HOUR 4: Voting 'YES' for a data center lead to a historic recall vote in Independence. Now 3 of 5 'YES' votes are not longer in office.

0:00You're listening to the Dana N. Park's podcast on KMBZ. I'm telling you. I'm just now reading this in the Kansas City star. Tomorrow, a trial will finally begin. Finally. In the case of the absolute nut that started targeting people along the Indian Creek Trail. Remember this? Seven years ago. White men and one middle aged white woman. Listen to this. Jury selection began Monday downtown in the quote long awaited trial of Frederick, Desmond, Scott, the man accused of being the Indian Creek serial killer. Opening statements in the case are expected tomorrow. Okay. The 31 year old has been accused in the killings of 57 year old Stephen Gibbons, 54 year old John Palmer, 67 year old David Linux, 57 year old Timothy Rice, 61 year old Mike

1:02Darby, and 64 year old Karen Harmeyer. The killings took place between 2016 and his arrest in 2017. This has been going on these poor families for 10 years. Why did it take so long to get to trial? Did they say he wasn't competent, Sam? It was a back and forth and forgive me. I don't have it right in front of me. And I don't remember the exact way that it went down, but I'll give you close and up to be dangerous. He was ruled in competent. They filed a motion saying, no, he's competent. He just needs to take his meds. He took his meds. He was ruled competent. Yep. When there's two disputed or different rulings there, they then trigger an automatic third ruling. I don't know if it went to four and five. I can't remember. We've just been waiting forever for these rulings to go back and forth. And the biggest argument was, well, yes, he is incompetent, but if he's medicated, he's fully competent. Is this the one where they forced medicated him?

2:04In the last ruling, if I remember correctly, in the last ruling, the judge said, we will give you another chance to be tried to see if you're competent. You must take your medication. Or what? We're going to shove it down your throat. Yes. You're going to spend the rest of your life in Larnet. I don't know. So listen to this. Harmeyer was killed in Grandview. All of the other fatal shootings took place along Indian Creek Trail in South Kansas City. All of the victims were shot. Most of them from behind in surprise attacks. Some were shot outside of their homes as they walked dogs, visited parks or walked down the street. I did not know this. Scott, who is black, gained notoriety when it was revealed in 2014 while enrolled at the Center Alternative School in Kansas City that quote, he wanted to kill all white people. This was back in 2014 at the Center Alternative School in Kansas City.

3:06All six of his victims were white five were middle aged men. He faces six counts each of first degree murder. One of the men, by the way, was one of the owners of coaches. That's right. That's right. He was walking his dog on Indian Creek Trail. I remember these stories. What is it about this town and serial killers? Is it possible? Scott, that he's not a serial killer. He is just a homicidal low-life maniac. Is it possible he wasn't even mentally ill? He's just nuts, a homicidal lunatic. Well, that would make him a serial killer anyway because of how many people he killed. I mean, in his own words, he hates white people. I mean, Oh, that's nice. That's what he said in 2014. I don't know what to say. I'm against people being killed. And I'm four people going to travel. It should not have taken this long.

4:08My heart breaks for all of those families. And he's just been sitting in a jail for the last decade because he can't be let out. Well, that confused me earlier today as well. Has he been in the holding jail all this time? Because they can't technically send him to prison prison until he's convicted, right? So he's just been in the Kansas City holding detention center for nine years. Yes, the answer to that is yes. You can't let him out. I mean, he's a suspected serial killer who professes that he hates white people. I don't care. The race thing is relevant to the story, but the fact that he killed allegedly six people is far more important. Anyway, from the text line, I'll address this very quickly because it's a fair point. The first Adam Hamilton Roger Marshall debate scheduled for September 12th at one 30 p.m.

5:11rights 58 16. Can we count on you to broadcast it live? No, you cannot. For two reasons. We don't do a lot of politics. If ever on this show, a number two, that's a WIBW debate, not a KMBZ debate. So we don't we wouldn't even have the rights to do it. Not looking to make this a topic, but in a very historic vote, Independence residents have recalled Councilman John Perkins and wait until you hear the reason why. That's the story here, whether you live in Independence or not, Independence residents have made history by recalling a city council member for the first time in a special election on Tuesday. It's been certified all of those things. They took to the polls and voted to remove longtime council member John Perkins. He's out. Why you ask why? What did he do? 1,650 votes were cast, almost 70% voted to kick him out.

6:15After he wanted a big data center, he voted for a $6.2 billion tax break for a hyper scale AI data center. That is currently under construction in Northeast Independence. And I here's my bold prediction. It's really not that bold. You are going to start seeing this all over the country. That's why I brought the story up, Scott. He of the five council members who voted for the funding package. Perkins is the third to have lost his seat. It's historic it was an recall. My guess is the other two were just voted out of office, right? Probably. Otherwise, we would have heard about it if they were recalled. The story wouldn't say for the first time. The recall was largely organized by the Independence Action Committee of one of several grassroots political groups, which formed in the wake of the controversial vote. Quoting here, we are proud of the work we have done. Proud that people showed up to vote,

7:15and we can move forward from here. 68% voted to recall them. Yeah. You know why? Because when they do polling, 70% of Americans don't want a data center in their neighborhood or in their center. Who are the 30% that do? He's got some bragging rights though. Those are like Frank White recall numbers. That's pretty good. I mean, they really don't like you, Mr. Perkins. The $6.2 billion incentive package, by the way, included. Are you ready for this? I read it. 98% real property tax breaks, 98% and 90% on personal property. That real property tax, by the way, is basically the only way that cities can make money off of data centers. That's right. So anybody who tells you, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, bring so many jobs. It's going to bring jobs. It's going to bring money to the city. You literally just screwed the pooch by granting a 98% tax break on real property taxes.

8:20Now in the weeks leading up to the data center vote, Perkins declined to host any town hall meetings or information sessions on the massive project, though he attended at least one similar meeting hosted by a colleague. And you know what? Residents said, no, we don't want it. We don't like the deal. While everyone else's taxes are going up, right? Yes. I am at a complete loss for words on why city council members are voting for these data. I'm not saying that they're bad. What I'm saying is the messaging has not been good. Whoever is in charge of data centers, and I know there's probably God knows how many companies that are in charge of it, they have done a piss poor job of explaining why they aren't bad for us. Well, there was never an explanation because what happens, God, is they very quietly started popping up. And people, honestly, the news stations and newspapers do not have the staff anymore.

9:24To be sending someone to every single city council meeting where these things were very quietly, very quietly pushed through, right? And so for so many cities, you just woke up one day and you had one of these and you're like, wait a minute, what we're doing? What? Only now, what two years later, three years later are people starting to mobilize and go now, wait a minute. Now, but here's what I'm at a loss for words about. And maybe one of the two of you can explain this to me. Why are city council members in places like independence, potentially, DeSoto, Edgerton, why are they voting for these data centers when the people don't want it? I understand that you're elected, you know, we live in a representative republic. Okay, we we decide who decides. I get that. But your job really is to represent me and what's good for this city. And yet in city after city after city, city councils are like, well, we know better than

10:29the, the them. We're going to pass this. Keep in mind that the outrage did not start until there were already 3700 data centers in the United States. And Scott, I can't answer your question comfortably. I have a theory, but I won't say it. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to imagine that money has something to do with it. Dollar signs are involved. Yeah. 913 586 77798. You know what? John Perkins deserved to lose his job. He deserved it. 98%. Let me find that where's that number again. 98% of the six point, whatever billion dollar deal, million or billion, billion, in tax breaks. 913 586 77798 586 77798 here on Danein Parks.

11:40So I just found a story from about a week ago from NPR. And they write the use of non disclosure agreements for negotiations on data centers is common across the country. According to experts and those in the industry and the practice has faced opposition from the public and some lawmakers bills to ban NDAs for data centers have been introduced in several states, Kansas, Missouri, and not among them apparently. Last week, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro banned their use on data center projects by agencies that he oversees the argument being if we have an NDA with the local community, city leaders and city officials can't talk about it. Let that sink in for just a moment. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. And they're messing with our tax dollars. That's exactly right. And they're messing with your livelihood and your standard of living. Okay. I continue on from the NPR story. Companies and local

12:46officials who sign non disclosure agreements say they are needed, Dana Wright, to protect corporate secrets and to negotiate freely. But experts say they also give data center developers an edge as they move from county to county. In this case, parish to parishes stories out of Louisiana seeking the best deals. The government that we are the boss, we are the boss got right cannot operate in secrecy. That's not how it's supposed to work except for a few CIA things and where they keep the aliens. That's fine. And I'm okay with that. But this is something that affects us. What the CIA is doing overseas. Okay. Or where the aliens are doesn't really affect me. It might. It's interesting. Alright. Let's not open this can of worms. You guys are going to drive me nuts. I'm just saying we deserve to know who built the pyramids. We deserve transparency.

13:50We know when these deals are being made and you can't hide like a coward behind well, it's proprietary. But why? Why? Why does anyone want and by anyone, I mean a city administrator or a mayor or a member of a city council. Why would you even want a data center in your community? You why? You you wouldn't. No, nobody would want that. And in fact, then why are there thousands already? How many of these lawmakers have said, you know what, this is such a good idea for our town. Put it right in my backyard. So zero. So if the people don't want them, right. Then and everything's on the up and up. Why are you allowing one in your community? And why are you signing a non disclosure agreement with the company building the data center? From the text line, how are the tax breaks messing with our money? Either they build it and we get taxes, although less than without the break, but we still get money. 98% tax break.

14:56Yeah. 98%. We get 2%. That land could be developed for other things where we get the taxes. Period. That is correct. That is correct. The argument, for example, when you hear about TIFFs, tax increment financing, and it's a very common tool, especially on the Missouri side in Kansas, they use a lot of star bonds. You've heard of those as well, which are paid off. I'm not going to get into it, but it's paid off by through the use of a tax break. The argument with the TIFF, for example, let's say Kansas City, Missouri and Overland Park are fighting over, you know, we're trying to poach this business away from you overland parks. So we're going to offer them a TIFF. The argument being we're going to bring in this business and they're going to they're going to build their new headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri and close their headquarters in Overland Park. By doing that, we're getting, we'll give them a TIFF. We'll give them a tax break on the property taxes. But now we're getting 1% on every salary for the city coffers. These people are coming

16:00into our community. They're working. They're spending money. Yes. They might relocate. Let's say you lived in Lawrence and worked at the Overland Park headquarters. Now you're going to move closer to the headquarters in Kansas. You need that about a data center. It's a chunk of concrete. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the one that was proposed for 13th and help me help me help me, the historic building that they were going to tear downtown downtown. Yeah, it was a 20-story building. That the idea was, hey, let's turn this gigantic 20-story historic building into a data center. Sounds great. Right. All these jobs that are going to come into build that data center, you know how many people were going to work once the data center was complete. Don't laugh, Sam. Two. No. Five. It's a very small number once that data center and that 20-story building was complete, there would be 13 full-time jobs. You need people to make sure it's not melting down.

17:01By the way, at that city planning committee, when they struck it down, the developers stood up and yelled, no, it's going to be 13 jobs, guys. Come on. Not an employee for every floor. In fact, seven floors would be empty. No, there would be data stuff there, but nothing that breathes. Eight, 13 people. 13 jobs in a 20-story building. Yeah. And historic 20-story building. 13 jobs. Now, I said on this very program, if you're going to put something like this anywhere, use an existing downtown building that has no future life in it. And if you're, if you live downtown, you're probably screaming at me right now. Yes, they are. Put it somewhere where the exterior of the building is still gorgeous. There's nothing inside of it. Stick it in there so we don't have to see it. We don't have to look at it. You just walk by it downtown. You let me know it's in there. Wouldn't you rather have that than in on farmland or on...

18:05Well, and this one, the story I was reading to you from NPR was built right next to a small little town in Louisiana, population 1000, 1000. They're building it in open farm fields. No, no, no, no, no. Do you think the thousand people in that little county? How many jobs do you think are being created that are going to come to this tiny 1000? None. They're going to bring in the contractors to build it. Yeah. And those contractors once it's built are, bye-bye. Of course. They're off to the next one. They're like locusts. These data centers, they just go from county to county to county. No. They go underground and they bury themselves for seven years and we don't hear from them. You know, they'd be nice, wouldn't it? What is that time happening? James and Ropo. What's up, James? Hey, how's it going? It's just curious if you know what taxes, because I don't think that tax abatement is really the issue. What taxes are after construction will even be generated,

19:05because it's not like there'll be a bunch of payroll taxes. They're not really selling anything, so there's not going to be a sales tax. What taxes are going to be missed, which again, what's the benefit of having them in the community? I don't understand it. I don't either, James. If there is a tax benefit for a community, every community in these United States, would be fighting for this. And since none of them are saying, oh, this is great for you, Sam, living in Waldo, you and Mary Beth, we're going to cut your water bill because, yeah, you see the yacht that punchline already. Okay, good. We're going to be able to cut your taxes or cut your water bill or do this or do that because this data center, you don't see it yet, but it is really financially going to contribute to this community, and it's not going to be a burden on the electrical grid or the water system. The only potential tax intake from a data center

20:08is property taxes, and that's exactly the exemptions that they're giving these developers to build them. 98% in independence. That means there is no incentive. Okay, so here's my question then. We're starting to vote out all of the politicians. He's a good idea. My guess is independence. The next person that are the people that are going to run now, we're going to be like, nope, we don't want no data center here. Does that just put a lid on future growth of these sites? I'm potentially yes, because you would have to zone it for something like a data center. No, this is going to become like the herpes of the political world. Eventually, I don't know that we're quite there yet. We're getting real close. Data centers, AI and the economy are the three things that are pulling higher than any other thing in this country. That crazy. Data centers and AI, okay, which are kind of one in the same, and the economy, all pulling higher than the war in Iran. Yep.

21:10And every other thing you can think of, that's how much Americans are now paying attention. To AI centers and data centers or AI and data centers. It is one of the highest, most hot political potatoes. Liabilities. Sure. Liabilities. Here's the problem. In independence, you can stop future data centers, but this one's already going through. But there's going to be a shelf life for this and isn't it now? Shelf life for what? Yeah, we weren't paying attention to this because no one was covering this or understood what was happening up until this point. But now, how are any future data centers going anywhere? But you were preventing us from understanding anything about it because you're signing NDAs. Now that we now that we do know, don't these just stop? 913-586-779-8586-779-8. Here on Dana and Parks.

22:13All right, let's get to it. A city council member in independence by the name of John Perkins is out of a gig. He was recalled last night. First time ever in the history of the city of independence, what was his high crime and misdemeanor you might ask? He was one of many on the city council who voted in favor of a data center and the $6.2 billion in tax breaks for it. It is under construction now in Northeast Independence. Of the five council members who voted for the funding package for the data center, Perkins is now the third to have lost his seat on the independent city council the first to be recalled because of it. Perkins' opponents had also alleged poor communication with residents in general. Okay. So if we need these so badly, not saying we do or don't, but now they are a complete political liability and we all know that most politicians really at the

23:17end of the day care about the one thing and that's the re-election, right? You can also care about your community, but let's be clear, they want that job. And so if this is now such a huge political liability that you are not going to be the one coming out in favor of AI or data centers, then don't they all just go away? The ones that are currently here know, the ones that are potentially coming down the pipeline from this point forward, what politician is going to go, yep, bring it on in. Well, power must be one of, I've never had it, so I don't know, but it must be one of the most intoxicating things in the world. There is a reason, and this is just on the side, but to the larger point about why would politicians do this? Chuck Grassley, Senator from Iowa is in his early 90s. He's running for re-election, not this year, but in two years, he would, if he wins, he'll be 101. Okay, no, he'll be 101. No. Power is intoxicating. And now John Perkins doesn't have it. Good. Matt, in mission. Hello, Matt.

24:23Hey, how are you? We're doing well. Thank you. Hey, thanks for having me. I was just going to add, you know, I know enough to be dangerous about the taxes associated with some businesses. I used to work for a software company and we were fully remote, but you know, they have something called physical nexus, an economic nexus. And if you meet one of those thresholds, you have to pay sales tax and also a portion of your income tax in that state. And so in Ohio, we held a portion of our, we had our backup servers in Ohio, which triggered almost like a physical storefront, and so all of our income, even outside of the state of Ohio, we had a portion, a portion of that to Ohio. So I'm wondering if more of the midterm or longterm play is to build the infrastructure and then change the tax codes here in Kansas and Missouri to capitalize on that outside revenue as another revenue stream for local communities. It's possible, but you can't do that retroactively.

25:24You would have to do it proactively. And what I would suggest, and I think finally, lawmakers in at the state level and at the federal level, tell me if you disagree, Dana, are starting to realize especially when it comes to AI, we're not saying it's bad, but what we're saying is let's slow this horse down. It's going way too fast. Well, just slow drip it so it takes longer for all of us to hand over our jobs and our livelihoods and our water. But what I'm saying is let's slow down, let's do some research, get enough information where we can craft, right now there's hardly any, if any legislation on artificial intelligence. Well, the reason there is such a fire storm to build data centers right now is because there are no regulations on them. That's why we have open loop systems. There's only I think like four to seven percent or closed loop systems from the text line. So much of the information about the data centers is just Chinese propaganda. It's misinformation,

26:30because they don't want us to get ahead of them in the AI race and it's working because people are ignorant. Then why are the companies requiring those involved in the deals to sign NDAs? Great question, Sam. That's a really good question. If it was all on the up and up, tell us it's on the up and up. Let's do it. Let's go. I have said from day one, AI companies and data center developers have done an awful, awful job of messaging. Why don't think they're one they wanted there to be any messaging, Scott? The quieter, the better. Let's see how many of these we can get in before our communities start going, whoa, whoa, what? Let's go to Dana in Kansas City. Hello. Hey guys, how are you? We're doing well. Thank you. So I have mixed feelings. I work in the industry and I have mixed feelings on this issue. I think there has to be some accountability to the public as well because what people don't understand is

27:32you know we all use AI every day whether it's to make a funny picture on AI and how much more power that takes than just doing a normal Google search. We're all being pressured every day to use AI at work and I agree with everything you guys have said about needing to slow it down but the horse is kind of already out of the car and where do we put these things is the problem because everybody wants to use AI or we're being forced to use AI. And you know these data center developers and I don't know how the taxes work with some of the numbers on some of these large mega or giga data center campuses. They're revenue for the off-takers like the Googles in the open AI is in the millions per day per day. So per day per day. It's in the millions per day is what their revenue is projected to be. So you know it's a real problem and I often tell people I think this is

28:33going to have to get with AI and our use of this something like we all had to learn to recycle and conserve the environment we're all going to have to be mindful when we're on computers. You know not to use use our computers for you know generating a picture of what we're going to look like when we're 85 because that takes energy that takes power and only use these resources for when it's really needed. So you know I agree with everything you're saying but the fundamental problem is where are we going to put the darn thing. Well but if these things generate millions of dollars per day right. Yeah. Why are you the first person who's told me that. I have no idea but I will just tell you I work in the industry and that's the numbers that we're seeing. So how bad but Dana how bad do people need to post their video and I know this is a rhetorical like this is a silly question but like if you said to a community here's your choice you can either have these data centers in your backyard or you don't have to have the data center

29:34but you can no longer post a funny meme on Facebook. I honestly wonder what most Americans would say to that. Stop tell me I'm going to live my life. I think most people I went to a conference last year and don't quote me on the numbers but it was it was put on by a local law firm and they had numbers in there about just how our needs for power has increased since like 2010 and between the projections between I think it was now in 2035 the amount of power that we're going to need in the United States has quadrupled or something compared to what it's been just from like 2020 10 to today and they had all these interesting statistics about okay here's how much power it takes to just do a Google search you know you know look up where this restaurant is or versus you know make me a picture of a Jayhawk eating you know a tiger and it was astonishing the

30:34difference in power that it takes and I had never thought about that once at this presentation and I think people just really need to educate themselves on that. Sorry to cut you off you said that they generate millions of dollars a day for what state for where who gets the tax money they don't know how to generate billions but we're not getting any tax money out of that. Yeah I don't I don't know how that's working with the taxes and and the way these normally work is the developers will buy these and develop them and you have your general contractors to build them and then you have the Googles and the open AI is in the different off takers who are coming in and they lease the space from the developer. So I don't know how all the financial arrangements work but yeah but that's what that's what we're seeing and you know I don't know where all the money comes from or where it's going but nobody does that's the problem. Thank you for the call. Yeah thank you for the call do

31:36appreciate the information 913-586-7798 so you can go find this on any of the local TV stations websites. We are not going to play it. No only because there's a lot of gunfire and Dana and Sam had a good point during the break because we're about to take a vote on whether we error or not. Probably the last thing you need on your commute home is thinking that somebody's firing bullets on the road. We wouldn't play sirens on the air so we're not going to play gunfire on the air. However we do or have seen the video God where and this is what closed to 91 highway earlier today and I'm going to just describe this read from Channel 5's website and then Sam describe what we have just seen in this video. It just says here four suspects pull up right behind a vehicle that is stopped at an intersection and open

32:38fire. Can you be more specific? So the video was taken from a woman who was sitting in the I think that's the southbound lanes in the turn lane as well and the three guys two on the passenger side one on the driver side both doors fly open simultaneously. They all three get out at the same time and rush this car. It looks like quite a nice SUV and it sounds like fully automatic gunfire going into this vehicle. It's a hit. The call. This is a hit and and the thing is we listen to the video where we watch the video. Listen to the sound. Sam and I were both of the opinion at least one of these assailants for lack of a better term has an automatic rifle and I am well aware of the difference between an automatic and a semi automatic. Dana, I just made that same exact sound without my mic on. That is exactly what it sounded. These bullets are coming up with a semi automatic. You have to pull the trigger for each bullet's release. There is no way physically impossible.

33:43For somebody to pull the trigger that fast on one of these at least one of these guns. One of the guns is a semi automatic. You can tell just by the sounds of it. You can hear the slower pop pop pop pop pop. The distance between the bullets release. But one of at least one of these guns is an automatic. Which are illegal? Did you imagine being the woman taking the video? Can you imagine being in that car? Describe where she is. Sam because you just hear her go, oh my god, oh my god. This is a stoplight on 291 and the. Chip and car and the assailant car are in the left turn lane. I believe traveling north. The woman taking the video is in the left turn lane traveling south. So they're facing each other both in the turn lane. She's probably what 35 40 feet from this other vehicle. Never take, but let me just add one thing to what you said. The victim's car is already at the left turn lane stoplight. Correct. The assailants are not there yet. No. They come up behind. Stop

34:50their truck or SUV. I can't make out what it is. Ford F-150 Ford F-150. Okay. So the the victim's car is sitting at the left turn lane all by itself. There are no other cars there. And then out of nowhere comes this truck. It stops right behind it and then everybody jumps out immediately and Dana to your point. This was a hit. That's exactly what it looks like is a hit. How. Three other cars were hit by the way. Just three people at 11 a.m. going about their day, trying to probably get to lunch, run an errand on their lunch break. California F-150 plates with a personalized tag. I'm betting the car was stolen. I would call the guarantee. Police immediately said we know the tag. We know the description. It's a personalized tag. Where are they? Wow. Okay. That was hard. I'm going to be honest. That was hard to watch.

35:54I've never seen something like that in real life. You see it. It looks like a movie. See it in the rain. Where everyone gets out in tandem. Just flanks the car. Yeah. From the text line, why was she recording? I think it's because she had a dash cam. A lot of people have dash cams. This recording did not move at all, which tells me it was mounted to her windshield. Or it's a Tesla, which records everything. Okay. In lighter news, MLB's Los Angeles Angels have been sold to the owner of the Rams and Arsenal over in England at the EPL. Stan Kronke, remember that name? Big Mizzou Booster. Stan Kronke has bought the Los Angeles Angels. The serial butt sniffer in Southern California strikes again. Coincidence? No, Sam. No. All right. We got to run bonus hours next. Today, by the way, is victory over

36:57a Japan day, VJ day. Birthdays today. Terry Bradshaw is 78. Mark Harmon, the actor is 75. Eric Dickerson is 66 and now I feel really old because I remember watching him when I was a kid. Have a great night. Sam Stevie, the third. My good friend, and co is Dana right. My name is Scott Parks and God willing. We're back tomorrow at two o'clock. Have a great night. Be safe. Be well and be good to one another. Good night. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Dana and Parks podcast. Remember, you can catch us online anytime at KMBZ.com.