Thread: Critical weekend looms for decision on convention in KC

Posted on Thu, Oct. 18, 2007
Critical weekend looms for decision on convention in KC
By DEANN SMITH, LYNN HORSLEY and RICK ALM
The Kansas City Star
With a weekend deadline approaching, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver is attempting to broker a last-minute compromise to keep a Hispanic civil rights convention in Kansas City.

Also on Thursday, Mayor Mark Funkhouser announced he wants to create an office of immigrant affairs, although he said it was not directly related to the threat of losing the convention.

The controversy has been building since June, when Funkhouser appointed Frances Semler to the park board without knowing she was a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), based in Washington, has said it will pull its 2009 convention from Kansas City unless Semler resigns either from the park board or the Minuteman group. The group’s anti-illegal immigration efforts have included armed patrols of the Mexican border and pickets of local businesses they think employ illegal immigrants.

The NCLR board is meeting in Washington on Saturday, when it plans to decide whether to pull its convention, which typically fills more than 5,000 hotel rooms and creates an economic impact of more than $5 million.

The NCLR already has discussed with Las Vegas officials moving its convention there.

Cleaver, Funkhouser and others participated in a conference call Thursday.

Through a spokesman, Cleaver declined to comment on his reconciliation efforts. But previously the Kansas City Democrat has said the controversy is creating a national image problem for the city and he fears losing the La Raza convention would spark the loss of sporting events and more conventions.

Funkhouser said in an interview that national and local Hispanic leaders did not ask for the new immigration office, and that incorporating recent immigrants into the community has been a common theme in his conversations about the overall subject.

“We need as a city to look out for these folks,â€

Meeting over park board appointee
Written by Edie R. Lambert
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser met with about 40 Latinos last Thursday morning at the Guadalupe Center.
“It was a group of people from the Hispanic community that have been meeting regularly since September 10 regarding the Frances Semler issue,â€

If Kansas City officials put profits in front of principal, they will be in the same category as President Bush and La Raza. La Raza needs to be sent a strong message.