Missouri Ethics Commission dismisses Kansas City streetcar complaint

The Missouri Ethics Commission has determined there was no merit to a complaint alleging that public outreach for streetcar expansion planning was actually electioneering.

A complaint filed this summer argued that the city’s plan to spend money for door-to-door outreach to residents as part of an engineering study was a thinly disguised campaign in advance of an Aug. 5 election on streetcar expansion.

The political group Citizens for Responsible Government filed the complaint.

The Missouri Ethics Commission considered it at an Oct. 2 meeting but found “no reasonable grounds” to support a violation of state law, and it dismissed the complaint.

“Outreach was consistent with guidelines” by the Federal Transit Administration, the commission said in its letter this week to Mayor Sly James.

City spokesman Chris Hernandez said the commission’s finding supported the city’s view that community outreach was a proper part of streetcar planning.

“In fact, the street corner surveys completed during that outreach have provided valuable input on the transit needs of city residents,” Hernandez said.

Dan Coffey, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsible Government, said he had not yet seen the ethics commission letter but wasn’t surprised.

“It’s politics,” he said.

But Coffey said the group felt it was important to shed light on what was going on and to hold public officials accountable. He said his group ultimately prevailed, as voters rejected the streetcar expansion plan on Aug. 5. The city has halted all streetcar expansion planning contracts and is spending no more money on community outreach on that topic at this time.

This story was originally published October 9, 2014 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Missouri Ethics Commission dismisses Kansas City streetcar complaint."