My campaign was always designed to be built on the premise that great ideas with a passion behind them would be at the core of our message. Our ideas and the way we presented them are some of what set this campaign apart from the rest.

In this final video, we divided it up into two segments, the first being about our ideas and vision for Kansas City and the second about some of the fun we had in creating those ideas and getting the message out.

The music behind the video is Rod Stewart’s Faith of the Heart. That song really captured the feeling and I hope you hear and view the video the same way.

Sylvia Maria Gross was the interviewer and I have to say she made the whole interview process a lot of fun. In our talk, we discussed some of my thoughts regarding crime, community policing and how we could create more jobs here in Kansas City through small entrepreneurs – particularly if we can help them get greater access to funding. One idea I brought up was Peer to Peer financing where people can put their projects up on a website and let others bid on the opportunity to finance those projects.

The overarching idea is that the city needs to be a catalyst for helping to turn these ideas into something actionable. The concept of the city being a catalyst is something I promote often in the campaign and is something that all cities will need to embrace in a 21st Century economy.

Please take a moment to listen to the interview.

Thanks,
Henry

Nelson Hopkins, Sr. is that kind of person. He is the founder of OperationPromiselandKC. He started this organization after the tragic death of his son 2 years ago. I met with Nelson recently and asked him for some of his thoughts and ideas on how we might reduce crime in Kansas City. That’s all it took. We were at the Panera on the Plaza and he took the pen out of my hand and began to write on one of their paper napkins.

I was so impressed with both his ideas and his passion that I felt compelled to share the napkin with everyone via one of our campaign YouTube videos.

And if you have a moment, please take a look at the other video we did recently, “Kansas City’s 98% Crime Crisis.” (click here to see that video). In this campaign, my number one focus is on making our citizens a whole lot safer than we are today.

Click here to watch Nelson’s Napkin and let me know what you think.

As always, thanks for watching.

Henry

Volunteering has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. In working with the various groups that I have, one of the things they all have in common is a need to get more volunteers involved in their causes.

In order to keep potential volunteers updated there will also be a newsletter that volunteers can subscribe to. This newsletter ensures that volunteers will be up to date with organizations’ needs by receiving an email. This email gives easy access to a volunteer by showing newly updated opportunities instead of having to frequently skim through the website. Also, contact information about each updated opportunity will be given through the email.

I hope you enjoy the video. Thanks for watching.

Henry

When you see the terrific return on investment, I think you are going to ask the same question I did, “why isn’t City Hall helping citizens to do this?” In Portland, OR they have several programs that integrate with their local government to help people install solar. In the video, we show this, the payback on a typical system and include an interview with a local installer.

We’ve got several issues oriented videos in the works (and I’m proud to say we’ve already posted and covered more issues than any other candidate) but with this being the holiday season, we wanted to wish all of Kansas City a happy holiday and what better way to do that then to create a fun, holiday video.

So what’s the best holiday video of all time? Well that’s debatable but we went with a tribute to It’s a Wonderful Life. In looking at the video you will see that we put in some real time and effort and clearly had some fun. And I couldn’t help but put a few pieces of satire in it as well. I’ll let you find those as you watch the video. Click Here to Watch

I’m not going to win any acting awards, that’s for sure. But we had a lot terrific time putting this together and it gave us a great chance to wish everyone in Kansas City a Happy Holidays.

I’ll leave you with a thought – our mayor should be someone that is thoughtful and someone that is approachable. We do pieces like this interspersed with our serious pieces because citizens ought to be able to feel they can easily communicate with their mayor and see that person as a real and genuine person.

Again, Happy Holidays to You and Yours,
Henry

In the business world when we deal with problems, we understand that what gets measured gets fixed. I will be bringing that same sense of priority and urgency to city hall. Our citizens must be and feel safe in our city.

We’ve watched for too long as those that could make a difference, particularly at city hall, choose to isolate this problem and contend it isn’t their issue or their responsibility since we don’t have local control. If I was an elected official or part of the old guard, these numbers are so bad, I wouldn’t talk about this problem either if I were them.

The major points I am asking everyone to consider are -
1) Electing one of the 5 Police Commissioners is but one step to creating a more open, more accountable commission. With the problem this bad, change has to happen and happen now!
2) The mayor should be at the epicenter of our efforts to reduce our crime problems coordinating our efforts inside and outside the police department.
3) This is a starting point. This problem has been building for quite some time. It’s going to take concentrated efforts to deal with it in the areas of housing, jobs and education – all of which my quality of life campaign is addressing.

Henry

Klein Campaign Announces Exclusion of Those Under Poverty Line for Earnings Tax Support

Kansas City, November 29, 2010, Today the Klein campaign makes an important exception to support for the earnings tax.   “We will support the renewal of the earnings tax with one critical condition: we must carve out an exemption for anyone or any family that falls at or below the poverty line,” said Henry Klein, candidate for Mayor in Kansas City.

The amount of revenue lost is likely to be small and it’s highly probably these dollars will find their way immediately back into the local economy in the form of food and necessity expenditures.  The campaign will work with city hall to determine the exact amount of revenue affected but the candidate made it clear that regardless of the amount lost, “we must no longer attempt to balance our city budget on the backs of the poor.  It’s unacceptable and should have not been allowed to continue for this long.”

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Henry Klein has lived in Kansas City area for over 25 years.  Working for over 20 years for the largest commercial printer in the world and Fortune 500 company, R.R. Donnelley.  His extensive philanthropic background includes his work with Habitat for Humanity, his weekly work with people with special needs, representing abused and neglected child in the court system (CASA), helping adults learn to read, board membership with the Humane Society of Greater Kansas city and other notable causes.

Henry’s campaign brings a non-political view of how city government should work.  A Klein administration will have these same kind of People First priorities.