Who is our city council really working for?

The other day, I referenced an article on firedoglake in a tweet:

Reason we're screwed #1 Not only does campaign money corrupt Congressmen, the job is just a resume-builder for K-street http://bit.ly/2izO96

This was about the U.S. Congress, but it applies to our own city council as well. Just look at the career of former 3rd district councilman Troy Nash.

Nash sat on the Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee during his two terms on the city council (1999 to 2007 -- a period that witnessed too many sweetheart deals with developers to list, diverting your tax dollars into developers' pockets while putting the city in a precarious debt situation.)

After being term-limited off the city council, Nash became Vice President and Director of Public Sector Consulting for Zimmer Real Estate Services, one of the largest firms in the Kansas City area.

This fits the pattern perfectly: Use one's time in government to service wealthy interest groups, then work directly for them in the private sector, using the connections made while supposedly serving the people's interests to further the interests of their true masters.

Information that indicates who these true masters are is out there, but you don't hear about it much, and doing your own research by looking up campaign contributions at the Missouri Ethics Commission web site is not my idea of a fun leisure time activity.

But, somebody needs to do it.

Your Honor, May I Approach The...Oh Screw That.

I was sitting with my fellow Citizens Against Billboard Blight in the audience for today’s meeting of the Planning and Zoning committee. We were there to testify for an extension of the moratorium on new billboards. A representative for the billboard industry, Mr. James Bowers of White, Goss, Bowers, March, Schulte & Weisenfels, was there to propose some changes to the moratorium. (Thanks to councilman John Sharp, chairman Riley, and the other committee members, he was unsuccessful.)

I hope you can see this on channel 2 or via the City website, but Mr. Bowers (wearing a bright orange tie) is running around behind the bar like he is just another City staffer.

That sight says it all: The corporate lawyers have written the laws for so long here that there is no visible separation between them and those elected to write the laws.

Citizens should demand that our council members put them in their place.