The "Glover Plan"
Jim got Costco, Home Depot and Marsh's Sunfresh to locate in the Kansas City urban core - creating 100's of new jobs and eliminating blight. This development is the top performing TIF project in the City, paying back its bonds and creating more tax revenues for the city.

Infrastructure for Economic Development
Jim supported funding the roads leading to the Zona Rosa project in Platte County. Without this funding, the development would not have been possible.

Jim has always supported the redevelopment of Bannister Mall and funding from the State of Missouri to achieve this redevelopment in South Kansas City. The best opportunity was Bass Pro’s location in this site. However, when Jim was off of the Council the Jones Store renewed on their promise to participate. This should not have allowed the project to fail. The Jones Store was an old store and should have simply been taken by eminent domain to allow Bass Pro to locate in this site. Bass Pro would then have been able to attract other development.

In his first term, Jim supported a “Catch Up” plan that provided for ten million dollars of needed infrastructure in the northland that facilitated quality growth.

Citizen Budget Review Commission
In his first term, Jim created the Citizen Budget Review Commission. This Commission was composed of citizens without special interests that reviewed the City’s budget to find ways to improve our City. As a result two of the many improvements were:

Recycling/Landfill Opposition
Through the years, Jim has worked hard to bring recycling to Kansas City. He was proud to support the current system of recycling which has diminished our need for landfill space. Jim has also opposed landfill sites in both the Northland and Southland Kansas City. In place of the proposed Northland landfill, Jim supported in his first term infrastructure funding which made residential development possible in the Shoal Creek Valley. This prevented a landfill from even being sited in the Northland. He also opposed the landfill in South Kansas City along Bannister and instead supported economic development on the edge of the site which prevents this site from being used as a landfill in South Kansas City.

Chair City Market Oversight Committee
When Jim took over as chair of this committee the City Market in the early 90’s had to be supported by the City out of the general fund by approximately $600,000. In addition, many of the vendors did not offer quality items for sale or pay their rent. Sales and attendance plummeted.
 

This situation occurred because the City Market had been “politically managed” with many vendors able to call on elected officials for political favors. Jim hired a new Market Manager and cut out the politics. The new manager, Lou Steele, made decisions on leasing based upon market principles – not politics. Quality standards were implemented for vendors and The Fasone Marketing firm was chosen to advertise this new market. This caused a lot of political turmoil but Jim was successful in bringing aboard good staff and protecting them from political interference. Soon we had new vendors, good items for sale, and increased attendance. As a result the City received more sales tax revenue and the subsidy went down dramatically.

This started the renewal of the City Market.

New Development Tools
Jim developed a funding mechanism where the State of Missouri could underwrite or guarantee economic development bonds. This diminished the risk to the City’s general fund for development projects.

Neighborhood Improvement Program
Jim developed and implemented the Neighborhood Improvement Program. This program targeted needed neighborhoods and sought to coordinate all city services so that neighborhood lenders did not have to chase down various city departments to help their neighborhoods. Through this program, the City worked proactively with neighborhood leaders.

Northeast Neighborhod Redevelopment - Resolution 910594
This was a breakthrough program for Northeast neighborhoods introducing a program to revitalize neighborhoods a block at a time.

Annual Audits - Resolution 911355
These annual audits provided effective information to the City Council in reviewing budgets presented by the City Manager.

New Streetlight System - Resolution 931047
This resulted in a new modern and effective streetlight system for Kansas City. Jim helped the Commission by suggesting that the City Manager assist by engaging national consultants to help negotiate to costs of the new system. This broke the logjam that had prevented the Commissioner from going forward with a new system.

Increasing $$ for Capital Improvements - Resolution 940386
When the city sales tax for capital improvements (PIAC) was first passed, the City obligated that it would spend million dollars from the existing general fund in addition to the new sales tax funds. As years passed the City’s general fund grew but the ten million dollar figure did not grow. This resolution was aimed at increasing the amount of the general fund that was spent on capital improvements.

Reform of City Revenue Forecasting - Resolution 95041
This simply forced the City to be fiscally responsible and try to develop a forecast of revenue to guide its spending patterns.

City Manager and Labor Negotiations - Resolution 951494
It is very important that the City Manager be the only one to negotiate with our labor unions during labor negotiations. I sponsored this resolution because some members of the Council would speak directly with the Union. This put the City Manager at a disadvantage because frequently the labor negotiator would know more about the Council’s position that the City Manager. Additionally, the City Council should not take a position on an issue without first getting a recommendation from the City Manager and conferring as a Council.

Project Clean Sweep - Resolution 960587
Clean Sweep was a great program that concentrated city resources to clean up our neighborhoods.

Columbus Park Redevelopment - Resolution 970158
This was an issue concerning the concentration of HUD properties called Guinotte Manor in Columbus Park. I work with the Kansas City Housing Authority, Columbus Park Neighborhood and Federal Court to put in place a scattered site concept that also mixed market rate units with low-income housing.

Neighborhood Redevelopment As Neighborhood Committee Chair
The following are resolutions affecting the City’s policy for our neighborhood that Jim helped develop when he was Chair of the Neighborhood Development Committee. These allowed the city to use our tax incentive programs to help develop our neighborhoods. I believe that development tools ought to be used to aid our neighborhoods – not just developers.