BY JOE ARCE AND COREY CRABLE
Former Lee’s Summit Mayor Bill Baird and candidate for Jackson County Executive said he brings years of public service experience to the county.
“I have really helped change the community in so many ways, especially when it comes to building a safer and healthier city,” Baird tells Kansas City Hispanic News.
Baird, who also has served on the Lee’s Summit R-7 School Board and has served as mayor since 2018, cites his record of support for the city’s first responders as one of the many reasons his political career has been so successful.
“In my time as mayor, we have truly become a role model in the state for public safety. We have supported our first responders. We give first responders all the tools that they need to save lives as quickly as possible,” he says. “The reason I always focused on that as a mayor was because of my belief that safe communities are strong communities, and strong communities create opportunities.”
In addition, Baird also cites the city’s economic growth and partnerships with local organizations as ways in which local voters have benefitted from his time in office.
“We diversified the housing, and we expanded the housing base. so that we have a life cycle of homes. And then we worked on attracting jobs to the community, and it just brought a lot of retail, and it brought a lot of commercial tax base to the community. So we were able to do this without raising taxes. We had one of the lowest sales taxes in the region, the entire metro,” Baird notes. “I got to the end of my terms. And I thought, ‘Wow, we’ve really changed things. We’ve changed the culture. We’ve become a more welcoming, inclusive community by diversifying boards and more. … I looked around and I thought, ‘I partnered with everybody.’ We partnered with the state. We partnered with schools. We partnered with MoDOT. We partnered with the Missouri Highway Patrol. We partnered with the colleges as a city, and the one entity or institution that we needed the most that would never come to the table and partner with us was the county.”
But for all of the good things he’s seen happen in Lee’s Summit throughout his mayoral tenure, Baird says much needs to be done at the county level. “The county can make a huge difference in changing our work with schools. It can work with the cities.
The county can be a facilitator working through the state, working through the federal government,” he says. “But we’re losing as a county. We need to start competing. We need to start growing. We need to become a strong county. And I understand that we kind of have a losing mentality right now. We’re declining in a lot of ways. And that has to end.”
Baird says he realizes that the recall election that unseated former County Executive Frank White was the result of county residents not trusting the very person who was supposed to lead them. From Baird, those same residents can expect transparency and accountability.
“We have to rebuild trust, rebuild competence, but also show that we can be stable. And you have to fix the property taxes first. That’s your show of good faith,” he says. “We’re going to be consistent. These are not going to go up. We’re going to stabilize this. We’re going to put together a process that’s transparent, accountable, fair, consistent.”
Baird says he especially wishes to gain trust from those communities who have historically felt neglected or left out of legislative processes, including the Hispanic communities in the Northeast and Westside neighborhoods.
“They want their needs addressed, and they have influence, and they have high turnout vote,” Baird notes. “But I’m going to be knocking doors this weekend in all of these areas with the team because I want them to know that I’m going to be accessible.”
Besides tackling the ongoing property tax issue, Baird says he knows Jackson Countians remain frustrated by losing the Chiefs to the Kansas side of the state line. A mistake that large can only be avoided in the future with some good, old-fashioned planning, he says.
“I believe that we let our part of our brand and our culture walk out the door without a real fight. We should have been strategic planning this for the last 20 years. So we didn’t, and here we are,” Baird says. “So guess what we need to start doing? Strategic planning.”
Ultimately, Baird says his time in public office has proven that he’s willing to work hard, to listen to voters, and to act on their needs both effectively and openly.
“I have proven that I am consistent, I’m fair, that I prioritize safety, that I prioritize healthy economic growth, that I prioritize diversity of boards, commissions. I believe that when people come together of different backgrounds, different ideas, different demographics for a common purpose, that is where and how and when lasting accomplishments are made,” Baird says. “And I have this experience that you can look back and say, ‘OK, this guy’s a safe bet. This guy has done things before.’ And so I will go to the county and I’ll just keep being me. And I’m a safe bet that I can turn this around.”
