I have received emails from anonymous people who accuse me of "playing favorites" in this past political election. They want to warn my readers that those candidates supported by The Wentzvillian will soon come under the knife when I turn on them. To those anonymous concerned citizens; you may be correct, The Wentzvillian may turn on them.
I was friends with Nick Guccione and his lovely wife Sandy long before he placed himself in a position of displaying unethical behavior. In my defense, I never turned on Donna Sherwood, her mode of operation was known long before I ever met her. She's been on the wrong side of every issue since her days of political leg breaking for Vickie Boedeker.
At any rate, Guccione came under the scornful eye of The Wentzvillian when he admitted to me his conspiracy to get hand-picked candidates elected to replace every Alderman up for re-election regardless of their record. He wanted people who agreed with his agenda, not people who represented the constituents of their particular ward. This practice is too common in politics today and could very well be one of the reasons the general consensus of Americans today is so negative when it comes to politics and politicians. This needs to change, it has been used in Wentzville since at least the 1980s.
The problem is, no one in the news media has balls enough to tell the voters about it, the conventional media deals with breaking news, not background news which doesn't sell papers. A perfect example was the alleged conflict of interest investigation involving Mayor Lambi. That investigation was going on long before it hit the St, Louis Post Dispatch and I doubt if Mark Schlinkman would have written it if one Alderman hadn't granted him an interview, that Alderman was Nick Guccione. Going against the advice of Wentzville's City Attorney, Guccione told Schlinkman the details of the investigation and the next day the story broke all over the county. The Wentzvillian watched and gathered information for months and posted it's speculations a good three or four weeks before the news media got it. Guccione's complaint that "I didn't do it, it's because of the blog, the blog did it," tipped off the conventional media that The Wentzvillian's allegations had some viability so they went to the weakest Alderman on the Board and got the whole story.
It's no secret that The Wentzvillian is an idealist in an imperfect world but that's no reason not to tell the facts of what's going on in our City government and to dislike what some people want to do to it. If it is found out that an Alderman or Mayor is doing anything other than representing the people while in City Hall, it will be reported here. If that is considered "turning on" someone then so be it, the voters need to have as much information as they can get to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth. Personally I applaud the voters for electing what I believe to be a very capable Board of Aldermen. I question their selection for Mayor but I think my fears will come out as our new Mayor gets involved in the matters facing our City. It's unfortunate that he did such a great job of fooling the voters and I think they'll see the error of their ways sooner rather than later. Wentzville will come under a barrage of conventional news media stories as time goes by and I think Mayor Guccione will be the subject.
As for "Playing Favorites," I guess you are correct. The Wentzvillian's favorites are Aldermen who represent the better interests of their constituents and the City. It also wants to see a Mayor who can lead Wentzville through difficult situations and bring honor to our City and its citizens. I believe that Mayor Lambi did that for the most part of eight years, I didn't agree with some of his ideas but I hope Mayor Guccione can do half the job he did. I'll be watching.
thank you for doing what you do, not many would want to place themselves in a position to be ridiculed for just telling the truth. i guess that's the reason you get so many anonymous comments and emails.
ReplyDeleteOnly 1456 days until the next mayor is elected.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably time to cool the rhetoric. Nick won. It doesn't matter that his platform was weak (or non-existent). The voters spoke, loud. Leon and Darrel were beaten, bad. Are the voters dumb? Maybe, or is it possible that Leon and Darrel ran ineffective campaigns, or were ineffective candidates? Leon and Darrel's messages clearly didn't resonate with the voters. Or, Nick tapped into a deep mistrust of "special interests." At this point, all of this is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteNick is Mayor. You can presume he'll be running the meetings for four years. We can complain, but it'll be more effective to sit back, and watch. If he does well, say it. If he looks foolish, and proves to be an embarrassment, say it. It no longer serves ANY purpose to complain about what he might do as Mayor. Wait, see, and then speak...
Call it rhetoric or anything you like but the fact remains that Wentzville will have problems with this Mayor. I know for a fact that his goons are trying to dig up anything they can to assault certain business owners who opposed his campaign. This is the way his mentor did it and this is the way he's doing it. It's the only thing he knows, he certainly has no accomplishments to stand on.
DeleteSpeaking of that "alleged conflict of interest".... no one has mentioned that the city paid in excess of $45,000.00 to "investigate" a claim that seems to have been unfounded. Would you consider this to be good and responsible use of taxpayer money? In my opinion it was nothing more than a pissing contest to see if the Aldermen could get Mayor Lambi to resign. In the end, it could cost the city more if Lambi chooses to file a lawsuit for demation of character or otherwise. I certainly think he has a case, unless there is still something out there no one knows about.
ReplyDeleteEither way, as someone else wrote earlier.... Nick is Mayor. The best thing for the voters of this great city would be for the new mayor and the aldermen to sit their egos aside and do something positive for the community. Fighting and going at each other's throats is hardly accomplishing that. It is only wasting more tax dollars in ridiculous time and effort spent by city staff and attorneys. I'm afraid this political atmosphere is going to ruin Wentzville.... I do not agree with Nick or the aldermen all the time. I don't expect them to agree all the time, but what I do expect as a voting tax-payer in this great city is that they act like they have some sense and get down to business and put the bull crap aside.
I agree with most of your comment but I think Nick is going to do his best to get rid of Chris Gard, Cheryl Kross and whoever the Board puts in his vacated seat, regardless of their acomplishments. If there is any "Bull crap," I think it will be stirred up by Guccione.
DeleteI'm sure people are aware of Nick's concern about the current Board and his hatred of them. But, I know that he's told his group that his first official directive is to meet citizens from the different wards and begin his recruiting process early for next years election.
ReplyDeleteHe has also targeted certain individuals to investigate and dig up dirt on them. People need to know what kind of person they elected, beware, Donna Sherwood is spearheading a discredit and destroy mission!
his first official duty should be to answer to his illegal use of the wentzville and gm logos. the aldermen need to aDDRESS THIS POINT.
DeleteI agree! Leon Tow had a photo of him in front of the Wentzville flag (which he designed), he wanted to use it on a campaign flyer. The photograph was taken prior to the city obtaining a copyright or trademark but when he asked the City Attorney if he could use it, he (Rost) adviseded against it.
DeleteThen we have Nick Guccione using it without permission and everything is hunky-dory. Guccione should face copyright and trademark infringements and the City should pursue this Blatent violation. Does he subcribe to the philosophy: "It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission?"