance program in the Kansas City, Missouri area.

Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee

Wednesday @10:30am

During this week’s meeting with the FGPS committee,they will be going over several personal injury claims of incidents that occurred during a workplace, and they will also be following up on the acceptance of grant proposals. Some of which we covered last week.

• Funds allocated by the National League of Cities for its City Inclusive Entrepreneurship Grant, in the amount of $15,000.00, to support the implementation of Hispanic/Latinx Business Owners’ Commitment;
• Funds allocated by the United States Conference of Mayors for the Dollar Wise Innovation Grant, in the amount of $10,000.00, to support data collection and reporting of access to capital program participants

Tenants Right to Counsel

Wednesday @2:00pm

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89935310441?pwd=VFFOaEZYMzJKNXFPOE9xUmdFbG45Zz9

Meeting ID: 899 3531 0441 Passcode: 944578

Kansas City’s first ever “Right to Counsel” program to prevent evictions and provide free legal assistance and support to individuals and families officially started on June 1. 2022. During this meeting the Counsel will be going over statistics and contracts that are in relevance to their clientele. I think that this program is a very good resource for communities all around Kansa. If you have any questions in regards to eligibility for this program, please call the number (816) 474-5112 or fill out an online form at its eviction defense website.

That concludes my report on City Hall’s new agendas for this week. I’m enthusiastic about the potential of the new grants and funds to positively impact our communities. The Mayor is also giving up more transparency about the construction timeline, which I think is a step in the right direction. We talked about the general confusion of “never ending road work in KC” on the blog last week so I’m glad that it is now being addressed in city hall.

Stay tuned for next week’s updates !

Public meetings can be observed online on channel 2: https://www.youtube.com/live/5Uo–MM5TtA?feature=share

Additional details on city agendas can be found at the City Clerk’s website: https://clerk.kcmo.gov/Calendar.aspx

About the Writer:

Hello everyone ! My name is Maryam Oyebamiji and I am a student intern for The Center for Neighborhoods. I am currently in my 3rd year at UMKC studying Urban Planning and Design with an English minor. I have deep passion and interest for urban policy and housing authority. That’s why being able to write “This week at City Hall” is extremely important to me. I believe that everyone should have access and be informed on what is going on in City Hall because the decisions they make ultimately affects all of us.