Non-elected government: The deception of regional councils
Your local government is controlled by a hiding-in-plain-sight organization of unsanctioned officials spending your money without your input
Nationwide, streetcars are suddenly “The Thing.” Most of these projects, such as the one in Kansas City, Missouri, are being promoted and funded through a regional council, supposedly a multijurisdictional agency that “help” citites and counties fund transportation, development, etc. What they actually do is spend your money without your authorization. (Photo: Jim Elder/Kansas City Star)
Every geographic area of the U.S. is overseen by a regional council. There are 537 of these federally mandated non-profit councils nationwide in 1972 under President Richard Nixon. Intended to streamline interjurisdictional cooperation enabling funding for mutually beneficial projects such as streets, highways, railways and airports. These organizations also assist local governments in economic development planning.
On the surface, those seem like laudable goals that would improve community life and cooperation among cities and counties in each metropolitan region.
The reality is much different.
Regional councils get their funding from the governments they serve, as well as from state and federal grants. Those funds, in turn, are used as grants to the local communities to finance the aforementioned mutually beneficial projects.
Again, that seems like a very reasonable and noble function in the community. However, the unethical methods used by the councils to achieve their goals, plus the costs associated with most projects being unreasonable and excessive, make them less than the bargain promised to their communities they serve.
These are unelected, unaccountable quasi-government agencies that spend your money while making ridiculous claims against cities and counties that do not follow through with plans essentially forced on them by the council planning professionals.
Take, for example, the experience of Louisburg, Kansas.
Louisburg is a small community approximately eight miles south of Overland Park, Kansas in Johnson County, the second largest city in the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area. Originally a farm community, the encroachment of the city to the north on is slowly changing Louisburg into a bedroom community. Many Johnson County residents have fled the city to move to Louisburg and other Miami County cities.
Despite claiming disdain for city life. some of those folk don’t want to leave city amenities behind. Those include hiking trails and bike paths city dwellers take for granted.
The Kansas City area Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) produced a survey of need for Louisburg, Kansas in 2017, seeking to convince the city to let the Council help them rework their sidewalks, greenways, hiking and bike trails. Louisburg didn’t act, so not MARC wants its money back. (Photo: MARC)
So in 2017, the city partnered with the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) to commission a study aimed at identifying ways to improve greenways and sidewalks in the city of 5,000 plus. MARC produced a 28-page full-color proposal based on the responses to a survey conducted to assess potential public usage of such projects.
Only 46 people responded to the survey, out of what was than 4,600 people. In other words, exactly one percent of the population was concerned enough about greenways, sidewalks, hiking and bike trails to give an opinion. That didn’t deter MARC, however, from going on a full-court press to fund the project that totaled nearly $3.8 million.
The cost to the city? Only $70,000.
Fast-forward to present day. Louisburg has not acted to begin the project, because MARC has never forwarded the money for the city to begin site surveys and proceed with construction.
Now, MARC wants its money back for the survey work done, or it wants the city to proceed with the project by initially spending it’s own funds. Only now, the city cost is five times more, at $350,000, with a corresponding increase in the total cost of the project. That now stands at over $14 million. If the survey costs are not refunded or construction is not begun, MARC has threatened to sue the City of Louisburg.
The thing is, one new city council member, Tiffany Ellison of Ward 2, did some research on the history of the survey and the project itself. Turns out, there is no record in the last eight years of Louisburg City Council meetings that the survey or the project was ever authorized. It appears MARC undertook the 2017 survey costs and pushed for funding of the project without any authorization whatsoever from the city.
The Louisburg City Council is considering the obvious simple solution: Tell MARC to go ahead and sue, as the regional council has no legal basis on which to base a claim.
Louisburg’s experience is not unique. Small community in North Carolina, Michigan and Arizona have successfully fought back against the increasingly aggressive efforts of regional councils to expand their power beyond the core communities of major metropolitan areas.
The 537 regional councils across the U.S. are so interwoven with local governments it is difficult to separate city and county government function from that of the council with which it is affiliated. (Photo: NextSTL)
Virtually every one of the 537 regional councils operate in this manner. They construct a solution and then go in search of the problem to solve. They convince cities and counties to consider letting the council present the issue to the public in the force of a survey in order to convince the local government and its constituents to solve the problem with other jurisdiction’s money.
Remember, regional councils get their funding from all the city and county governments in the region each council serves, besides receiving state and federal funds. If the money isn’t spent, it stops flowing to the council. If the council stops collecting money, it can’t pay the ridiculously high salaries to their executive board members and professional staff to which all have become accustomed.
In that respect, the regional councils exhibit the same behavior as every other unelected bureaucratic agency at all levels of government. They become self-perpetuating nightmares, spending money that isn’t theirs on projects that do not matter so they can keep the the gravy train running.
How have local governments let such a travesty of government run amok go unchallenged for over 50 years?
It starts with the level of competence of the average city council or county commission member. Most do not understand how government works, or how to govern effectively. More and more over the last few decades, local government bodies have virtually abandoned their responsibilities for governing to professional staffs, usually in favor of a manager and professional department heads.
While there are some good, honest city and county administrators, most are simply career bureaucrats looking out for themselves. Once they’ve worn out their welcome in one locality, they seamlessly move on to another, regardless of previous job performance, competency or responsiveness to residents in their jurisdiction. Usually, the new job comes with a pay raise. They come with a label everywhere they go: “Open to regional council influence.”
Unfortunately, most voters are unaware of the influence these councils have on their local governments. In fact, most voters are unaware of their local city and county governments at all. Typical voter turnout in elections for those offices is much less than 10 percent of the registered electorate.
With so few voters engaged in local politics, it is little wonder those governments only get attention when corruption is discovered or disaster strikes. It is in those moments that people find out who the heroes of their local government, and who are the goats.
Today, being a city council member or a county commissioner is more about prestige and position than it is about actually governing.
It is those weaknesses the regional councils exploint. They bring city and county officials on board with their agenda by playing to their desire for recognition. They give them another title, appointing them to their “board of directors,” though that goup has little to no power. They become window dressing while the true decisions for the region are made at an executive level very few people know exists.
There is only one way to overcome these exploitive, self-aggrandizing organizations. Residents in every municipal and county jurisidction must begin demanding responsible, ethical government. We must insist our elected officials at all levels are qualified for the office and able to perform its duties.
Young conservative businessmen and businesswomen, entrepreneurs, men and women with military experience, should be encouraged to give back to their communities. Such young men and women are beginning a long, difficult process of taking back our school board from the woke agenda. More must be identified and ecouraged to step into the public arena by seeking city council and county commission seats.
Become involved in your local political organizations. Learn the local issues. Discover how deeply your local governments depend on the influence and assistance of regional councils and begin to fight back. Take back our cities, towns and counties from the bureaucratic influence that permeates all levels of government and is destroying our freedoms, liberites and democracy.
All politics is local. Treat it like that.