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No doubt it began with the best of intentions. Obviously, the two see themselves as a great team. From what I’ve read, their marriage is a well-balanced duality: Neither is complete without the other, and they know it.
So after Funkhouser’s election as Kansas City mayor, it must have seemed natural to extend their kitchen-table dynamic to City Hall. Hey, why not? Gloria would work side-by-side with Mark. Together they would achieve his vision for Kansas City.
As Squitiro told The Star’s Hearne Christopher earlier this month, the two are so close, she isn’t sure where she begins and he ends.
“We’re the same,” she said.
Well, fine. But at this point, the rest of us are simply waiting. Surely, it’s only a matter of time. Eventually, Funkhouser will accept what has been obvious for months to almost everyone in the known universe: The daily presence of Squitiro in the mayor’s office, participating in decisions despite her lack of any formal title, has become a liability.
Squitiro has said that those who believe she has no business at City Hall are being sexist.
Sorry, but it isn’t that easy.
I’m not aware of any management theory that says a large organization functions better with an unpaid spouse — of either sex — freelancing in various decisions.
Most people are more comfortable when they know where their co-workers’ authority begins and ends, or even whether the person with whom they’re dealing is in fact a co-worker. Funkhouser says he was told by lawyers that because of anti-nepotism statutes, Squitiro could not have a title and could not be paid. That’s when he should have concluded that the idea of bringing her into City Hall wasn’t practical.
This isn’t about gender: Similar concerns are being raised about the role former President Bill Clinton might play if Hillary is elected next November. Sen. Clinton says Bill would be ambassador to the world, but what is that, exactly? The idea is fuzzy enough to make any potential nominee for secretary of state think twice about taking the job.
Like Kansas City, the feds have an anti-nepotism law. President Clinton can’t serve as a Cabinet secretary or hold any job over which his wife would have control.
His role, as Sally Bedell Smith wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal, would be “necessarily ambiguous,” and that would be a big problem.
“At a time when voters are crying out for more openness in government,” Bedell Smith wrote, “such an arrangement raises questions about transparency and accountability.”
Exactly. The uneasiness created by Gloria Squitiro’s daily presence in the mayor’s office isn’t about sexism — nor is it entirely personal.
Even if Funkhouser had married a cosmically flawless person and then installed her in his office as a volunteer, her presence would create problems.
Everyone in the office would wonder: Where does her authority begin and where does it end? Everyone would have to be extremely careful about handling concerns involving the mayor’s wife.
And since Squitiro, like the rest of us, isn’t cosmically perfect, the staff faces the problem of how to handle damage control when maladroit moves originate with the mayor’s wife.
It’s not known whether Squitiro’s fingerprints are on Funkhouser’s attempted firing of City Manager Wayne Cauthen, a move that led to Thursday’s extraordinary City Council revolt.
But it was her idea to appoint Frances Semler to the park board, a decision that needlessly alienated the Hispanic community, and it was Gloria who accepted a free Honda from a car dealer, a gift Funkhouser was later forced to decline, and it was Gloria who arranged police protection for Funkhouser for meetings in minority neighborhoods, but not for meetings in other parts of town.
In the latest flap, one of Funkhouser’s staff members, an African-American woman, has complained that Squitiro referred to her as “Mammy.”
I’m not saying Gloria is to blame for all the mayor’s woes, but I’d say his first step on the road to recovery would be to clarify her role. She could remain his most trusted adviser, but she should perform that function somewhere other than City Hall.
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