Hispanic group pulls meeting from Kansas City
Published Oct. 26, 2007
Following controversy over a mayoral appointment in Kansas City, Mo., the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization, has pulled its 2009 conference from Kansas City.
Specifically, the group challenged Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser's lack of willingness to remove Frances Semler from the Parks and Recreation Board of Commissioners after discovering she was a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group dedicated to preventing illegal border
crossings.
"Our decision is a clear expression of support for Kansas City's Hispanic community," NCLR Board Chairwoman Monica Lozano said in a news release. "An active member of the Minutemen should not be an official representative for a city that purports to believe in diversity."
Following Semler's appointment, Kansas City's Hispanic community, as well as many of its allies, called for Semler to resign or for Funkhouser to remove her from the board, but Funkhouser said Semler should stay with the board.
"From his perspective, he appointed her because he thought that she would be good for the Parks Board," Funkhouser's spokesman Kendrick Blackwood said. "He thought she had the right ideas, the right energy and the right motivation. Her feelings about immigration or her opinions on immigration won't impede that."
When Funkhouser appointed the new Parks and Recreation Department Board of Commissioners, he cited diversity and erasing the history of racial segregation in the parks board as key factors to his choices.
Funkhouser appointed John Fierro, the first Hispanic person to preside over
the board, as president.
Blackwood said Funkhouser is aware of the discontent of members of the community, and the mayor has made efforts to reach out.
"He is still having monthly meetings with representatives of the Hispanic community here locally," Blackwood said.
Funkhouser proposed the creation of a Mayor's Office for Immigrant Affairs as a way to further represent ethnic communities in Kansas City.
"He's asking that the council consider directing the city manager to create such a thing in the next budget," Blackwood said.
To resolve issues with the Hispanic community, Funkhouser held meetings with individuals on both sides of the Semler debate.
"They did try to work things out, but it just didn't work in the case of La Raza," Blackwood said.
Blackwood cited the importance of conventions because they allow Kansas City to showcase itself and to bring money into the city.
"The city of Kansas City loses out because we both get a black eye, because we lost the conference, and it may cascade in losing others," he said. "There are no winners in that situation."
Although there has been speculation that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People would pull its 2010 convention out of Kansas City, there are no plans to do so yet.
NAACP national spokesman Richard McIntire said the selection committee for the organization's national convention met prior to the NCLR vote and decided, "They will stay the course pending a site visit."
McIntire said he did not know when a visit to Kansas City would occur.
"I would not consider that a done deal, because they could go on the site visit or there could be some other concerns," he said.
