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Steve Penn: Cauthen is focused on the city, not his contract
While mindful that he’s in a sort of limbo, Kansas City’s city manager would rather talk about other things: such as the five businesses set to open in the Power & Light District in June; or restarting the city’s housing program; or his search for a consultant to help the city identify the best place to build a 1,000-room hotel.
Still, he’s mindful that there are unresolved issues over his contract.
Back in December, Kansas City Mayor Pro Tem Bill Skaggs filed a lawsuit seeking to void the City Council’s 9-4 vote to extend Cauthen’s contract. And while a Jackson County circuit judge ruled that the ordinance granting the new contract didn’t violate the city charter, an appeal wasn’t ruled out.
Despite not knowing what the opposition will do next, Cauthen made it clear he doesn’t lose sleep over it.
“I have no control over it,” Cauthen said last week from his office at City Hall. “Whatever it is, we’ll work something out and move forward. I’m into getting things completed and done. You should start things and complete them, then move on to the next issue.
“That’s one thing that’s interesting about managing a city like this. There is never a limit on what you have to deal with.”
One issue he has been dealing with is the opening of additional businesses in the Power & Light District next month. As Cauthen understands it, five new businesses will open there by June 15. And from his vantage point, there had better be more to come.
According to Cauthen, the city’s contract requires the Cordish Co. to have 325,000 square feet of space up and occupied by Jan. 20, 2009.
“They’re making progress,” Cauthen said. “But when you really look at it, their deadline is less than eight months from now. If they don’t meet it, there are some things we can do.”
That’s the Cauthen of today. Instead of having conversations about his situation, he’d much rather talk about holding Cordish to the terms of its contract.
Or he’ll discuss getting the city’s housing assets out of receivership.
It was four years ago that Cauthen dismantled the city’s housing department. Now he will meet soon with the receiver and the judge to determine whether the city has done enough to prove that it can manage its assets.
“We’ll be meeting with them to see how they’ve evaluated us as it relates to what we’ve done thus far,” Cauthen said. “It would seem to me that we’ve finished all our cases. So it’s time we started considering bringing it back to the city. The question is whether we get it all at one time or will we get it phased in? We didn’t set it up for the receiver to be here forever.”
Cauthen noted that it was the City Council that put the city’s housing program in receivership based on his recommendation.
“It wasn’t like HUD said, ‘You need to be in receivership,’ ” Cauthen said. “You can’t clean up neighborhoods unless you have it as part of your overall housing program. You can’t do neighborhoods without housing.”
The City Council’s 9-4 vote in favor of Cauthen’s contract represents a clear mandate. Instead of trying to undermine a clear majority, the powers that be against Cauthen should do the city a favor. They should come out soon publicly and state that they’re not pursuing further legal action.
Then they should all do as Cauthen is doing. Concentrate on the city’s business and just move on.