Open Letter to Robert W. Mc Kinley, President, Birmingham Drainage District
Call for public meeting for explanation of conflicts of interest
5/6/2004
Mr. Robert W. McKinley, Esq.
Lathrop & Gage
Re: Call for public meeting
Dear Mr. McKinley:
Public documents indicate a call for a public meeting concerning the operation of the Birmingham Drainage District. This
is required since you were sucessful in getting the Secretary of State to reissue the District's charter number. It is also
required that the notifiation be placed where the people of the district have an opportunity to see the notice. The
Kearney paper probably would not qualify as giving the people of the District an opportunity to see the notice.
Based on questions raised in a recent Village of Birmingham meeting the agenda should include:
1. Your connection with the Birmingham Drainage District. Public records suggest that your are the attorney for the
District, rather than the president, since you do not get paid a Board of Supervisors fee.
2. Your connection with the Investment Properties Division of the LDS church. Public records suggest you also
represent this group.
3. Your connection with the nonprofit Property Reserve, Inc. The company holding the majority of real estate and
personal property for religious, charitable and educational purposes within the District. Public records
suggest that you are the attorney for this entity.
4. Your connection to the for profit Northland Park Inc./Zions Securities Corporation, the agent of record for
Property Reserve Inc.
5. Your connection to a Deseret Title Holding Corporation easement, book 1432 page 342, for drainage facilities
for Northland Park sold to the Birmingham Drainage District June 2, 1981. Public records suggest Deseret Title
Holding Corporation ceased to exist two years earlier on 3/15/1979.
6. What public legal problems of the District required the expendature of $94,000.00 for legal services in 2002
and 2003?
7. Was the $10,000.00 survey of Shoal Creek required for the benefit of the general residents of the District or was it
for the benefit of Zions Securities 2,200 acre Northland Park development?
8. Was the $10,000.00 survey of Shoal Creek in the vicinity of the District or did it have anything to do with Zions
Securities 1,700 acre development of the Shoal Creek Valley property?
9. Was the $107,000.00 + consulting fee for a breach in the levee or some ofther purpose? The Corps of Engineer
doesn't seem to be aware of a breach in the Birmingham Unit.
10. What maintenance purpose, or need, required a tax increase from $37,739.17 in 1998 to $368,338.41 in
2003?
11. Is it true that the LDS's presiding Bishop, H. David Burton, controls Property Reserve Inc. As Chairman of the
Board -- therefore he controls the Birmingham Drainage District as the majority landowner?
12. Is it true that Mayor W. Kent Money, as President of LDS's Zions Securities, would also Have a controlling
influence on the Birmingham Drainage District by right of the 2,200 acre Northland Park industrial development?
13. Is it true that the LDS's Investment Properties Division's Norbert A. Kemp has the ultimate control of the
Birmingham Drainage District by serving on the Board of Supervisors along with other LDS representatives?
14. Is it true that LDS's Investment Properties Division's Northland Park sold the Birmingham Drainage District the
right and obligation to construct and maintain drainage facilities inside and outside the District with public
funds?
15. How much public funding was spent on lobbying legislators to get the drainage laws changed so that LDS
representatives could legally serve on the District's Board of Supervisors?
16. Who actually testified before the legislative committees as the Birmingham Drainage District, before the Board
of Supervisors could do any legal business.
17. Who is the current District's Board of Supervisors? Public records suggest that there is only one local District
land owner on the Board of Supervisors.
A copy of this call for public meeting will be filed in the Birmingham Drainage District records.
Jim Bynum
PO Box 682
Smithville, Mo. 64089
(816) 699-3975