Subject: Wayne Cauthen

• Crankytown

  June 27, 2007

• Downtown's Back, Along with McD's Heartland Latte

  January 10, 2008

• Daily Briefs: Affidavit Action! Barack Obamania! And the Coolest Name in Kansas City!

  January 30, 2008

• Funk Tells Cauthen to Get With the Program

  July 18, 2008

• Funk, City Manager Thinking More Alike

  August 12, 2008

• Bottled Water Program Gets Scrapped

  September 15, 2008

• Downtown eyesores inch closer to demolition

  By DAVID MARTIN Wrecking balls beckon two of downtown Kansas City, Missouri's most hideous buildings. Last month, the city council approved $150,000 to help pay for the cost of demolishing the Shoppers Parkade at 11th and Grand. A former parking garage with bail bonds offices on the ground floor, the dreary building attracts a rough element. At an Economic Development Corp. board meeting this morning, the agency's executive director, Jeff Kaczmarek, said he witnessed four drug deals take place

  November 21, 2008

• Reporter's Notebook: More from Clinton Adams

  In my story this week, Housing for Dummies, I wrote about the city's housing department, or lack thereof. In the story, I quoted Kansas City lawyer and Urban Summit attendee Clinton Adams as he faulted Sharon Sanders Brooks' leadership on the housing committee. Space didn't permit the inclusion of all that Adams had to say on the subject of faulty leadership, which included criticism of more than just Sanders Brooks. On City Manager Wayne Cauthen: "Some of us with the Urban Summit are extreme

  January 8, 2009

• NY Islanders landlocked in KC? Not so fast

  Kansas City and AEG are working on getting a pro basketball or hockey team for the Sprint Center. That's what City Manager Wayne Cauthen told The Downtowners lunch club yesterday. He specifically mentioned the New York Islanders. I saved this shaky video from yesterday's dispatch.  Since the announcement that the Islanders booked an exhibition game at the Sprint Center, there's been a lot of talk about the team getting landlocked in Kansas City. A lot of people saw the exhibition game a

  February 12, 2009

• Budget cuts will lead to mass layoffs, KCPD warns

  Here in the Killa City, we got news this week of how the $12 million in cuts proposed in City Manager Wayne Cauthen's budget would affect the Kansas City Police Department. The police say they'd have to give 225 police officers pink slips. Kinda scary when the city had more murders last year than the Royals had wins and the daily paper runs a three-part series called "Murder Factory." I called up police commissioners Karl Zobrist and Terry Brady to find out how realistic the projections were. I

  January 29, 2009

• Meet The New Boss

  February 27, 2003

• Garbage In, Garbage Out

  July 24, 2003

• Deb Hermann likes her city manager punctual

  Great video from FuKCedCity in which City Councilwoman Deb Hermann gives us a lesson in telling time. This after Hermann started a Finance and Audit committee at 8:15 a.m. on the dot yesterday and adjourned the meeting when City Manager Wayne Cauthen wasn't there on time. Folks, it's time to synchronize watches.

  February 5, 2009

• Cauthen pushes convention hotel idea hard

  Wayne CauthenWhile City Manager Wayne Cauthen arrived early to his the city council Finance and Audit Committee meeting this morning, he was late for lunch at the meeting of The Downtowners. Cauthen spent most of his time -- or it just seemed like it to me -- pushing the idea for a convention hotel, noting several missed convention opportunities. He also said that there's no time to wait. Building a hotel takes 36 months, so KC needs to act now. My colleague David Martin isn't a big fan of the c

  February 11, 2009

• Guess what? Kansas City has a housing department again

  Kansas City once again has a housing department, thanks to an ordinance passed by the city council January 29th that went into effect last Sunday. Can't you just feel the difference? Me neither, but bringing housing in Kansas City back to the level of a department, even as a piece of a larger department, is an improvement from conditions I wrote about last month titled "Housing for Dummies: Six ways the city has wrecked a vital agency. Two projects that work anyway."At yesterday's Housing Commi

  February 12, 2009

• Best Downtown Revitalizer

  October 9, 2003

• Aim4Peace hitting its targets

  In November, I wrote this story ("117 Homicides and Counting," November 18, 2008) about how dumb bureaucracy and egotism was getting in the way of Aim4Peace, the city's new anti-violence program. Despite using a template that was successful across the nation and being run by dedicated people like Tracie Mclendon, the program just couldn't get the financial support it needed or hire the people it wanted to. But if today's numbers are true, the program's saving lives.

  March 11, 2009

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

  April 2, 2009

• Tantalized by economic-stimulus money, City Hall has trouble breaking bad habits

  January 29, 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

• Chefs and owners make adjustments in a rough economy

  August 14, 2008

• Funkhouser’s latest weapon against Cauthen: memos

  August 7, 2008

• Forgetting history and ignoring evidence, Kansas City pursues a convention hotel

  May 1, 2008

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

  February 21, 2008

• Fudge Factory

  City Manager Wayne Cauthen updates his résumé — a little too much.

  January 31, 2008

• The Two Funkitiros

  After Gloria Squitiro's recent tell-all to the Star, it's clear that the first couple needs a reality check.

  December 13, 2007

• Cauthen's Travels

  December 6, 2007

• If It Ain't Broke

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

  January 29, 2004

• The Mile-High Club

  April 26, 2007

• Cruiser Control

  March 1, 2007

• Cauthen: Danger Ahead

  We drag the river for stuff you didn't know you were missing.

  August 18, 2005

• Red Flags

  We tried to warn you were being big Dixies.

  June 30, 2005

• Night & Day Events

  Week of April 7, 2005

  April 7, 2005

• A Walk on the Wild Side

  City Manager Wayne Cauthen to rich arts patrons: Take a hike!

  December 16, 2004

• A Condemned Man

  For the Justrite Stamp company owner, City Hall’s arena buyout offer is just wrong.

  November 25, 2004

• Home Alone

  Waiting for City Hall, Cedric Workcuff feels as abandoned as his house looks.

  November 11, 2004

• New Lease on Life

  Warning to KC! Don’t swallow this cup o’ Joe!

  November 11, 2004

• GI Boys and Bondage

  A scary WWI display reminds us that this town has a long way to go.

  April 15, 2004

• Funny Math

  The deceptive way the city pays for maintenance always leaves it in the hole.

  February 26, 2004

• New York Times on Funkhouser: Why bother?

  When I heard the New York Times was planning a piece about our mayor, I expected something deep, probing, thoughtful. When I read Saturday's story, I couldn't figure out why they even bothered. If you're editing the national paper of record, and your financial situation is bleak, why devote precious resources to a story about Kansas City if you can't find a way to make it relevant to your national audience?The mayor looked appropriately outsider-y in the New York Times photo.Seems to me a New Yo

  May 26, 2009

• Martin: Cordish Is Drunk on Power

  February 14, 2008

• Funk wants money for cops, not a hotel study ... but the money comes from a different pot

  Oversized novelty Mayor Mark Funkhouser is back on the job, and he's firing off angry memos. This one went to City Manager Wayne Cauthen 'cause Funkhouser wants his police funding -- not a half-million dollar convention hotel study."The money for that project came easily, yet our residents still don't know if their city government is going to maintain our police force at the current force level," Funkhouser wrote. Yeah! You tell 'em, mayor. Except one thing: The money for the hotel study can't p

  June 25, 2009

• City Manager Wayne Cauthen sued for age, race discrimination

  Wayne CauthenNow Vulcan Mayor Mark Funkhouser has someone to commiserate with over the racial discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit against him. A couple of older, white women fired earlier this month from their jobs as budget analysts are claiming reverse discrimination and suing City Manager Wayne Cauthen. The lawsuit brought by 61-year-old Jordan Griffin and 53-year-old Colleen Low alleges racial and age discrimination and retaliation brought against them by Cauthen and the city. Griff

  July 21, 2009

• It takes more than green to improve Kansas City’s public spaces — seeing red helps

  July 23, 2009

• Top 10 things City Hall could have bought for Ruth Bates' settlement amount

   Now that we've had a few hours to think about the city's $550,000 settlement offer in Ruth Bates' discrimination suit against Mayor Mark Funkhouser and the city, we couldn't help but wonder what else we taxpayers might have done with that kind of money. Off the top of our heads, we coulda...  10. Paid for one study to help us decide whether we need a new convention hotel.9. Hired 5.5 chiefs of staff for the mayor.8. Increased housing for people with AIDS by 58 percent.7. Paid for 10

  July 24, 2009

• Mark One Electric keeps confounding government officials in charge of minority contracts

  August 13, 2009

• And we're back ...

  The big story of the weekend was Kansas City Star reporter Eric Adler's profile of City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Once considered the fixer of Kansas City, Cauthen is now the embattled target of Mayor Funkhouser. And guess what? Cauthen's writing a book. Doubt it's nearly as juicy as Gloria's. Also, Union Station leaders say the fix for the landmark is in taxpayers' pockets. City leaders say not so fast. Union Station is projected to lose $1.34 million this year. Kansas State football coach Bill Sn

  September 14, 2009

• Slideshow: Ailey II performance at The Folly

  On Friday night, the Folly Theater was full of men and women in tuxedos and ball gowns, sipping wine and greeting each other with kisses on the cheek. The audience for Ailey II was a who's who of city elite: Congressman Emanuel Cleaver; Tom McDonnell, CEO of DST Systems; Kansas City City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Photo by Nicole Reinertson​But those weren't the VIPs at this performance. Up in the balcony, the back rows of the renovated venue were packed with kids in jeans and parkas, all

  October 26, 2009