Mark Funkhouser

Mark Funkhouser
Mayor of the City of Kansas City, Missouri
Incumbent
Assumed office May 1, 2007
Preceded by	Kay Barnes
Personal details
Born	October 4, 1949 Paden City, West Virginia
Political party	Democratic
Height	100
Spouse	Gloria Squitiro
Children	Andrew and Tara Squitiro
Residence(s)	Kansas City, Missouri
Website	http://www.kcmo.org/Mayor

Mark Funkhouser (born October 4, 1949) is the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. He took office on May 1, 2007. Prior to being elected mayor, Funkhouser served as the City Auditor of Kansas City. Funkhouser characterizes himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal.

Funkhouser decided to run for mayor in 2007 out of his belief that the city government was unfairly favoring downtown developers at the expense of neighborhoods. His campaign motto was, "A city that works for regular folks." He campaigned on a promised to pay more attention to neighborhoods and to stop pampering developers. During his mayoral campaign in 2007, he became known by the citizens of Kansas City as "The Funk," his nickname since childhood.

Background

Funkhouser grew up in Paden City, West Virginia and graduated from Paden City High School. He stands at 6-foot 8 inches tall. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Thiel College, his M.A. in Business Administration from Tennessee State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Funkhouser became the city auditor in 1988 and relinquished his post in 2006. He also contributes to Local Government Auditing Quarterly and has taught in a number of regional universities, including Park University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Kansas.

2007 mayoral race

Announcing his candidacy for mayor of Kansas City, Missouri in late 2006, Funkhouser was eventually endorsed by the Kansas City Star and emerged as one of two candidates following the February mayoral primary fielding 13 candidates.

Funkhouser won the mayoral election on March 27, 2007 narrowly defeating his opponent Alvin Brooks, the Mayor Pro Tem. Funkhouser won by a mere 50 votes, considerably less than initially reported margin of 1,010 votes after a ballot box was discovered to have been locked in a polling site overnight.

During the campaign Funkhouser, wore an orange tie as a reference to the Ukraine Orange Revolution and as a symbol for change. From his campaign website: "I've chosen orange as my official campaign color because it is fast becoming a symbol for change in politics – a shift away from back-room deal making and toward an open style of governance that respects and listens to citizens." He had been very critical of some of the massive spending on big projects during the Kay Barnes administration which has resulted in a surge of construction in Downtown Kansas City including the Sprint Center which still does not have a professional hockey or basketball team. One of his campaign advertisements depicted "Pigs at the trough." He was quoted on KCTV:

"We've been buying stuff," he said. "What we don't know is whether what we bought is what is worth what we paid for it."

Mayor's Initiatives

Mayor Mark Funkhouser decided early in his term that, in addition to day-to-day city issues, he wanted to focus on a few small areas. In his town hall speeches, the Mayor talks about the loss of residents from the urban core. Some of those residents leave Kansas City entirely. Even those who move to other areas of the city create higher service and infrastructure costs. Three main things drive these residents away: a lack of basic services, limited educational opportunities, and a dwindling perception of public safety.

Mayor Funkhouser learned early on that the best way to tackle a long term solution to this problem was to engage specific community leaders, specific council members and specific city staff and let them go!

Therefore, Mayor Funkhouser has implemented four initiatives that operate independently, but are complementary, and have a unified objective: To restore economic vitality by being smart with the money, promoting safe and livable neighborhoods, enhancing citizen engagement and citizen satisfaction, developing a world-class workforce, and ultimately, expanding the city’s tax base by increasing population density and individual income.

These initiatives are:

Schools First

Kansas City is unique. We have fourteen different school districts, dozens of charter schools, and even more faith-based schools. Each deserves a neighborhood that can help it thrive.

Schools First is a five step process to improve the area in about a fifty block area around each of Kansas City’s more than 230 schools.

· A $100 million no-tax increase bond initiative to target infrastructure improvements around schools.

· A dedicated portion, approximately $5 million, of a renewed Public Safety Sales Tax targeted at police, crossing guard and other safety programs around schools.

· A commitment from City Council and the City Manager to focus city services, including noise abatement, weed removal, dangerous building demolition and snow removal around schools.

· A focused effort to work with all area schools to partner and apply for available state, federal and private grant monies for “walk to school” type programs.

· A dedicated staff function inside city hall to act as a liaison to every school and school district that has a school building in Kansas City.

Mayor Funkhouser unveiled this exciting initiative at his “State of the City” speech at the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church on January 31, 2010.

New Tools For Economic Development

Why New Tools are Needed

Potential developers bring proposals to the City requesting assistance in the form of tax incentives when they believe the potential for return on their investment is present. Reacting to their requests, the City evaluates the proposals under the City’s Economic Development Plan to determine if granting tax incentives is in the best interest of the City.

Economic development does not occur in this manner in distressed areas of the City, however, because of the unique economic issues that exist in those areas. Seeing this, the Mayor concluded that “new tools” must be designed that will allow economic development to occur using the human and material assets already existing within the distressed communities, while creating new incentives and redesigning existing incentive programs to fit the reality of distressed areas.

New Tools Symposium

In May, 2008, Mayor Funkhouser convened a Symposium of thirty five community leaders and elected officials to discuss the feasibility of developing a set of “New Tools” for economic development in distressed areas of the City.

After a day of deliberation, the participants agreed that the economic development tools that have worked well in the downtown area – such as Tax Increment Financing, Chapter 100, and Chapter 353 – are not equally well suited for economically distressed areas of the city. Developers of big projects choose to avoid areas that are economically disadvantaged because of high risks, high costs and low investment returns associated with development in such areas.

The Symposium members decided that new tools are needed for economic development in distressed areas, and that a New Tools Plan should be developed that:

   * Sets priorities
   * Creates a bottoms-up structure.
   * Focuses on creating capital and wealth for communities and their residents.

Follow-up Symposium

On July 21, 2008, the Mayor convened a follow-up meeting to discuss detailed strategies and tools to be contained in the City’s New Tools Plan. Most of the participants in the first Symposium also attended this meeting, along with new representatives from the banking industry and community development.

Meeting participant reached a consensus that economic development in the City’s economically distressed areas must focus on developing individuals as well as businesses. They decided that the outcomes of a comprehensive bottom-up-plan for economic development in distressed areas should:

   * Increase individual economic opportunities, to include increasing individual income, employment, and number of quality jobs.
   * Increase business activities and business profits.

New Tools Legislation

On September 4, 2008, the Mayor moved the New Tools Plan forward by introducing legislation to establish an “Economically Distressed Areas Economic Development Task Force.” The legislation was adopted by the City Council. The purpose of the new Task Force was defined as follows: “To obtain the input of the stakeholders in economic development in the community and to develop a plan to encourage the economic development of economically distressed areas of the City, which should include…: Setting priorities … and establishing a bottom-up structure that focuses on individuals, families, and neighborhoods.”

In subsequent legislation, the Task Force was enlarged from 20 to 30 members and funding was allocated to support the work of the Task Force. The Task Force was fully appointed and began its work in November 2008, under the leadership of Ajamu Webster, Owner of Dubois Engineering Consultants, as Chair.

After funding was finalized in March 2009, the Task Force was able to hire Shockey Consulting Services, LLC, to assist it in conducting its meetings and maintaining a record of its proceedings. A number of community outreach personnel were also hired who were charged with the task of engaging residents in the defined areas and securing their input into the design of economic development strategies suitable to their area.

New Tools Task Force Report The New Tools Task Force is producing a final report of their findings. We will post it here in the next few weeks.

A City That Works

In February 2009, the Mayor launched “A City That Works,” an important initiative aimed at focusing the attention of city government leaders on areas identified by Kansas City residents as needing improvement. Each Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., the Mayor meets with the City Manager, a Department Head, and a member of the City Council to discuss these problem areas, and to identify projects where the investment of small amounts of funding is likely to produce large improvements in basic infrastructure and the delivery of services to City residents.

The Mayor’s plan for the City is to be smart with the money so that residents are more satisfied with city services causing more people to move into the city and fewer to move out. Being smart with the money includes how city government budgets and spends resident’s tax money.

The City That Works meetings are broadcast by Kansas City Channel 2, and can be viewed live, or at any time on Channel 2’s web page. Citizens are encouraged to view these meeting videos and provide feedback and ideas to the Mayor.

As part of the A City that Works initiative, citizen satisfaction surveys are conducted quarterly to evaluate progress. Prior to the initiative, surveys were conducted annually. Quarterly surveys allow city staff to know sooner if the changes they are making are having a direct impact on city services. You can find the most recent citizen satisfaction survey at the City Auditor's page.

Education Summit

Like many other cities, Kansas City needs a supportive and invested community of stakeholders to ensure that all young people are empowered to reach their potential. As a better educated region, the City will become more competitive in the global and national marketplace.

Kansas City is highly unusual in that it has fourteen school districts within the city limits. In addition, it has faith-based schools, charter schools, private schools and home-school families. These districts are urban, suburban and rural. While each faces unique challenges, they also face shared concerns. The one constant is that they all teach Kansas City’s children.

To achieve the political consensus necessary to build a supportive community around all our students, the Mayor is working to create a seminal gathering of a diverse group of residents, in the form of an Education Summit.

This Educational Summit will have hundreds of participants from all parts of the City and from all interest areas and occupations. It will spark a dialogue that will help to renew energy and creativity around the issue of education for all the City’s children.

On June 4, 2009, Mayor Funkhouser formally introduced City Councilmembers to the conceptual framework of the Education Summit. His purpose was not to ask the Council for funding, since the Summit will be privately funded, but to acknowledge their position as city leaders and encourage their participation.

The Mayor introduced the Council to two of the people who have taken up the mantel of leadership and are heading the project – Janice Ellis and Crosby Kemper. Both Ms. Ellis and Mr. Kemper are well known in Kansas City for their accomplishments in business and for their dedication to improving the quality of life for Kansas City residents.

Mayor Funkhouser continues to encounter organizations and individuals who are coming forward to offer support. The Mayor hopes that, over time, he will be able to amass adequate support to move forward with this important project.

Zone 2-7: Anchor of Hope

Mayor Funkhouser is determined to improve educational opportunities for children in Kansas City’s most economically distressed areas, where poverty has led to generations of students who are unable to perform at expected grade levels during their early school years, and who subsequently drop out of school at an alarming rate. Their lack of education often leads to fewer job opportunities and a life of unrealized potential.

The Mayor believes that the loss of such human potential presents an economic drain on the City, and causes the city to be less competitive in the global marketplace. The Mayor wants every child in Kansas City to be able to benefit fully from a quality education, to graduate from college and to become a fully contributing member of a world class workforce.

When Mayor Funkhouser learned of Geoffrey Canada and his Harlem Children’s Zone model for addressing educational problems associated with high poverty households, he felt he had discovered an approach that might work for Kansas City.

In February 2009, the Mayor led a delegation to Harlem in New York City that included Councilmember Melba Curls, Jim Caccamo of the Mid-America Regional Council, Tony Oppenheimer of The Private Bank, and Sister Berta Sailer of Operation Breakthrough. The delegation met with Geoffrey Canada, toured his facilities, met with staff, and generally learned as much as they could about his educational philosophy and operational approach. The Mayor and others came away from their meeting convinced that Kansas City should replicate a Harlem Children’s Zone program here.

The “Harlem Children’s Zone” Approach

Geoffrey Canada's nonprofit organization, The Harlem Children's Zone, is quickly becoming the model for cities around the country for addressing the education of children born into poverty. Canada’s approach, which evolved over many years, is described in a book written by New York Times Journalist, Paul Tough, entitled Whatever It Takes.” The book describes Canada’s struggles in the early stages of his work, and tracks the first three years of the HCZ Promise Academy charter schools.

Canada’s approach to early childhood education differs from most education programs in that he addresses the needs of children both inside and outside the classroom, from birth through college.

Multiple studies have shown that children from impoverished homes will have deficits in language skills that cannot be overcome if not addressed long before entry into kindergarten. To address this issue, Canada’s program recruits expectant parents into a series of programs called “baby college” where they are shown how to enrich their children’s language and educational experiences from birth forward.

Children are assisted and tracked through a variety of pre-school and kindergarten programs, and into progressively higher grades. The teacher to child ratio is usually one to four. Children receive support in housing, food and nutrition, clothing, health care, diabetes and obesity control, and other quality of life issues essential to learning. The program is designed to provide this level of support from birth through college.

The “Zone” is a 94 block area of Harlem, and only children from this zone are eligible to be among the pool from which students are selected by lottery. The reported annual cost is $5,000 per child.

According to the Washington Post, August 2, 2009, “Now the Obama administration seeks to replicate Canada's model in 20 cities in a program called Promise Neighborhoods and has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning. ...”

The Mayor is hopeful that Kansas City can develop its Children Zone proposal quickly and competently enough to be eligible for government funding. He would like to secure government funding for start-up costs, but is determined to help develop a Kansas City Children’s Zone (KCCZ) with private funding if necessary.

Sowing the Idea

On May 5, 2009, the Mayor held a Harlem Children’s Zone Kansas City Model Kick-Off Meeting, at the Kauffman Center. The meeting was attended by representatives of numerous educational and philanthropic organizations from across the City.

At the meeting, the Mayor expressed his desire to replicate a Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) model in Kansas City, and stated that he wants to build on existing services, identify gaps in existing services, and plan for measurable outcomes. Others in attendance expressed similar views

On May 15, 2009 the Mayor held a follow up meeting to further develop ideas and encourage organizational cohesion.

On July 10, 2009, the Mayor welcomed members of the Legislative Black Caucus Foundation who sponsored a symposium in Kansas City with Geoffrey Canada as the guest speaker. The Mayor spoke briefly of his desire to create a Kansas City Children's Zone based on the Canada model.

The Mayor discussed the Kansas City Children's Zone concept with officials in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington DC on August 21, and intends to continue working with administration officials in furtherance of the program. He has also conferred with Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, as well as other elected officials.

Beginning the Plan

Shortly after the Mayor’s meetings, several organizations stepped forward expressing their willingness to take a leadership role in developing a Kansas City Children’s Zone, and have initiated organizational efforts. To date, numerous meetings have been held, and plans are being developed.

Mayor Funkhouser expects to continue to play a key role, along with these organizations, in helping to develop the plan, now known as "Zone 2-7: Anchor of Hope". As events evolve and plans begin to solidify, they will be shared on this site.

University-Level Teaching

Mark Funkhouser has taught at the graduate and undergraduate university levels at several colleges and universities in the Kansas City Metro Area, including UMKC and KU.

Professional Speaking

In addition to his current and past roles as a public official and employee and as an academic, Mark Funkhouser has been a professional speaker for over thirty years.

Hobbies

Funkhouser, an avid chess player, celebrated his election night party at the Westport Flea Market, a neighborhood tavern where he regularly meets with the Westport Chess Club to play. He is also a devotee of Scrabble.

External links

• 2007 campaign website
• Mayoral office webpage at kcmo.org
• Mark Funkhouser's professional speaking Web page
• Funk's Front Porch (the Mayor's official Blog site