Do nothing ordinances: Review, revamp or repeal

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Kansas City's Municipal Code grows every year. If it's one thing City Council members know how to do it's create new ordinances. Unfortunately, with every addition to the municipal code our system of laws, policies and procedures grows in complexity to the point where it has become too cumbersome in many areas. In the business world, policies and procedures are constantly reviewed, tweaked and streamlined. The buzz term is "process management" and there are reams of books on the subject. Mostly common sense, the idea is to put a procedure in place, monitor it, see where it fails, see where it excels and look for ways to improve it. Unfortunately process management is a concept lost to most elected officials. The standard operating procedure for municipal government is to react to a vocal constituency (or special interest), enact some knee-jerk policy and then because the complaining dies down, walk away never to revisit the subject again. The Kansas City Municipal Code is teeming with ordinances that in a large amount of instances go unnoticed. Put in place years ago to silence some squeaky wheels, many of our ordinances have zero visibility. Without the evaluation part of process control even the most well-intentioned ordinances can lie dormant. Unused, unenforced and ineffective. For example, did you know property owners are required by law to clear their adjoining sidewalks of snow within 48 hours of a significant snowfall? Sounds reasonable to me, but as a year-round runner I can tell you this ordinance is either unknown or outright ignored. From the sights and sounds in my neighborhood every Independence Day it's obvious the ban on fireworks within city limits is another useless ordinance. It's also against the law to make too much noise during certain hours or at certain decibel levels, but not a day goes by I don't hear some juvenile "notice me" type on a motorcycle or street racer with an illegally modified exhaust that will shake the windows out of your house. Recently much fanfare was made about the passage of a new street plate policy that was supposed to rid Kansas City of the metal menaces. The ordinance is in effect, but have you noticed a difference? Are plates now clearly marked with the owner's name and contact info? Are the plates being properly countersunk, or ramped with asphalt? Are the plates appearing and then disappearing in a timely manner? One look at the above picture says "no." This plate was installed a week ago on my street. Notice the edge lifted up, no markings, no countersinking or asphalt ramping. It's obvious the crew that installed this plate either doesn't know about the ordinance, or doesn't care. It takes more than just passing laws to run a city. Obviously there's some process control techniques needing to take place. What is wrong with our process when examples of its failure exist a scant two blocks from the mayor's house? The council would do well to spend some time reviewing existing ordinances, determining their effectiveness and deciding whether to rework, or repeal them outright. After all, what good is a law that doesn't work? And to paraphrase a campaign slogan I once believed in, what good is a city that doesn't work?