Move Over, Mary

The people of Kansas City have absolutely no power over what happens at Union Station -- even though we, and our generous suburban neighbors, paid for its restoration.

It's run by a private board of directors whose members answer only to themselves. And over the last couple of weeks, their hired gun, Union Station CEO Turner White, had the cojones to suggest that Kansas City taxpayers pony up more cash to pay for the monolith's continued operations, this time without the help of our generous suburban neighbors. Though The Kansas City Star treated this as big news, Pitch readers will recall that writer David Martin first reported that a request for more money was looming three months ago ("Loco Motive," February 19).

The Star's cautious approach is understandable, considering that Publisher Art Brisbane sits on the station's current board -- an oligarchy of "civic leaders" who have, in their stewardship of the great civic asset, earned a new distinction to put on their résumés.

Losers.

Not only have they lost serious money by continuing to operate a science museum so lame that its only repeat visitors appear to be busloads of school kids forced to go there on field trips, but also they've lost something much more important: the good faith of citizens who want desperately for Union Station to be something cool.

Last week, White tried to grub up support for a new property tax at two public hearings. For two nights, City Councilman Jim Glover sat in a chair looking troubled as folks griped to White about how the station had floundered in the few short years since its celebratory reopening in November 1999. Glover must have reported back to the mayor, and Her Honor, apparently flush with a sense of power after making her big arena announcement, sent the Union Station board to timeout. Its members would have to sit on a committee with a few of the mayor's own henchmen (as of press time, she had yet to name them) to study the Union Station situation and report back to the public by October 1. Conveniently, that ensured there will be no competition on the August ballot for her new downtown arena.

But we have another idea. Union Station's board of directors should step the hell aside. And there's no need to worry about chaos in the ensuing leadership vacuum -- we've already located several estimable Kansas Citians who would do a much better job.

And deserve to. At last week's hearings, for example, White argued that he'd trimmed costs and was running a lean, efficient operation. But he admitted that the station needed a couple of additional major attractions, and at one point he tossed out this tantalizing bit: "The Steamboat Arabia would like to relocate to somewhere in this area."

That gets a humble little laugh out of Bob Hawley, patriarch of the family that dug the Arabia steamboat out of a farmer's field, cleaned up its perfectly preserved cargo and now runs a popular museum in the River Market.

"Really? How about that?" Hawley says when I tell him White's news that the Arabia Steamboat Museum wanted to move. "Maybe he's going from that time when he took us out to dinner a couple of years ago. We spoke about a relationship a couple of years ago, but nothing came of that."

Improperly invoking the Arabia's name for the purpose of getting people excited about Union Station is an offense that clearly calls for White's resignation. After all, the Hawleys and their boatload of treasures were among the early possible attractions for the rehabbed station, but even then, members of its brain trust couldn't hold onto the gold they held in their hands.

"They thought that perhaps we would occupy the basement area," Hawley recalls. "We just didn't want to be in the basement, and it never got past just casual conversation. Probably they didn't see that our presence there was going to be a great benefit."

Now, Hawley says, he doubts that they'd fit in at Union Station. "My feeling is that the entrepreneurial spirit is completely void in that environment." But that's all the more reason to sign him up fast.

Board replacement for Turner White: Bob Hawley.

Then there's the chairwoman of the board, Mary Bloch. A fine lady, we're sure, who's put in a lot of time on other civic boards and founded important area organizations. At last week's hearings, I asked her how the board members got their jobs. "We're self-selecting," she said. When it's time for new members, the current members put forth the names of other civic leaders, replacing bankers with bankers, marketing pros with marketing pros. "You look for people with experience in certain areas, and their civic connections, and what makes a good board," she said.

In other words, the same clique of monotonous potentates gets recycled in and out of decision-making roles all over town. When it comes to Union Station, though, people like Brisbane, Kansas City Southern Chairman Michael Haverty, retired Kansas City Power & Light chief Dru Jennings and Federal Reserve Bank President Tom Hoenig are clearly best left to running their stodgy newspapers, railroads and banks.