KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kansas City, Kansas, Mayor Tyrone Garner says it's still "somewhat unclear" where the PILOT fee removal stands after Thursday’s special Unified Government meeting.
This meeting came after the PILOT fee, or payment in lieu of taxes, was not removed from customer bills as promised by Oct. 1.
County administrator David Johnston cited the county’s charter as reasoning behind the date both on Aug. 1 and at Thursday’s meeting. The mayor also referenced it Thursday as reasoning behind wanting to stick to the Oct. 1 date and not announcing anything beforehand.
After three days of working to secure an in-person interview, Mayor Garner spoke with me Friday morning over the phone.
A Q&A with KSHB 41's Rachel Henderson and Kansas City, Kansas, Mayor Tyrone Garner is below:
Rachel: Did you or did you not receive a letter from Bill Johnson on Sept. 13 saying that the Oct. 1 deadline was unrealistic?
Mayor: Yeah, yeah. I got that email. I went back in my email and saw that he did send that to me.
Rachel: When you read that, did it raise any red flags for you in real-time? ‘Cause I know when we chatted on the 17th, you confirmed for our viewers that the Oct. 1 date was still happening.
Mayor: Yeah, as far as I knew, it was. You gotta remember, I rely on our administrator and our staff for the Unified Government to advise me of things, and before I make those statements, I always check with our administrator, who checks with the legal department and staff. And I hadn’t been told anything differently. So I can only go by,
I don’t know what I don’t know, and I can only go by instinct to what I do know, and the last information I had was the administrator notifying the elected body and the public they would be coming off. And that’s who advises me. I don’t listen to Bill Johnson or the BPU board because they’re actually managing partners to the UG. Actually, we’re the parent company. When it’s all said and done, the Unified Board of Commissioners here has absolute control and authority by charter over the BPU board and that operation at the Board of Public Utilities. I tend to lean on staff at the Unified Government as opposed to opinions or people from, that aren’t part of that chain in command here at the Unified Government.
Rachel: Sure, so when it comes to someone like the County Administrator, for instance, when you get an email like that. I know he was also copied on it. Did you think, hey, I should have a conversation with him to at least touch base before Oct. 1?
Mayor: I did talk to him, and he told me that he would be in communication with Mr. Johnson. The problem wasn’t whether or not, I had already, we had already had conversations with the Board of Public Utilities, and there was some indication that they may or may not be on board with the direction that the Unified Government was going. It was more about looking at our charter, and I mentioned that last night at our meeting. And a question came is, were we following the charter as it’s written when you talked about gross revenues? I can’t get into the opinions of individuals as to challenges they may have. The obligation I have is to make sure that the charter and the charter and laws of our Unified Government are followed.
If you go back to Aug. 1, and that was one of the things our administrator mentioned, we have to make sure that we’re enforcing our charter. And so, even though there may be challenges with that, those are challenges that I didn’t create. I don’t think that anybody currently here at the Unified Government created. It looks like practices may have been put in place that bring questions, and I mentioned that last night as to our charter. When you talk about the PILOT and how the unified government’s supposed to receive that from the Board of Public Utilities…
Rachel: What’s the difference between having the PILOT fee removed and having that fee made up on people’s bills? That’s what a lot of people were asking me, and if adhering to the charter means the PILOT’s gone or they’re not paying for it, how would that money have been made up for?
Mayor: That’s why we have, that’s why you have the Board of Public Utilities, and that was our stance. The Board of Public Utilities was created by city officials decades ago for them to manage those types of scenarios.
Rachel: So I think that takes me back to the question of why wasn’t the full BPU board and the full UG Board of Commissioners meeting throughout this 2-3 month process? Because I think when we hear BPU board members say they had no idea that this was going on or these talks were happening, why weren’t they notified before this announcement was made to the public?
Mayor: I don’t know how true that is. Because I know that our attorney who is also the attorney for BPU, if you take a look at that, I know has had their conversations with their general manager. So I can’t speak to specifics, but I know that those communication channels were open.
Rachel: What was your takeaway even when you heard BPU members come up last night and say that they were feeling like they were in the dark?
Mayor: You know, that was concerning to me. Considering that I know that our administrator and their general manager had been in conversation prior to the administrator making that announcement on Aug. 1. So I was kind of taken aback. It’s just, I don’t know why the direction we were going in trying to make sure that we were in compliance with our charter would have been a surprise to anyone. What did come out, which was kind of a shock, was how they calculate the PILOT in a way where they said that it would be a struggle for them to make up that difference and come up with the PILOT obligation that they have by charter to the Unified Government.
Rachel: Do you think having meetings would have helped with that?
Mayor: We’ve had meetings with them. Those are things that my office not only advocated for, but we implemented. I’ve had several meetings. We had a meeting with the general manager and the board chair a few months back.
Rachel: When were those meetings happening? What date?
Mayor: I can’t remember the exact date. I can pull that up for you. But we did have a joint, I think one or two joint meetings, don’t quote me on it. With the BPU board meetings with the BPU board and Unified Government commissioners. (Later on, his chief of staff provided Aug. 29 at 5 p.m. as a joint meeting between the UG commissioners and BPU board members).
Rachel: When you were talking to the public last night, when you sent out your release, what were you apologizing for?
Mayor: I was apologizing because of the confusion. I was hoping someone else would apologize other than myself, but as the visible head of the Unified Government. What appears it wasn’t a lack of transparency, a lack of communication, and a commitment that was made that apparently wasn’t conveyed to me would be followed through on. The last information I got, which I was hoping to, was our administrator said that the PILOT would be taken off Oct. 1. When that didn’t happen and I had to find out about it on social media, that was troubling to me. And so I wanted to, I felt like as the head of this government, I owe this community an apology.
Rachel: How is that possible that you were finding out in real-time even though you’d gotten the letter weeks before? Even on, say, Sept. 30, hey, I need to check in, I just want to make sure this happening tomorrow or even the day of.
Mayor: Well, because the information I got from our administrator was that it was. There was no information in my conversation that it was not not gonna happen. And then when I had to find out through social media that, and I’m not even going to say that it’s not gonna happen, but the information that they were still in conversation that it hadn’t occurred, that’s when I started asking these questions.
Rachel: I know a commissioner asked this question last night too, who’s at fault? Who dropped the ball? That was an open question last night, I want to know your take on that.
Mayor: Well, you know, that’s something that we’re still exploring. But that’s why I called that special meeting last night in hopes to try and get some clarity for myself, the commission, and the public on, okay, where did the ball drop? I don’t know if that was brought out in a way that was satisfactory.
Rachel: Will this lead to firings of any sort?
Mayor: I mean, if, I can’t get into any type of conversations about personnel matters. I just, that’s just something I can’t talk about.
Rachel: But you’re unhappy about it?
Mayor: I’m unhappy about the fact that there was a lack of transparency, a lack of communication, and that I had to find out about it through social media. And I’ve got to be the one that ultimately gets blamed for it all. Which, you know, that comes with the position. And that I have to apologize. Which, okay, I mentioned that last night. Maybe I should have been on it every day, every step of the way, but I mean, I’m dealing with professionals that are hired to do a job, and I take people at their word. And so, that’s just what I do.
You got a lot of people with the Unified Government that work to make sure that accurate and timely information is given to me and that I can give that to the public as well as our commission. And so, I rely on that information. And when I find out that it’s something different, it is troubling to me. Like I said, and that’s why I called a special meeting that occurred last night because I wanted to get to the bottom of it.
As the visible head of the government, yes, I’ve got to make sure and say, okay, the buck stops with me, I guess, in some regards as the mayor. I owe this community an apology because maybe more due diligence should have been done on my part or my team’s part to make sure that this was going through.
The last information I had, I felt comfortable and confident that it would occur. There was nothing that led me to believe anything different until I saw the information on social media that kind of indicated that what was said to be occurring may not occur or may have been put on pause. And so, I called the meeting last night to just get more information.
I really needed to really, hopefully, get some things out in a public forum and try and hopefully get a handle and some clarity on how we got to this point. Even after last night, it’s still somewhat unclear to me.
Rachel: Is the PILOT fee coming off still a realistic outcome? What can people expect going forward?
Mayor: You know, after last night, I can say I don’t know. As you know, the commission and myself, we directed the administrator to do some research. There was a request to sit down with the Board of Public Utilities to have a more in-depth conversation. I can tell you, my commitment from day one has always been to find a responsible and a reasonable way to, if possible, to bring some relief and remove the PILOT from the BPU bill. If it can be done, fine. If it can’t be done, at least I want to say that we tried and we researched it, and we vetted it. And if it’s realized, that’d be great for people that are saying that it’s a burden. If we can’t then at least we’ve done due diligence to that effect.
Rachel: Is amending the charter an option? Are you all looking at that?
Mayor: You know, that’s always an option. That’s one of the things that I want to bring forward to the commission as far as looking at the charter and seeing what responsible options are available to may address issues. I’ve been talking about the charter and our ordinances for years. The theory behind consolidation was great, but there’s a lot of gaps and blind spots that I have found since I’ve been mayor in our ordinances and our charters that we just need to really take a hard look at to make sure that it’s really reflecting the values of where we’re at today and really hit home the intention of what the whole consolidation movement was about in 1997. Which was efficient government, lower taxes, you know, having open communication and cutting out inefficiencies and those things. We really have to take a look at our charter.
A statement from the BPU in response to Mayor Garner’s interview is below.
We are encouraged by the recent dialogue between the Unified Government (UG) and the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Board of Directors regarding the Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) fee. Both the BPU leadership and the UG leadership have demonstrated a shared commitment to finding a solution that serves the best interests of the citizens of Wyandotte County.
In recognition and respect to the authority of the Unified Government, the BPU Board remains focused on collaborating with the UG’s elected body to strike a balance between the essential services provided by the UG and the financial needs of our customers. It is through this cooperation that we aim to ensure the most beneficial outcomes for all involved. With this in mind, we are hopeful that collaboration will continue and allow us to work together on behalf of our residents and customers.
Our goal is to find sensible solutions that reflect our mutual responsibility to the community and ensure that decisions regarding the PILOT fee are made with the best interest of Wyandotte County in mind.
We look forward to the next steps in these discussions and remain committed to serving the needs of the people we are honored to represent.
Our 14-minute conversation ended there. His chief of staff added there will be an upcoming special meeting between the UG Board of Commissioners and BPU board members on Oct. 30 at 5 p.m.
The mayor will also be hosting a Public Officials Town Hall on Saturday featuring BPU Chair Tom Groneman, District Attorney Mark Dupree, KCKCC Board Chair Brad Isnard, KCKPS Board President Randy Lopez, and UG Commissioners Tom Burroughs and Melissa Bynum.
Residents were encouraged to submit questions by Oct. 15 as leaders “discuss the future of Wyandotte County.”
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