By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Former CAP St. Joe Executive Director Whitney Lanning says politics push her out of the position she held the past nine years.
The CAP St. Joe board fired Lanning shortly after the Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the state budget stripping the organization of $3 million. The amendment ultimately was rescinded and the funding restored.
Lanning, a Democrat, doubts denials by both Republican Senators Tony Luetkemeyer and Rusty Black, members of the committee, that they had anything to do with it, saying neither reached out to her or CAP St. Joe about the funding.
“Which I think anyone would have expected if they were truly surprised and had nothing to do with it,” Lanning tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview.
Missouri has several Community Action Partnerships that formed the Missouri Community Action Network dealing with poverty throughout the state, but the amendment approved by the Senate committee would have only affected the St. Joseph Community Action Partnership serving Andrew, Buchanan, Clinton, and DeKalb Counties. Lanning estimates loss of the funding would have had an impact on 6,000 area low-income families.
The target, though, wasn’t the families, according to Lanning, who says the move in Jefferson City was meant to send a message to St. Joseph.
“It’s meant to scare me, but it’s also meant to scare other people,” Lanning says. “This is what will happen to you if you go up against people in power in St. Joseph.”
Lanning had been with CAP St. Joe for 11 years, serving as executive director for nine.
Black, who is from Chillicothe and represents a huge Missouri Senate district covering northwest Missouri, denies sponsoring the amendment, but admits to wanting Lanning out at CAP St. Joe.
“I thought that Miss Lanning had went way over the line and needed to be removed from that position,” Black tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And whenever that amendment came up in the committee, nobody was opposed to it and it passed.”
Black denies being behind the amendment, but doesn’t deny he wanted Lanning out at CAP St. Joe.
“Oh, I’ve been public on that, right, that I didn’t think her leadership was the right thing for CAP St. Joe,” Black says.
Lanning accuses Black and Luetkemeyer of doing the bidding of the Herzog organization. Lanning accuses Herzog of attempting to undermine public education, not just in St. Joseph but throughout Missouri.
“This is all deeply connected with Herzog,” according to Lanning. “This is all deeply connected with their efforts to defund and dismantle public education.”
Herzog Foundation spokeswoman Elizabeth Roberts denies having anything to do with the Senate Appropriations Committee amendment, saying she didn’t know anything about it.
“Our only mission is to improve K through 12 Christian education. That’s it,” Roberts tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “We’re not on a mission to dismantle or defund anyone.”
Roberts also rejects Lanning’s charge that Herzog is attempting to silence her, stating “the Herzog Foundation is certainly not trying to silence her.”
Though Lanning lost her position with CAP St. Joe, she says she will fill out her term on the St. Joseph School Board.
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