Bring Your Pillow

I'm looking forward to the Board of Alderman meeting this coming Wednesday evening for several reasons. There are some extremely interesting and contriversial subjucts being discissed however, get there early because it may be standing room only. Next, bring your pillow, given the length of the agenda, this meeting may set a record by lasting well past midnight—I'm bringing my jammys but I'm not looking forward to being there all night.

Early on, they will be discussing the possibility of hiring an interum City Administrator (CA) presented by Mr. Mike Schoedel of Interum Public Management, Inc., after which there will be another presentation by Mr. Gary Holland of the Mercer Group who will talk about recruitment of a new CA. I see these presentatations taking an hour or so. Our Mimesis Guccione is working hard behind the scenes to get one of his buddies hired into this position. It is known that he is having him attend the meetings so he can introduce him to city staffh and also hawking him to the Aldermen. I am not sure if he needs to approve the hiring of a new CA but if he does, it will be just like the vacant Ward 3 Alderman seat (which still pisses me off), it won't be filled this year.

Unless the Aldermen pull off something from the "Consent Agenda" to discuss, they'll go into "Unfinished Business." Of the nine listed items in "Unfinished Business," nothing stands out taking a long time but I can't see them getting through it in less than an hour, especially since Gooch is at the hammer. So now it's a little after 8:00 pm, just one hour until my jammy time and we haven't even hit the real fun stuff yet.

The "Mayor's Report" will gather yawns but if past meetings with Gooch directing traffic is any indication of things to come, the "Alderman's Reports" could be a shot of caffine. It's difficult to predict what they are going to say but I've found them extremely entertaining over the last eight months or so. Alderman Gossett is emerging as a strong member of the Board and his well thought out and calculated statements have brought Gooch to his knees on several occassions.

Now it's ten minutes to jammys and it's "New Business" time. Of the nine items on the agenda, the one I expect will get the most attention and pack the house is; item 5, "Employee Benefits Contract(s) Review."  From prior meetings regarding this subject, I see the lion's share of the audience to be employees. Since this discussion deals with contracts it will no doubt involve our Purchasing/IT Director, Jerry Hillin. I would expect it will be a detailed account of the state of employee benefits in Wentzville. I would think this subject will probably be scrutinized by citizens during "Open Forum." It's going to be noteworthy to see where the Mayor and Aldermen shake out on this subject, many citizens will be watching and I'm sure it will be a hot topic with local news services the next morning.

Finally, now it's approaching eleven o'clock and we get to agenda item "XV Information/Discussion," ten subjects. Even if you only give each of then ten minutes, it's getting near one in the morning. This discussion is going to have to have fireworks or the Memisis will be banging his little hammer to stop the snoring coming from the back row. Jeeez, I'm getting tired just thinking about it.  I'm not even going into "Board Directives" or the possibility of "Executive Session," It's going to be a long night, a very long night.