Frank White, the former Kansas City Royals second baseman who has been Jackson County executive since 2016, was overwhelmingly recalled by voters on Tuesday, largely because of his sub-.300 career on-base percentage anger over rising property tax assessments and a campaign by a dark money group with ties to the construction industry. White had also pushed back against Royals owner John Sherman’s demand for a 40-year sales tax hike to pay for a new stadium — he offered a 20-year hike instead — which led to lots of stadium proponents blaming White when voters overwhelmingly rejected the tax hike in April 2024, likely leading to the funding of the recall campaign.
That’s a pretty complicated political dynamic, and “voters want a county executive who will move quickly to fund new Royals and Chiefs stadiums” doesn’t really seem like the message at all, given the sales tax vote results. Unless you’re KSHB-TV, which led its coverage with this:
With Frank White Jr.’s days as Jackson County executive numbered, his successor — whoever that might be — faces a tight deadline to try and keep the Chiefs and Royals in the county.
They do? The article declares that the teams’ stadium situations are “expected to be settled within the next nine months,” which presumably refers to the June 2026 deadline for the team owners to decide whether to accept $750 million apiece in stadium subsidies from the state of Kansas, you know, the one that was a June 2025 deadline until Kansas legislators decided to give everybody another year. At last word, Sherman was still kicking tires to see which county might offer him even more subsidies on top of the $700 million being offered by the state of Missouri or his $750 million Kansas offer, so really there’s not much rush here at all.
Which KSHB eventually got around to saying as well:
The Royals haven’t put forth a new plan after the Crossroads plan flopped at the polls. The club has denied multiple requests, including several in recent weeks as the 2025 Royals season came to an end, to speak with Sherman or other club officials for an update.
“I would like to see everybody talking publicly about what the options really are, because I don’t think, as a voter, we know much of anything other than rumors, and we don’t even have very good rumors,” [Kansas City, Missouri voter Sandra] Handley said. “I’d like to see some open discussion about this and some explanation of what’s happening and what the choices really are. … I’d like to hear from somebody with the Royals about what they’re thinking and where they’re going with this.”
So maybe it’s Sherman who faces a tight deadline to decide what to do? Leverage is so confusing!
White’s successor will be chosen by Jackson County Legislature chair DaRon McGee, who may appoint himself, saying that wouldn’t be a conflict of interest and he appoints himself to stuff all the time. McGee is memorable for having asked Sherman for Royals tickets at the same time he was readying the measure for the sales tax vote, something he also defended as something he does all the time. Conflict of interest is so confusing!
Word has it the Kay Barnes, former KC mayor will be appointed interim county exec. She is 87 and known as give away Kay. She was a former councilwoman and sex therapist selected by the Chamber and developers to be mayor in the late 90s
No doubt she will do whatever the contractors and real estate developers ask. The problem is the voters are really unhappy with the Royals. And it seems Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has no use for Royals owner John Sherman but their fates are somewhat intertwined. I don’t think there is anyone including the teams organization that has a clue how this will play out.