By BRIAN BURNES
The Kansas City Star
Copied with Permission
Last week a Blue Springs blogger praised Carson Ross, the city’s mayor.
The blogger, Jeff Quibell, said he was pleased with the opening of several new restaurants and shops in Blue Springs.
“Several friends have recently commented to me that they were surprised that my articles seemed to be very complimentary of Mayor Carson Ross,” Quibell added in his post.
That would be understandable. After all, last year, Ross defeated Quibell in the race for mayor.
One thing about cyberspace, though: there are no term limits.
Anyone surfing online in eastern Jackson County can find two blogs maintained by former elected officials whose voices remain prominent even after they have lost elections.
One is Quibell, who had been a District 1 City Council member in Blue Springs before being defeated by Ross. Since Quibell could not run for two offices at the same time, he found himself out of office after the election.
But Quibell still holds forth today through his blog, www.aboutbluesprings.com, established after his defeat.
“I thought ‘Well, maybe, this is the next volunteer thing I am being called to do.’ ” he said.
The other blogger is Greg Walters of Raytown.
His defeat by Shane Par-Due in April stopped the clock on his service at 27 years on the Raytown Board of Aldermen.
Walters tweaked his blog site, raytownreport.blogspot.com, shortly after the election. He announced he was removing his photograph and would let friends run the blog for a while.
But he said he would still post, and in recent weeks Walters, listing himself as a “contributing editor” with colleague Richard Tush, has done so, pointing out various maintenance and code enforcement issues. A recent post included a photo of a section of storm drainage grating that needed replacement near 67th Street and Blue Ridge Cutoff.
Eleven days later, the blog reported its repair.
“What is important about the blog is that information goes out that sometimes people at City Hall are reluctant to talk about or expand upon,” Walters said.
The two blogs represent eastern Jackson County examples of how evolving computer technology is being used by the politically minded to raise issues or advance agendas outside the government-meeting protocol.
Walters and Quibell may be more tech savvy than most.
Walters is vice president of Service Printing & Graphics in Kansas City, where he has had a box seat from which to observe the development of printing software.
For 22 years, Quibell has operated CPros, Inc., a Blue Springs IT Services and custom software company. In the 1970s he was a student at the laboratory high school operated by Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, and had access to the college computers.
“We were punching cards right alongside college students,” he said. “That was how we learned our programming skills.”
For Walters, the first version of “Raytown Report” goes back to 1997. He then perceived it as an “electronic newspaper,” and operated it with Garth Bare, a former Raytown alderman.
Even for Walters, the site evolved in ways he didn’t anticipate.
“Originally, when I started it, I was going to let anybody say what they want,” he said. “But it got to the point that I had to start deleting messages.
“I would get messages that said ‘You are restricting my freedom of speech.’ This came from people posting anonymously on my own blog.
“Then there were times that I wanted to take it wider and write about national, state or even just Jackson County issues. But they wouldn’t let me.
“People would write in and say ‘Hey, this is a Raytown blog. Write about Raytown.’ ”
Several people have been irritated by the site, such as Raytown Alderman Joe Creamer.
“I thought it was a very negative thing,” Creamer said. “Part of the negative image that Raytown has came from the blog, because Greg continually bashed city staff and other people on the board.”
Raytown Mayor David Bower said he looked at Walters’ blog only a few times and then stopped.
“I found it to be so negative I decided it was not worth my time and energy,” he said. “We are elected by our constituents, and I think leadership should be in a positive, forthright manner.”
Walters, though, believes his blog is valuable because it can allow an issue to be aired even when it’s not on the official agenda.
“One example: It’s against the law in Raytown to park your car on the grass at your house,” he said.
“But drive by a city park on a weekend and see how many people are pulled up right next to the shelter house. Why? Well, that’s a good question that needs to be asked and maybe nobody wants to stand up and talk about it before the City Council. But now it’s out there on the Raytown Report.
“So the site is just another way for people to talk back and forth. This empowers people.”
Back in Blue Springs, Mayor Ross said it’s important that reliable information about Blue Springs be distributed. He has, for example, instituted a regular online city newsletter.
“If it’s just ‘Beat up, beat up, beat up,’ then it’s not productive,” Ross said.
“But if the information is accurate, then I don’t have a problem with it. It’s one more voice talking about Blue Springs.”
Ross doesn’t believe Quibell’s blog has been adversarial, and Quibell agrees.
“Blue Springs went through a period of stagnation and although we didn’t stop growing, we started to pick up blight, with businesses moving out rather than moving in.” Quibell said.
“What I found — as the City Council worked to turn that situation around — was that knowledge was lagging behind,” he said. “We would approve the refurbishing of an old strip center and work would begin, but then people would be calling me, and asking ‘When are we going to clean up (Missouri) 7 highway?’ ”