08/29/2011
No, or No Way? Peace Planters and KC City Council
Square Off on New Nuclear Weapons Plant
Kansas City, MO—August 26, 2011
It’s a rapidly-unfolding, high-stakes drama.
Thursday, the Kansas City city council said “No” to a citizen’s initiative to let November voters decide the fate of the city’s new nuclear weapons parts plant.
Friday, Kansas City Peace Planters petitioned the court, saying “No way!” can the council ignore the 4,300 voters’ signatures obtained to get the item on the ballot, by provision of the city charter.
Monday morning, Judge Edith Messina will rule on whether to make permanent her preliminary writ granting placement of the Peace Planters’ initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Monday afternoon, both parties will have the opportunity of appeal.
And Tuesday is the deadline for all items appearing on the November ballot.
So it’s all come down to the wire. No one knows which side will ultimately prevail in the next step of a protracted struggle about Kansas City’s role in the national nuclear weapons complex. Kansas City is one of three key production sites for the United States’ nuclear weapons arsenal, producing about 85 percent of its non-nuclear components.
The contested Peace Planters’ initiative would allow Kansas City voters to decide whether construction will continue on the city-controlled nuclear weapons parts plant at Botts Road and Highway 150 , or whether voters prefer to transition the facility to manufacture “green energy” technologies such as wind power.
The city council’s 12-to-1 vote Thursday (with councilman Ed Ford casting the only dissenting vote) came as no surprise to the Peace Planters, a coalition of some dozen peace activist groups in the Kansas City area. Their opposition to the plant has been ongoing for several years, including civil disobedience and arrests both at the 65-year-old Federal Bannister Plant, and at the new plant, where peace activists last year were arrested for blocking earthmovers on August 16 and for blocking traffic at groundbreaking ceremonies September 8.
This year, during the Catholic Workers Faith & Resistance Retreat (April 29-May 2) still more peace activists were arrested. The growing resistance is evidenced by the number of arrests—four at the old Bannister plant, and at the new plant: 14 blocking earthmovers, 8 during groundbreaking ceremonies, and 52 at the Faith & Resistance Retreat.
Peace Planters member, Rachel MacNair, is plaintiff in the current law suit, represented by Phil Willoughby of Gunn, Shank, & Stover law firm. Dr. MacNair questioned the last-minute timing of the legal proceedings, noting “The Council has had two full months for the Charter’s requirement of passing an ordinance directing the Election Board to place the measure on the ballot. The deadline for certification is August 30. Waiting until the last possible time allows the court only five days, two of which are a weekend, to consider the case. While the letter of the law is fulfilled in the timing, the spirit of democracy and proper deliberation is not. We believe this timing is an unfair power play.”
MacNair also questioned one of the city council members’ assertion that the citizen’s initiative might be unconstitutional, saying instead, “If a party to a dispute can decide the dispute in its own favor while ignoring its own Charter, then the very purpose of the initiative petition process in upholding democracy is being sabotaged.”
Whatever the intent or the timing, matters are coming to a head in the next few days. Whether “No” or “No way,” those who care about nuclear weapons abolition have a new drama unfolding in Kansas City that is worthy of their attention and support.
--Reporting by Jim Hannah, PeaceWorks Kansas City board member and columnist
