KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City, Missouri city council on Thursday reintroduced discussion aimed at amending the city's volunteer ordinance.
The council passed their first amendment to the city's volunteer policy after controversy surrounded the volunteer work done in the mayor's office by Mayor Mark Funkhouser's wife, Gloria Squitiro.
A judge recently overturned the amendment, saying that instead of governing all city workers the amendment unfairly targeted Squitiro.
At Thursday's legislative meeting, Mayor Funkhouser restated his opinion that the amendment violated the constitutional rights of volunteers to serve the city.
After limited brief discussion, the council passed a new volunteer ordinance which expands the definition of a "volunteer" and places time limits on volunteer service with the city.
The new ordinance defines a frequent volunteer as anyone who serves more than 10 hours per month performing volunteer work for any city office.
The former amendment restricted volunteerism by family members of elected officials. The new ordinance expands volunteereism restrictions to include family members of appointed and civilian city employees.
The vote was 9 to 3, with Mayor Pro Tem Bill Skaggs, Councilwoman Deb Hermann and Mayor Funkhouser voting against the new ordinance.
Those who approved the ordinance had little to say except that they feel it was the right thing to do.
“We corrected the ordinance that the judge advised us,” said Jan Marcason, 4th District Councilwoman. “We want to be over with this and it’s done. We’re not going to deal with it anymore.”
