Grandview mayor appoints alderman to replace Dale Taylor

By Kathy Feist

After a six-week process to fill the Grandview alderman seat vacated by Dale Taylor, Mayor Leonard Jones announced on Tuesday, April 9th, that he chose Sandra Champion Jones (unrelated) to represent the residents of Ward 1. Sandra was sworn in at the Board of Alderman meeting on April 9th. She will serve out the remaining year left of Taylor’s term. Taylor submitted his resignation February 21. Three candidates applied for the mayor-appointed position and were screened by the Board of Aldermen.

Sandra, age 61, is the founder of Pinnacle Leadership Solutions, in which she coaches team management, leadership skills and workforce engagement. After 30 years with the IRS, she retired from her role as Supervisory Program Analyst at the senior level. During that time she served as President of the local chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union. She sits on the Grandview Arts Council and recently completed the Grandview Citizen’s Academy and UMKC’s Leadership Training Cohort. She graduated with a Masters degree in Executive Leadership from Champlain College in 2020.

“My main focus is engagement,” she said in response to what she hopes to accomplish during her short term. “I’m interested in how we can build neighborhood involvement.”

Sandra has lived in Grandview for 18 years.

Former Grandview Alderman Joe Runions exits politics 

Former Grandview Alderman Joe Runions, age 83, was issued a proclamation by the mayor for his years of service to the city.  Runions served as Ward 2 alderman from 2005 to 2013 and  2021 to 2024. From 2012 to 2020 he was elected to the Missouri state legislature.

Runions lost his candidacy to Irene Kendrick in the recent April 2nd election. At the swearing in ceremony, he thanked his constituency and expressed his concerns on an uncompleted project he helped initiate at the state level.

In 2016 while a state representative, Runions secured funds for the reconstruction of the Kansas City Southern Railroad trestle above Blue Ridge Boulevard. The $3.5 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration covered half of the project at the time while KC Southern and the City of Grandview each planned to cover a fourth.  “All it needed was Grandview money, but Grandview dragged its feet,” he said. Grandview voters did approve a ⅔ cent transportation tax in 2020 to help fund the railroad overpass. By then, Kansas City Southern (which also dragged its feet) was caught up in a bidding war and any financial help was delayed until after its sale. In 2023, Kansas City Southern was purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway. No movement has been made by the new owners. “By now the cost is probably somewhere around $12 to $13 million,” he lamented.

Runions’ successor, Kendrick, told the Telegraph the Blue Ridge Boulevard Expansion Project is a priority for her as well. “I also want to see the project come to fruition,” she said. “All expansion in Grandview is important.”

The $7.6 million project included reconstructing the trestle to allow for two railroad tracks above the overpass and four lanes of traffic with sidewalks under the overpass.