In what the mayor of Parkville calls a suspiciously timed move, her opponent in the Tuesday, April 2 municipal election last week announced he will launch a petition campaign to seek a state audit of the city.
Mayor Nan Johnston sat down with the Citizen last week to address this and several other claims made in recent months by the Citizens for a Better Parkville political action committee (PAC).
“I think people running for public office should be running for something, not against it,” Johnston said of the current situation. “I hate the ugliness that this has brought to Parkville, not because I don’t think we should be held accountable, because I do; but not by the lies being told.”
On Tuesday, March 19, Kenneth Wilson, who is running against Johnston for mayor, released an announcement that he filed an audit request with the Missouri State Auditor, seeking a petition audit of city government.
Wilson is requesting the auditor look into whether or not the city has purposely failed to produce records related to public records requests made under the Missouri Sunshine Law, if the city has negotiated with private entities beyond the public eye and other concerns cited by Citizens for a Better Parkville.
According to his most recent financial filing with the Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC), the entirety of Wilson’s itemized in-kind campaign contributions are from Citizens for a Better Parkville.
Johnston issued a response Thursday, March 21 from her campaign.
“This latest publicity stunt is an attempt to cast doubt on the current elected officials and to sway voters to support the candidates backed by the political action committee, Citizens for a Better Parkville,” Johnston said in the release. “The City of Parkville has not received notification of the petition initiative, but I was given credible evidence to suggest that it has been or will be filed soon. We welcome an audit to dispel the untruths and ensure our citizens’ confidence in their city government.”
Johnston told the Citizen that it’s unfortunate that the taxpayers could foot the bill for a petition audit — petition audits conducted by the state must be paid for by the audited party - however, if the audit helps put taxpayers’ doubts to rest it could be a positive move.
“If people vote for these candidates, who do they think is going to be running city hall?” Johnston said, pointing out Wilson’s connection to Citizens for a Better Parkville. Board of aldermen candidates Weston Coble and Brett Krause have also received several in-kind or monetary contributions from the PAC.
The petition audit announcement is only the most recent accusation made by Citizens for a Better Parkville or candidates the PAC supports. Also widely reported in local media are the allegations of Sunshine Law violations, in which Citizens for a Better Parkville founder Jason Maki’s attorneys complained to the Missouri Attorney General that the city has been unresponsive to the 24 open records requests filed in the past several months.
Parkville officials confirmed that on Friday, March 22 the city received a letter from the Missouri Attorney General’s office, asking for a written response to the complaint by Wednesday, April 10.
“After receiving your response, we may contact you if we have additional questions,” wrote director of Sunshine Law compliance Casey Lawrence in the letter. “Our office’s review of this matter may take up to a few months. Following our review, our office will decide how to resolve this matter.”
According to the letter, this resolution may range from dismissal or informal resolution of the complaint to enforcement action.
Missouri Press Association attorney Jean Maneke said to her knowledge the Missouri Attorney General’s office has no mandated procedure for dealing with these kinds of complaints, but would describe the current action as a preliminary inquiry to determine if a further investigation is required.
City administrator Joe Parente said the city has responded to the 24 Sunshine requests while still operating the government, despite the volume of the requests. As of early March, the city has released more than 50,000 documents, many of which need to be reviewed by Parente himself or other upper management prior to their release due to confidential personnel information that may be included in the documents.
“The city is in the process of preparing a written response to aid the attorney general in the review,” Parente said. “The city does not believe it violated the Sunshine Act and its response and supporting documentation will demonstrate this. In addition, some of the items raised in Mr. Maki’s complaint have already been addressed in subsequent responses by the City of Parkville”
Citizens for a Better Parkville has also targeted the Parkville Economic Development Council, stating the EDC’s refusal to comply with Sunshine requests is in violation of Missouri statute.
Maneke said the validity of that claim depends on how Parkville’s EDC was formed, if the EDC was created by ordinance as a semi-subdivision of city government, it could fall under the Sunshine Law. However, if it exists as an independent entity, it does not need to comply with open records requests – this is the stance taken by the EDC itself.
Parente said the EDC is a not-for-profit 501C-6 organization and was not established via city ordinance.
According to its articles of incorporation, the EDC was created in December 2010 by Roxsen Koch, Nan Johnston (then McManus) and Timothy Rice. The EDC was “organized for the purposes of promoting economic and community development in Parkville, Missouri, and the surrounding area.”
Earlier this month, Maki also filed a complaint against Johnston’s re-election committee to the MEC. While Maki informed the Citizen that the complaint had been filed, a copy of the complaint was never provided to confirm the statement.
Johnston received a copy of the complaint – which was filed March 1 – and provided a copy to the Citizen, as well as the response sent March 4 by the MEC.
While Maki’s complaint stated a video posted in February on Johnston’s re-election page on Facebook did not comply with campaign finance disclosure laws, the MEC disagreed.
“‘No complaint shall be investigated unless the complaint alleges facts which, if true, fall within the jurisdiction of the commission,’ wrote MEC executive director Elizabeth Ziegler in her letter to Johnston. “In this instance, paid for by laws only apply to printed materials. Therefore, this complaint will not be assigned to an investigator.”
Overall, Johnston said she is tired of the negativity, which kicked off last fall during the plan application process for the Creekside development at Highway 45 and Interstate 435.
“People should be critical of government, by why do it in this manner?” Johnston said. “Why, when you say you want to make the community better?”
The I-435/Hwy 45 area has been slated for development since its annexation into the city in 2000, and while there have been some massive bumps in the road – such as the 2008 economic crash that saddled the city with neighborhood improvement district debt – the current development plan will ensure the city will get a development of which it can be proud, she said.
“It’s not fair to target the project,” Johnston said. “Attacking me over it is not going to make it go away. It’s the best thing for Parkville and I’ve never once had second thoughts about this being the right decision.”