Sly James’ reversal on pre-K proposal might look familiar. Remember the KCI plan?

Mayor Sly James stood alone behind the podium last Friday morning, his voice echoing off the marble walls of what was once the men’s smoking lounge at Union Station.

It was a familiar spot for the two-term mayor: Alone with an idea he believed was fully baked and ready to go. Until he had to back up.

That Friday, in response to concerns from school leaders and City Council members, James announced he was standing down on his proposal to raise sales taxes for expanded early childhood education

Last year, he faced skepticism about his attempt to install Burns & McDonnell as the recipient of a no-bid contract to build a new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport.

In both cases, by keeping others stakeholders out of the kitchen, the proposals ultimately fell flat. Call it a my-way-or-the-highway.

“It’s real similar,” said City Councilman Lee Barnes. “That’s kind of the way he operates, his modus operandi.”

James bristled at the suggestion that his impulse to go it alone causes problems rather than solves them.

“I think if you look at the facts as opposed to your question and speculation, you’ll find that it is absolutely inaccurate and false,” he said Friday.

Except that it’s not.

Last year James insisted that Burns & McDonnell’s proposal to privately finance a new $1 billion terminal was the best available option because it addressed taxpayer concerns about public debt.

“A Kansas City innovative solution to a Kansas City sticky problem,” he called it.

When he drew heavy criticism for the plan’s lack of transparency and disregard for competitive bidding, he explained it this way to The Star’s editorial board:

“It has to be a little bit on the QT,” he said in a video interview. “It’s really hard to do it when you’ve got a bunch of people sticking their fingers into the pie.”

But when other firms expressed interest, James reversed course and opened up the job to bids. There was other drama along the way.

Ultimately, the November 2017 ballot question asking for voter approval of the project passed by a 3-to-1 margin. The main contractor, however, is Edgemoor.

Pre-K for KC — a top priority for James in his final year — could be on the same trajectory.

James’ staff produced a long roster of stakeholders who were part of a working group that met weekly. There were also parent focus groups and polls to gauge voter sentiment.

But public engagement and consensus are not the same.

Consultations with school superintendents didn’t begin until May — a scant two months before the July 3 Pre-K for KC kickoff, according to a list released by the mayor’s office last week. None attended the event.

“Meeting with people of course is important. Collaboration requires growing big enough ears to hear when people are pushing back on what you’re saying,” said Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, which issued a detailed critique of the plan last week. “Working on a plan and bouncing that plan off people, that’s not the same as collaborating to craft a joint strategy.”

So, as he did with KCI, James stepped back. But in doing so, he challenged opponents to present alternatives that would reach the same result: universal pre-K within the Kansas City limits. It’s been a goal of city’s since 2014.

“We’re going to have time for everybody who has some issue to bring those issues forward and look for suggestions on how to make this project stronger,” James said Friday.

Some who know James see “go it alone” as a way of attracting others to take ownership of the issue.

“My interpretation would be viewing it less as going there by himself and more of, ‘Hey you want to do to this? You need to step up and figure out what the next step is,’” said Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wagner.

The pre-K initiative may prove more daunting than KCI.

Unlike the single-terminal project, taxpayer money will be directly involved ($300 million over 10 years). The plan also has a governance structure involving public and nonprofit boards.

While James characterizes school district opposition as solely about controlling funds, the plan would in fact impose a range of specific requirements covering teacher salaries, class size, tuition, curriculum and length of school day. School leaders also characterize the plan as a voucher system.

“It is extremely difficult to respond to the presented proposal when many questions remain unanswered,” Gayden Carruth, executive director of Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City, said in a statement last week. “Early childhood is too important to our children and their families, and our organization’s school districts support getting this done right, not fast.”

James will also have to deal with a City Council with whom relationships have been “strained at best,” said Councilwoman Teresa Loar.

Council members did not receive copies of the pre-K implementation plan until last Tuesday — a day before the committee presentation — an illustration of what they contend is his preference for leaving them largely out of the loop on big initiatives.

He and his supporters decided to pursue a spot on the ballot by collecting petition signatures, rather than through a council ordinance.

Asked last week about bypassing the council, James sounded much like he did in explaining the private Burns & McDonnell proposal.

”One thing we do know is that soon as you come in and you’re trying to get something passed everybody wants input into it and it starts to get watered down,” he said. “And it becomes something that it’s not.”

Tensions flared at last week’s finance and governance committee meeting when James said he’d tried to brief councilman Lee Barnes in advance on the pre-K plan.

“Oh, yeah, don’t look at me like that,” James said, when Barnes registered a skeptical expression.

While the council is required by law to approve placement of a ballot question with properly validated signatures, it has 60 days to do so.

But for a November election, James needed council action by this week. It became clear that was in doubt.

“I think the vote was going to be short for him,” Loar said.

James will now have another opportunity to go back to bake Pre-K for KC. As with KCI, he’ll likely have to change the recipe.

This story was originally published August 21, 2018 at 5:30 AM.