Hey, Big Spender

City code identifies only what kinds of expenses can be reimbursed, and the categories are broad. As long as council members turn in receipts or written explanations of their expenses -- and as long as those expenses aren't for obviously personal purchases -- they'll be repaid.

The Pitch found several instances in which Nash billed both his campaign and city accounts. In August, he claimed a $167.35 bill at Gates Barbecue in both his city and campaign accounts. He did the same in February 2002 for rooms at the downtown Marriott that he'd rented for constituents who had lost power during the big ice storm of that year. That bill totaled $405.

Kansas City has an ordinance that appears to prohibit the latter sort of expenditure, charitable as it may seem. City officials aren't allowed to give citizens "any special consideration, treatment or advantage ... beyond that which is available to any other citizen."

Yet the city has reimbursed these claims.

Greenway can't remember the last time he checked council members' books, but he says that whenever he last did, he and Assistant City Manager Rich Knoll discussed possible changes to city code that would require council members to disclose more about their expenses. Instead of receipts, Greenway would like to see officials provide explanations for their expenses and, for lunch meetings, lists of all persons present.

Even if Greenway were to review the expense files and find an infraction, there's little the city could do about it. City code authorizes the Municipal Officials Ethics Commission only to investigate such findings.

"I'm supposedly the chairman," says Harry McLear, a financial analyst whom Barnes appointed to the commission in 1999. "We've never met. I asked [the mayor's office] about that. I said, 'Shouldn't we have a meeting or something?'"

In early July, an official in the mayor's office sent an e-mail to council members telling them they needed to appoint people to the Ethics Commission. City records show that only Brooks and Charles Eddy, both of the 6th District, replied. They appointed Curtis McClinton, a Chiefs hall-of-famer. (Becky Nace says she and Terry Riley appointed Anna Hyrne, author and radio talk-show host. The message was either not received or misplaced, a staffer at the mayor's office says.)

McLear is unhappy about the situation.

As a member of the commission, he should have the authority to launch investigations. Over the years, he's wanted to -- especially after reading recent news reports about missing funds in a city tax-incentive program. But without fellow members, he can't.

"The way they're running this town is pretty pitiful," he says.

"Sometimes small."