KC Council delivers Edgemoor wish list for KCI agreement
Kansas City Council members, who rejected a proposed agreement with airport terminal developer Edgemoor last month, met Thursday to itemize changes they said would make the pact acceptable.
The agreement, called a memorandum of understanding, is an initial document designed to lay legal and regulatory groundwork for beginning construction of the billion-dollar terminal approved by voters in November.
Mayor Sly James, presiding over the council as the committee of the whole, allowed members five minutes to list desired proposed changes. They will become a part of the ongoing negotiations between city officials and Edgemoor representatives.
“This is a matter of compiling a list, not having a debate,” James said.
Some of the amendments address objections raised by members on Dec. 14, when the MOU was defeated on a 9-to-4 vote. There were renewed calls for a richer package of community benefits and more protection for the city against a provision that could entitle Edgemoor and its consortium of builders up to $30 million if the deal collapsed under certain circumstances.
Other proposed changes ranged from substantive to technical. Several members joined Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wagner in calling for employment and economic development opportunities for veterans. Councilman Dan Fowler asked that the Northland be included in the community benefits package.
Councilman Quinton Lucas proposed changes in wording that would allow for the possibility that Edgemoor could exceed its stated goal of 35 percent participation by minority and women-owned firms.
Edgemoor described its own additions to the MOU, including a $5.5 million apprenticeship program to train low-income workers and give them construction jobs.
Edgemoor managing director Geoffrey Stricker said it was helpful to have a complete accounting of the council’s requests.
“We were pleased to get what I will call a final, comprehensive list. We have for the last four to six weeks been with councilmembers and everything I heard today was consistent with what I heard previously,” he said.
Absent from the council discussion was any real enthusiasm for the Maryland-based company, which emerged from a bruising procurement process last summer to become the city’s choice for the job.
Since then, the firm has been criticized by council members and community leaders on a number of fronts, including a lack of specificity about its plans.
James and the council anticipate taking another vote on the MOU at the end of the month, but there is no guarantee they will keep to that schedule. Plans still call for construction to be complete by November 2021, but Charles Renner, the council’s attorney on airport matters, said delays could result if deliberations on the MOU continue into late February.
This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 5:46 PM with the headline "KC Council delivers Edgemoor wish list for KCI agreement."