About Me
A Great Place to Grow Up. A Great Place to Raise a Family.
I'm proud to be a product of Clay County. I grew up in Gladstone. Here I am in front of Linden East Elementary School (Today you'd know it as Oak Hill Day School). I'm a graduate of Oak Park High School (Class of '89) and of William Jewell College (Class of '94 with majors in History, Business Administration and Economics).
The values of hard work, helping your neighbors and plain old common sense was instilled in me by my family and reinforced by the community around me. It was these values that drew me into public service, most notably as a member of the Kansas City City Council, representing the 1st District At-Large primarily serving the Clay County portion of Kansas City's Northland, and Mayor Pro Tem.
Today I continue to serve our community as a member of the Board of Commissioners for Kansas City Parks & Recreation and as an adjunct professor at UMKC, teaching future MBA's issues on public policy and their effects on Management. Most proudly, since 2019 I've been a member of the Mattie Rhodes Center team and helped establish its presence in the Northland, assisting our fellow residents who have been in need of utility assistance, job training, financial education and so much more.
It's about strong neighborhoods with great amenities.
As a Kansas City Councilman I worked with neighborhoods to invest in parks, including $1,000,000 on Hidden Valley Park. Here we are at the groundbreaking 10 years ago.
It's about working together across aisles and governments.
As a Councilman I worked with Clay County, Liberty and the Liberty School District to move the Flintlock Flyover forward. The $20 million project created a much needed connection across I-35.
Photo Gallery: Here are a sample of my accomplishments serving you
I understood the value of our parks to residents as an Councilman and I invested in them, like here at Davidson Park.
Neighborhood infrastructure was important to me. That's why I worked four years on the City's first sidewalk program.
One of my proudest early achievements was the redevelopment of the former Antioch Center, now Antioch Crossing.
As a KC Councilman I worked with North Kansas City to change our city limits to put NKC's dog park fully within their city.
The new $2.5 million I-35 / Chouteau intersection, a project I led both as a City Councilman and as a Parks Commissioner.
A new $10 million improvement on North Brighton, a project that I spent six years preparing for, now in its second year of construction.