Money Changes Everything

"I think in today's climate, you need to spell things out as much as you can so that people understand what you're doing," he said. "I think you need to do that because, all of us, the inside folks, know how cool everybody is and how everything is OK.... But a lot of people out there think that big business stinks right now."

The other members batted the issue around for a while. Most of their concerns, however, seemed to focus more on whether the conflict-of-interest clause was too strict. The discussion didn't last long. "We could discuss hypotheticals all day," said one of the GDDA's attorneys, Herb Kohn (who, during the last mayoral campaign, had written a few checks for Barnes, as had his firm, Bryan Cave).

The self-policing bylaws passed unanimously.

The business elite and the folks at City Hall hope that most Kansas Citians don't follow Mark Esping's recent credo: "FIX THE STREETS, FIX THE CURBS, CLEAN THE CATCH BASINS or we vote NO on everything until you get these things fixed in the neighborhoods."

He's not worried about his wealthy foes. "You know how much we spent to kill [last November's city] charter change? Eighty-three dollars and 27 cents. And you know what? Some of the neighborhood people are telling me they want to do this one for half price."

The logic frustrates city leaders. They know a "no" vote will hurt the neighborhoods as much as it will hamper downtown. A "no" vote means less money for everyone. It means no additional $9.6 million for the horrible roads.

But city leaders can't be surprised, can they? After all, this hasty split of the potential bond money was exactly what their own multipartisan committee had warned against.

"Yeah, it was," says Laney. "It was. I went through that whole report process, and I was one of the most vocal about [how] we've got to change the way in which capital improvements are done. We have to have a process by which we do it."

All rules are made to be broken, though.

"We realized that from time to time you have to make exceptions," Laney explains. "You can't always slavishly follow the policy. But when you do [make exceptions], you're going to have to justify to the public at large. And that's exactly what we did this time."

But he won't really know that until the polls close on August 6.