‘Only a beginning’: Mayor Quinton Lucas promises equity in first State of the City
A new airport terminal, streetcar and continued growth downtown won’t matter to large swaths of Kansas City if another 148 people are lost to homicide this year, Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday.
In his first State of the City address since assuming the mayor’s office in August, Lucas lamented the city’s sky-high violent crime rate and highlighted several pieces of legislation he championed to get firearms off the city’s streets. He paused for a moment to read the names of the 16 people lost to homicide so far this year.
Earl. Raphael. DeAndre. Treshaun. Georgia. Tina. Derrick. Bobby. Raeven. Chase. Andre. Phillis. Miguel. Lavance. Richard. Christopher.
“Each fatal victim, each living victim has a story, has a family and has an impact on our community,” Lucas said.
On reducing violent crime, Lucas said the city can “never give up.”
Lucas spent his first annual address celebrating the accomplishments his new administration has made thus far on gun policy, economic development and tenants rights and laying out his vision for this year’s city budget. He and interim City Manager Earnest Rouse will present their proposal to the City Council on Thursday. Council members will then get to work taking public input and tweaking the proposal before they adopt a budget in mid-March.
The proposal, Lucas said, includes positive changes on housing, basic services and violence prevention — all key campaign promises he made. He also announced the city is on track to launch fare-free bus service by this summer. He called the budget proposal “the most equitable one many of us likely have ever seen in this city.”
If there’s a key takeaway from his address, Lucas said, he hopes it is “that the city cares about regular folks.”
“I wish I had more sophisticated terms than that,” Lucas said in an interview after the speech. “But if you listen to what we said in the budget, we’re talking about paying employees. We’re talking about taking care of homeless folks, taking care of housing, zero-fare transit.”
Violence prevention and criminal justice
Lucas said that last year a woman told him not to talk about stopping violent crime because he couldn’t solve it. She encouraged him, he said, to work on something he can fix.
“And, you know, maybe she’s right,” Lucas said. “Maybe we’re all on a fools’ errand. And, Lord knows, in our battle with the streets, for decades it seems like the streets have been winning. But we can never give up. And maybe it’s personal for me . . . because with the exception of my time in law school, I’ve never lived in a neighborhood that’s gone a year without a homicide.”
To that end, Lucas said, the budget he proposes would include more police officers, social workers and probation officers.
“We owe it to the victims, to their families, to our own community, to the lives we may yet save,” Lucas said.
He also announced plans to work with Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, 3rd District, on her proposal to study violent crime and the possibility that Kansas City could control its own police department, though he has not typically regarded local control as a fix for the city’s homicide problem.
Since the 1930s, the city’s police department is governed by a board of commissioners appointed by the Missouri governor.
Lucas on Thursday announced that his office would begin next week the process of pardoning possibly thousands misdemeanor marijuana offenses, a promise he made on the campaign trail. He said he’d like to go even further and remove marijuana from the code of municipal ordinances altogether.
He said his office would post an application on its website for consideration.
“I want to make sure we’re empowering people to be able to find work, to be able to take care of their families, to be able to make a decent living,” Lucas said.
Transit and basic services
On the campaign trail, Lucas told voters he believes in providing basic services. His first budget as mayor, he said, does that.
“Part of building that equitable city includes ensuring that we have a city where our infrastructure doesn’t lead to blown-out car tires and damaged hubcaps or injuries to cyclists that may cost hundreds or thousands or cause injuries that may take someone off of work,” Lucas said.
He drew on a comment made frequently by Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, 4th District at-large, that potholes, which plague city streets every year, are “not an act of God.” He said they’re often poor planning. He lamented that the city’s finite resources aren’t necessarily used to preserve the infrastructure that already exists.
“Colleagues,” he said, “we can’t keep kicking (the can) down the potholed road,” Lucas said.
The budget proposal to be released Thursday, he said, spends $17 million on street preservation, which he noted was a 70% increase over two years ago.
That increase came in last year’s budget, the final one proposed during then-Mayor Sly James’ administration.
Lucas’ budget proposal, he said, includes nearly $5 million to make bus transportation in Kansas City fare-free. The program requires $8 million, officials have said.
The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, Lucas said Tuesday, would find part of the funds through internal cost savings.
Lucas also announced Blue Cross and Blue Shield was at the table as a possible sponsor, saying the private sector had “stepped up” to boost the program.
The mayor expects the program to launch by this summer.
In a statement, KCATA CEO Robbie Makinen said his organization was grateful for Lucas’ leadership on the issue and is optimistic the council will “honor their unanimous commitment to make transit zero-fare for the residents of Kansas City.
”What greater responsibility do we have to the residents of Kansas City than the ability to break down barriers, create social justice and equality, and contribute to the economic vitality of the city through a zero-fare public transit initiative?” Makinen said.
Greg Sweat, chief medical officer for the company, said in a statement the issue “is foundational to the health and well-being of our city.”
“Blue KC holds a position as a major player in our healthcare community and we have a responsibility to help provide affordable access to healthcare in the communities we serve — transportation creates access to healthcare, education, food and employment,” Sweat said.
Lucas said the budget would also include salary increases for city staffers providing services.
Housing and economic development
One of Lucas’ key proposals remains undone: creating and filling a trust fund for affordable housing.
He acknowledged that in his address and said he would not give up. But he said he was “steadfast” in his promise not to fund housing priorities through a tax increase.
“We can’t rob Peter to pay Paul,” Lucas said. “Asking our poorest citizens time and again to impose further regressive taxes on themselves just to help themselves to fund what government and private actors should already do is something that we shouldn’t look to any longer.
He said the budget does, however, spend more money on housing. The metropolitan area, he said, has received $13.9 million in federal funding for local homelessness and housing programs.
He said he had been “adamant” in his conversations with state officials that the low-income housing tax credit program be reinstated.
Lucas’ proposed budget also makes cuts to major economic development and tax incentive-granting agencies. Reforming the city’s practice of handing out general tax incentives has been a priority of Lucas’ since his term on the City Council.
He said in his address he would propose a $500,000 cut to the funds the city grants the the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, which oversees boards and commissions that make recommendations to the City Council on incentive packages.
He touted changes to those boards, including that he has appointed numerous public school officials, neighborhood leaders and women to those groups.
Lucas closed out the address by saying the budget proposal would show “everybody in this city that they matter, that their neighborhoods matter, that their issues matter — for our workers, that their pay matters,” Lucas said.
“And it’s only a beginning of the work that we have to do to build a Kansas City not just for some neighborhoods but for all of us.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 6:29 PM.
