By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
August 5, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Eight years and three months.

That’s how long councilwoman Jan Marcason represented the Fourth District. Her first term began on May 1, 2007 and her last day was July 31, 2015. Because the timing of the recent elections were moved back, the last group of council members received three extra months of civic duty. She called those their “extra innings.”

In the past eight years, the councilwoman said there were some highs, as well as lows. But, she had many good experiences and felt good about the accomplishments she, as well as the other council members, were able to make.

“I feel like we’re leaving it in good conditions,” Marcason said.

She didn’t start off as the representative of the Northeast, either. During her eight years, redistricting amongst the council district boundaries ushered her into the historic area of the city. One of the biggest issues she had to tackle for the Northeast was the Kansas City Museum being absorbed by the Kansas City Department of Parks and Recreation.

“Now, I think people are very pleased with how the museum is being operated,” Marcason said.

The Accomplishments

When someone conjures up memories of past accomplishments, the first thing that comes to mind usually isn’t raw sewage. However, Marcason said one of things she feels the best about accomplishing is the Environmental Protection Agency’s [EPA] mandated sewer overflow control plan.

Back in 2010, the then city council agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems, at a cost estimated to exceed $2.5 billion over 25 years, to eliminate unauthorized overflows of untreated raw sewage and to reduce pollution levels in urban storm water.

The plan was designed to yield significant long-term benefits to public health and the environment, and provide a model for the incorporation of green infrastructure and technology toward solving overflow issues.

“The EPA said we were dumping too much sewage into rivers and that we had to fix this,” Marcason said. “We actually got a plan that was adopted and approved by the EPA and the Justice Department and it was the longest timeframe to address the problem. Everyone else was getting 20 years, we got it extended to 25 years because we put in a bunch of green solutions to see whether or not those solutions would work.”

In her second term, the council woman was also glad to see the council adopt and add to the charter the implementation of a five-year business plan for the city. She said this helps the city with its long-term planning and involves more people in the budget process.

What Could’ve Been

While looking back at one’s tenure, there’s almost always the mind frame of, “I could have done this better or different.” For council woman Marcason, that issue was the contracting ambulance service and Medicare billing, which she remembers as contentious and admitted to butting heads with councilman Sharpe.

“We lost an opportunity to save [the city] about $4 million,” Marcason said.

After a delay, she said the council agreed on a hybrid deal which has turned into a good partnership for the city.

“We could’ve saved more, but we’re doing good and making strides,” Marcason said.

What’s Next

Before she joined the city council in 2008, Marcason served as the executive director of the non-profit agency, Mid America Assistance Coalition, for 16 years. After a month-long vacation that will take her and her family to a lake house in Michigan, she expects to get back into the non-profit world.

Marcason said she’s already had discussions with her replacement, Jolie Justus, about what she can expect from the district. With Justus’s background in government, Marcason isn’t worried about the direction the district is heading.

“She’s a really outgoing and engaging person,” Marcason said. “I feel really good about her caring as much as I do about the Fourth District.”

To her constituents, Marcason said it was an honor to serve them. She said she couldn’t do it without the help of her assistant Susan Borge. As a lifelong resident of Kansas City, she said she was able to learn a lot about areas of the city she didn’t know much about, like the Historic Northeast.

“It’s been very exciting to see things happen in these neighborhoods,” Marcason said. “It’s been a great experience and I’m proud of our accomplishments.”