Update 2: The city council has called for a very narrow audit of "certain transactions," obviously hoping to head off a more serious investigation into crooked shit happening at the Port Authority. More after the original story.
Update: Mayoral candidate Mike Burke, who made some decent coin himself lawyering for the Port, issued a statement today distancing himself from Session. It's after the original item.
Last month, The Pitch's David Martin introduced readers to William Session,
a local environmental lawyer who was doing some cleaning up of his own
-- raking in millions of dollars in work from the Kansas City Port
Authority, both as the city agency's lawyer and as a contractor.
Part
of David's story -- the piece where Session's contracting company got a
lucrative job at a site run by the Port -- was the subject of a front-page Star story on Sunday. And now, Mayor Mark Funkhouser is asking federal investigators to do some digging at the agency, where they will likely find Session swimming in a room full of the Port's money.
The scrutiny focuses mostly on work Session's contracting business, TWS Construction, did at the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. The Pitch reported in November that TWS had received $2.4 million for work on the project in 2009; the Star's story put the figure much higher, at almost $10 million.
Session told us there was no conflict of interest because his company did not perform work on Port Authority property but on land owned by CenterPoint Properties, which bought part of the base from the Port Authority in
2007.
But Sandra Rayford, who oversees city development, disagreed. From the Star:
RayfordThat, apparently, caused the mayor to ask U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips to investigate the Port. If the feds oblige, investigators may find even more potential conflicts.is the affirmative action compliance officer for the Economic
Development Corp. of Kansas City, a quasi-public agency that oversees
some of the area's business incentive efforts, including those offered
by the Port Authority.
In a September 2008 memo obtained by TheStar, Rayford told her supervisor at the EDC she first became concerned
about the Session/TWS contract when she learned of the agreement in late
2007.
"I believed that to be a conflict of interest," she wrote,"considering the intimate knowledge (Session) had of the project and
(that he) was instrumental in bringing about the ... project on behalf of
the Port Authority."
She added: "I questioned how Mr. Session, an environmental attorney, could overnight become an excavation contractor."
"There is much discussion regarding my role as Port Authority GeneralUpdate 2: Tony's Kansas City is linking to a resolution passed by the city council today, calling for an audit of "certainCounsel and the activities of William Session and his construction
company, TWS Technical Services, LLC (TWS)," began Mike Burke, KCMO
Mayoral Candidate. "I would like to clarify some of the facts involved
in this matter."
"With regard to the formation of TWS and the contract to do work at
Richards-Gebaur, while I had known and worked with Mr. Session for a
number of years in his role as environmental counsel for the Port
Authority, I had no advance knowledge:
- That Mr. Session had formed a company to do construction work,
- That TWS had applied for and been granted Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) status by the City,
- That TWS had negotiated a contract with Kissick Construction for work
that the developer, CenterPoint Properties, was doing at
Richards-Gebaur."
"To my knowledge, Mr. Session had not informed any member of the Port
Authority Board nor any member of the Port Authority staff that he
intended to form or had formed a construction company, that he intended
to qualify the company as a MBE through the City or that he had any
intention of contracting at Richards-Gebaur," continued Burke.
"Since the contract involving TWS was neither a Port Authority contract
nor a public contract there was no way that it would have come to the
prior attention of the Port Authority absent disclosure by Mr. Session.
Knowledge of the transaction came to the staff's attention when the
contractor at Richards Gebaur submitted documents showing MBE
participation and listing TWS as a subcontractor on the project,"
continued Burke.
"I supported the appointment of an outside attorney, not affiliated with
or paid for by the Port Authority, to review the matter in detail. I
cooperated with the outside attorney and provided all relevant
documents. The conclusions of the outside review have been made public,"
continued Burke.
"I am still very disturbed by the lack of transparency on the part of
Mr. Session and TWS. I strongly feel that when you represent a public
client you should never put that client in a compromising or
embarrassing position, and that any action which might reflect adversely
or create a divided loyalty in your representation should be disclosed
in advance to the client," continued Burke.
"In March of this year, I resigned as General Counsel to the Port
Authority in order to fully dedicate myself to running for mayor. At
that time, Mr. Session was appointed as its General Counsel. I hope
that the Port Authority staff and board members can regroup and get
beyond this current controversy and continue the important work of
development of Kansas City's Riverfront. As mayor I will work hard to
ensure that the activities of all city boards and commissions are held
to the highest level of transparency and honesty," concluded Burke.
transactions related to the redevelopment of the former Richards-Gebaur
Air Force Base by the Port Authority of Kansas City, Missouri."
It's being couched as the council bravely stopping the mayor from turning the Port Authority mess into a campaign issue -- which he very well may be doing. But it's a little more complicated than that.
David's reporting indicates deep, dirty systemic problems at the Port Authority, ones that surely reach further than one shady deal by one shady lawyer. If that's true, this audit won't do anything to address them. It's just council's way of making themselves seem interested in a problem they likely should have known about long before it showed up in The Star.
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Runnion looks and acts a lot more like James Carville than Mr. Clean, although I love the irony in the latter
@Dan: I don't think anyone denies that Funkhouser sees this as an opportunity for his campaign. But his motives don't negate what appears to have happened over many years at the Port, and if someone with some juice wants to investigate that, I wouldn't consider that throwing good money after bad. I'd consider it throwing a little of my (and your) money after protecting a lot of it.
Before encouraging the city to throw good money after bad for yet another investigation, why don't those of you reporting on the story get the documents from the independent council? In a letter from Kent Sullivan of Stinson Morrison Hecker to Jeff Kaczmarek, President and CEO of the EDC dated November 26, 2008, TWS and Session were clearly shown to be in no violation and no conflict.
The review was thorough and if you read the documents you will see that TWS was a solid company seeking significant commercial work beyond KCMO. This was no shell company.
But your original story and the history cited above continue to ignore the fact that there was due-diligence conducted at the time and everything was proper. The review was by independent council, unless you think Stinson Morrison Hecker is in on this too?
Draw a line through this whole story and you will see that the Mayor is using his considerable leverage to throw others under the bus in order to get reelected. When the city council wouldn�t support his move to throw Runnion off the board, he had to go after someone else. That was Session.
Do you think that if Session and Runnion had been long time supporters of the Mayor�s reelection, this column would even appear today?
As for the Pitch �scooping� the Star; Go back and read your original story. There was no journalism involved, let alone journalistic integrity.
This is my response to the Star editorial on the matter"
The public is intelligent and will see through Burke�s pretend shock and dismay about corrupt dealings within the Port Authority, one of the EDC�s alphabet sub agencies. It stretches one�s imagination to believe how he, and others with years of intimate and detailed association with the EDC development process, could be so unaware. Other political figures close to the action will no doubt follow suit with their own alibis.
The recent revelations by David Martin of the Pitch and Dave Helling of the KC Star have prompted some to call for the City to conduct an audit of the Port Authority. The public has been subjected to this worn out remedy many times in the past.
Typically the strategy to ward off public outcry has been to assign �truth detectives� to investigate the matter. No one is surprised when the investigator�s report vindicates the agency and the central figures in the controversy. The agency proudly announces that all is well and assures the public that these incidents will not happen again for they now know how to take the necessary precautions. Business as usual resumes.
The most egregious example of this is what occurred when complaints were registered to the TIF commission, another EDC sub agency about contractual abuses on the H&R Block World Headquarters project. A consortium of construction associations and business groups lodged the complaint.
True to form, the TIF hired an outside consultant and conducted an internal audit. When the outside consultant presented his findings, he concluded that there was substance to the complaints. He had no choice because the abuses were so well documented. Some have suggested the acts were criminal in nature and warranted a federal investigation.
The TIF commission was caught off guard for no one had ever challenged them with solid evidence. They anguished for more than a year because they couldn�t put a positive spin on the obvious corruption. In the end, at a closed meeting involving the TIF, the City, and the offending developer and contractor, the City inexplicably arrived at the conclusion that everything was proper.
None of the available sanctions that were put in place to protect the public and preserve the integrity of the process were levied against the developer. Most observers will concur that the TIF commission had successfully swept the matter under the rug.
Keeping true to the script, The TIF commission assured the public that this was an isolated incident that it will not happen again for they have taken the proper precautions. We can now plainly see how effective EDC agency measures are to safe guard tax dollars.
It may be fortunate that this latest scandal has come to light just before elections because the public needs to know how the candidates stand on this very important aspect of council or mayoral service. I suggest the follow questions be asked of all the candidates:
For the incumbents:
Would you state why, despite evidence of wrongdoing, known by the Mayor and all the Council, no liquidated damages were assessed on the H&R Block Project and why no action was taken on the Richard Gebaur project?
For the incumbents and challengers:
Would you be in favor of an investigation by the Attorney General, the Justice Department or the FBI of EDC sub agency projects approved by this administration?
Ordinarily, one would commend the Mayor for taking the unusual step of requesting an investigation by the Attorney General. What makes this a disingenuous gesture is why, since a core platform for his initial election was stopping the abuse of TIF projects, did he not take a stand on the H&R Block World Headquarters project then as he is now on a Port Authority project?
Could it be that the central figures, H&R Block and J.E. Dunn are more powerful to take on than William Sessions and Kissick Construction? Could it be that this is merely an act of desperation to retain his office? Only an unobstructed investigation will answer this question.
Say no to another self-serving audit. Demand a complete federal investigation.
This city is so crooked.
Try and imagine how bad it would be without the Pitch and some local bloggers humpin thier asses to dig up the shit.
Hats off to Helling and all that, but this story gets wheels after some shoe leather gets burned by some guys OTHER than big name media in this town.
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