Apr

19

Big Shake-up on the City Council

April 19, 2008 |

Yesterday Mayor Funkhouser shook up the City Council and the city’s light rail planning by removing Councilmember Ed Ford from his chairmanship of the Transportation and Infrastructure Commitee. While the mayor denies it, this move sure looks like payback for Ford’s leadership in the effort to keep City Manager Wayne Cauthen. The new chair, Russ Johnson, sided with the mayor in the Cauthen fight.

The nominal reason for the move is that Ford is pushing for a City-only starter line while the mayor wants a regional system from day one. However, there is also the widely held belief that Ed Ford plans to run against the mayor in the next election.

Establishment transit advocates are worried that the confusion and controversy could jeopardize the next light rail vote, but the KC Light Rail blog has a much different take on the change in leadership.


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Tim on April 20, 2008 10:14 pm

    Funkhouser needs to FORGET this stupid idea of a “regional” transit system. The burbs aren’t interested. Stop wasting time with it.

  2. ThomasGarrett on April 20, 2008 10:15 pm

    Too bad for KCATA, HNTB, MainCor, MARC and so on. I have one more thing to say about Ed Ford. ahahahahahaahahahahahaaha. Good riddens.

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