End the free parking perk for a select few at KCI

Like all City Council members, Quinton Lucas has been issued a pass to park for free at Kansas City International Airport.

But on Friday, Lucas said he didn’t think the pass was “necessary to our legislative duties.” He added: “I’d be happy to give it up tomorrow.”

That’s the right attitude. In fact, city officials should pull the plug on a little-known perk that allows Lucas and 28 other people to park for free in the public garages at Terminals B and C. The passes are awarded by the Aviation Department’s parking division.

In the future, the politicians, city officials and a few others who currently benefit from this system can simply file expense reports to get reimbursed for parking fees.

This is a good time to change the policy. The City Council eventually must decide whether to ask voters to finance a costly new terminal at KCI. Many Kansas Citians already oppose that idea. The public should not be given any reason to think that KCI officials are trying to influence council members during this process. Getting rid of the free passes eliminates that issue.

The Star looked into this matter after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last week revealed that officials at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport had handed out about 150 free parking passes to a host of elected officials and lobbyists. The response was swift: The St. Louis airport director decided to end the freebies as of Sept. 30.

On Friday, Lambert spokesman Jeff Lea told The Star that officials plan to issue thereafter only about 16 or so passes to airport commissioners.

As Kansas City officials correctly point out, the KCI list is far shorter than Lambert’s. However, the Aviation Department does not have a written policy regarding the passes.

More bad news: The department “does not stipulate how the passes should be used (and) has no reasonable way to monitor whether the passes are ever used for parking during personal travel,” said a statement from Joe McBride, senior manager of marketing and communications. That’s a pretty big bug in the system.

The department gives the passes to the mayor, council members and city manager because they frequently travel on city business. Passes also are issued to persons who lead the city’s Convention and Entertainment Department, Visit KC and the local Federal Aviation Administration office.

Others on the list include a couple of Missouri congressional representatives — Vicky Hartzler and Sam Graves — though not Emanuel Cleaver.

Only a few local state legislators are on the list, including Ryan Silvey, Jason Holsman, Rob Schaaf and Ed Emery. But at least four out-state lawmakers have passes. The list also includes former legislator Noel Torpey, who in late 2014 became a lobbyist; McBride said it was likely that pass would be deactivated.

The mayor’s office gives direction to the Aviation Department on which legislators and congressional representatives should receive the parking perk.

On Friday, mayoral spokesman Michael Grimaldi released a statement saying KCI “quite often is the airport of choice for lawmakers traveling elsewhere in the country. When the need arises, they request the courtesy, and in the interest of intergovernmental relations, we ask the Aviation Department.”

Not everyone uses the passes. Mayor Sly James’ security detail “provides protection and ground transportation anytime he is in the city, including at KCI,” Grimaldi said. Council member Heather Hall said, “My husband drops me off” at KCI.

Others indicated they favored the current system. Council member Scott Wagner said that, without a pass, he would seek reimbursement for parking at the airport when it was a work-related expense. City Manager Troy Schulte said the pass “saves the city the time and expense of reimbursing me for parking related travel costs.”

McBride said that right now his department sees “no need to change the program.”

True, getting rid of the perk would create paperwork. But Kansas Citians live in a world where City Hall requires them to fill out all kinds of forms.

So it’s tempting to point out that approach probably sounds fair to the public, too, when it comes to parking at KCI.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 6:13 PM with the headline "End the free parking perk for a select few at KCI."