Stephen E. Guenther Submitted Information

Stephen  E.  Guenther

             Steve and his wife Janette, along with their three sons Sean, Joel, & Kyle, have been Raytown residents since 1992.  Steve is a licensed architect and urban planner and co-owner of Guenther Mills Keating Architects and HGK Construction Management in Raytown.  He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and has served as a Scoutmaster in Raytown for 14 years.  Steve spent 10 years as Vice Chairman of the Raytown Board of Zoning Adjustments, is a member of the Raytown Chamber of Commerce, and President of the Raytown Main Street Association.  He enjoys serving in his local church, being involved with MARC and the Truman Heartland Foundation, and being on the Board of the River of Refuge.  His spare time is spent with his family, fishing, and bicycling including on the MS 150 for the last 8 years, a charity ride for Multiple Sclerosis.

            Steve recalls 16 years ago when he first found out that Raytown was still a Fourth Class Missouri City and what that really meant in regards to self rule and governance, and how little a voice the citizens of the community had.  He watched several attempts at writing and adopting a Charter fail. This was a huge taxpayer expense caused by the then elected Charter Commissioners’ failure to focus and losing sight of their primary objective: that being to write a simple charter to adopt our current governing ordinances with little to no change of how we functioned as a city. 

            Steve feels to acquire self rule, not change, should be the objective of the Charter Commission. Additional questions with pro and con explanations would allow the citizens a chance to decide what changes they feel are necessary.  The reason the other charter attempts failed and were expensive was because there was too much change proposed and most communities historically will not vote for that much change.  The question must be asked: If that much change had been needed, then why has the Board of Alderman, Mayor, and city staff not brought to ordinance those changes? With only a few exceptions, that kind of change is not needed.

             Steve feels we need a charter because it empowers the citizens with a true voice into how to operate our city and because it will provide for self rule -apart from the State-at our local level.  He believes it is time for Raytown to move on from that FourthClassCity designation so that we can grow, prosper, and compete with our surrounding chartered communities.

            Steve would appreciate your vote of approval to form a Charter Commission and to appoint him as one of the thirteen Charter Commissioners on April 18th.  His name appears last on the list of 22 candidates, so start at the bottom.  His only agenda is to stay focused to the primary objective to draft a simple charter that the citizens of Raytown will approve.