Now what?

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Last Friday night I attended a meet and greet for Mark Funkhouser. Mark arrived late, having been held up on the radio. He got around to making his stump speech, stopping to take a cell phone call from his wife. Normally a gigantic no-no but it only served to endear him to the obviously partisan crowd. Near the end, he took questions. He felt supremely confident about an upcoming victory. He joked that he would end up being like the dog that caught the car. Now what? Today will be a busy day for Mark Funkhouser. He'll receive hundreds if not thousands of congratulatory phone calls and emails. Many of them will be from Alvin Brooks supporters desperately trying to carve out a place for themselves in a Funkhouser administration. There will be a quite a few power brokers stopping by, checkbook in hand, looking to show there are no hard feelings. The one common denominator that all these people will share is the willingness to offer advice. In a couple of days, things will calm down enough that Mark will be able to sit back and ask the question to himself. Now what? These next thirty days are crucial for his new administration. Does he have a transition team in place? Mark has been very critical of TIF and tax abatements. Will he come out of the gate strong and promote a progressive slate of appointees to those commissions? There are many questions but few answers. At least for today. There can be no more generalities. Mark Funkhouser is no longer a candidate. He is the Mayor-elect. Now is the time for specifics. Definitive statements. An honest to goodness action plan. We're all watching. Let's hope we like what we see. Congratulations to Mark and the rest of the newly elected council. Now it's time to get to work.