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An earlier Meadowlark
report from June 26, 2004 gave information about the IRS 8871 report
filed by a Lathrop & Gage attorney, Jamison K. Shipman, on behalf of
this Missouri non-profit corporation at 911 Main Street. This
address is the same as the Greater
Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. A
discerning eye would have caught then that in Section 10b of that IRS
8871 form (dated June 9, 2004) this group claimed they would file reports in
"MD". But this Missouri group did not say "MO"
Missouri here, they were saying "MD" Maryland! I suppose
this was an innocent typo, especially since an "O" is so close
to the "D" on the keyboard. On July 13,
2004, a sharp attorney at Lathrop & Gage corrected this
form. But the typo wasn't that "MO" was missing on the
form instead of "MD". The typo was that they meant "KS"!
The modified
IRS 8871 changed the location of where they were filing political
contribution reports to Kansas! Why might that be? Missouri's
campaign contributions reports for a "continuing" committee
for a local issue MUST file these with the Missouri Secretary of State
and they will be online and can be viewed for free by anyone on the Missouri
Ethics Commission web site. By moving their reporting to
Kansas, the Bistate Arts and Sports Committee satisfies an IRS reporting
requirement, BUT they make their reports much harder for anyone to
find. The Kansas
Governmental Ethics Commission and the Kansas
Secretary of State refuse to even put a list of PACs online.
You must pay $0.50 a page just to get a list of Kansas PACs. I had
to pay $0.50 a page just to get a copy the report that I'm putting
online here. The Kansas Secretary of
State reports this officer for the Kansas PAC "BiState Arts &
Sports Committee":
Chair and Treasurer:
Peter S. Levi, 3720 W 119th Terr, Leawood, KS
[Peter Levi is the president
of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. The address
here is his home address.]
The July 13, 2004 IRS 8871 gives these
officers:
Chair, Treasurer, Director:
Peter S. Levi, 911 Main Street, Suite 2600, KCMO 64105
[Levi files PAC reports from his home address in Leawood, KS, instead of
this work address of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce] Director:
Fred J. Logan, Jr, 8610 Mohawk Drive, Leawood, KS 66206
[Logan is the current head for the "Committee for Excellence"
that pushed for the $184 million Shawnee Mission School District bond
issue in 2004. His report for those political mailings is not even
due till January 2005. Logan also is the Vice
Chair of the Greater Kansas City Chamber's JoCo Business Leadership
Council Partner.] Secretary
and Director:
Kristi S. Wyatt, 4948 Somerset, Prairie Village, KS
[Kristi Smith Wyatt, is a Senior Vice President of the Greater Kansas
City Chamber of Commerce]
The
Bistate Arts & Sports Committee filed their July 26, 2004 Receipts
and Expenditures Report with the Kansas Governmental Ethics
Commission. The ONLY Kansas address on the form (except for the
Kansas Governmental Ethics Office in Topeka) was Peter Levi's home
address, 3720 W 119th Terr, Leawood! The summary
page is quite interesting:
| Total Contributions and Receipts |
$483,055.50 |
| Total Expenditures and Other Disbursements |
$120,512.55 |
| Cash on hand at close of period (July 22, 2004) |
$362,542.95 |
Who contributed all this money? The list is
not long:
Bistate Arts & Sports Corp.
2345 Grand Blvd, Suite 2800
KCMO 64108
[address of Lathrop & Gage] |
$18,055.50 |
Kansas City Chiefs Football Club, Inc.
One Arrowhead Drive
KCMO 64129 |
$100,000.00 |
Hallmark Global Services, Inc.
PO Box 418307
Kansas City, MO 64141 |
$40,000.00 |
Shirley & Barnett Helzberg Foundation
4520 Main Street, Suite 1060
KCMO 64111
[How can a 501c(3) give money for
political purposes? This is education?] |
$50,000.00 |
Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce
2600 Commerce Tower
911 Main Street
KCMO 64111 |
$50,000.00 |
DST Systems, Inc.
333 W. 11th St.
KCMO 64105 |
$175,000.00 |
Civic Council of Greater Kansas City
1200 Main Street, Suite 230
KCMO 64105 |
$50,000.00 |
| TOTAL |
$483,055.50 |
And how was the $120,500 spent? Again, a
small group received most of the money:
Lathrop & Gage LC
2345 Grand Blvd, Suite 2800
KCMO 64108
[Professional Fees & Misc. Expenses] |
$48,741.06 |
Parris Communications, Inc.
4510 Belleview, Suite 110
KCMO 64111
[Message Management & Media Outreach] |
$40,123.79 |
Public Opinion Strategies, LLC
277 S. Washington, Suite 320
Alexandria, VA 22314
[Polling] |
$15,000.00 |
North Star Marketing Group, Inc.
4116 Baltimore Ave
KCMO 64111
[Campaign Strategy] |
$5,000.00 |
Executive Beechcraft, Inc.
Downtown Airport
[Travel] |
$2,603.32 |
Development Strategies, Inc.
10 S. Broadway, Suite 1500
St. Louis, MO 63102
[Economic impact study] |
$1,486.86 |
Wilson Grand Communications, Inc.
429 N. St. Asaph St
Alexandria, VA 22314-2317
[Company receiving $61,272.82 from
Michael Gullion in Kansas, who
received $50,000 from Greater
KC Chamber in 2002. See item
"A" on the chart on this page.] |
$1069.33 |
This information will likely never
appear in the Kansas City Star. On
Aug 5, 2004 I complained in an E-mail sent to a dozen Kansas City Star
addresses about the $20,000 from the Greater Kansas
City Chamber that found its way into Kansas elections in 2004 (after
the same $20,000 was sent by this Missouri Chamber in 2002 Kansas
elections). I received the following replies:
Subject:
RE:
Missouri
Interference in
Kansas
Elections AGAIN! Another $20,000 to Cloud from
Missouri
(1) Mr. Glynn: Thank you for your
comments. They will be included in a report distributed to departments
throughout The Star, including our news and editorial staffs.
(2) The "Greater" Kansas City Chamber
of Commerce operates on both sides of the state line.
Hope this helps.
Since nothing has been in the paper
about this information, I think it's clear the Star feels it has
the right to withhold such information from the public. Their
arrogance about withholding information from the public is truly
incredible. The bistate tax must be
an idea from Kansans given that only Missouri groups are involved?
The Star recently mocked the St. Louis connection to the arena issue
(e.g., see "Meet
me in the area," Aug 8, 2004, and "Deceptive
arena ads mislead KC voters," July 31, 2004). Apparently,
the Star is blind to its own deception perpetrated on all local
voters on the bistate issue.
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