On Monday, May 20, BikeWalkKC and the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance (KCRTA) hosted a forum for the candidates of the KCMO City Council. The event took place in the Truman Forum Auditorium at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
The event was sponsored by TranSystems.
NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, we were not able to capture the candidates’ responses to the first question, which is listed below:
“An alarming trend over the last couple of months has been the string of deadly crashes involving pedestrians throughout the City. A number of policies have been proposed to address this, including an update to the city’s walkability plan and the development of a Vision Zero policy. If elected, what steps will you take to make our streets safer for pedestrians?”
We’d like to thank all of the candidates who were able to take part in the forum:
Kevin O’Neill – 1st District At-Large
Dan Fowler (Incumbent) – 2nd District
Kevin McEvoy – 2nd District
Brandon Ellington – 3rd District At-Large
Geoff Jolley – 4th District
Eric Bunch* – 4th District
Lee Barnes (Incumbent) – 5th District At-Large
Dwayne Williams – 5th District At-Large
Ryana Parks-Shaw – 5th District
Edward Bell – 5th District
Andrea Bough – 6th District At-Large
Stacey Johnson Cosby – 6th District At-Large
Please Note: Because BikeWalkKC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we are prohibited from endorsing any candidate for public office. The information presented here is intended solely for voter education. No endorsement of or opposition to any candidate is implied.
*Eric Bunch, BikeWalkKC’s Policy Director and Co-Founder, is a candidate for the 4th District City Council seat. In the interest of transparency and fairness, he was excluded from the writing of the questions and the organizing of the event.
KCMO City Council Candidate Forum – Part 1
Candidate Introductions
KCMO City Council Candidate Forum – Part 2
Candidate Introductions (continued)
KCMO City Council Candidate Forum – Part 3
Candidates answer the second question and Candidate Conclusions
The second question is as follows: “One of the initiatives that KCRTA is working towards is regional funding for transit instead of relying solely on KCMO for funding. How would you lead the conversation about regional funding and what do you envision doing with the existing 1/2- and 3/8-cent sales taxes in place (the 1/2-cent no longer has a sunset and the 3/8-cent sunsets in 2024)?”
KCMO City Council Candidate Forum – Part 4
Candidate Conclusions (continued)
Remember to vote on Tuesday, June 18!