Free complimentary copy March 4, 2016 • Volume 3, No. 19
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Mayor highlights achievements, looks ahead in State of City Address By Kris Collins More than a hundred public officials, community leaders and residents from Raytown and surrounding communities attended the Raytown Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon Feb. 25 at First Baptist Raytown for Mayor Mike McDonough’s State of the City Address, in which he highlighted 2015 city achievements and conveyed his hope for future successes in new undertakings. “It is my great honor to be standing here in front of you today because of the help of many of you, who believed in me and gave me a chance to be in this position as the mayor of Raytown,” he said. McDonough called Det. Jim Wolsey, of the Raytown Police Department, and Kansas City Police Detective Vernon Huth to the stage to receive proclamations in recognition of their work on the investigation of the death of Harry Stone, a 60-year-old Raytown man who was shot and killed whiling jogging in March 2012. Craig L. Brown, 24, is facing second-degree murder for Stone’s death. Jack-
son County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker highlighted the work of the Raytown Police Department during a press conference in which she announced Brown’s charges. “Det. Wolsey and Det. Huth spent countless hours on the case and in the summer of 2015, detectives Wolsey and Huth received the break in the investigation, which ultimately led to a suspect, who was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the case, on Feb. 8, 2016, nearly four years after the crime,” McDonough said. The mayor also recognized the Raytown Fire Protection District for its efforts in fighting the Feb. 7 fire that killed two at the Somerset Village Apartments, and the department’s ensuing investigation with the assistance of state and national fire agencies. “We’re sad that despite everyone’s heroic efforts we lost Cheri Roberts and her grandson Jerimiah, and her grandson Jabin is still in the hospital with critical burns,” McDonough said, asking for a moment of silence. “Thank you. I’m so proud of our community and how they’ve rallied around the Roberts
Photo by Kris Collins Raytown Mayor Mike McDonough, center, presents proclamations, in recognition of excellence in the investigation of the death of Harry Stone, 60, of Raytown, to Raytown Police Department Det. Jim Wolsey, right, and Kansas City Police Department’s Det. Vernon Huth.
and the other families affected by the fire.” McDonough went on to highlight achievements of every department, but put more of an emphasis on the future, citing Oregon, California and Sante Fe Trails playing a big part in transportation, in addition to the Katy Trail and the Rock Island deal. “We have three places on the trails that are on the National Registry of Historic Places,” he said.
“Those are Cave Springs, Raytown Historical Society Museum and the Rice-Tremonti historical house. We are part of the rail corridor also. “This town of ours is a small town atmosphere in a big metropolitan area. We have great people, churches, schools, police, fire, emergency medical services, city services, kids sports. We never give in and never give up. Our town is made up of a collectively diverse people who are proud, hardwork-
ing, helpful, caring, sharing, talented, hopeful, inventive, friendly people who look after one another and help one another. We are Raytowners. I am proud to have grown up here. I am proud of its people and I am looking forward to being here the rest of my life, and watching this city bloom once again into greatness. I am proud to be the mayor of this cit,y and I always proudly proclaim that I am from Raytown.” McDonough later said his greatest accomplishment in office thus far is the collaboration his administration has inspired. “People are learning to work together, and it is a learning process and gelling process,” he said. “It’s most important that that takes place the first year so people can move forward and work together. “Moving the projects forward, the reactivation of the municipal and finance committees, so that staff and board can work together to better understand projects coming up before they come to the board, those are the two main things and I think have been very important.”
Raytown retroactively files TIF financial reports By Kris Collins The city of Raytown has filed financial statements for the Tax Increment Finance district used to fund the Raytown Live redevelopment project along Missouri 350 after it came to light in February that the city had failed to file documents mandated by state law from 2012 through 2015. “It was one of those things that had we known about it would have been filed, but it just fell through the cracks,” said City Administrator Mahesh Sharma. A Tax Increment Finance, or TIF, district is a funding mechanism commonly used to fund large-scale projects. The TIF captures tax revenue and allows a city to pay off bonds used for a redevelopment project over a long period of time. The TIF district in question was formed to redevelop approximately 30 acres of property along Missouri 350 as part of a project called Raytown Live, of which phase one included Wal-Mart. Sharma said the failure to file the documents was an oversight and attributed it, in part, to high turnover of city staff. The city, however, filed the financial reports required by state law from 2008 to 2011. Two different city employees prepared those documents. The Missouri
Department of Revenue, to which reports are to be submitted, sends reminders about financial filings. Sharma said a change in filing requirements also contributed to the missed deadlines. The new filing process is conducted online and requires a personal identification number (PIN). “Whether we received a PIN number from the state or not, at some point they discontinued sending the reminders,” Sharma said. The Missouri Department of Revenue did not return calls by press time, and the Raytown-Brooking Eagle is unable to report at this time how many notifications were sent to the city. The Missouri Department of Revenue’s website states that entities that filed reports in 2014 should have received a PIN number in the mail. During the public comment portion of Tuesday’s evening Board of Aldermen meeting, one resident expressed disappointment in the city’s failure to file the TIF documents and called for action against the responsible party. “I’m directing my concern at staff, not at elected officials,” said John Wiley, who specifically cited the city’s finance director and administrator. “Someone in the staff is responsible for this happening for four years.”
Wiley said the mistake should cost the responsible party his or her job, or warrant a motion of no confidence from the board. “Something significant should happen,” Wiley added. The financial reports filed from 2008-2011 appear to be incomplete and inaccurate. For example, the 2008-2009 and the 2009-2010 reports contain the same exact data. Though the missing documents from 20122015 have been filed, the information doesn’t appear any more reliable. The 2015 reports, like others filed before it, state no money has been spent on public infrastructure for the Raytown Live redevelopment project. Sharma said questions about finance details should be directed to Raytown Finance Director Mark Loughry. Loughry was out of the office and unavailable for comment by press time. Sharma said the city is still trying to establish how the documents were submitted incomplete and with inaccuracies. “Probably the information came from the finance department and then was reviewed by community development,” he said. “But going forward that’s the direction we will take: that all the numbers come from the finance department. That is where we’re going to have the information uploaded every year.”
Loughry prepared the annual TIF reports from 2012-2015. Sharma said the city is also working with its TIF attorney, Chris Williams, of Williams & Campos, P.C., to rectify any mistakes and establish a procedure to prevent the same problem from happening in the future. Sharma said one solution is to put a reminder mechanism in place so that multiple staff members will receive future filing notifications. He said the system will also lessen the chances that high employee turnover will lead to failure to file the reports. Failure to file State statute calls for a ban of no less than five years on the formation of new TIFs should an entity fail to meet all the filing requirements, which includes documents apart from the financial reports. In December 2015, a Boone County judge ordered a five-year ban on the formation of new TIFs in the city of Columbia after it failed to meet reporting requirements 23 to 25 times since 2009, according to court documents. The city failed to file annual financial statements and failed to publish annual TIF statements in a local newspaper. Sharma said he currently has no indication from the state that any such penalty will be handed down to Raytown.
“We believe and we have, as of last week, met the obligation of providing the report, even though it was not annual,” Sharma said. “We have submitted the 2015 report. We just have to see.” Sharma said it is difficult to measure the potential impact of such a penalty for Raytown. He noted there are currently no developers seeking to form a TIF in Raytown, and said TIFs are becoming a less popular financing mechanism, especially during the past eight to 10 years. The city is currently trying to establish — among other things — when a five-year redevelopment project review, required by law, will need to be held in Raytown. He said the city last held one in 2010 or 2011. “I think once this cloud settles down a little bit we will provide the information, what we are doing to ensure things like that will not fall through the cracks, and the city will be in compliance, as we take these things very serious,” Sharma said. “It happens, unfortunately. … We will be providing some explanation, what happened, why it happened, and what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future. “In the publics’ eye, I understand and totally respect it, but as long as we’re making sure there are enough checks and balances we will try to restore the confidence.”
Arcade opens in downtown Raytown By Kris Collins When business owners Tracie and Darrell Hardin opened Pop That Thang in early October, they adopted a kid-friendly philosophy for their popcorn hangout. Derrell Hardin, and two of his business partners, are like-minded with their new business QuarterStop Arcade, located at Raytown Plaza. “We love children, and youth. That’s our heart and our passion,” Darrell Hardin said. “We need a way that can we attract them and give them something positive to do. Once we can give them something positive to do, then that gives us
an opportunity to talk to the youth. Our concern is their vision and their dreams.” Specifically, he said he talks to kids about their plans for the future, what they see themselves doing in the next few years after graduation. “When I get an answer like, ‘I don’t know,’ then I have a problem with that, when you’re in the ninth or tenth grade and not sure what you’re going to do,” he said. “That opens the door for us to talk to them.” QuarterStop, co-owned by Eddie Norton, Jr. and Andrew Davis, is similar to Pop That Thang in that it too can be rented out for parties,
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granting gamers access to the “classic” games (Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Galactica, among others) in the back room. The arcade’s main floor houses everything from whack-em type games, to classic shooters and game show-style video games. The business opened Tuesday. Weekday hours are 4 to 9 p.m., and open until 10 p.m. on weekends. QuarterStop Arcade is offering buy-one-get-one on games this Saturday for its opening. Hardin said he hopes in the future to forge partnerships with youth programs and organizations to offer kids and adult entertainment in Raytown.
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Photo by Kris Collins Business owner Darrell Hardin plays a game at his newly opened arcade, QuaterStop Arcade, located in the Raytown Plaza.
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