After assignment spat, Lee’s Summit council member won’t serve on committees
Lee’s Summit City council member Cynda Rader won’t serve on any of the city’s council committees for the coming year after she slammed the proposed roles she was assigned and said Tuesday that she wouldn’t accept them.
In a 6-3 vote at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, council members signed off on a revised slate of roles for the year that removed Rader from serving on any of the council’s five committees. She will be the lone council member who won’t serve on a committee this year under the arrangement.
“All I want to say is thank you for devaluing me on this City Council,” Rader said to Mayor Pro Tem Hillary Shields, who brought forward the proposed council assignments.
Shields said that when crafting the assignments, she took into account the interests of council members, their experience and the needs of the council.
“They were not intended to slight anyone,” she said.
Rader said she had requested to be on the Community and Economic Development Committee and the Finance and Budget Committee, and instead was assigned to the City Council Rules Committee and the Public Works Committee, where she had previously served as the group’s vice chair. Rader said she had been “demoted” by not being assigned a leadership role there.
Rader said she had wanted to help the city deal with its current financial challenges and noted that the City Council Rules Committee meets only a few times per year.
“I just cannot abide by and accept a demotion,” she said. “I’m worthy of more than that. I’m a two-year, going on three-year member of the City Council, and I do not understand the lack of flexibility or collaboration. I don’t understand it, and I’ll never understand it.”
Shields said her proposal had been made thoughtfully and said she was unwilling to change the assignments.
“I take into account everyone’s interests, but if a member can just veto their appointments, then this system really isn’t workable, because we’re balancing the needs, the desires, the scheduling availability of eight members. That’s how this process works.”
Mayor Beto Lopez, who appointed Shields as mayor pro tem last month after winning the mayor’s office in a race against Rader, backed Shields’ work.
“Having served in that role as mayor pro tem for eight consecutive years, quite honestly, it’s a very difficult process, and you always approach it very objective, very transparent, very respectful,” he said. “I have no doubt that Mayor Pro Tem Shields conducted herself and acted in that manner.”
