Platte County, by virtue of a 3-0 vote among the current Platte County Commission, is giving away 80 acres of county-owned land in Platte Purchase Park to the City of Kansas City, with the thought being the transfer of this property to KC will aid in the development of the proposed Northland Sports Complex.
The Northland Sports Complex–assuming it moves forward to completion, which is a big assumption anytime you’re discussing a City of Kansas City proposal–will be a tournament style sports complex that will include 12 soccer fields and other sports features.
There’s nothing wrong with Platte County supporting efforts for the Northland Sports Complex. The complex will no doubt become a well-used and busy place just north of Hwy. 152 off Platte Purchase Drive.
What is concerning is the process. This point was driven home by David Park, candidate for second district commissioner in 2020, who points out that a proposal to remove land from the parks inventory in Platte County should require more than one public county commission session and a simple majority vote by a three-member county commission. That’s all that is statutorily required, but Park wants more.
“I would like to see a more formal process with more public input,” Park said.
He makes a great point.
When the City of Kansas City wants to remove property from its park inventory, the matter is put to a vote of the people at an election. We saw this earlier this month when there were several questions on the KC ballot involving the transfer of ground out of the Kansas City parks system for reasons that included the land had been determined to no longer be necessary or appropriate for park use.
So the process to remove ground from the park system in Kansas City involves a majority vote among registered voters. The process to remove park ground from the park system in Platte County requires only a majority vote of a three-member board of commissioners. This means that two commissioners in Platte County could put their heads together and start dumping land from the county’s park inventory, should they so choose, without taking the question to a vote of the people or holding meaningful opportunities for public input.
There’s something wrong with that. While Park said he is not opposed to the decision to support the land transfer to boost the Northland Sports Complex proposal, he is opposed to the overly simple process at the county level.
He is to be commended for pointing this out and encouraging county officials to in the future make a change to the process.
Take a moment to check out the Kansas City Star editorial that we are reprinting on this page under the Other Voices heading. One day after we took the Platte County R-3 District to task in this column space in our Nov. 13 issue, the Star in an editorial on Nov. 14 blasted the R-3 district for a lackluster response to the latest racial incident within the district.
You’ll remember last week I mentioned that on Wednesday morning I had reached out to the press secretary for Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway for a comment in response to Parkville using taxpayer dollars to produce and mail a letter to residents that in effect discourages folks from signing a petition that would force a state audit. I did hear back from the state auditor’s office on Thursday.
“Petitioners in Parkville have until Oct. 7, 2020 to collect the 537 valid signatures required. If they do so, this office will conduct an independent and professional review of city operations and finances,” responded press secretary Steph Deidrick
Ok. Understood. But Steph, how about a follow-up response with a more specific answer to my original question? You know, the part about Parkville city officials using taxpayer money to send out a letter encouraging folks not to sign the petition? Will you comment on that?
Crickets thus far from Steph on that one.
It’s back. We’ve been light on Landmark Live episodes this fall for a couple of reasons, including the fact our primary camera person was out of the country for 2.5 weeks (wait, you didn’t know Cindy was gone? Did I do okay filling in for her in the page design department? Did you notice any difference?).
Yes, Landmark office manager Cindy Rinehart might be the most spoiled member of the work force in Platte County. She took a 2.5 week vacation after only 27 years on the job. Seems over the top if you ask me.
But anyway, back to the topic of Landmark Live. Of course Cindy being gone isn’t the only reason we cut back on episodes. I wanted to slow my Thursday roll a bit during the fall, catch my breath and lighten my load in case opportunities for Thursday fun stuff came up. Now that Mother Nature has given us a day or two of fall and moved on to winter, may as well get back into the Landmark Live routine.
So Thursday night, Brad Carl and I will once again be appearing in your Facebook feeds. We apologize in advance.
This week’s episode–entitled Don’t Make It Weird–goes live Thursday at 6 p.m. on Platte County Landmark on Facebook.
As you’ll see on our front page, thanks to a ruling by a state commission Ferrelview Police Chief Daniel Clayton could soon lose his right to be a licensed police officer in the state of Missouri. This is my shocked face.
At this point I won’t be surprised if the current Ferrelview Board of Trustees ignores the findings of the state and tries to somehow keep Clayton employed as the village’s police force. It would be the most Ferrelview thing to do. They’ll go Full Ferrelview.
Never go Full Ferrelview.
(Go Full Foley by following him on Twitter @ivanfoley and on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)