Missouri, Kansas lawmakers talk about local control a lot. But do they walk the walk?

Missouri Rep. LaKeySha Bosley was in the midst of a blistering indictment last month during debate over a measure to stop St. Louis from requiring its police officers to live within the city.

“We talk about local control so often in this building,” said Bosley, a Democrat who represents St. Louis City.

The bill, which the General Assembly passed last week, was a case of lawmakers jumping into a situation where St. Louis residents should have the final say, she said.

“You wouldn’t want me as a St. Louis representative coming in Jasper or come in Howell or come anywhere and dictate what’s happening with your local government,” Bosley told lawmakers. “You would fight back tooth and nail.”

The principle of local control has long been prized by conservative Republicans who dominate the legislatures of Missouri and Kansas. In recent years, however, it has looked more like a tool of political expediency than a governing doctrine — not always applied consistently by lawmakers. Supporters of local control on one issue are apt to demand state intervention on another.

“Hodgepodge is the nice word, I think, to use,” said Kansas Rep. Steven Johnson, an Assaria Republican.

Long a rallying cry for all manner of causes, it has driven some of the biggest debates in Missouri and Kansas this year, including response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In both states, leaders are negotiating — or outright fighting — over where state authority ends and local control begins.

In Missouri, tensions over local vs. state power have figured prominently in efforts to curb violent crime and reform police departments in Kansas City and St. Louis.

The General Assembly has sent the St. Louis police residency bill to Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s desk. The Senate has also revived a measure giving the attorney general greater prosecutorial power in St. Louis. Meanwhile, police reform advocates are calling for Missouri to return control of Kansas City police to the city.

In Kansas, the Legislature limited Gov. Laura Kelly’s emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic. Inveighing against a “one-size-fits-all” approach, it gave counties the power to override some statewide orders. In debates over other issues, however, such as gun policy, Kansas legislators have been less willing to cede control to local authorities.

The result is an often confusing jurisdictional patchwork. Local control is best. Until it isn’t.

“In the Capitol ... they use it both ways,” said Richard Sheets, deputy director of the Missouri Municipal League. “You hear it every time in committee hearings and on the floor: please support local control, except this time, we should get involved in this one city issue because we’re mad at them and pass special legislation.”

Jeremy Cady, state director of the Missouri branch of Americans for Prosperity, said when he hears the term “local control,” he wonders what agenda is at play.

“Oftentimes,” Cady said, “it’s used to promote whatever it is a particular individual and/or group wants at a particular time.”

‘Only when it suits them’

Attitudes toward local control may influence whether oversight of Kansas City police is returned to city government.

Missouri removed local control in the 1930s amid rampant corruption. For decades now, a commission appointed by the governor that includes the Kansas City mayor, has overseen the department.

Opposition has simmered for years. But the nationwide outcry over police violence has newly energized advocates of local control.

Mayor Quinton Lucas went as far as introducing an ordinance that would have placed the question on the November ballot for Kansas City voters. But he sought a delay last month to give supporters more time to strategize, ending hopes of putting the question before voters this year.

Passage of the ballot question would only have directed the city to lobby state lawmakers to regain control. lt can be restored only by an act of the General Assembly and the governor’s signature, or a statewide vote.

Some advocates say there’s no evidence the legislature is ready to advance local police control for Kansas City.

“They believe in local control only when it suits them. Period,” said Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.

Grant predicted a statewide voter referendum will ultimately be needed. It’s happened before: Missouri voters in 2012 approved returning local control of St. Louis police.

Still, local control doesn’t necessarily mean the end of state intervention.

The Missouri legislature this past week approved a bill eliminating for the next few years a requirement that St. Louis police officers live within the city limits. Lawmakers are effectively preempting a Nov. 3 ballot question that will ask St. Louis voters whether they want to retain the residency rule.

St. Louis Police Commissioner John Hayden told senators this week that the residency requirement is the top barrier to hiring more officers, according to city police recruiters and surveys. He said the agency is down 145 officers.

Parson, who is on the November ballot, called passing the residency requirement bill “a huge piece to get done.”

“I think the vast majority of people are trying to figure out how to get more police officers on duty,” he said after an event in Kansas City.

Parson’s campaign referred questions for this story to the governor’s office. Parson’s office didn’t comment beyond his brief remarks on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Democratic Auditor Nicole Galloway’s campaign for governor said city residents should have a say over police control.

“Generally, Auditor Galloway would prefer that local residents vote on changes to local laws and Jefferson City not interfere. Unfortunately, on many other issues, lawmakers in Jefferson City have interfered with local control,” spokesman Kevin Donohoe said.

Lawmakers who supported the St. Louis residency measure said the extraordinary levels of violence in the city required action. The rate of homicides in 2020 is on a near-record pace. At the end of August, eight police officers had been shot in the city this year.

“I think local control is important, but St. Louis has gotten so out of control that I think it’s appropriate that we do something,” said Missouri Rep. Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican who voted for the bill.

Patterson said St. Louis’ role as one of the state’s economic engines justifies the intervention.

“We all are a part of what happens in St. Louis,” Patterson said. “So that’s why I think it is appropriate that we do something about the residency requirements for police in St. Louis City.”

But Grant said residency requirements should be a local decision.

“We’re very concerned about the policies they’re advancing at this time, and it makes it all the more important why we need to have local control,” Grant said.

Counties opting out

As Missouri debates police reform, Kansas has been ensnared in a charged debate over how to respond to the coronavirus.

Since COVID-19 arrived in the state back in March, Republican lawmakers have worked to cut into Democratic Gov. Kelly’s emergency powers.

In June the Legislature passed new limitations on the governor’s authority, a measure Kelly signed despite reservations. She has been dealing with the fallout ever since.

The bill enabled county governments to disregard statewide health orders. When Kelly issued a statewide mask mandate this summer, most immediately opted out. Kelly’s power to close businesses was also severely restricted.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, released a legal opinion that counties can opt out of Kelly’s order mandating COVID-19 safety precautions in schools. And the Kansas State Board of Education rejected a request by Kelly to order districts to delay the start of the school year to provide more time to prepare.

Schmidt told lawmakers in written testimony that “it appears doubtful” that an order by the governor can preempt a city’s local authority, even though several of Kelly’s orders have done just that.

“The legislature intended to pass these decisions on to local governing authorities,” Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, said of closing or delaying school.

Still, past Republican-led Legislatures have been willing to override local authority in other areas. Lawmakers have approved measures that limit the power of local governments to prohibit concealed weapons in public buildings unless they installed certain security measures, such as metal detectors, for instance.

Kansas Rep. Johnson said lawmakers need to carefully examine the consequences of a decision before they get “too far down the road” on a policy.

“The courthouse in Saline County had very different resources than the courthouse in Ottawa County and how does that really work?” Johnson said.

For years, some lawmakers have also pushed for additional restrictions on how school districts spend or save money. Some want to limit the amount of cash savings districts can accumulate — funds that districts say they need for rainy days.

“In COVID, there has again been somewhat more of a push to go back to a local perspective,” said Mark Tallman, a longtime lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards.

Kansas’s current COVID-19 disaster declaration expires Sept. 15. Kelly is expected to seek either a new declaration or a renewal. She’ll need the support of the State Finance Council, a panel she chairs that’s dominated by Republican leaders. The council has rejected some of her previous requests.

Kelly hasn’t yet said whether she’ll seek to modify the disaster declaration. It’s also unclear whether Republicans will try to extract further concessions in exchange for approving an extension.

State law also gives Kelly the power to again order business closures beginning on Sept. 15, but the governor doesn’t appear intent on exercising that option.

“I have no interest in shutting down schools, I have no interest in shutting down businesses,” Kelly told reporters late last month. “I am all about being able to keep our economy thriving and keep our schools open.”

Local control ‘lip service’

The winner of the Missouri governor’s race will determine the state’s approach to COVID-19 as the pandemic stretches into 2021. Democrats have accused Parson of clinging too closely to the idea of local control during an emergency that requires a statewide response. The Republican governor hasn’t issued a mask order, for instance.

Galloway spokesman Donohoe said communities should expect state government to do its part in the fight against the pandemic.

“Since March, Gov. Parson has created a vacuum of leadership at the state level when it comes to addressing COVID-19,” Donohoe said. “From school closings to mask orders, Gov. Parson has left each community to fend for itself — and the result is rising cases, an increasing positivity rate, and a stalled recovery.”

Parson has fiercely defended his coronavirus response. In a speech to a gathering of county clerks in Kansas City last week, he recounted the state’s actions as the virus spread through Missouri.

He emphasized the help he provided to counties and cities, saying he waived numerous laws to cut down on red tape.

“Many of you on the local level — a lot of your county commissioners, a lot of your emergency management — we were on the phone for almost four months” assisting local officials, Parson said.

In Kansas, every legislative seat is up for election. Democrats are hoping to end the Republican supermajority in one or both chambers, which would give Kelly more leverage in confrontations with GOP lawmakers.

The state’s emergency management laws — which determines where authority lies during a crisis — are likely to be a “major theme” of the 2021 session, Johnson said. An interim committee has already begun meeting to get a jump start on developing potential changes.

The key to respecting local control is to make sure everyone involved in a decision is at the table, according to Johnson. “At all levels, we’re all just trying to achieve the same thing, to keep our communities running,” he said.

Observers are skeptical that will be the reality.

“A lot of lip service,” Sheets, with the Missouri Municipal League, said of statements by lawmakers. “But a lot of folks in the Capitol don’t believe in local control.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

This story was originally published September 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Missouri, Kansas lawmakers talk about local control a lot. But do they walk the walk?."