Notes From Funk's Front Porch
15 June 2007
Dear Folks,
The new members of the Parks Board were announced at a press conference this past Monday, in the pouring rain, and they were sworn into their positions on Tuesday. The make-up of this board is completely different from past boards and Funk has high hopes that they will be successful in bringing the parks system back to the regular folks. But, as you know, Funk has been getting a lot of flak for, well, for just about everything that he has been doing since becoming Mayor. We expected this to occur, as change makes people uncomfortable at first, even if the change is for the better. True to form, there is an upset over the political views of one of his appointments. While Funk does not agree with this appointment's political views, he does believe in diversity and unfortunately, diversity doesn't always look as good in real life as it does in the movies. We are hoping that when the fog clears, that people will see the historic diversity of this board, beginning with John Fierro, the first Hispanic President of the Parks Board - an honest and courageous man - and will embrace the board for the wonderful changes that they are ready to make.
The Mayor and Council office comes with a lot of perks, both big and small; we get gratuitous offers daily to just about everything: suite tickets to ball games, grand dinners, prime symphony and theater tickets, great parking places, black tie events - even the free use of a car. The abundance of perks is apparently normal. What is not normal is to be upfront and transparent in reporting the gifts, beyond the basic legal requirements, but this is exactly what Funk promises to continue to do.
The Mayor's blog, www.funksfrontporch.com, (that can eventually be linked from the Mayor's page of The city's website at www.kcmo.org) is up and running. The Communications Team has put a lot of thought into making this a dynamic site; a window into the workings of the Mayor’s office. From the blog you can look at anything from the Mayor's calendar to blog entries from the Mayor, and even to memos from the policy team. We plan on making this the finest and most informative government blog in the nation. Funk is happy with the site, as it is another way of keeping citizens informed about their government.
Funk went to his first town hall meeting last night. The chapel was filled to the brim with anxious and hopeful faces. The crowd was asked by one of the hosts of the event if they had ever seen a Mayor in the 3rd district - the crowd went wild; shouting, no, they had never seen a Mayor in their district before. The crowd went on to say that they had never had a Mayor ask them for their opinion or to inquire as to what he could do to help them. It was an uplifting kick-off to our town hall meetings, and we sensed that the crowd left even more hopeful and trusting that they would be included in their City's future decisions.
Funk stands in faith that the job that he seeks to do, to make this a city that works for regular folks, will indeed become a reality under his administration. While it's hard to hold onto faith in tough times, that is exactly what he is prepared to do. We hope that you will give him the time that is necessary to make those changes and will help keep the faith with us as it takes a fair amount of time to build the machinery before you can get the job done.
You can respond to this newsletter either at funksfrontporch@gmail.com or at mayor@kcmo.org.
In faith.
All the best,
Gloria & Mark
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