HB 760- Exempting Kansas City from the inspection and certification standards imposed by the Missouri State Elevator Safety Board. The bill was voted DO PASS out of the House Urban Affairs Committee on 03/27/01, but failed to advance due to extraordinary efforts on the part of labor. At the end of the legislative session, the General Assembly passed HB 185 to be signed into law by Governor Holden who, after heavy lobbying by the Labor Council, vetoed the bill on 07/11/01. The last section of the bill, which was extremely ambiguous, could have been interpreted to effectively exempt “private” freight elevators from state inspections. However, the terms “private” and “public”, as they pertain to the use of these elevators, could still be easily called into question. The coalition of owners and the Chamber of Commerce, who have championed the exemption on behalf of building owners, intend to restart this process in fall in order to realize the original intent of exempting all KCMO elevators from state (vs. city) administered inspections. Meanwhile, Sam Alpert was invited to participate as a conferee at a Joint Committee on Administrative Affairs hearing that was originally scheduled for July 12th to take up the issue. The hearing was subsequently postponed to the second week of September and the local coalition, which includes the KCMO city attorney’s office, is documenting numerous cases of abuses by state inspectors in KC that have already occurred.

There is mounting concern that Governor Holden will continue to respond favorably to organized labor backed issues due to labor’s generosity in helping to dispose of significant campaign debt.

KCMO is in the process of redrawing the city council district lines. This becomes significant in that it appears that the CBD is in danger of becoming a “no-man’s land” in terms of being able to identify council advocates. This is the result of bordering districts’ residential neighborhoods fearing a drain on public improvements funding. Other issues affecting this process include the growing Hispanic population in Old Northeast and sizing of the 1st and 2nd districts based on the infrastructure requirements to serve a growing Northland population. This process is on a fast track and requires thoughtful imput.

Upon communicating to Kansas House Speaker Kent Glasscock HAA’s desire to meet with him to discuss our concerns with respect to both utility sub-metering and “forced access”, he has agreed to meet with us at our August 30th meeting. We should be well prepared to discuss these issues at length with him, as he has been advised that while we consider water conservation a high priority, both issues are rooted in basic property rights.