Kansas City Councilmember Johnathan Duncan raises concerns over fast-tracked Royals stadium deal

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a homeless encampment for years. So how are we ensuring that we have the revenue to take care of those things? This deal does not provide that. Can you quantify how much the city would get under the arrangement as it stands today and then how much you think the city should be getting? So I can't disclose. I've been told by our city attorney that I can't disclose the details of the deal. What I can say is this, that we are putting up 30% of the cost of the stadium. We are not getting that in a return. This will, again, think of the star bonds. This is going to be a big TIF district. So when we talk about a TIF, we're taking taxes that would be coming to the city, that would be coming to the schools, that would be coming to the libraries, and we are redirecting it back into a stadium, which is a for-profit business. for John Sherman, who as a person, I'm sure, is a wonderful man. I've met him. He's a billionaire. He could pay for the stadium by himself. Is he a billionaire? Do we know that? And I should just say he's been a big supporter of a lot of causes in this town, including this radio station. Do we know, is he a billionaire? He gets labeled that. I just wonder, what do we know? I will say that what I understand is that he could fund this project himself, right? So without the city investment, the Royals don't get the state investment, right? So we are an equity stakes partner. We are a key equity stakes partner. And in a business deal, equity stakes partners get a return on that investment. They get a return on the profits. This deal is not structured that way. It's an upfront cash payout, which is not commensurate with the amount of investment we're putting in. And it's not commensurate with the amount of risk the city is putting. And I have to say this again. This is a similar deal where we are backing the bonds, meaning that if the financial projections don't pan out, that we will be on the hook, the city, the taxpayers will be on the hook to pay the difference. And this is the same deal that we cut with the power and light. And again, we pay $14 million a year, Steve. We pay $14 million a year. For years. For years to the power and light. And that is a lot of money. Our investment needs to be reflected in the return of that investment, and currently it's not. Counsel, when you said a couple of minutes ago that the city attorney has advised you that you can't discuss details of the agreement as it stands right now, why not? Why the lack of transparency? Why can't we all be aware of exactly where this thing stands? It's my frustration as well, Steve. You know, I, again, it's my frustration, one, that.

It's supposedly privileged information. These are ongoing contract negotiations. And until that becomes open and public, in a public forum, it's to be, it's to be withheld from the public. However, I will say this, I'm disappointed that I'm the only one speaking up about it. You know, I'm one councilman on a 13 councilmember board. I'm the only one who's come out and said, we need to be striving for better. We need to ensure that we're getting a good deal for taxpayers. And I think it goes to the point that many of the folks who are involved in this deal, and I'll single out the mayor and the city manager are operating from a place of fear. They're afraid, Steve. They're afraid that, you know, as we've seen before, you know, that Hallmark can go to Kansas and that John Sherman will sell the team and the Crown Center will be a hole in the ground. I think we need to be operating from a place of courage. We need to be saying we are business leaders. Again, I'm an executive of a $2.5 billion corporation, which is the city of Kansas City. and I have over 500,000 shareholders, and those are the residents of Kansas City. I need to be fighting for those residents, just as John Sherman, Brooke Sherman, and Dave Francie are fighting to get the best possible deal for their stakeholders, for their equity stakes partners, and their minority owners. And that is where we are right now. We need to be in hard negotiations, and I feel like, one, we've rushed this. Two, we've used kid gloves with the Royals because we're afraid of them leaving. And three, we haven't been transparent because we're afraid of what the people of Kansas City are going to say. And I think we should have the courage to say, one, and confidence to say, we got the best deal. We got a great deal for taxpayers. We got a great deal for our schools. We got a great deal for our libraries. And this is going to be a generational investment and a generational return that is going to actually make this city whole. And that we have the courage to put this to a vote because we are confident in this deal. I have to say again that the reason for the rush is to get this deal done and inked before we have to take this to a vote. We'll be right back with more from Steve's conversation with Councilman Jonathan Duncan in just a minute. Stick around.

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Councilman Jonathan Duncan of Kansas City is my guest. We're talking about the new Royal Stadium downtown. You know, the other day, there was this delay in the vote over the $20 million set to begin moving forward on the Royals deal. You said the real reason for the delay, and the mayor was saying, hey, we're doing this to slow this process down to listen to the public. But you said the real reason for the delay is due to the fact that the Royals want to renegotiate certain parts of that deal. What parts? What are you hearing? How do you know that? Yeah. So I spoke to the mayor and who was in the room in this negotiation, which I also have a problem with the fact that he's the only member of counsel who was in these negotiations. And what we've been fighting for is, you know, how do we ensure that we're getting some types of an agreement? And right now this looks like just like a lease agreement with the Royals. They threw up a flag saying, well, MLB doesn't like XYZ. We need to re-we need to re-look at one of these portions of this agreement, which delayed our ability to vote on it on Tuesday. I think at the end of the day, right, that even if they were able to finalize this on Monday, that that was not enough time for us to review all of the agreements and vote on it. on Tuesday to then pass it what would have been passed today. I have yet to, the city council has yet to have a briefing from our finance chief about the financial aspect of this. We haven't had a briefing from the negotiating team and the city manager about the details of this deal. We've been given a summary and then we've been given the raw agreements. We got the summary at 7 p.m. on Monday and we got the raw agreements at 10 p.m. which just isn't enough time to go through. hundreds of pages of documents and a complex agreement. So you're saying that the city is on the brink, the council's on the brink, of signing off on the entire package. Correct. Okay, it's that, it's that eminent right now. Yes, sir. Okay. You also wrote in a social media post pointing out that city staff is working around the clock and through their weekends without overtime to finalize this deal. Tell us more about that. What are you seeing over at City Hall? Yeah, so, you know, I've talked to folks. I've talked to our law department. I've talked to the negotiating team. And, you know, what I was told is that there are five city attorneys who are working through their weekends, who are pulling 11-hour days, and who are not entitled to overtime. Are we going to see a public vote on this thing? And are we legally obligated to have that public vote? We are not legally obligated to have a public vote if all of these agreements are inked prior to the deadline for us to move this to a vote. And so while I think that, you know, what the city is doing is legally correct, I don't think it's morally or ethically correct. I think I think the citizens of Jackson County and the residents of Kansas City were very loud and clear and that they don't want to provide.

a subsidy to a for-for-profit stadium. Yeah. I think that if we structured this deal in a way that I want to structure it, ensuring that we're getting a portion of those profits, that we should take this to a vote and be very proud to and confident that it will pass because I think it would. I want to be real clear on one point. You've said early in this conversation that you want to see a downtown Royals baseball stadium. You just want to see the deal done maybe a different way. Yeah, I think, listen, downtown baseball stadium sounds cool. Yeah. I want to make sure that we're getting a portion of those profits. And right now what this is is a direct subsidy for a for-profit business to John Sherman and Don Hall, who have plenty. Meanwhile, we have many of our residents who don't have anything, and we are not putting ourselves position to provide the programs to give them anything. You were pointing out the other day that there's what, an apartment complex where folks are, like, no electricity right now, and here we are focused on this deal when we have some of our own citizens struggling to the extent that they are. 100%. And I think it's a matter of priorities and what the city is putting its attention to. I think that we should be able to ink great deals for our city that makes our city whole while we take care of our most vulnerable residents at the same time. We can do both. We should do both. And that is my frustration today. Just to be clear, is there going to be a final vote on the stadium package this week or has that been put off? I fully expect that you will see an ordinance to have us have a special session next week. So I would imagine that we would vote and pass this agreement next week.

That was Steve Kraske in conversation with Kansas City Councilman Jonathan Duncan. Up to date is a production of KCUR, and this podcast was produced by Elizabeth Ruiz, with help from me, Zach Wilson. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll be back again soon. A nature lover had just one problem with the outdoors, spiders. So she embarked on a journey. Could she say goodbye to her phobia? I'm even trying to get on board with loving the little jumping spiders that everybody loves and things are so cute. That's on the podcast Up From Dust.