South KC lawmaker appointed mayor pro tem

Sixth District City Councilman Kevin McManus enjoys a moment at the Inaugural Ceremony at City Hall August 1. Sixth District At-Large Andrea Bough is to his left. Photo City of Kansas City Mo. 

South KC lawmaker appointed mayor pro tem!

A rundown of who’s who and what they are in charge of at City Hall.

By John Sharp

Photo courtesy City of Kansas City MO

City Council members from south Kansas City have been appointed to key positions by Mayor Quinton Lucas.

Despite endorsing former Councilwoman Jolie Justus for mayor, 6^th District Councilman Kevin McManus was appointed by Lucas as mayor pro tem to fill in as mayor in his absence.  McManus also was appointed as a member of the Finance, Governance & Public Safety Committee which appears likely to be the most powerful of the reorganized City Council committees.

Returning 5^th District-at-Large Councilman Lee Barnes, Jr., was appointed chair of the Neighborhood Planning & Development Committee and as a member of the Finance Governance & Public Safety Committee.

The two new councilwomen from south Kansas City also fared well on appointments with 6^th District-at-Large Councilwoman Andrea Bough being appointed vice chair of the Neighborhood Planning & Development Committee, and 5^th District Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw being appointed as a member of the Finance, Governance & Public Safety Committee and the Special Committee on Housing Policy.

Two veteran councilwomen and supporters of Lucas in the mayoral campaign have been appointed by him as chairs of the other two standing Council committees.  Katheryn Shields, 4^th District-at-Large, was appointed chair of the Finance, Governance & Public Safety Committee, and 2^nd District-at-Large Councilwoman Teresa Loar was appointed chair of the Transportation, Infrastructure & Operations Committee.

Lucas, who stressed that expansion of affordable housing should be a top priority of the city in his campaign, named himself to chair the new Special Committee on Housing Policy charged with supporting the creation and retention of quality affordable housing.

The four new Council committees will replace ten committees that had been in existence, although several of them seldom met.  Four of those committees were reorganized. The six committees eliminated were Airport; Ethics & Legal Review; Legislative; Neighborhoods & Public Safety; Small Business, Entrepreneurship & Jobs; and Youth Development.