Mayor wants to cap some agency leaders’ salaries, make them live within Kansas City
Kansas City will consider capping salaries for leaders of several quasi-governmental agencies that receive a substantial amount of city revenue, under legislation introduced Thursday by Mayor Quinton Lucas. The executives would also be required to live in Kansas City — as city employees are required to do.
Any organization that receives more than 20% of its annual revenue from the city’s coffers, such as VisitKC or the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, would be subject to the two ordinances.
One caps leaders’ salaries at the level paid to the city manager. Former City Manager Troy Schulte was earning $220,000 per year when he left last year. Acting City Manager Earnest Rouse makes $198,000.
In a statement ahead of Thursday’s City Council meeting, Lucas said the city’s current budget constraints — brought on by the coronavirus pandemic — “highlights the need for us to spend taxpayer dollars as efficiently as possible.”
“These good-governance measures will help ensure leaders of all organizations funded substantially by the Kansas City taxpayer live in the same community they’re working to help build,” Lucas said.
He added: “By capping executive compensation, we’re helping to ensure Kansas City taxpayers’ dollars are being spent responsibly, and that any organization which receives a substantial portion of its revenue from the City abides by the same cost expectations we would have for any city agency.”
A comprehensive list of organizations to which the rule would apply wasn’t immediately available, but the mayor’s office said it would apply to — among other groups — VisitKC, PortKC, the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.
Jon Stephens, president and CEO of PortKC — which runs the city’s Missouri River port and offers incentives for development in the city — said the organization doesn’t receive tax dollars from City Hall for its operating budget. PortKC gets most of its money from leases at Isle of Capri, the former Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Station and from tonnage fees from barges passing through the Woodswether Terminal on the Missouri River.
The mayor’s office said the ordinance would apply to PortKC.
“My view is that any organization supported by taxpayer dollars or funds that would be taxpayer dollars generated in Kansas City if not abated or redirected are subject under our calculation,” Lucas said in a statement.
“I share with the Mayor the desire that the City practice fiscal responsibility with taxpayer dollars,” Stephens said in a statement. “While PortKC does not receive tax dollars from City Hall for our operating budget, we are committed to fulfilling our mission in a publicly transparent and responsible way.”
Kansas City officials have been preparing for the possibility of severe budget cuts brought on by the economic fallout from the coronavirus.
Rouse asked department heads to outline plans to cut 4.5% of their budgets. A severe recession could force the city to cut as much as $300 million from its annual $1.7 billion budget.
City Council members are expected to get an update on revenue collections and their implications for the budget next week.
