Parkville mayor rejects Community Improvement District candidates

Board also hears about new boat ramp.

Jerry Keuhn
Citizen Staff

After more than an hour of discussion at the Parkville Board of Alderman meeting July 20, Mayor Gerry Richardson used his mayoral privilege to reject a slate of candidates for the nine-member board of the Parkville Old Towne Market Community Improvement District (POTMCID). Richardson said he made the decision to honor the request of Alderman Jeffrey Bay, who was out of town on previously-made vacation plans and who asked the Board to postpone a vote on what he considered an important matter. Richardson said a written explanation of the reasons for the rejection will be provided as soon as possible and POTMCID will then have 10 days to respond, with the matter to be revisited at the Aug. 3 meeting.

POTMCID representatives including district manager and secretary Carol Kuhns, chair Tom Hutsler and attorney Charles Renner stated concerns that the POTMCID Board could become insolvent without new members put in office within a 30-day time frame, but Richardson said he hoped an alternate slate of candidates could be brought before the Board.

“This is not the way I would have chosen to go about this, but I did want to honor this request (Bay’s),” said Richardson, who also said he believed there was a way to get to the end of the matter in a manner that was satisfactory to everyone.

The discussion focused on concerns stated by Alderman Marc Sportsman that POTMCID Board members would lose their objectivity if they were also members of the Main Street Parkville Association (each of the candidates is), especially in relation to potential grants being written by a member of one of the entity’s boards and subject to approval by the same member on the other board.

Renner said all grants are tied exactly to the costs of a project and the CID was established with transparency in mind, including an annual report and the public availability of documents. He also said he believed the current structure worked as a consensus-driven board with adequate accountability.