Alumni Profile: AJ Herrmann (MPP ‘17)

The state line between Missouri and Kansas is five blocks from AJ Herrmann’s (MPP ‘17) house. 

This simple geographic fact contributes to the complexity that is Kansas City, one metro area spread out across two states and six counties. There are ongoing concerns about housing, jobs, violent crime, and education, and, in recent months, the addition of a global pandemic and protests for racial justice and policing reform. 

“It’s been quite a season for local government,” says AJ.

AJ is the Director of Policy for the Office of Kansas City, MO, Mayor Quinton Lucas. As such, he oversees the mayor’s policy priorities, which include housing, improving basic city services, and reducing violent crime. Since March of this year, AJ has also led the city’s (and region’s) COVID response efforts. 

“Perhaps like other conservative states, Missouri has provided guidelines but no mandates about the pandemic,” says AJ “ For example, there isn’t a statewide mask order currently in place. So we’ve tried to figure out where Kansas City needs to be to keep our residents safe.”

The pandemic has created a budget crisis for Kansas City and exacerbated already existing challenges.

 “Our murder rate, which is already high, spiked,” says AJ “We’ve had close to 130 homicides already this year, which far exceeds last year’s total of 150. So we've had more people die from gun violence than have died from COVID. Obviously, both are terrible and immediate challenges that need to be addressed. How do we get our violence problem under control and how do support folks economically and keep them in their homes?”

Kansas City was also part of the recent wave of protests that swept the country calling for racial justice and police reform. It’s one of the few places in the country where policing oversight doesn’t happen locally but at the state level, by a board of commissioners appointed by the governor. Moving that oversight back to the city level could be a key reform, though it would take a state-wide referendum to do it.

“It’s not a question of abolishing or defunding the police,” says AJ “It’s also a question of how to build community trust in law enforcement. There's a lot of evidence that shows that when the community doesn't trust law enforcement, that leads to fewer murders being solved.” 

AJ began his role as policy director in November 2019. In the short time between then and the onset of the pandemic, he’s accomplished a series of legislative and policy priorities. He helped pass the city’s first Tenants Bill of Rights, which protects them from retaliation in disputes with landlords. He worked to remove marijuana possession as a violation of the city’s municipal code. And he helped Kansas City implement Zero Fare Transit, making it the first major city in the country to offer free public transportation to all of its residents. 

“You might think that a program that provides free public transportation is only saving people a marginal amount of money,” says AJ. “But we know that the majority of folks who ride the bus are low-income workers who really rely on it to get to work. Saving a few dollars a day adds up over the course of a year, especially for someone working at a minimum wage job or another low-income job.”

As challenging as his job has been this year, AJ has a pitch to students and alumni of public policy: think about working in local government, especially in the midwest.

“In local government, you get to wear lots of different hats: you shape policies, you work in politics as you build coalitions, you write legal ordinances,” he says. “It’s the opportunity to bring policy, politics, and law into one role, especially if you’re working for an executive in city government. And there’s a real need for people who can think through problems in the analytical way that we’re taught at the Goldman School.”