KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Municipal Ethics Commission will hold its first meeting in months Friday morning to discuss the internal auditor's long-awaited review of Mayor Mark Funkhouser.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the 10th floor meeting room at City Hall.
On Nov. 4, Internal Auditor Roy Greenway's findings were presented to council members and the ethics commission members.
Read Executive Summary of the Audit
Greenway did not attempt to decide whether Funkhouser broke the law or not, saying, "Others, such as the Municipal Officers and Officials Ethics Commission could determine whether they are violative of some standard."
Funkhouser has said he considers the issues in the report over since most of the issues had been reviewed by the Missouri Ethics Commission and he was cleared. He said the allegations were "clearly unsubstantiated."
Click on the
Fridays with Funk video link above to watch Jeff Vaughn's interview with Mayor Funkhouser just two days after the release of the audit.
The issues reviewed included whether Funkhouser used city resources for political and personal purposes and ordered a staff member to exclude turning over a document as required under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
Greenway indicated it took almost a year to complete his report in part because the mayor and his staff resisted cooperating with him. He had to resort to filing an open-records request for infomation and at least twice threatend to file subpoenas to get information.
In a note to Funkhouser's chief of staff, Greenway said the stonewalling was so bad that if it had happened "in any other department" he would have recommended disciplinary action. He also raised questions about why Funkhouser discussed city business in e-mails with his staff between his private e-mail account and their private e-mail accounts rather than via city e-mail.
Greenway noted state laws and city ordinances requiring retention of information. Funkhouser did not directly answer the question but indicated he was working to improve his office's retention of records under applicable laws.
