A Great American

It's only four days before we all go to the polls to vote for the candidates of our choice. I want to remind everyone about the importance of this election. We have a four-year term for Mayor for the first time—that's a long time if you realize in the first year, you've made a mistake, so as the Knight Templar said; "Choose wisely."

"Choose wisely," no truer words were spoken regarding this election. We have men running for Mayor who have a wide range of government experience, some great, some not so great. I've had the privilege to know and watch each of them while they were serving our city and want to point out some of the things two of these candidates have done while in public office:

Bill Schuette: Schuette was a recruit of Vickie Boedeker when trying to regain her seat as Mayor for the second time after losing to Paul Lambi. At that time Boedecker had lost Board support and needed to get a new board elected to regain control of Wentzville should she be elected. She lost, but her disciple, Schuette won a place as Alderman of Ward 2. Had the voters known of her plot, Schuette, Luby, and Guccione would never been elected.

Schuette was uneducated about government and I believe had no interest in learning. Some of the ordinances he brought forward and supported were found in violation of state statutes and shot down. Others were destructive and led to changes to the overlay districts regarding sinage and allowing live music in the bars and restaurants on the Wentzville Parkway. Schuette was prone to give advantages and favors to his business friends and did so frequently, The tow contract was changed to give the advantage to a less qualified tow company simply because one of his best friends was the owner. Schuette brought chaos to our Board, he was loud, arrogant, and an embarrassment to the City in other public venues. A year after losing his bid for mayor and his seat on the Board, Schuette tried to regain it but was denied by the voters who were looking for a real represenative.

Nick Guccione: Guccione was also one of those recruited by Boedecker to run and he was elected to Ward 3. He was a butcher at Schnucks grocery stores and had no knowledge of government or procedures. The bad part about his situation is that he never had to learn because Bill Schuette led the recruits with his strong over-confident personality for four years on how and when to vote. Unfortunately for Wentzville, it was the blind leading the blind for four years until Schuette lost his bid for Mayor and consequently lost his seat on the Board. When the other recruits lost their seats, Guccione was all alone with a new group of aggressive well versed people (Aldermen) who believed in Wentzville and proper procedures.

When he ran for a third term and without the Boedecker machine he was lucky that he was unopposed. If someone had run against him he would most assuredly been joining the other recruits fate of losing his re-election. His good-fortune was Wentzville's misfortune, in his first year of his third term he was placed in a position of being behind the 8-ball to perform the duties of an Alderman. Knowing nothing of procedures, forming ordinances, gaining support from other board members, he quietly stumbled along. He followed everyone on the board, not speaking, not bringing forth legislation, and not representing his constituents of Ward 3.

Being a concerned voter in Ward 3, I have watched my Aldermen very closely for over 10 years and I believe that Mr. Guccione doesn't read the Alderman packets, is unprepared at meetings, doesn't have any knowledge of parliamentary procedure, and his record on the Board of Aldermen supports my statement. He watches other Aldermen and listens too much to small groups of citizens who speak in "Open Forum" at City meetings. Mr. Guccione makes decisions based on flimsy and un-researched information by small special interest groups and when he makes the wrong decisions he flips on his vote. His record is riddled with flipping on votes, he even campaigns on it, admitting he was wrong. Mr. Guccione is wrong on almost everything he votes on when he makes his own decisions regarding any subject before the Board.

Guccione is an opportunist and when he sees anything that may give him a political advantage he jumps on it. Siding with Mayor Lambi for the first time in five years is a perfect example. They were on the opposite side of almost everything. Guccione even tried leading a charge to have Lambi pay back the $15,000 (the mysterious check turned over to the attorney) out of his own personal checking account and now he's acting like they were buddies forever. He voted with the other Aldremen to turn the alleged influence peddling complaint against Lambi to the State Board of Ethics Commission, as a matter of fact he made the motion to do so.  Now he's with Lambi calling the entire ordeal "a witch hunt" trumped up by one of his opponents and at the same time discredit not only his opponent but the opponents running against his recruits. He thinks by siding with Lambi, Lambi's supporters will support and vote for him. He is a panderer and seeks any group who might support him, no matter how small or ridiculous, if it means votes, he's there.

He has pulled out all of the stops, he knows that if he is not elected Mayor this year, he will serve out his last year as Alderman trying to live with the things he's said and done. He knows that he will never be re-elected as an Alderman in Ward 3.  Guccione is the only Mayor candidate to resort to mud-slinging and trickery. I completely understand why he does it—it's the only thing he has besides small interests groups to campaign on, his record is completely void of any achievements, it's the only thing he can do. He relies on old newspaper articles and takes things out of context to bash his opponents rather than campaign on his merit. You can't talk about something if you have nothing to talk about.

A great American once said: "Small people talk about other people" "Average people talk about material things, and Great people talk about ideas." In five years of Guccione being an Alderman, I've never heard him come up with a "great idea," but I have heard him "talk about other people," on numerous occasions and spreading slanderous lies and rumors is well within his realm of ethics. I have to appeal to the good voting citizens to think about these words and think about where Nick Guccione stands. After looking at his record and campaign strategies, after looking at those closest to him and his conspiracy to control the Board of Aldermen, and after listening to his words and seeing his lack of accomplishments, any thinking person will come to agree that Mayor candidate Nick Guccione is not a good choice to run our Wentzville!