Hypocrisy alert: Edgemoor criticized KCI robocalls while launching its own phone campaign

It turns out Edgemoor was making robocalls, too.

Geoffrey Stricker, Edgemoor Infrastructure’s managing director, told The Star Monday that the company paid for a “small robocall initiative” last week, aimed at Kansas City voters.

The call urged recipients to contact the City Council and support an agreement for the firm to develop a new terminal at KCI.

Stricker said the company was worried about a round of anonymous anti-Edgemoor robocalls made in recent days.

“We were so concerned about the misinformation shared about our company that we felt it imperative to defend our integrity and respond in the marketplace,” he said in a statement.

It was the wrong decision and was disappointing on several fronts.

Plainly stated: The city’s negotiations with Edgemoor to build a new airport terminal should not be influenced by phone calls to council members, or outside pressure or politics at all.

An agreement with the company, if one can be reached, must be based solely on the facts and the document itself. Everything else is a distraction.

Until now, Edgemoor appeared to understand this. Unfortunately, the firm’s decision to make its own robocalls severely damages that credibility.

After criticizing others for playing political games, the company is descending into the same muddy morass.

Also disappointing is the fact that Stricker failed to tell The Star about his company’s robocalls last week when he complained to the newspaper about the anti-Edgemoor campaign. We were misled by his silence.

And what about voters? They must be bewildered beyond belief at these strange phone calls, for and against Edgemoor, made weeks after they voted overwhelmingly for a new terminal.

For them, the best option is to hang up the phone. For all of the other participants in this process, sad attempts at lobbying must end. Let this procurement process work as it is intended to work.

If an agreement cannot be reached by the end of the month, all sides can reassess their positions.

Mayor Sly James expressed some exasperation with the process in a speech Sunday. “Now we have to get through all the nonsense, all the politics,” he said. “All the hogs who have to belly up to the billion-dollar trough and suck out what they can.”

The mayor’s language is pretty harsh and ignores his own role in the chaos that has defined the airport debate since last May. But he is basically right: There is too much nonsense in the airport effort — and too much politics.

Edgemoor added to both last week, to its chagrin and the city’s detriment.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Hypocrisy alert: Edgemoor criticized KCI robocalls while launching its own phone campaign."