Elected Officials—Above the Law?

On the evening July 20th, the city work session lasted five hours during which the Board of Aldermen discussed several important issues of interest to the tax-paying citizens of Wentzville. The most significant being a half-million dollar reduction of the 15 million dollar general fund. The general fund is used for operating expenses, most of which are salaries. To accomplish the decrescence the Aldermen's suggestion was to reduce the $0.97 per $100 assessed value of property real estate taxes.

As much as I like the reduction in the general fund, they didn't stop there. The Aldermen then went after employee benefits, after announcing that the Wentzville employee benefit package is the highest in the sample group of cities. HR Director, Amy Holloway was directed to examine the benefit package and suggest items that can be eliminated and which items can have an increased employee copay.

This brings me to the most interesting hour of the evening, the discussion about the formation of a Personnel Board consisting of three Aldermen, three citizens, and a fourth Alderman whose sole function would be to break ties. This proposal was met with fierce opposition by the Mayor and soon-to-be-retired Chief Noonan.

The current policy is that when a department director recommends the termination of an employee, the final decision rests with the City Administrator, Dianna Wright. Other than legal action, this was the final appeal for the employee. What the board wants to do is add another level to the policy. This is where Mayor Lambi went into high gear defending the authority of his administrator. "This is a bad policy, It will lead to an increased number of law-suits from disgruntled employees," Lambi said. Alderman response was to suggest that there would be no more law-suits than if the final decision was made by the City Administrator or by the Personnel Board. "It will create a lack of moral and disrupt the chain of authority," said Lambi.

After several unsuccessful rounds of trying to defend the current policy, Chief Noonan spoke. He said, "When we go through all the process of appeals in the police department and the decision is made to discharge the officer by me and then Dianna, You don't really want to keep that man on the force do you?" Alderman Kross spoke up on that, "This change would not just be for police, it's all departments. If the paperwork and all the evidence is sound and in order, what makes anyone think that the proposed Personnel Board would overthrow that decision?" The Aldermen stated that it is rare when an employee appeals higher than the department head. Other Cities in the county have an appeal board policy much like the one proposed and they don't have any problem.

Mayor Lambi went on giving us all a lesson in government; "there are three branches of the government; executive, legislative, and judicial, you should not make executive decisions at the legislative level. We have department heads, an HR department, and City Administrator in the executive branch who all serve as an appeal process. It's the same as any company in the private sector, they don't take the termination of employees to their board of directors." Alderman Stokes rebutted; "In the private sector, The HR department doesn't report to an administrator. When an employee appeals in business, HR is the final word. If we were to use the private sector policy in the city, the appeal process would go from director to HR to city administrator and back down to HR."

Then came the highlight of the night. Lambi was running out of answers and began repeating old ones, then it came—I'm not sure if it was a confession or just another blunder but he actually said it. "This proposed policy will become very political, it will come back on elected officials." He went on to present this scenario; "If a mayor or other elected official had been out late at a reception or other social function where there was drinking, while driving erratically home he could be pulled over by the police. The policeman recognizing who was driving might say "Sir, you are weaving and apparently had a few drinks, let me escort you home." If that officer ever was to go through the termination process it could be trouble for the Personnel board." I don't know but that statement sounds like the voice of experience. Did Lambi just suggest that he and other elected officials are above the law and that police are to neglect their sworn duty? How corrupt is that? This is our mayor saying that if he or any of the aldermen get pulled over, they won't be charged with DUI or whatever infraction might be appropriate.

After that was successfully rebutted by Alderman Guccione, Lambi knew there were enough board members to direct the City Administrator to draft an ordinance to amend the HR termination policy, he leaned back in his chair and starred off into space. I think Lambi (at that moment) knew this board will not back down from him anymore. For several minutes the board and staff talked with one another, the meeting was out-of-order but Lambi didn't pick up the gavel. I've never seen that before in a meeting. Finally Lambi leaned forward and interrupted the chatter with; "What's next on the agenda?"

This Board is unified, they are taking charge of the city, I've never seen that before either. Here's a link to the city meeting of July 20th, copy and paste into your browser:
http://wentzvillemo.iqm2.com/citizens/VideoMain.aspx?MeetingID=1345&AgendaID=1307&FileFormat=pdf&Format=Agenda&MediaFileFormat=wmv