Last minute lobbying underway for that new royals ballpark.

Decision day could be coming next week.

Plus, get ready for stepped up police patrols and park rangers on the plaza.

And what do you think of that new city proposal for a $28 million youth entertainment district to give our young people something to do?

Plus, what on earth is going on in Johnson County as the Overland Park police chief abruptly resigns?

And for all the promises of action, why are people still waiting more than a minute and a half on hold to reach 911?

Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City RSLM Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlese Gourley the Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust.

John H. Mize and Bank of America and a co trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

Lots going on in Kansas City this week.

Here to connect the dots on what it all means and why you should care, a KMBC nine chief political analyst Michael Mahoney from our own PBS newsroom, Flatland KC Marie Sanchez from the Helm at City scene KC.

Kevin Collison and tracking the news from behind the microphone at KCMO talk radio.

Pete Mundo.

Now last minute lobbying underway this week just ahead of what could be a major decision next week on a new ballpark for the Kansas City Royals.

Jackson County lawmakers approving $100,000 for a law firm to negotiate stadium lease details.

Meanwhile, Royals owner John Sherman met this week with Mayor Quinton Lucas and Jackson County executive Frank, why did they ink a new deal that would keep the royals in Jackson County?

Pete No, I had the mayor on my show Thursday.

I asked him as much and he's keeping it close to his vest or there's no deal in place right now.

I can't believe this.

You know, Saturday of next week is the first day of fall.

And yet John Sherman, Michael said it was the end of the summer.

I'm going to be making a decision.

He's got very few days left.

Well, yeah, but he did.

But he still has some time.

I still think the the prohibitive favorite is the stadium in on in downtown in the East Village.

What's the biggest stumbling block, though, for them deciding on going to downtown still?

Well, you know, the fact that the county legislature just hired a law firm to me is an indication that we're still a ways away from a deal.

I mean, this should have been done several months ago.

I think it's still a matter of getting Jackson County and the city on board.

I would not be a bit surprised if this in the summer deadline or into September deadline gets pushed back a bit.

But I think it's interesting that it took up until last week before the county decided to hire a law firm and they've been mulling it over since June, at least.

The all of the momentum, though, seems to be all the enthusiasm is in on that North Kansas City plan.

It always seems to me that the folks in Kansas City are always sort of wringing their hands.

We don't have enough details.

We don't have enough information.

Mary.

I think that's true.

And as in deal making, you always want to have another option to be able to make a deal and I think that's what that represents.

This is part of a negotiation, too.

How do we get the city to fully back it so that voters might back it someday?

I do think Kevin's right.

It may.

A decision is off.

I think it really benefits the region.

When you look at it, though, to look at that Clay County location to spread around the tax burden because of the fact that right now you have the chiefs and the rail splitting three eights of a set, you know, the royals want to get their hands on the entire three that are cent to do what they want to do out at the Truman sports complex.

If you then move some of that burden for the royals up north, it doesn't put all the pressure on 700,000 people in Jackson County to fund these two teams.

And I think the royals and the Chiefs both benefit from that.

Potentially one of the one of the big issues here is that the population of Clay County is substantially smaller than it is for for Jackson County.

And so the rate of that tax, I suspect it's going to have to be more than 3/8 of a sense to generate the $750 million that that generates now.

And we'll see because that's also has to go to the taxpayer, to the voters up in Clay County.

It's an attractive idea to some Clay County to have this.

Others don't want to raise their taxes.

By the way, has John Sherman just stumbled upon a new idea to help pay for his new sporting palace?

The royals have now joined with the Chiefs and the cardinals on a new election initiative to place sportsmen on the ballot in Missouri next year.

Realistically, though, what does that mean for the royals when Kansas is getting very little money for its sports betting law?

Would that fund a hot dog stand?

What would it actually fund them?

Well, I do know that the royals would like to include an on site betting parlor at the new ballpark in the design they want.

So I think it's geared more towards catering to another audience that another reason for people to come to the ball game.

I don't know what if any, revenues would be available off of a tax and of course Missouri may have a big ultimately be able to put a better deal together than what Kansas did as far as what Kansas is share of gambling revenues are.

Yeah, I think that's a big point, that the Missouri deal will probably be better than the Kansas deal.

Almost every sporting sportsbook betting deal in the country is right now.

And, you know, we'll have to see.

Basically, I think that if they get this on the ballot, I think that they will it'll pass hands down.

Now, we've talked about it for the last two weeks now, some specific proposals for dealing with new security, unease on the Country Club Plaza.

Matt Lucas says negotiations are now under way to use police and rangers with the city's Parks and Recreation Department to patrol in and around the shopping district.

I'm assuming that means taking them from someplace else to beef up the security presence on the plaza.

Is this the answer or does it just push crime activity somewhere else?

It's robbing Peter to pay Paul is really what it is.

I mean, you're down 3 to 400 cops.

You don't have the patrol that you need right now.

So you're trying to find in other areas.

I understand it.

You've got to try to figure out how to get the plaza back on track.

But in terms of just moving things around, something else to your point, Nick, is going to get hurt here and there.

Once again, burying the lead on what the main issue is in this town and that's being down hundreds of cops.

Isn't this the fix that you advocated for on your social media account?

Kevin Well, first and foremost, I didn't even know we had park rangers here, so I have no idea where they're coming from.

But, you know, yeah, I do think, you know, the Plaza has a security force and they're fairly visible, but they're not armed.

Not that I say.

That's the be all and end all.

And they don't have the power to make arrests.

You need to have a police department that is visible, that is there to back up the security at the plaza, you know, yeah, they're down jobs.

But I've always maintained the city of Kansas City and taxpayers are dropping $280 million a year on KPD.

They've got money.

They just need to know how to hire more people and, B, get more of their officers out on the street, because as far as I can tell, they're extremely low profile.

Mary, is this the fix?

It's too easy of a fix because it's too broad of a problem.

And what you don't want to do is create like a military police state in an area that is supposed to be pedestrian.

We're even looking towards that.

It's, you know, that we have had issues and we need to look at why do we have 14 and 15 year olds carrying guns?

That's what happened down there and that's what scared everyone.

And there's also the issue, of course, of what else can young people do?

And the city is looking at a solution this week.

Let's just talk about that.

There's a new proposal for a $28 million youth entertainment district.

It's the brainchild of city Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, who envisions a place designed and operated by teens that will not only provide recreation options, but help young adults learn new skills and connect to employment, appear opportunities.

Does she have a place in mind for this, and is this something how is this different than all the other programs from night hoops and everything else they've done with the city over the years?

I think it's it's early yet to really talk about too many specifics.

However, part of the vein of this is to give young people more autonomy in what it is.

It's not just here, come play basketball for a little bit, it's here.

Learn a skill set which might, to my earlier point, help build young people in ways in their own capacity so that they don't go out and do things that are incredibly destructive.

Is that the solution?

Pete?

No, it sounds like another place.

You're going to have to have some kind of police presence.

That's what it sounds like to me.

And, you know, I don't think there's this idea of over militarizing the plaza.

I go to Times Square in New York City.

It's as pedestrian friendly as there is and there's cops everywhere.

So I think that that's not necessarily a fair thing to say, to point out that, hey, law enforcement presence is a negative thing for being pedestrian friendly.

And it's the same thing for this youth entertainment complex.

You need both things to have a safe area for folks that they want to go to.

I couldn't agree pretty much with Pete on this.

I mean, that's a bit draconian to say you're going from zero to a military militarized plaza.

I mean, right now you never see Kansas City Police, period.

End of story.

Patrolling the plaza.

And I agree that, you know, we've tried these youth outlet type forums.

I read about how, you know, they had a big thing at Union Station a few years ago and Sly James and they had the same kinds of problems, fights breaking out, etc.. And I do think, unfortunately, you're going to have to have security wherever because these kids just for whatever reason, just don't seem to be able to get along with one another without fights and sometimes guns.

There are law enforcement officers, KPD on the plaza.

I actually do know a few of them personally, and I run into them every now and then so they're there.

But I don't know how much of that is going to stop something that happens in an instant.

That happens in a moment, that happens when someone has a gun and they use it when they should be perhaps just using their voice.

I think there are safe, politically correct ways of breaking up crowds of kids before violence starts breaking out.

I mean, I think a proactive police approach.

You see 50 kids hanging around Shake Shack and doing nothing but just taunting one another or you break it up, you tell them, go home, enforce whatever curfew laws.

There are laws on the books to keep these kids from hanging out.

And sooner or later something breaks out in the way of some kind of violent altercation.

You know, I really do think that there are proactive police tactics.

We just don't use around here that can prevent things from going out of hand.

In addition to the security.

What was on the plaza, though, are the concerns the public has over what are you going to do on the plaza nowadays?

They got a lot of national stores there and there's a lot of vacancies.

By the way, there's a brand new entertainment option opening on the plaza this weekend.

It's a new mini golf course.

It's in the old Jack Henry building.

But before you think this is a healthy pastime for our young people, the pottery, as it's called, is only for adults.

So that's not going to solve the problem for them.

Then Pete and you got to buy a bulletproof vest to go as well.

So it's tough sledding.

No.

Oh, no.

It's it's not the only new mini golf course opening in the city.

Another new putt putt course about to open a ten way point.

The new entertainment district going in next to Union Station.

That's where the new giant observation wheel is going on.

By the way, did you see it's now up.

They're hiring and making bookings now.

Have you seen something in Kansas City go this fast?

From pie in the sky dream to reality?

Mary?

It's pretty shocking.

And actually it's kind of it's illuminating a little bit.

I mean, I was driving the other day and saw it in the distance and literally did do a head swirl of, whoa, there it is.

I think long term, though, we're going to have to see how well this plays out.

As you know, you've got power light right there.

What can happen with Westport, the plaza, as we've been discussing?

How will this build into a mix of downtown Kansas?

They did it so fast they should be in charge of the Mission Gateway project, perhaps much faster.

Yeah.

Well, we're talking about erecting a Ferris wheel.

I mean, county fairs.

I'll throw these things up in a matter of an overnight.

So we're not talking about these.

They're not making the seventh wonder of the world down there.

You know, I want to wheel back a little bit to Pete's comment.

You know, I think the plaza is still a safe place.

One of the reasons, unfortunately, that this new mini golf place is 21 and under is they are trying to prevent some of these 20.

One and over 20.

One over.

Right 21 and over and, you know, unfortunately, we just have learned as a society that sometimes it's really hard to have entertainment venues where everybody and anybody can go because some people are more able to handle that responsibility than others.

But, you know, I get with Mary, too.

I agree.

I mean, it is kind of interesting to see how much entertainment dollars are in this city, because, again, if the royals end up doing their thing in the East Village, a big part of that is going to be entertainment related.

So I'm not really sure, you know, when we hit the bottom of our wallets when it comes to buying beers and hot dogs and going on Ferris wheels.

After months of complaints and promises to do better, 911 emergency wait lines are still not going away.

The new numbers are in for August, and the average wait time was one minute, 32 seconds.

That's a long time to wait.

Pete Mundo If your house is on fire, you need an ambulance.

So someone is breaking into your home?

Yeah, it's a major problem.

And, you know, remember, Mayor Lucas famously said he was going to address it immediately after his own mother had an issue.

And it's not that easy.

Whether it's hiring cops or 911 dispatchers, it's a thankless job that in many cases and underpaid and needs to get more attention.

I saw those numbers on Channel nine.

That's where that story came from, Michael.

But, boy, you know, again, lots of talk about this.

Even Jackson County giving money towards it.

And yet we still don't seem to be making much of a dent in those numbers.

You know.

This is going to be a frustratingly slow process for a largely for all the reasons that Pete just laid out for a second.

It's a very difficult job.

It's not the best paying job even in the metro when it comes to 911, dispatchers and that sort of thing.

And, you know, you will see the mayor promise to do this with dispatch and we'll see how long dispatch.

Takes that they're talking about as fixing some of the technological issues.

But is this a human problem, Mary?

I did see that the Kansas City Police Department still has more than 20 job vacancies for call takers and dispatchers.

They have had vacancies for a number of years now.

I've written about this for a number of years at their first responders.

It's a very hard job to do sometimes.

You literally are the lifeline for someone who is calling.

How do you shift some of those calls that aren't life and death?

It's a process.

It's very hard, though.

It's if the Kansas City police chief were to abruptly resigned this week, there'd be dozens of reporters and camera crews camped outside of police headquarters.

What are we to make this week of the abrupt resignation of the police chief in one of our metro's other biggest cities, Frank?

Don, Cheers resigns as top cop in Overland Park, and the city offers little explanation other than a puzzling reference to a heated exchange between Don chairs and the mother of a teen killed by an Overland Park police officer back in 2018.

Should I say?

I hated Woods, though, enough to topple a police chief nearly a decade on the job?

Or is there more to it than that?

Well, I think there is more to it than that.

I believe that we know that Sheila Alberts and which is the mother of which is the mother of the teen, you can be empathetic for somebody losing their child, but also wonder if she has taken the right approach in her attacks on Overland Park PD the last few years.

The feds investigated did not charge the officer, who now is no longer in law enforcement in the case.

But it feels like it's been her mission to take down that chief for quite some time.

And his mistake is engaging with somebody who wanted that head on that that.

But but even she said she was surprised that he is gone as a result of an exchange that happened this Monday where there was heated words, where there was some references to her, him questioning her parental abilities and her husband's parental abilities were.

Not home at the night of the shooting and so he was making a very cruel reference to a woman who his officers shot and killed her son.

It was incredibly inappropriate.

But should should that be training?

Should that be a day suspension without pay communications course of some kind, that you actually lose your job over that?

Well.

This is why I think there is far more to it.

Yeah.

I mean, the department has been criticized for a number of years and not just for this shooting.

It is part of that whole broader conversation of being more transparent about how what happens after an incident, you know, a fatality where a civilians life is taken, Some of those steps weren't weren't taken under him and he wasn't transparent.

And there was some, you know, quote line is the term that was used between them.

Is there more to it than we're now seeing?

Michael?

I think the chief's term in Overland Park was rocky on a couple of different points.

This one being the most vivid that most people know about.

There was also some concern about how some officers conducted themselves with relative to a another fund inside of a department.

And there must've been something else back there for this resignation to be so swift.

And maybe we'll find out.

Maybe.

Well.

What does this do to police morale in our metropolitan area, Pete?

Well, one thing that was brought up in that exchange was the chief saying that they've had a tough time recruiting.

Think about this.

If Overland Park, Kansas, is having a difficult time recruiting law enforcement, what does that tell you about the state of the industry over the last three years?

It may it will appeal.

Somebody will take this job in a nationwide search.

It pays very well.

It's still Overland Park, But this is tough sledding right now for an industry that's been destroyed in large part by media over the last three years.

You know, I'd love to discuss brand new issue.

Okay, Kevin, it is your face.

I'm sorry.

I'm stunning.

Your face likes to.

Throw the bomb.

I'm telling you, I.

But.

But why are they always harder now?

I don't think there's any question that there's a lot of blue flu going on and that they're having a harder time recruiting people.

But I wouldn't blame it on the press for reporting what's going on out there.

I mean, that's that's just too far for me.

But I also want to point out, and this gets back to the 911 question in that here we got a situation where civilian people in Overland Park City government can tell a chief you're just not cutting it anymore and he's gone, as opposed to a certain major city in our metro where the civilian leadership, a.k.a the city council mayor, have no influence in how our police department is run, including the kind of job they're doing to recruit people for both.

911 callers are responders as well as police officers.

People are just here to throw the bomb.

All right.

The bomb has been thrown and it was captured before it got there.

We have a Star Wars project here that blocked it.

All right.

Go on.

I have to keep going here.

I'd love to discuss brand new issues every week on this program, but sometimes there are issues that never seem to be resolved.

I'm looking at you.

Property tax assessment base in Jackson County.

It's back in the news this week after the City of Lee's summit filed suit against the county for failing to follow state law.

The disparity has not decreased.

It's increased, it feels like this year.

And we believe that that's because they're not following a process that is consistent under Missouri law.

If people are overpaying, it erodes trust and confidence in the tax system and really our entire system of government.

Now, let's remember, this is on top of the class action lawsuit that claims the way the county value property was arbitrary and unfair.

And don't forget, the Missouri state auditor has also launched his own investigation.

But just because people are filing suits and launching probes into what Jackson County is doing, is it leading to any change, Michael?

Not in the.

Sure.

In the short run at all.

This is now the second cycle in a row that Jackson County's property tax assessment problem has has really, you know, hit the fan.

There may be some relief down the road.

There's the possibility of tax relief for some.

But, yeah, yeah, but but that again, that's all down the road there.

I think there's only one county in the state of Missouri right now that has initiated property tax relief for seniors.

That's over in Saint Saint Charles, over in the Jackson County.

Legislative voted 8 to 1 against doing that this week.

I mean, you'd think that would be a slam dunk when you've got people calling all the time.

We have you have people on our TV screens crying, saying they're going to lose their homes and yet they still couldn't pass it.

And it was.

Yeah, 8 to 1.

To your point of Senate Bill 190, seemed like it should have been a slam dunk.

Many of Barker's on the county legislature.

He said they're they didn't pass that one because they're perfecting their own version of it.

If there's two words that don't go together, it's government and perfect.

There is no perfect piece of legislation.

And in the meantime, people in this county are wondering if they can stay in their homes and if local seniors don't lose their homes due to skyrocketing property tax rates, they could be pushed out of their homes because they can't afford their utility bills.

So call social service agencies saying help paying electric bills has become one of the most frequent requests this summer.

And it's about to get worse as Evergy pushes for a large rate hike to help offset their own costs.

But did you see this week that schools are now fighting back in Kansas school district from Wichita to Blue Valley on or later fighting and have a rate hike claiming the higher rates will harm teacher recruitment even lead to larger class sizes.

But you know, we complain a lot about this, Mary, but can we actually do anything about it?

Well, I think they're complaining to the regulatory, you know, divisions.

The boards can actually help.

And the move by school districts is a broader entity that is fighting back as opposed to just a senior citizen.

And they may have more impact eventually.

But what happened.

In the end, the early indications are that the Kansas Corporation Commission, which is the regulatory agency in Kansas, is sympathetic to these calls to either roll back or reduce the rate increase proposals.

But companies will have to make money.

So what happens, Kevin, if you if they don't get the rate hike, then they they trim back on maintenance, trim back on tree trimming, perhaps walk back even further.

That green impact promises.

As far you know, again, I would like to know a little bit more about the rationale that Evergy is offering, what kind of profit level they seem to think they need to make.

Mary makes a good point.

You know, having a much more unified front pushing back would be helpful.

This is an issue to get into a bigger point.

You know, as as global warming keeps coming up with heat and summers, etc., etc., how we pay our utility bills is going to become an increasingly tough question.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every big story making the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed?

Believe it or not, there was more to the news this week than those rumors that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift may now be an item.

There was alarm over the autoworkers strike that could shut down Kansas City's two big auto plants.

The royals reached the unwanted century mark.

Chris Jones finally ends.

His holdout.

Kansas City marks the 22nd anniversary of 911.

For the first time in more than 100 years, the Kansas City area lawmaker will become speaker of the Missouri House.

A missouri congressman has been picked to lead the impeachment inquiry of President Biden.

Too late to go on the ballot.

The Johnson County election commissioner blocking party village voters from deciding changes to their government.

And the new vaccine booster arrives in KC, just as local public health officials say COVID hospitalizations are on the rise.

All right, Pete Mundo, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I did pick one of those.

I think we could be looking at the end of the Chiefs run, and it won't be because of the secondary.

It won't be because of, say, Chris Jones.

It'll be because Taylor Swift is bringing bad mojo to this team and one of the star players.

So is Taylor Swift, who I guarantee is sitting somewhere with Travis Kelce watching this show right now.

Taylor, do not ruin the mojo of what has been an incredible five year run.

All right.

Kevin Collison.

I think the looming automotive industry strike is a huge, huge issue because we have a big, big Ford plant here and we have a good sized Chevy plant and those are a lot of well-paying jobs, plus a lot of industries that supply parts to those plants.

And one of the issues, as I've read, is that the UAW is very concerned about unionizing battery plants and other types of facilities that are going to becoming a bigger deal as we have more and more electric cars.

And of course, what do we have going up outside DeSoto is a gigantic Panasonic plant.

So I definitely think the automotive issues are a big, big deal in our community.

Mary Okay.

First I think I need to make your friendship bracelet, but otherwise the union, but only more because you're going to start hearing more about these, you know, the talk about how much leadership makes in many industries even that aren't unionized as opposed to the workers.

And that's just going to be something that's going to be carried forward as we have trouble hiring in almost every industry, not just law enforcement, many, many industries.

So that it's part of a larger conversation.

Michael, It's sort of a three pronged thing.

Number one, Governor Parsons, record of veto is on unblemished again after the veto session.

They none of his vetoes were overridden.

Jackson County State legislator John Patterson is, as you mentioned, will be the first Jackson County and to be the speaker of the Missouri House is since before the Civil War and then Jason Smith being one of the three House committee members that are that are going to run the Biden impeachment inquiry.

His profile has raised dramatically since he got the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

This will only only increase it.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Michael Mahoney from NBC Nightly News and Kevin Collison of City Scene KC.

From our own digital newsroom, Flatland KC Marie Sanchez and Taylor Swift.

Fan 6 to 10 weekdays on KCMO Talk radio Pete Mundo.

And I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.