Kansas City News Blog

By DAVID MARTIN

Ed Wolf, Mark Funkhouser's former chief of staff, compared Gloria Squitiro's presence in the mayor's office to that of a mother-in-law brought on honeymoon. The comments are in a deposition obtained by The Pitch.

Update: Here's a copy of the deposition.

Wolf, who left the mayor's office in September, answered "yes" when asked if he felt that Squitiro shouldn't be at the office. Wolf stated that he did not make his feelings known, but another former Funkhouser adviser, communications director Joe Miller, expressed the view that Squitiro should stay away after the city council passed an ordinance effectively ordering the mayor to stop bringing his wife to City Hall. Funkhouser has said he will fight the ordinance in court.

Wolf's testimony provides new insight into the bizarre workings of a mayor's office that has become grist for national news outlets, in addition to the subject of a racial-discrimination suit. Wolf answered questions posed by a lawyer for former mayor's aide Ruth Bates, who filed a complaint with the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, alleging that Funkhouser’s wife, Gloria Squitiro, called her "mammy." Bates also says she was paid an unfairly low salary.

In his deposition, Wolf said that he and other workers in the mayor's office maintained a good relationship with Squitiro. At the same time, Wolf described Squitiro as a disruptive, almost manic figure. Asked to describe her personality, Wolf said: "[S]he can be very friendly, very social, very outgoing, she can be moody. I think she has highs and lows. And I think that -- well, when she has a low, she's kind of standoffish and can be, I think, suspicious of others' actions."

Wolf felt that Squitiro caused tension in the office. "I think her presence, there's an inferred -- inferred idea that she does, indeed, represent the mayor and it -- it just -- I guess it was kind of like having your mother-in-law go along on your honeymoon, it's just -- there's something there that's a little uncomfortable about the situation."

Wolf said that Funkhouser's deteriorating relationship with the city council factored into his decision to leave. Wolf said that bad relations between the two sides culminated with the volunteer ordinance. Wolf appeared to grow frustrated with Funkhouser's unwillingness to compromise. Once the idea of a lawsuit to overturn the ordinance came up, "I just felt like I could no longer be a part of that," Wolf said.

The deposition indicates that Bates' lawyers will try to depict Squitiro as profane, impulsive and unprofessional. Lynne Bratcher, Bates' attorney, asked Wolf if he knew that Squitiro had asked one job applicant's age. (Wolf said he had heard that but did not know if it was true.) In what was surely not a hypothetical case, Wolf was asked if he felt it was sexually offensive if Squitiro had called into her husband's office and told the woman who answered the phone to tell the mayor to take his "dick out of her ass" and come to the phone.

The mayor and his spokesmen have insisted that Squitiro is a valuable and well-liked member of the team. Wolf's deposition, however, suggests that Squitiro's clashes with staff are more widespread than has been previously reported. Wolf said that Funkhouser's scheduler, Dottie Engle, sobbed on occasion after getting into disputes with Squitiro.

A former director of public works, Wolf brought Burnetta Burtin, his former executive assistant, on to the mayor's staff. As Wolf understood it, Burtin left the office having grown uncomfortable with with the mayor and with Squitiro. "[T]he mayor told Burnetta that when Gloria asks you to do something, she's asking for me. And I think that specifically is what upset Burnetta, what caused Burnetta to lose respect for the mayor," Wolf said.

On more than one occasion, Squitiro referred to Burtin, who is African-American, as "Bernie Mac."

Wolf described another scenario in which Squitiro falsely accused another aide, Shawn Pierce, of conducting personal business on city time. A suspected source of news leaks, Shawn Pierce was fired around the time Wolf left.