Facing calls to resign, Frank White digs in his heels and vetoes his own recall
As Jackson County leaders look toward a likely delay for a public election to recall County Executive Frank White Jr. and others are calling for his resignation, the former Royals Hall of Famer is digging in his heels against the efforts to oust him.
White issued a veto Thursday to an ordinance passed by the Jackson County Legislature on July 7, which approved more than 43,000 signatures collected by recall supporters and proposed scheduling a recall election for August 26.
The proposed date was based on language in the Jackson County Charter stating that recall elections should take place no more than 60 days after the submission of enough signatures.
Thursday was the last day White was eligible to veto the ordinance, which unanimously passed through the legislature 10 days ago. Legislators are expected to vote Friday on a potential overturn of the veto.
White, a Democrat, has served as Jackson county executive since 2016. Petitioners began collecting signatures in favor of a recall in 2023, with about half of the signatures gathered by a dark-money political action group and the other half by outspoken voters mostly in eastern Jackson County.
In a statement issued late Thursday morning, White said that he would support moving the recall question to the ballot for an existing county election scheduled for November 2025.
“This ordinance is not just unlawful, but it’s also fiscally reckless and a dangerous misuse of the democratic process,” White said of the proposed August vote.
Six of the nine Jackson County legislators would need to vote to override White’s veto, upholding the July 7 ordinance recommending an August 26th special election to recall White.
DaRon McGee, chair of the Jackson County Legislature, said last week that a recall election would likely take place in September or November at this point because of requirements in state law.
In White’s Thursday statement, he echoed McGee’s argument that an August 26 election date does not leave city and county election officials enough time to meet all of the election requirements laid out by state statutes, including the distribution of absentee ballots.
Local absentee voting would have had to have begun this week for the election to take place in August, while ballots would have needed to have been sent to overseas residents and military personnel last week, McGee said.
White also claimed that the recall petition circulated was “legally deficient,” featuring outdated signatures and failing to state a legitimate cause for his removal.
Calls for resignation
Supporters of the recall effort submitted signatures to the Kansas City and Jackson County election boards on June 27, which certified 43,011 by June 30, breaking the required signature threshold by 109 names.
As residents anticipate a legislative override of White’s veto, some have taken up a call for White to resign. The Urban Council, a coalition of civil rights organizations in the Kansas City area affiliated with the Urban Summit, hosted a press conference Thursday afternoon urging White to step down on his own.
Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, referred to White’s Thursday veto as an “unconscionable” attempt to “willfully obstruc[t]” the democratic process.
“His refusal to work with the legislature isn’t just petty, it’s dangerous,” Grant said. “It creates gridlock. It erodes democracy and it prevents progress. Frank White must go.”
Along with the ongoing issues around the recall effort, Grant cited White’s January decision to veto the legislature’s proposed 2025 budget in full, contributing to a six-month delay, which Grant says continues to impact some county organizations.
Other opponents of White have cited disagreement with his handling of Jackson County’s property tax assessments in recent years, as well as the 2024 tax question that would have funded a new Royals stadium in the Crossroads.
Rev. Dr. Vernon White, president of the Greater Kansas City chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called on faith communities in the Kansas City area to become more involved in the ongoing recall effort.
“This county executive’s governance has been callous, insensitive, out of touch, inhumane, unjust, injurious, and we will not be silent,” Vernon White said. “We will not be victims to a Trumpian style of government here.”
In response, Frank White slammed calls for his resignation as “a distraction designed to gain power, control and money,” and accusing fellow legislators of hypocrisy in portraying him as corrupt.
“Let’s be clear: resigning wouldn’t save taxpayers a dime – it would cost them more, potentially billions over time,” White wrote Thursday. “And it would hand over the keys to people like DaRon McGee and Manny Abarca, who’ve shown they’re more interested in cutting blank checks to private billion-dollar corporations and rewarding political allies than protecting the public.”
Lawsuits and delays
Plans for a recall election have been stymied by two recent lawsuits challenging the legal timeline for a recall process. White has challenged the legality of the now-vetoed legislative ordinance advancing the recall vote, while others have questioned the involvement of the county legislature and executive in the recall process at all.
The first lawsuit, filed July 9 by former chairs of both the Democratic and Republican parties of Jackson County – Phil LeVota and Mark Anthony Jones, respectively, plus two other county residents – asks a judge to order the city and county election boards to proceed with an August 26 election regardless of any ordinance or action from either White or the legislature.
“[The charter] clearly says that citizens can pursue the recall process independently of the legislature,” LeVota said at Thursday’s news conference.
The second lawsuit, filed the next day by the Kansas City and Jackson County election boards, argues that the charter’s 60-day time limit conflicts with state and federal election laws and asks a judge to affirm that an August 26 election therefore cannot be forced.
LeVota and White have both said that a special election would cost Jackson County taxpayers about $2 million. Supporters of the recall argue that while delaying a recall question until the scheduled November election could defray some costs, White’s resignation could also eliminate the question of funding an election.
“We also agree that there will be extra costs, but we didn’t create this problem,” LeVota said.
At Thursday’s news conference, LeVota addressed the election board’s concerns but reasserted that a November election went against voters’ wishes.
“Even if they can’t do it on August 26 there is a more timely date, in September or October, that they can hold the election to meet all of their concerns,” LeVota said.
LeVota acknowledged that the two lawsuits could present further delays to the recall election as they play out in Jackson County court. A hearing for the first lawsuit has been scheduled for August 1, LeVota said, and he expects that a Jackson County judge will opt to consolidate his lawsuit with the lawsuit filed by the election boards.
Mike Hendricks contributed reporting.
