How Do You Skin a Cheshire Cat?

I'm sorry to say; the Wentzville regular Board of Aldermen meeting of August 3rd was not all that it was cracked up to be, or at least what I had hoped for. For the most part it was droll and even sleepy at times. I was anticipating a repeat performance of the explosion of previous weeks especially regarding the "Personnel Board." Alderman Guccione has worked very aggressively toward making law and I was certain that something more will come of it. If I recollect, the staff was directed to prepare an ordinance for the "Personal Board," which could have made an exciting first reading.

Citizens are not privy to the subtle changes often made in the agenda, I mean we go to city hall and look at the agenda in the glass case outside the front door on Monday, but by show-time on Wednesday it's a whole new ballgame. I guess it's the fault of the citizen for not checking the City's website to see if there are any changes, only to find out later that changes were made too late to post. So in reality, citizen spectators are not in the loop. At any rate, there was some scrambling going on in City Hall the prior week to head off the "Personal Board" ordinance at the pass.

Mayor Lambi opposes this ordinance to the extent of having his staff contact the city's special attorney Ivan Schoeder to defend Lambi's position against it. He doesn't want to allow the Aldermen to be the final appeal for Wentzville employees who feel they cannot defend themselves, or get a fair shake in the current appeal process. He feels that it would undermine his authority. On a side note, I don't know what the special attorney charged or how many staff hours were used to prepare an ordinance, that wasn't used, and defend this but it seems odd that when Lambi has a crusade, he has no regard to staff hours or other financial obligations in order to aid his cause. An excellent example of his waste of "valuable staff time" was the 501c organization LINC, to which he wanted the city to donate money. The aldermen reminded him that the city cannot donate money to a 501c. A week later he offered a "contract for services," drafted by staff, and proposed it to the board of crickets (see Meeting With a Bang posted August 1, 2011). But if aldermen request things, oh my! What a fuss he makes about using staff hours to give reports or request information. His immediate response is always, "do you want to waste valuable staff hours?"

Anyway, I assume there was an ordinance drafted but instead of a first reading, the "Personnel Board" was placed under Discussion items on the agenda. Which means the agenda changed somewhere in mid stream. The special attorney gave a talk on the reasons why the city could not set up a "formalized Personnel Board." Mayor Lambi sat there grinning like the Cheshire Cat the whole time. The aldermen asked questions and the special attorney responded to them. The attorney's focus was that; the city has a process in place for appeals and it is legal, but to appoint a hearing board as proposed is not; he has several state statutes and Federal laws to support him. Lambi concluded by rubbing his win in the aldermen's faces was by asking if the board wants to go forward with the ordinance, the "nays" outnumbered the "yeahs," five to one.

It disappointed me to see our mayor being so smug in his hollow victory; "hollow" is the operative word, this matter is not closed. One question asked by Alderman Gard set up what will follow. He asked the special attorney if the process in place can by changed by the board of aldermen? The answer was affirmative; I look for them to wipe the grin off of Lamb's face in the very near future. There's more than one way to skin a cat!