Subject: Deb Hermann

• City officials rip now-jeopardized Citadel Plaza

    Two months ago, the members of the Kansas City Finance and Audit committee unanimously and enthusiastically approved a plan to issue bonds for the long-awaited Citadel Plaza shopping center at 63rd Street and Prospect Avenue. Today, those same members angrily denied the developer's request for $20 million from city coffers and admonished everyone involved for incompetence. Now, a project 15 years in the making that's made a mess of a busy intersection is fa

  December 3, 2008

• Best Politician

  October 9, 2003

• Building Block

  February 5, 2004

• A Chateau no mo': Demolition in Historic Northeast leaves neighbors fuming

  Bill Broderick, an inspector with the city's Dangerous Buildings division, was driving in the Pendleton Heights neighborhood of northeast Kansas City a week ago when he noticed a vacant building at 308 Brooklyn that people in the neighborhood refer to as "the Chateau." Part of the roof was missing, leaving the building exposed to the elements. The inspector went inside -- he told his supervisors that the structure wasn't secure -- and saw disrepair that, in his opinion, was so egregious that

  March 27, 2009

• Here’s why Kansas City’s broke all the time

  April 2, 2009

• Six ways the city has wrecked a vital agency. Two projects that work anyway.

  January 8, 2009

• All You Need Is Love

  January 1, 2009

• 117 Homicides and Counting

  As City Hall tries to fix its Aim4Peace program, the killing continues.

  November 20, 2008

• Funkhouser’s latest weapon against Cauthen: memos

  August 7, 2008

• Drunk on Power: The developer of downtown's entertainment district fights the neighborhoods' right to party

  February 21, 2008

• If It Ain't Broke

  Is there a city housing scandal? Two City Council members aren't so sure.

  January 29, 2004

• At least one reason to love Deb Hermann

  By Sarah RaeDeb HermannCouncilwoman Deb Hermann says what she's thinking. Loved this quote from Hermann in The Kansas City Star about an audit revealing the failures of Kansas City's -- but isn't doing a good job of -- encouraging minority and women owned businesses. "What we're seeing here is a real failure," said Finance Committee Chairman Deb Hermann. "There are a lot of troubling issues."Sounds like the program is less than encouraging, including the city taking its sweet time -- an average

  April 15, 2009

• Man of Many Hats

  August 17, 2006

• The Chase

  February 23, 2006

• Income Taxidermy

  Does Union Station squander money meant for the Kansas City Museum?

  July 1, 2004

• Spoil Spurt

  It started with Boys Vs. Girls and more childish games have been marring the local graffiti scene every since.

  November 13, 2003

• The Land of Ahs

  Who cares about Kansas' reputation when there's Bondage Dorothy to protect it?

  October 16, 2003

• Kid Gloves

  Once in a while, the whatsoever boxing club can make an honest fighter out of a neighborhood tough.

  September 11, 2003

• Photo Finish

  The mayor's man shows his true colors.

  May 1, 2003

• Funk, 'Hot legs' Johnson, Hermann and SSB battle over stimulus money and rules of order

  Things blew up at the Kansas City City Council meeting yesterday afternoon, when talk  turned to resolution 090436. I swear Deb Hermann was ready to eat Sharon Sanders Brooks' face at one point.At issue was economic stimulus money for Destiny Towers, a Northland senior housing project of the Harvest Church. Hermann wanted to amend the resolution and give the funding to Northland Neighbors Inc., a couple of day cares and other organizations. Of course, the issue was laced with racial tension

  June 5, 2009

• Fight head-in angle parking in Columbus Park

  KC Bike InfoKC Bike Info wants you to fight head-in angle parking in Columbus Park. A proposed mixed-use development in Columbus Park would use angle parking on 5th Street -- a BikeKC route. Why fight it? KC Bike info says it's dangerous and offers this handy guide. But the gist, head-in angle parking is dangerous because cars are blindly backing into traffic and possibly striking a bicyclists. They say back-in angle parking is a better option (see the photo above).Sounds like they have an uphil

  June 17, 2009

• KC Council says yes to spending $500K on convention hotel study

  Eight members of the Kansas City City Council unanimously decided to waste spend $500,000 to study whether building a 1,000 room convention hotel is a good idea. The man with the shiniest head, Terry Riley, tried to delay the hotel study vote, and councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks seconded. But only Riley, SSB and Deb Hermann voted in favor of waiting. Voting to spend the money on the study: Ed Ford, Melba Curls, Beth Gottstein, Jan Marcason and John Sharp. Absent were oversized novelty Mayor M

  June 19, 2009

• CDC president steps down, but the controversy over Citadel Plaza ramps up

  The wasteland at 63rd and ProspectTrying to predict what's going to happen with the illusive Citadel Plaza shopping center is a little like trying to nail down the plastic bags that dip and swirl around the still empty lot at 63rd Street and Prospect Avenue. At the start of the week, it appeared the City Council was ready to hand over millions of taxpayer dollars to kick-start the strip mall. Instead, two new issues bubbled to the surface.   After a decade, the Community Development Corp

  June 19, 2009

• The cash-sucking Citadel Plaza won’t go away, and neither will expensive and stupid feasibility studies.

  June 25, 2009

• Martin: Cordish Is Drunk on Power

  February 14, 2008

• Hey Midtown, recycle this!

  Next stop, Midtown.​At long last, it looks like Midtown will get a recycling center.This morning, the City Council's Finance and Audit Committee unanimously approved $225,000 for the operation of the city's three recycling drop-off centers and a new one-year operating contract with Bridging the Gap, the nonprofit collector of KC's recyclables. The city also has a commitment from Bridging the Gap to construct the fourth facility in Midtown."It's been sometime since we had a proper Midtown site,

  August 5, 2009

• Second volunteer ordinance fails; more Gloria Squitiro on the way?

  ​$550,000 to Ruth Bates later, oversized Vulcan Mayor Mark Funkhouser vetoes the City Council's second attempt at a volunteer ordinance, the Council fails to override Funk's veto and his "Chicken-Shit with an Attitude" volunteer/wife is free to roam City Hall. Deb Hermann, Bill Skaggs, Russ Johnson and Beth Gottstein voted against overriding Funk's veto. Group hug!

  August 14, 2009

• Chris Stigall running for KC mayor?

  ​A New York City polling company is calling Kansas Citians to ask how they feel about a potential mayoral run by KCMO 710's flaming conservative pundit Chris Stigall. A member of The Pitch Action News Team received a call from a polling company asking questions like "Do you feel strongly in favor, strongly negative, no opinion" about a slate of potential candidates that included Oversized Vulcan Mayor Mark Funkhouser, City Councilwoman Deb Hermann and attorneys Sly James, Mike Burke and the aw

  September 11, 2009

• The red-light camera money suck

  ​Awesome report on the red-light cameras possibly costing Kansas City money by KMBC Channel 9's Micheal Mahoney. Mahoney's reporting showed that the city isn't pulling in as much money from the tickets as it thought it would, and there's a huge ass backlog of tickets in muni court. It's so bad that the police have to pay officers overtime to review the tickets. And here's the part that will make you cringe: City Council member Deb Hermann said, "All those projections of money for the city have

  October 15, 2009

• Northland losing faith in Antioch Center's redevelopment

  Deb Hermann​Frustrated by the lack of activity at Antioch Center, Northland representatives want to put pressure on the shopping center's erstwhile redeveloper.Eastbourne Investments, the aging mall's Canadian owner, put forward a plan in 2004 to remake the mall with taxpayer assistance. The City Council approved a deal in which tax-increment financing (TIF) and other public sources would cover half of the $80 million project's costs.Yet today Antioch Center remains an outdated, salmon-colored

  November 11, 2009