Phil Levota, Jackson County Executive, Running For Full-Term | 4-1-26

Well, the filing deadline is closed in Missouri.

So we now know who is running for what?

And that includes in Jackson County, Phil LaVota, who is right now the interim county executive

deciding that he is going to run for the seat on a full time basis coming up later this

year.

Now, Phil LaVota is joining us on KCMO.

And the first obvious question, Phil, is you signed a pledge saying, I am not going to

do this.

I will not seek this on a permanent basis.

So why the change of heart?

Good morning, Pete.

I'll tell you what.

This started with me back in September when I was approached for the interim position

what I consider it.

I said, no, I'm happily retired.

I do not want to get into the toxicity in the problems of Jackson County, but I talked

to a lot of people that I trusted and said, we need someone there.

We need someone to do it now.

And I told everyone that asked, okay, I'll do it, but I don't want to run.

I don't want to be the full time guy in four years.

I want to get in there.

I want to write the ship.

I want to pass it off to someone that can keep it going.

And so I brought up the issue, the legislature loved it because they made everybody sign

this pledge because there are a lot of members of the legislature that wanted to run for

County Executive.

So they wanted to lock somebody down, but I didn't have a problem with it.

And so I got in and I rolled my sleeves up.

I got my nose down to work.

I didn't bring up partisan issues.

I'm a Democrat, but that's not my job.

My job was to bring tax relief to people Jackson County and restore some confidence.

And that's what I've been doing.

And so for the past months, I've had people come to me and say, you have got to reconsider

doing this.

If you look at the people that are talking about running, it could be worse than Frank White.

You brought stability.

You have credibility.

You have experience.

You've got to do it.

So I thought about it.

And I thought about, well, what are people going to say?

I said I wouldn't run.

And frankly, it just boils down to democracy.

The people Jackson County should choose just because I'm on the ballot, doesn't mean

anything.

I got to earn every vote.

There's eight folks on the ballot to run.

So if you don't like me, you can vote for wherever you want.

But I'll tell you what, there's hundreds and even thousands on this petition page that

tell me I should run and when it boils down to it, it's about giving the people Jackson

County the choice.

I'll tell you about my friend, Eric Zahn, he filed a run for prosecutor a month ago.

He decided he didn't want to and he got out.

He didn't lie.

He just made a decision.

Sort of my ledgely, Sean Smith, he filed for Congress.

He decided it's not his thing.

He got out and he's running for state rep.

People make decisions.

People get information and they change their mind.

So this is a lot of noise.

I'm positive about what I've done in Jackson County.

I'm positive about the future of Jackson County.

And I hope the voters will see what I've done and they evaluate me with every other member

on that ballot and choose me to do that.

I think I've done a good job and I think I'll be good for Jackson County.

So what's what's happened in this interim role for you the last few months that that you

want to improve on or make better if you do get this job on a permanent basis coming

up this year?

Well, the biggest thing is going back to Texas.

So I got in and we're dealing with a 23, 24 tax cycle assessment that was just a debacle.

And I had to get in my hands in that and fix that.

We rolled back 23 and 24.

Well, here we go.

We're going to have another tax assessment cycle coming up right now.

Who's going to be there to approve and supervise the assessment department is the county executive?

So I have the experience to make sure that we're going to do fair, transparent, and equitable

assessments in the next tax cycle.

And that's very important.

In 28, the citizens of Jackson County will elect an assessor and they will take over all

of that responsibilities of the assessment.

But until then, it's the county executive.

And my focus is to make sure that taxes do not go up and people do not go through the

ringer like they did before.

I mean, they were treated like crap by this county for 10 years.

So I might five and a half months of trying to unravel that mess.

It hasn't been long enough.

So someone needs to be there with my experience in this next assessment cycle to make sure

we don't go backwards in that tax policy.

What else has Jackson County as a county in your opinion, missed out on or come up short

with with some of the incompetent leadership that's been in place over the last few years?

Boy, I could take a long time to talk about this.

I go places and they say to me, wow, a county executive has never been out here before.

I went to Oak Grove and I've been to Oak Grove several times.

And it's almost like they can't believe it's an alien that's entered their town.

The county executive's out here and I say, yes, Oak Grove's part of Jackson County.

I went out to Tarzny Lakes.

They had a problem with their pond that it's a Jackson County pond and it's been filled

with algae and lily pads every year and it's a mess.

The county has never responded.

I look at emails they sent to the former administration over years and I went out there

and they just, they can't believe it.

And I've been meeting with the Eastern Jackson County Mayor's Association.

That's all the mayors of independence, Raytown, Grandview, Lee Summit, Oak Grove, Grand

Valley.

And they said, we've never had a county executive that works together.

And so I have bond with them as my resources and my advisors because it's all one county

and that has not happened in before and I could go on about business leaders about clergy

that I talked like, wow, we've never had a county executive, actually have never had

the county involved at all.

And that's what I'm trying to change.

What about, you know, if there's one thing that you've got a regret on in this interim

role for the last few months, what was that regret be?

My regret would be that I haven't been able to change the culture of the county as quick

as I thought.

These people, some people in this county have been ingrained to just being doing their

own thing.

And frankly, I had the recent example of the clergy's filing for exemptions.

And this should be a simple thing.

Our churches have a nonprofit exemption and it's simple under the law, federal, state

and county.

And the county before had been very lack of days of call about whether they did it and allowed

it or not.

So I went in and said, let's proactively get our information out of these churches.

And I found the churches were calling into my assessment department and being told entirely

different information than my policy was.

So I regret that I relied on the culture changing quicker than everyone else just doing

whatever they wanted without any supervision, but it's, but it's in the right direction.

We're moving there and people are understanding that they're out there accountable under

my administration.

Phil LeVote is the interim Jackson County executive file yesterday to run for the position

on a full-time basis.

So we had John Sherman on the show this week, Phil.

You were out at the K on Monday for opening day and, and he referenced conversations around

the Metro, but it does seem like Kansas City and Jackson County is right up there with

the top of the options that are available to the royals.

As you go ahead in this process, especially in this interim role the next few months,

which hopefully things are buttoned up by then.

What, what can you say to folks in the county on how this process is playing out and how

you balance keeping the royals here with also protecting the taxpayer?

Well, that's it.

It's keeping the role and balancing what's good for the taxpayer.

I was with John Sherman after you were on Monday and we spoke like we always do about

what's going on and I voiced my opinion to him and frankly actually was me and the mayor

at the same time talking and we continue to express our support on keeping the royals

in Jackson County.

We continue to talk about with the governor that we have a unified effort to do that.

We continue to understand it is a business.

It is complicated for them are making sure they're getting all the ducks in the row and

we understand that.

I understand that and when they're ready to to publicize what their location is and what

they want to do and we're ready to publicize what the public private partnership will be.

We're going to do that and it will only be something that is good for the people of

Jackson County and I think it will be and so I am kind of critiqued about talking about

it also.

The bigger picture you step back these things are complicated and it does take time.

I know that the people want to know sooner rather than later and that's what John Sherman

is saying.

I think I feel like a broken record but I think we'll see something the next couple weeks.

Do you anticipate an element of whatever the royals put together in Jackson County to

include another sales tax vote of the people or do you think that there are incentives

available to them that do not include a vote of the people needed with a sales tax?

I think there are ways to do without a vote of the people of sales tax was incentive with

bonding and things that aren't a tax increase.

We look at the people over in Kansas with the star bonds.

The way they implement it is kind of outlandish but there are incentives that is a way to

do things that isn't a vote.

Now we over here in Jackson County still have our three sales tax that takes care of

the stadiums.

I'm not proposing we do anything with that at all regarding the royals but it is something

that is going to go on for the next five years and my end and we'll see later down

the line if the people of Jackson have an appetite to help but yes there are ways to go

about funding a new stadium without a vote of the people.

Well speaking of a Truman sports complex now you had a press conference last week saying

you know you're going to put together a committee to try to figure out what's next for that

plot of land when these teams are gone from the Truman sports complex.

If you had your druthers if you could pick something right now, Phil LaVota what would

you put there at the Truman sports complex?

You know I made a joke and I said you know I have horses wouldn't a horse track be good

and I was joking and I've been skewed on the internet.

This guy was once a race track because he has horses and it's just been ridiculous.

But I'll tell you what I don't know what I don't know and that's the reason for this tax

force.

That's the reason for public input to get all sorts of ideas from everyone.

It's from people across the nation to tell us like here's some ideas and I want to get

all that information together the best the brightest and then give it to the people Jackson

County.

Look what we could do.

Look what it could look like.

Look what it could cost.

Look what the impact would be to jobs not just jobs in construction but long time jobs.

And what it would look like to not just Kansas City not just Jackson County but all of

them in his palaties around Jack County too.

The influence on independence, Raytown, Blue Springs, Lee Summit.

So I guess my long question answered to you, Peters.

I don't have a choice.

I want to see what the options are and I really want to think big in Jackson County.

This is a generational decision to make for something we could deal with for 20, 30, 40,

50 years of changing.

It could be even bigger and better than the term sports complex now.

So are you saying a racetrack is off the table for sure?

I'm not saying that at all.

I'm just saying I'm not taking it.

If it came back and said a racetrack would be good, that'd be great.

We can have a stop car races or in the 500, I don't know what we have 400 to 500 acres

of prime real estate in the heart of Jack County right on the highways.

We could do all sorts of things.

All right, there you go.

Phil LaVota in from Jackson County executive who is going to be running for the permanent

role as well coming up this year.

Thanks so much, Phil.

Appreciate you being here and best of luck.

Thanks, Pete.

All right, Phil LaVota on KCMO talk radio.

Hi, I'm Joe Salcia.

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