Glazer: Pretty in Pink, Tracy Ward Offers Breath of Fresh Air in 6th District Council Race

She has pink hair, was a barmaid many years, a waitress and a pizza delivery lady…

Tracy Ward has pretty much done it all when it comes to the service industry in our town. And the Kansas City Council candidate’s pink hair sets her apart renders from others running for city council in the 6th district (at large). But don’t let the pink hair fool you, Ward is a dead serious candidate for the job.

I spoke with this upbeat young woman yesterday to find out why she wants to get involved with Kansas City politics.

And Tracy had many interesting answers to my questions.

It all started when she tried to have a sit down with her council rep, Cathy Jolly. After trying to see Jolly several times with no response, Tracy got a little upset. Thinking, "This lady has no time for her people?"

Now Jolly”s husband, Scott Taylor is trying to move in on his wife’s slot as 6th district councilperson.

Tracy thinks it will be just more of the same, with not much getting done.

Tracy Ward has attended quite a few council meetings. And what she’s noticed is not a pretty in pink snapshot of the group. First off, she thinks current mayor Mark Funkhouser is not a bad mayor.

She says because Funk’s not in the "club" they don’t listen to him and stop anything positive he tries to do.

Worse yet, most of the council shows little interest in working with anyone but themselves. That’s why so little gets done.

Tracy wants to foster a better relationship with the Kansas City Police Board and police. To try and help put a halt to the violence in KCMO. She feels she can help bring this process about.

Tracy also feels that Kansas City, Missouri continues to make it hard on small businesses.

There’s even a business startup fee that doesn’t exist in Kansas. And KCMO charges $61 to working people who are required to get a liquor license and health permit card to even go to work in the first place. This doesn’t exist in Kansas. In Kansas you simply have to state if you are a convicted felon or not. If you are, you don’t get to work with the selling of alcoholic beverages.

Tracy feels that needs to be changed as well.

It’s not fair if you have a conviction for say, a minor fraud or having weed on you when you were 20 years old. That has nothing to do with being a food server or bartender. Take that same person at 35, people change – it’s not fair.

Tracy wants to put the brakes on corporate giveaways. TIFF money. Welfare for large corporations to get free money from taxpayers that they rarely pay back and often results in financial failure. Like the River Market, Power & Light and the  countless empty downtown lofts.

At the same time the little guy gets ignored and hears nothing but NO’S.

It’s going to take putting some folks on city council who want to move this city forward and are open to changes that will help city services and day to day issues. Not putting city gov in BUSINESS with large corporations who grease councilmembers with campaign donations. Companies like Cordish who totally screwed us.

How about giving Arrowhead $2 million a year for exactly what? They’re loaded we aren’t.
 

Tracy said to me, "Craig there’s just too much red tape for most small businesses to operate or even get open here. Our police department should be on the streets stopping violent crime not doing liquor raids to see if a doorman has a useless liquor card on him or not. You get arrested if you left it at home! What’s the purpose of that?"

The lady with pink hair would provide a breath of fresh air to help jump start an aging, disfunctional city council.

Isn’t it about time?