Potentially interesting update concerning the Missouri Attorney General’s involvement in Sunshine Law complaints against the City of Parkville. As you’ll recall, the attorney general’s office is looking into complaints the city has been less than open and responsive in regard to requests for public information from interested citizens, specifically involving requests filed by Citizens for a Better Parkville.
The update is this: a recent request for open records made to the office of the attorney general looking to get copies of communications between the attorney general and the City of Parkville regarding the possible Sunshine Law violations by the city and the Parkville Economic Development Council was denied by the attorney general. In denying the request, the attorney general’s office cited the statute that says it is authorized to keep closed records that are involved in “legal actions, causes of litigation involving a public governmental body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body or its representatives or attorneys.”
Simply put, it is possible this is a sign that the attorney general’s “review” of actions by the City of Parkville may reach the litigation stage. Perhaps this ‘review’ is not as mundane as city officials have previously painted it. As you’ll recall, city administrator Joe Parente, in a game of semantics, has insisted this is not an “investigation” but a “review.”
Let’s keep an ear open for any potential developments on this.
Huge shout out to our ol’ pal Greg Hall for joining us in a special episode of Landmark Live Monday night to discuss the dismissal of Kevin Kietzman from Sports Radio 810 WHB for comments he made about the family of Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
Hall, who many of you remember as a sports media sound bite columnist for The Landmark several years ago, has been closely following the Kansas City sports media scene for about 25 years, and for a time worked for Kietzman and WHB, so he was the perfect guest to have on for this topic. Hall has never been shy about giving strong opinions so his appearance is a must-watch. Check out the video on our Facebook page.
Looking forward to spending time with the Platte County Federated Women’s Democratic Club, who have graciously reached out to invite me to their meeting set for Monday, July 8 at the Platte County Resource Center.
We’ll be talking about the importance of weekly newspapers, weekly newspapers’ role in politics, community issues and government oversight, the First Amendment, writing letters to the editor and basically anything newspaper-related. There will be a question and answer session, which is always my favorite part of these type shindigs. I’d rather spend time in the question-and-answer format addressing specific topics the audience has on its mind rather than stand up there carrying on about items that may not be keeping the attention of a captive audience.
The meeting starts at 5:30 and I’m told they’ll push me to the front of the room at 6 p.m. If you’re in the club or want to be in the club, hope you’ll come out for some conversation and fun.
If time allows, I’ll grab a ukelele and strap a harmonica around my neck and play them both at the same time. Then I’ll do some chain saw art before closing by assembling a ship inside a bottle.
Update, because I know some of you are wondering: Chad Searcey, principal at Compass Elementary School in the Platte County R-3 School District, remains on paid administrative leave for his unfortunate choice of a Twitter response to a young school shooting survivor.
If you’ve got an extra dollar or two in your pocket and are feeling generous this Fourth of July holiday, here’s a potential idea.
After a recent theft of meat and other frozen foods from a warehouse freezer, City Union Mission is asking for community support to make up for the loss and ensure minimal disruption in their ability to serve meals to hungry guests. Last Thursday, thieves disabled an alarm on a large walk-in freezer located in a mission warehouse on 8th Street in Kansas City. While only $500 worth of frozen meat was taken, the door was left open, spoiling the remaining contents valued at more than $50,000, City Union Mission officials say. The freezer itself was also damaged during the vandalism and is not functioning properly.
Mission officials say they immediately reported the incident to the police and say they now urgently need the community’s generosity to restock their freezer shelves.
“As you can imagine, we are heartbroken by this tremendous loss of food, which would have been used in the nearly 400 nutritious meals we serve each day to hungry individuals and families,” said Dan Doty, executive director. “But as always, we know our Kansas City community will step up to meet this pressing challenge and to ensure those in our care are not impacted by this unfortunate event.”
I’m told monetary donations are most efficient as they allow the mission to purchase the specific meats and other food products needed and also to repair the broken freezer. Financial gifts can be made online at cityunionmission.org or mailed to 1100 E. 11th St, Kansas City, MO 64106.
(Get more Foley on Twitter @ivanfoley or find him on Facebook and YouTube. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)