Did you vote this week trying to make sense of Election Day in Kansas City, Quintin Lucas wins big and an incumbent councilmember is ousted.

We look at what happened, why and what now.

Plus, if you thought the issue of statues was settled, think again.

Another push to remove Andrew Jackson from our streets.

And moving closer to giving Troost a new name.

Also this half hour, sticker shock at the mailbox.

And the royals confirm they're now down to two sites for their new ballpark.

So what are they waiting for?

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, R.S.

and Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlise Gourley.

The Courtney s Turner Charitable Trust, John Mize and Bank of America and a co trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haynes.

It seems like a long time since I sat at this desk, what with our membership drive and last week's Reparation special.

But great news.

Our reporters are finally back, thrilled to have Brian Ellison around the cozy confines of our weekend review table.

He covers politics for KC one News, former star reporter, columnist and opinion writer Dave Helling is back in the saddle.

Also with us from our old newsroom here at Kansas City, PBS Marie Sanchez and Eric Wesson.

From the next page, Casey.

Now, is that a mistake you made?

You've been at the Cole forever.

Now we have a brand new publication.

Yeah, well, tell me.

So there's still a Cole.

There's still a call, and I wish them well.

And that's my beginning of my legacy.

That's my endeavor.

What's going to be the difference?

The difference is the approach on how news is brought.

I have more columnists with this paper than I had at the call, and it's going to be more inclusive of the community, more outreach, more things that you've got to look forward to.

So buy one every week and you'll see.

All right.

And understandably, the election is the top story as it is for us.

You know, after 753 candidate forums, perhaps you had 1286 campaign postcards pushed through your mailbox, but you got to vote this week, going to the polls to decide whether Quinton Lucas deserves four more years on the job and the 12 faces that should join him at city hall.

81% of voters said yes to keeping Quinton Lucas as mayor.

That was no surprise.

So what was the biggest surprise on Election Day?

Bryan Allison.

I think we have to look at the strong showing by Casey.

Tenants power the the political arm of Casey tenants.

They did not manage to elect their second district all at large candidate named man Lee but they did win the sixth district race with Jonathan Duncan.

They had a very strong showing, especially south of the river.

What I think is significant about that, Nick, is not just the work of that one organization, but the fact that it is possible for new voices to have an impact on the Kansas City political stage.

Dave, what was the biggest surprise for you?

Well, for those of us, of a certain age in Kansas City, the loss of a Rizzo and a tar water in a local race is surprising as heck.

But there is a generational change coming to Kansas City politics.

It really is clear now that the people we knew in the nineties and the 2000s are giving away to younger in most cases, not all, but most more progressive candidates that we have a lot of new faces, seven new members of the council out of 13 that's that says something.

And for the first time in 30 years of Hispanic member in the in the council now with and Ray getting elected it is.

Huge for the community.

Why?

Because it's a face there.

It's someone that they know that they can go to and bring their voice to.

And frankly, even just him being in the room can have an impact.

He will be able to bring a perspective that has been not been at city hall and that's it's just massive.

Eric, what was the big surprise for you?

Because I saw no candidates and churches.

I attend a large predominantly black church and usually on the tour that they make, they come through there.

I don't remember seeing any and I'm at church every Sunday now, and I don't remember seeing any of the candidates come to the church.

So that day, this include the black church vote in their process, and maybe that's why some of them didn't get over the.

I can't believe that none of you mentioned the fact that 87% of the entire voters of Kansas City didn't even bother to go to the vote because they weren't concerned about it or they didn't feel it was going to make much of a difference.

The turnout was about 13% in Kansas City, even less than it was in the primary.

Even less than the primary.

But I think that shouldn't surprise us.

That is that's not just Kansas City that has that issue.

Local elections just don't attract the voters, even though, Nick, you could argue that those are the most important elections as far as things that actually affect people's lives.

But there was nobody at the top of the ticket to drive the voter turnout.

It wasn't really controversial in a lot of different ways.

It is getting people inspired and motivated to get out, to have their voice heard.

The man not wanting to go back on the idea of changing Election Day saying this is evidence of that Dave howling, which would be putting an election in the time we vote for those big office holders like governor or not, members of Congress doing it in an August for a primary, November general election, would that make a difference or would this just destroy the attention that we get on city council?

MAY But more turnout, obviously.

But whether it would lead to better representation or more attention being paid to those races is very problematic.

Again, I've said this several times, you have eight choices to make in Kansas City if you're going to the polls in the city.

Election six at large is the mayor and you're in district representative.

That's a very big ask for most voters who are not paying attention to city hall like others are.

To be honest, I'm actually struck by how little change I think there will be in the status quo on this council.

I think we're talking about not a lot of change in the policy directions, probably some changes in the tone of some conversations.

But in the end, I'm not sure votes shift over.

Just quickly, but it is younger, Keep in mind.

Yes.

Does Quinton Lucas have a much tougher job?

Now onto all of these new members coming into the council, going to fancy themselves as the next mayor of Kansas City.

He can't run again.

He is a lame duck.

And this is a fascinating dynamic And the most important thing to keep our eyes on, Nick, because the second term of C of mayors in Kansas City is a very interesting thing.

Some people are certainly concerned whether he will even finish his second term, whether he will move on to another position, perhaps with the Biden administration.

Perhaps Emanuel Cleaver will say, you know, he's getting close to 80, enough's enough.

And then Quinton Lucas could slip into that congressional seat.

And I had an interview with him yesterday.

It was it.

Was not going to look at Emanuel Cleaver.

And he brought up the fact that, you know, he plans on being where he's needed.

And one of the things that I found was he started a federal PAC.

So you don't just start one of those just to be starting one.

So.

Okay.

Let me ask you before we move on, who was the biggest who was the biggest winner and who was the biggest loser of this election?

The status quo.

To me, seems like the biggest winner as far as loser, I I'm sorry, but I have to say, Dan, tar water.

I think after 30 years of legislative experience to go down on an in district election for city council is a is not how he wanted to end his political career.

I would say Dan to our water too.

So why did he lose.

No ground game.

Okay.

And because the politics are different in the city government than they are county.

Big winner was Clinton Adams and all of those who worked on redistricting there several months before the election.

Nick, we talked about it on the show.

Bill It's boring.

As a matter of fact, splitting the Northland horizontally rather than vertically.

I think leads to a more moderate electorate up there in terms of who they are sending to the council.

And the sixth District has changed.

The sixth used to be the bottom stripe of Kansas City.

It now sneaks up into some of the wealthier, more liberal areas.

So the the the big winners are those who wanted to reconfigure the districts in Kansas City to get a more progressive city council, which I think happened.

Who was the biggest loser in.

The tar water?

Cantore water and Mary Rizzo.

Tar water but also Brandon Ellington, because those are two people who both, whether you agree with him like them or not, both had very strong identities as being politicians and being for their area and both are now out.

Now, we've been gone over the last several weeks with our June membership drive.

But if there is any issue I've heard more about from viewers, it's property appraisal notices.

This can't be right.

I can't imagine anyone paying 365,000 for this house.

In Jackson County.

Some homeowners are seeing 60 and 90% increases.

This 87 year old homeowner and military veteran seeing a 123% increase, which means his home valued at $100,000 during the last appraisal is now appraised at $223,000.

They had said.

This was a three bedroom.

Right.

The three bedroom, two bathroom, full finished basement.

It's a two bedroom and the basement is not finished.

That's why we tell them to come in.

It is possible that that we didn't have that correct.

Now, while homeowners across the Metro are seeing big increases in their property values, Jackson County officials say residents should expect much larger jumps as they assess property every two years versus Kansas counties who conduct valuations every year.

Now, why is, though, the public still not convinced, so is that more of an explanation than they only conduct valuations once every two years?

They just grab some of the air and put it on paper.

I mean, I think it's not a it's not a huge secret that property values are increasing across across Kansas City.

I mean, as long as we have a system that is based on property taxes, based on an accurate assessment of property values, people are going to have to pay more in taxes in certain places than others.

I, I think there is some legitimate concern over inaccurate assessments like the one of this 87 year old gentleman.

But as Gayle Jackson Beatty said in that the county assessor, they will correct those.

How is he?

How easy, though, is it to actually do that?

They always say, oh, yes, you can appeal, but do they make it incredibly difficult to do that?

It's not incredibly difficult.

There are some hoops you have to jump through, but people who do it generally are satisfied with that experience.

Not everyone.

But let's be real, Nick.

First of all, you're right.

Property values are going up.

That's just the reality of it.

Everyone's home is worth more than it used to be.

The problem, of course, is you don't realize that gain until you sell.

The second thing is property taxes will always make people mad because it's based on a guess.

You really don't know how much a home is worth until you put it on the market.

Imagine going into the supermarket and running your goods through the checkout counter and the and the person at the counter saying, Well, I'm going to guess that that's worth about $125 basket and that means your sales tax is X, Y, and Z.

You're going to say, wait a minute, you didn't.

And that's how we do it in property taxes.

It's based on an estimate, a guess, and it drives people crazy.

Any effort to change that at the state level?

Brian There there are occasionally noises from Republicans in Missouri about limiting increases in property tax, but at the same time, no plausible alternative to replace that income, particularly in local budgets, has ever been reached.

But there has to be a better fix for some of this.

I mean, I was that person in the neighborhood watching this poor person go around and do the calculation one day.

I watched him over a couple of days and it's a formula and they do it from the outside of the house because you don't you know, they can't have entry.

Remember, it can also go up when they if you invite them into your house and they see the new kitchen you put in, they might actually increase the tab.

We're eloquently talking about the problem, but we have no solution for it.

Well, there could be a solution in a so-called circuit breaker law in which your appraised value could not go up over a certain percent.

It'd be phased in more.

But let's not let elected officials off the hook in this, Nick, because the other part of the formula is taxes.

If you're appraisal goes up 10%, but the levy is rolled back 10%, then the net effect is zero.

So you can't just blame the higher appraisal.

You have to blame the city, the county, other jurisdictions who refuse to lower their mill levy rate in order to account for this higher valuation, or at least do it enough.

It's a very fraught system.

Always has been.

We were here two years ago talking about this know.

We've seem to have talked about this for the last 20.

Four.

And we still complain about it the same way.

You know, property appraisals aren't the only issue, angering many Jackson County residents this week.

So is a new push to tear down some of the county's most prominent statues.

A Jackson County legislator has introduced a resolution calling for the removal of Andrew Jackson statue outside the county courthouse building downtown and at its second courthouse facility in Independence.

Now, I thought voters had already settled this issue in 20 1020, when 59% of Jackson County residents say they were in favor of keeping them up.

What changed, Eric?

I have no idea.

Maybe they think that the times are different now.

So instead of 59%, maybe they can get 47% of the people to want to keep them.

And even since that vote, they put a plaque on those Andrew Jackson statues giving a description that he was a slave owner in his his role in the the trail of tears involving Native Americans.

That's not sufficient.

Well, I think the entire nation is really on a long quest to understand our history more.

And to me, that is what the value is.

Is that that is actually the government calling, making news, calling about the latest on the statue.

But it's history.

And I think, you know, this came through the legislature.

Emmanuel Barker put it out as something that, you know, to look at.

Again, I think it's a good thing to continue more broadly learning.

The county was actually named for him before he was president, before the Civil War, and it was because of his role in the American Revolution in turning the British aside in New Orleans.

You know, I think, Nick, politically speaking, the question that Jackson County legislators have to answer here is they have to come to one of two conclusions.

If they're going to take down the statues, they have to say voters got it wrong and our moral conscience is clearer than theirs were in the 2020 vote or something has changed since then.

Either of those things might be true, but it's I would say it's a courageous legislative move to actually make that decision at this point.

We'll see if that's where the where they believe the situation is.

But Jackson County isn't the only local government now revisiting its history.

The Kansas City Council has charged city manager Brian Platt with engaging the community on a name change for Troost Avenue, long considered a racial dividing line in Kansas City, Chris Goode, the owner of Ruby Gene's Juicery, has been pushing for the change for more than a year.

He wants to rename Troost Truth Avenue so that the more than ten mile long road no longer on is a slave owner.

Did the results of this latest council election make this change almost inevitable, or will voters have a chance to weigh in before any changes made?

Eric I think his position was to get it done before the council change because he had talked to all the council people that he needed to.

He had the votes to do it.

So I think one of the things that he's trying to do is just get it done.

In my last conversation with him.

So I don't know what the outcome will be, whether it have to go to a vote or whether the council will be able to.

But even if the council does it themselves, if you remember back in 2019, they wanted to change the Paseo into Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard.

Voters launched a petition drive and was turned down.

And then they they put back the same name.

And by the way, imagine the reaction on the Paseo.

And the residents there at the council had said, no, we're going to revisit this and rename it anyway.

Despite what the voters is.

Remember that because the turnout was so low in the council races, the threshold for petitions and initiatives at Kansas City is has dropped rather dramatically.

So if this goes through and people object and there's no reason to believe they will.

But just assuming that there are some people concern, Nick, the idea of a public vote is is seems more likely than that.

But that's a really good point.

Remember, Troost is the is the longest North-South uninterrupted street in Kansas City.

There are many, many individuals and businesses on that street.

It wouldn't as as Dave points out, it doesn't take that many of them raising an objection and getting some of their friends to sign a petition to to at least put it before voters.

Now, by the way, you can weigh in the city has launched a new landing page where it's seeking your opinion.

You can find the survey on the city's website, KCMO.

Dot gov.

Gov.

It's been nearly four months since Kansas City opened its new airport terminal.

Now the city is seeking bids for a new transit option to KC.

I met Quinton Lucas says the idea is now on a fast track.

Is the city considers how it will move around thousands of international visitors coming to town for the World Cup that's just three years away.

Is panic setting in?

I'm curious, isn't this a little late?

Why didn't the city build a light rail or other transit option when it was constructing the new terminal?

Bryan If only Clay Chastain had been elected.

That's true.

I'm sorry, but in fact, I think this is a great question.

But I do think that the transit conversation in Kansas City has, as always, been a difficult one, a complicated one.

KC Aita has its say about this.

The bus system is not exactly thriving in terms of user ship.

To talk about redirecting money or raising new money, we've had this conversation about high property taxes already.

It's very difficult to see how that conversation would have happened more than a few years ago, and I think it will face rocky road going forward.

There is concern that they will be raiding the bus funding to make this happen.

Do bus and cata leaders have a reason to be concerned?

Not right now.

I think once they start putting plans together, i think right now it's just talk and speculation.

Yeah, but gosh, Nick, the expense of building the light rail from the airport to downtown, let alone from downtown to out to the stadiums, is in the billions.

It's $1,000,000,000 or more.

Plus, you have to come across the river.

The timeframe doesn't make any sense at all.

It would.

It's going to take them two years to build light or a streetcar, let alone a light rail.

For 25 blocks.

For 25 blocks, let alone from 20 miles or whatever it is to the airport, whatever they.

And by the way, if you had $1,000,000,000, would you spend it on a light rail so you could make transportation easier for the World Cup, which lasts about two weeks?

You know, so so, you know, this seems to be more aimed at rapid bus transit or some other non fixed rail solution and not a light rail system.

The big federal dollars to build those sort of projects are have passed and we weren't in the position to ask for it at that time.

There are people who will tell you, speaking of Clay Chastain, that the 2006 vote to approve light rail, which was later rescinded by the council, was a mistake, that they should have gone ahead and proceeded at that point, tried to get federal money, that they were so mad at clay testing that they made a decision that probably wasn't in the city's best interest.

But we're in 2023.

Light Rail is a ten year project from the airport easily, and it would require significant federal money.

Exactly.

That's how we did the St Boston.

That's right.

The only way the streetcar happened was with this Herculean amount of fundraising from the state and the federal government and some private fundraising, and it's simply not going to happen any time soon.

And the World Cup is less than a thousand days away.

Now, how about a new transit option then, for the soon to be built downtown Bolton?

Wait, it may not be downtown.

It may not even be in Kansas City.

Royals owner John Sherman announcing that the franchise has now narrowed down its choice to just two sites, East Village, which is largely a vacant stretch of land just east of City Hall or North Kansas City.

Are the Royals genuinely considering both options or are they trying to pit other cities against each other so they can get the sweetest deal?

I think it goes to Kansas City.

Kansas City Royals, not the North, Kansas City Royals.

I think this is.

Why why why is.

John Sherman.

And the Royals leadership then continuing to play around like this.

Posturing?

That's just good politics.

Oh, who's going to give us the best deal?

And I think they're looking for the best deal to help assist with the project.

I would if I was them in that position, of course, my team would be winning a lot more and making it easier for me to do that.

That's actually, I think maybe one of the most important points right now is that this would all be a lot easier for the royals if they were putting in a quality product on the field.

And I, I know that this may seem like we're joking about this, but I actually think this is going to be a major factor in this conversation going forward.

If you had taken this vote in November of 2015 after they won the World Series, it would have passed in a slam dunk.

Yeah, but but in the years since, that hasn't been the product on the field.

You're going to have some percentage of people who oppose this no matter what.

You're going to have some percentage of people who support it no matter what.

But the vast middle is actually going to care about whether they're excited about baseball.

Okay.

But we started this program talking about the candidates getting elected to the city council saying people over profits.

How is John Sherman?

Now we're looking at this.

What's happening in Kansas City, A new council coming in and he's going to look at is going to want to squeeze even more concessions out of the royals.

You know, on hiring minority hiring, what happens with affordable housing?

Is it going to be far more difficult for him to be able to build the downtown?

Let's be clear first, Nick, the city has no official role in the stadium discussion as it now exists.

The lease is between the county and the royals.

Now, a couple of things to keep in mind.

The North Kansas City option involves the Merryman family, which was involved heavily in the no bid effort for Casey Ise.

They were going to issue the bonds, they were going to do the financing.

So keep your eye on that component of it.

You know, that they might be able to do a private placement of whatever borrowing needs to be done for a stadium north of the river.

But Clay County lacks the tax base of Jackson County.

The royals would lose revenue from Kansas City and Jackson County that's now spent on an annual basis for repairs at the stadium.

It seems much more fraught than people understand.

But they would gain more opportunities for tailgating and gain more opportunities for parking in Clay County in a north Kansas City site than they would in a downtown location.

Perhaps.

I mean, I think they will manage parking downtown if it happens downtown.

I believe that that is where it will end up being.

It would be a feather in Kansas City's transportation.

Right.

Another issue and another way to talk about building out more on that streetcar line.

Right.

Right.

But you would need an extension of the streetcar line or you need about a gazillion more streetcars for that to make any sense on it anyway.

It needs to go east.

Absolutely.

Kevin Collison, as pointed out before, we're we still haven't heard from the Chiefs.

And by the way, both teams have to stay have to stay at Truman until the end of the 2030 season for the Royals and into 2031 for the Chiefs.

Unless they break the lease and then they have to pay millions of dollars to the county.

So those pieces haven't been solved yet either.

There is a reason why it's so difficult to see any progress on this.

Which is why also Jon Sherman this week saying that there would not be a public vote this year at all now and the earliest would be April of next year.

Now, when you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed?

Everybody has to be concerned.

100 letters containing suspicious white powder sent to Kansas Republican leaders.

The KBI investigating.

It looks like Missourians will get to vote soon on abortion rights.

A missouri judge clearing the way this week for a proposed constitutional amendment.

Is Governor Parson going to pardon Eric Dvorkin here, the first Kansas City cop convicted of killing a black resident?

Community leaders are worried the move would destroy trust in the justice system and could lead to violent street protests.

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall making news as he seeks to ban pride flags from federal buildings that would include the White House.

You don't see scenes like this in Johnson County, but homeless.

A growing problem.

Now county leaders are considering building the county's first permanent homeless shelter.

Shake Shack on the plaza closing its dining room on weekend evening, saying their staff no longer feels safe.

According to the start, they blaming disruptive teens already.

Eric Wesson.

Did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

The possibility of a pardon of Eric Dvorkin there.

Which the governor says he has no intention of doing.

And this is just politics from people like Jean Peters Baker of the Jackson County prosecutor.

Well, he said that no application has been submitted in and talked to anyone.

What do you think would happen if if that did?

That pardon did occur.

Batten down the hatches.

Brian.

You touched on the abortion rights petition initiative.

The reason that court ruling had to be made is that Andrew Bailey refused to sign off on a fiscal note prepared by the state auditor.

You had an intra Republican dispute that had to be settled in court.

The attorney general lost.

I think there's a lot of questions to be raised about how far this appointed six months ago attorney general is going to test the boundaries of that role, even as he seeks election to that position next year.

And I think it's going to be a story we're watching in the months to come.

You know, it was Kansas where the entire nation was looking at what was going to happen with the vote on abortion and now will probably also have it perhaps in Missouri.

People are organizing.

First of all, congratulations to Eric for the new paper, the Moore Papers, the better in Kansas City.

The more voices, of course, are important.

And then finally, on June 9th, the Shawnee Mission West Class of 1973 held its 50 year high school reunion.

I was pleased to attend 50 years after graduation, and it was great to see everybody getting to be there.

And on that, we will say all week has been reviewed courtesy of Mary Sanchez from our Kansas City PBS Digital NEWSROOM, Flatland and KC was Brian Ellison from the new.

Next page Casey, Eric Wesson and news icon and former star reporter Dave Helling.

And I make Haines from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well.

Keep calm and carry on.