The King Had Only One Basket at the Ball

 

I've had time to look, re look, and look again in disbelief at the Wentzville Board of Aldermen meeting of December 18, 2013 (click here). I've got to tell you something, Mayor Nickolas Guccione said some things that should disturb even his most avid fan. I've always known that he is not the most crisp pickle in the jar, but after the statements he made Wednesday December 16th, I'm concerned that there may be some criminal intent in his methodology when he threatened the Alderman and the City with a lawsuit if he doesn't get his was.

 

Mayor Nickolas Guccione has, and is displaying his arrogance of power and his total disregard for the laws of our city in the exact same manner written about in the book, The Imperial Presidency by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Everyone knows about his use of the City logo and the GM trademark during his election, everyone knew it was illegal except Guccione, and everyone was shocked when he was allowed to walk via Mayor Lambi's illegal pardon. Only a Governor has the power to pardon the crimes Guccione committed in the way and time he committed them. Now, because his lack of ethics is beginning to pile up, I'm beginning to wonder if Guccione did not know his deeds were illegal, or if he believes it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission, or he knows his actions are illegal and thinks himself above the laws the rest of us must abide.

Wednesday evening during "(I.D. # 4946) Ethics Policy," in a discussion that has been going on for months, Guccione threatened the Board and the City with litigation if the ethics policy was not changed to allow him to solicit private donations for various groups. It must be noted that this policy was modified, and signed by Guccione after the Lambi scandal, but now he wants to change it back to be able to do everything that was afforded Lambi.

At about 2:02 into the meeting Guccione became frustrated, as he does most of the time when he doesn't get his way. "My personal attorneys told me that I was elected by the people, and the Alderman can not hold me to this ethics policy. The people who elected me didn't make this policy, the Aldermen did." WHAT? Does our Mayor really believe that the people write laws and policies? My high school government classes taught me that the legislators write laws and policies, and in this case, that's our Aldermen. The same people who elected Guccione to head up the executive branch of our government, elected our Aldermen to legislate our laws. Guccione does not need an attorney he needs a government class, the problem is, he just doesn't like the system and wants to change it to his more Socialist ideas. "Not one, but two attorneys told me that if I challenge this policy it would not hold up in court. I don't want to do that but." I could hardly believe what I heard. He also said he knew State Representatives who side with him. I wonder who he's talking about, maybe his strong political supporter, Brian Spencer? Our mayor just told the aldermen, and the city, that if you don't change this policy, I'm going to collect donations anyway, and if you try to punish me for violation of the policy, I'm taking the city to court. All of you good citizens who voted for Nickolas Guccione must now see that he does not respect the laws of this city and it's by design, not oversight, it's simple ignorance of government and how it works.

If I were an Alderman and I wanted to get rid of the arrogance and utter incompetence in the Mayor's office, I would uphold our laws as they are written. If anyone of the aldermen bow to his threats, perhaps they believe they are above the law also. At one point during the discussion he said to Alderman Shryock, "If you have to ask, it's probably wrong." Guccione has been asking a whole lot in an effort to get his own way, it's time he let it go and concentrate on being a better mayor, after all, he's not a fundraiser, he's the CEO of a failing administration. He tried this same tantrum when he had Michael Hays appointed to the board, in his mind it worked once, why not again? Guccione is really pushing the envelope and deserves to be slapped around by the legal system. I'd love to watch him defend his actions here in Wentzville's municipal Court. He thinks he's above the law and deserves the opportunity to prove it to his subjects, and Judge Martin.

Dear King Nickolas, Your subjects are leaving like rats from a sinking ship, the city is being buried in lawsuits, and all you want to do is attend the Mayor's Ball. You are correct, the other mayors are laughing at you, but not because you only brought one basket to the Ball.

I'm Ready!

 

There is an interesting thread of discussion on my last post of Thursday, December 12, 2013: The Push Is On! (click here), that I believe needs to be addressed. It revolves around the possibility of Vann Sample coming out of retirement to reclaim his Ward 2 seat which is currently occupied by Sonya Shryock.

 

Sample left his service to Wentzville government due to circumstances with his day job and consequently served only one term. The seat was up for grabs and candidates came out of the woodwork to run against Donna Sherwood who had unsuccessfully run in every election for Ward 2 since 2010, she was Guccione's first choice. At the same time, Sherwood was Nickolas Guccione's campaign manager in 2012 and they ran what many believe to be the dirtiest-mud-slinging event in the history of Wentzville Politics. Her opponents were newcomers, Jeremy Pritchett and Sonya Shryock. Late in the campaign it was found that Pritchett was actually campaigning with Sherwood and Guccione in an effort to split the vote against Shryock to allow Sherwood to win and serve Guccione's wishes on the Board. Voters got wise to Guccione's plan and Sherwood lost the election, gathering fewer votes than either of the political rookies, Pritchett and Shryock. Guccione had underestimated Sherwood's level of public unpopularity.

 

Shryock won the election and was nurtured by a very strong board. There for a while, even though it became evident that Shryock was in way over her head she followed the conservative members of the board; Rick Stokes, Chris Gard, Forrest Gossett, and Cheryl Kross. Progress for the city continued without a hitch in spite of newly elected Mayor Nickolas Guccione's governmental incompetence, and the city sustained a fair level of accountability. Once Kross joined forces with Guccione and schmoozed Shryock to do the same, everything changed. Before long, Shryock began feeling empowered and led the charge (with Kross and Guccione) to remove Wentzville's legal services team. What's worse, she meddled in Chief of Police, Lisa Harrison's private affairs, it's uncertain what level of involvement Kross and Guccione played in this scandal, but I'm sure it will come to the surface. The events of that time were exposed on my post of November 4, 2013, The "Unholy Alliance" Exposed (click here).

 

The Wentzvillian polls say that Shryock's job performance is the absolute worst on the Board of Aldermen.  But I contend it's marginally better than that of the non-existent accomplishments of Ward 3 Alderman Michael Hays (both of whom suffer from delusions of adequacy) if you exclude the removal of our legal services and the scandal she started within the police department. I'm not exaggerating about their records, I defy either of them (or anyone) to publicly announce what they have accomplished since being elected. Guccione is excellent at exploiting a lack of government and political savvy and as a result he gravitated toward Hays and Shryock to do his bidding. The wild card in his goal of Board control is Kross, I had hoped she would have been smarter than him, but obviously she's not lived up to those expectations.

Should Sample throw into the mix next April, there's more than a good chance that he could regain his office and help turn back Guccione's folly. Rick Stokes should have no problem with his re-election even though Guccione will throw everything, and everyone he can find at him. The other question is if Forrest Gossett has earned enough points with his constituents to maintain his seat on the board. It will be interesting to see if Cheryl Kross, one time close confidant of Gossett will assist him with his campaign. Since she had her falling out with Stokes and snuggled up to Guccione she has turned her back on her old friend, leaving some doubt regarding her allegiance to Gossett, we will soon know.

Gossett is very well versed in policies and procedures, and government, calling for a "point of order" more than any other alderman. So much so that at one meeting Guccione sarcastically said to him, "So you're going to play lawyer again?" Guccione hates Gossett, but then again he hates Stokes too, so Gossett is in good company anyway. Guccione will put candidates up against Gossett but probably leave them pretty much to their own devices to beat Gossett by simply splitting the vote. Guccione's main focus next April will be trying to get Shryock re-elected and sling as much mud at Stokes as he can dream up. If Sample runs, Guccione will more than likely bring in a third candidate to split that vote too which could put Shryock in a precarious position. She's trusting the dirtiest campaign designer in recent history, a man who even threw his own campaign manager under the bus. I absolutely know that Shryock will get the short end of the stick because Guccione doesn't care who gets elected, as long as it's one of his recruits and not Vann Sample.

It's unfortunate that Guccione has started politicking during the board meetings already, he's making it so obvious that it shouldn't be a surprise if he's called for campaign policy violations before it's all over, but he'll find someone to blame. I'll be watching closely to see how many times he has Shryock bring up subjects for which Guccione will pick up the sword against Stokes and Gossett. If Shryock thinks Guccione will defend her, she's delusional. I sincerely hope she doesn't get into any more trouble than she's already in, but time will tell. I think the best thing she can do is bow gracefully out of the race before her inevitable legal problems begin and she's right in the middle of attention while in office, the news media is relentless and keen on scandals. Mayor Lambi did it and paid the price, it's good advice to be far from the media while in office, but taking good advice is not her strong suit. When her problems hit (and they will), her good buddies; Kross, Guccione, and Michael Hays will put as much distance between her and them as they possibly can. It's hard to find a political friend when you're under fire.

I had hoped not to get so deeply involved in reporting on the election already, but Guccione has started campaigning from the dais and the truth needs to be told — I'm ready!

 

The Push Is On!

 

I didn't attend the Board of Aldermen meeting of December 11, 1013 (click here) for one reason; I wanted to see how some aldermen acted when I wasn't watching. I did however, watch the streaming live video and I got an eyeful of the mayor, Nickolas Guccione, and certain aldermen politicizing Wentzville Government. The election is just over three months from now, and as Guccione announced before, he went full-bore trying to discredit President of the Board, Rick Stokes.

 

Once again, Alderman Sonya Shryock during her "Alderman Report" led Guccione's charge by talking about "Penalties for leaking information from executive sessions. ...I want it to be impeachment or censure worthy..." She mentioned City Hall so I ascertained she wants to point the finger at some alderman for the leak of the location of the new city hall building. I previously speculated that the new city hall building will be on the yet unbuilt Schroeder Creek extension behind Holt High School, and I knew that the final site would be decided during the regular executive sessions. The words in her report came directly to her from Guccione, how do I know this? When she finished her report Guccione said "You forgot something, I'll handle it in my 'Mayors Report.'" Unless he had scripted her report before the meeting, how could he know she'd forgotten something? Incredible!

 

Back to the point; Guccione is pointing the finger at Stokes and wants to publicly admonish and accuse him of being the leak. Unfortunately for Guccione and Shryock, the information did come to me from two aldermen at different times, and that data was stored until I posted it. The first alderman to give me the location was Cheryl Kross during several of the many meetings we had prior to her flip and subsequent blackout. The second was none other than Shryock who hinted to me about the location, but she said; "You can't tell anybody about this." So, if someone is going to be impeached as Shryock suggests, she needs to put herself and Kross at the top of the list. If you're not going to play nice, I'm going to turn you in.

 

Guccione is a great one for leaks too, I got verification of Lambi's shenanigans from him. He admitted in public meetings that my speculations were all to true by saying "I didn't leak it to the newspapers, the blog did it." Those in the know still laugh at him after giving the information to the St. Charles County Journal and St. Louis Post Dispatch. It's important to know that Kross was instrumental in connecting the dots of the Lambi investigation.

 

Even though Guccione says The Wentzvillian is not a member of the press and not a reporter, I still get it correct sooner or later and make it public for our citizens. Any good investigative reporter using carefully worded questions can, and do get "secret" information from an unsuspecting source, in this case it's Guccione, Shryock, and Kross. These three elected officials have given me more fodder than any alderman currently serving in office, simply because they have no sense of how to act during interviews. I'm certain that given the proper circumstances I could get any one of them to sell out their own grandmothers, but I'm not a reporter. I'm just a delusional conspiracy theorist concerned about what these three newly immigrated individuals are doing to Wentzville, they have no idea of what they are doing to the future of our city.

 



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I hope you take the time to watch the "Mayor's Report," It's worth the time to see the spiteful vengeance he displayed during his attack on President of the Board, Rick Stokes. Guccione's politically oriented aggression is an outrage, he shows his hatred of Stokes publicly trying any way he can to discredit and keep him from being re-elected.  Mayor Guccione made a total fool of himself and the office he holds.

 

Sock-puppet Shryock started the attack in her report and Guccione escalated it during his. Guccione singles out Stokes as the only alderman on the board who is undermining his office. I've got news for the mayor, he doesn't need anyone to undermine his office, he's been doing a great job of it all by himself for over a year-and-a-half. I have to laugh at Guccione, he doesn't have the mental horsepower to spar with Stokes when it comes to government, or anything other than cutting up chickens for that matter. With the exception of Chris Gard, there has never been a more effective alderman in recent history.

 

Guccione has recruited Shryock to help run interference in taking down Stokes in the coming election and he has guaranteed her his support. I know Shryock, and I cannot believe that she's sold her soul to the devil to keep a job for which she has proven to be so ineffective. Wentzville politics is out of control and I expect that her campaign will be as dirty as any run by Guccione since he's betting the farm on her winning and giving him control of the board.

 

The push is on, Shryock is being pranced all over town just like Guccione did with Michael Hays. In the coming months leading up to the election you will see Shryock bringing things to the board that Guccione wants and they will continue trying to smash Stokes. Take notice when you watch the meeting video that Guccione gaveled Alderman Forrest Gossett saying, "I'm done with you." Gossett is in his sights and Guccione has candidates lined up to deal with him. Guccione is starting to sound like Lambi did after he knew he'd been caught, it's going to be an interesting and dirty campaign.

 

More came out of the meeting of December 11th and I'll get to is soon, but I can't get over Shryock. Out of the mouths of babes comes her betrayal of Wentzville and good, healthy government. I hope my readers vote and when they do, remember the sock-puppet who wants to do more damage to an already crippled city government—Shryock.

 

The Sinking of the U.S.S. Wentzville

 

On October 17, 2013, The Wentzvillian posted; Enough Is Enough, It's Time (click here), in which was listed the directors and employees that left their positions for greener pastures during the previous 18 months. That time frame coincided exactly with the time of Mayor Nickolas Guccione's term in office. Today, just two months later, the list has grown to include Wentzville's Parks Director, the legal services team, and Wentzville's audit firm—all left during the chaos created by Guccione's administration. Now it's my unpleasant duty to announce another flight.

 

Gary Miller, Superintendent of water and waste water has turned in his paperwork for early retirement. Mr. Miller has been with the city for 30 years and knows everything there is to know about Wentzville's water works. The telling fact about his retirement is that he only gave the City two weeks notice. In my estimate, Mr. Miller has become frustrated enough with the unpurposive leadership of Guccione's administration that he decided to get the hell out of Dodge while he still has his sanity. It is further believed that the retirements of Mr. Jerry Hillin, Purchasing Director, and the unexpected early retirement of Ms. Mary Jo Dessieux, Parks Director, were for the same reason.

 

The underlining fabric of Guccione's administration is one of a total lack of leadership skills. It's sad to say, but Wentzville employees just don't trust him and consequently their morale is at an all-time low. One of the city's employees who was fired earlier this year filed a Federal lawsuit for discrimination, and in my opinion the City will probably settle out of court to the tune of around one-million dollars. According to rumor there will be another suit, by another dissatisfied ex-employee filed closely on it's heels. I have also heard that someone has requested all of Guccione's email records for the past five months (probably an attorney) so, King Nickolas had better keep the City's checkbook on his desk. It's times like these that the name Detroit keeps coming to the forefront of my thoughts.

 

I guess Enough is Not Enough. But It's Definitely Time for someone to take action before Guccione's teething on the Wentzville pacifier creates a predicament that will take longer to repair than his new-found teeth will last, but it may already be too late. Every Wentzville Director except one has left the city payroll and now the list of middle-management personnel to leave is growing. Have the "lack of confidence bells and whistles" not been heard by our Aldermen? What will it take to correct a serious problem residing in the Mayor's office? Am I so far out of whack that I'm blinded by a smokescreen of wanting my own words; "I told you so," to be true? Or is there some other reason that the City is being abandoned by an ever-growing large number of Wentzville's most intelligent and talented employees?

 

I've stated before that Guccione has been bailing the sinking U.S.S. Wentzville with a drill—I may have been wrong. The damage that has, and is being done, has to be the result of dynamite. Recently I've been seeing parallels between the administrations of Mayor Nickolas Guccione to that of President Obama. Guccione bears a great number of notches on his gun-butt, something needs to change ... quickly. The citizens need to stand up and ask some very difficult questions like; Mr. Mayor, what have you done to our beloved City of Wentzville, and why don't you resign and go back to North County while we still have our life preservers?

 



"That Sucks."

 

Did you ever feel the hairs on the back of your neck bristle while walking along a dark road in the night, or get the feeling that you were being watched, or maybe a sense that you were being followed? Doing what I do — exposing politicians who don't always color insides the lines — has from time-to-time put me in a somewhat less than desirable position, and I'm fine with that. You can't rack up the number of political enemies I have made without expecting some retaliation, especially from those I've been critical of. I started this post with this because I want to let those who are following me know that I know who you are, where you work, and who ordered it. To those who pursue me I say; follow away, but don't get so comfortable that you don't look over your own shoulder occasionally, you too have an observer. When the time is right names will be posted here.
 

Last week's meeting of the board of aldermen of November 20, 2013 (click here), had it's moments. I will be pointing out a few of the highlights, but first an observation: It's just a little more than four months to the election and perhaps technology is responsible, but the usual array of hopeful candidates are no where to be seen. Leading up to every election in recent memory there has always been several would-be-aldermen seen at every aldermen meetings. Almost every wanna-be started showing up at the meetings about six-months prior to an election, to either mouth off, have a photo-op, or just take notes, but they aren't here yet. From what I've heard, Mr. Joe Howard may be running against Sonya Shryock for the Ward 2 seat and that may be why he stood up to offer a rant against President of the Board, Rick Stokes. If you'd like to watch it, it takes place during the "Open Forum" section of the agenda. I've also been informed that another lady may be entering the Ward 2 race, but as yet there's nothing concrete. In Ward 1, rumor has it that Jay Webber may be coming out of mothballs after his 2012 loss to Forrest Gossett. If everything is as before, Mayor Nickolas Guccione will play a big hand in helping Webber once again, beware of the King Nickolas brand of mud-slinging to be flying around again this year.

* * * * *

Retiring Purchasing Director, Jerry Hillin, gave his farewell address to the aldermen recapping all that has been accomplished and his hopes for the future. Hillin has been a very busy man during his time here, he wrote the new City purchasing policy and along the way, made a few enemies in City Hall. Always outspoken, Hillin once again took a shot across the bow of the elected officials ship. He said he would pay for a plaque to be placed in the entrance of city hall which would read: "BEFORE YOU ENTER, LEAVE YOUR POLITICS AT THE DOOR." Shortly after that impromptu message, Mayor Nickolas told him to move on. The City owes a lot to Jerry Hillin for all he's accomplished for the future of good government in Wentzville. I for one will miss him and wish him well in his retirement.

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I ask all of my readers to go to the city video of this meeting at 3:38:30, and just watch the discussion of the signage for "Double Fine Zones." The presentation was given by Acting City Administrator, Doug Lee, and Public Works Director, Susan Mueller, who showed examples of the proposed "Double Fine Zone" signs. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the discussion, it's something you need to see, to believe. Alderman Sonya Shryock dominated the discussion with what appeared to be like someone picking out drapes. She made some strange statements about elderly drivers and how she thinks the signs should be much larger. In her opinion, what is good enough for neighboring cities is not good enough for Wentzville's (seemingly blind) elderly drivers.

* * * * * 

The "Aldermen Reports" were interesting, and there was a first. For the first time, perhaps ever, Alderman Cheryl Kross didn't prattle through a mountain of questions and minutia. When asked for her report she simply said, "I have no report." I need to think about that for a while.

There seems to be a mystery revolving around the report given by President of the Board Rick Stokes. From what I saw, Mayor Nickolas has singled out Stokes by having the directors send an email to Guccione anytime Stokes contacts them by phone or email, regardless of of the subject. It's funny that Guccione puffs up his chest and begins barking with hostility anytime Stokes or Gossett ask him a question. He really hates those guys, which means they must be doing the right thing, and that makes them okey-dokey with me.

Stokes asked him straight up if he was the only alderman that the directors report to Guccione about anytime he contacts them. Guccione got his hackles up, and for the second time in as many meetings he cited 125.100 Section C, stating, "It is a violation of City ordinance to undermine the duties of the Mayor." Unfortunately, Guccione doesn't seem to understand that his argument is not germane to that ordinance. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, Mayor Nickolas must have forgotten that unlawful use of the City logo is a real crime. The Mayor is stirring the political pot with no basis of fact, he's after Stokes to get anything he can to use against him in the coming election, whether it's fact, or not.

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The next item to look at is the "Mayor's Report, Ethics Policy Discussion." This item has been hotly contested for the last few weeks and it has become clear what's going on. Shryock has been asking to discuss this at several prior meetings and it has to do with accepting charitable donations by elected officials, here is where the story gets messy.

Shryock really doesn't have a dog in the ethics fight other than to be Guccione's front man. Guccione has recruited Shryock to do his bidding and she thinks it's in exchange for his support in the coming election. What she knows is; because of her poor record she has absolutely no chance of being re-elected on her own. So she figures if she nuzzles up to Guccione, he would support her campaign, I hope she tells me how that strategy worked out for her. She's begun following him around town like a puppy, but what she doesn't know is that Guccione doesn't care if she gets re-elected or not, he can use her now and for the next four months. He has her replacement waiting in the wings and he will use Shryock until that time, afterall, he still has Hays and Kross in his pocket, it's pretty pathetic. Her job performance rating is the lowest on the board and in her effort to salvage her seat, she turned from her opposition of Guccione—caving in to his politics, for that reason alone she really doesn't deserve a second term. Kross did that very thing about 10 months ago when she turned her back on the board to flip on her vote for Guccione's appointment of the unpopular choice of Michael Hays. I wonder today if, Aldermen Chris Gard and Gossett regret their vote to approve the appointment?

Back to the discussion: The ethics policy was revised after the incident involving Mayor Paul Lambi who confessed to the Missouri Ethics Commission his guilt in taking charitable donations for his benefit. Guccione wants to have this section repealed so that he can solicit donations for charitable organizations.

During the discussion, Alderman Forrest Gossett tried to explain why the policy excluded allowing elected officials to accept charitable donations without pointing fingers at Lambi. Guccione got huffy again and in his paranoid way barked; "This is pretty insulting Sir. You talk about a Mayor in the past using charitable donations for their own benefit, Sir, but I never saw that, show me that in writing, Sir!" Guccione has either got a real short memory, or he was asleep in the closed sessions of that time, because the report clearly states that very thing. At one point during the battle with Gossett, Guccione said. "That sucks!" I've never heard a mayor use that term from the dais before, then again, Guccione does a lot of things I've never seen a mayor do or say before, and he doesn't do a lot of things a mayor should do and say.

Guccione used Shryock to bring the ethics policy back to the board, he will do anything to get it changed. I wish Shryock luck with her April election, she's gonna need it. When she's sitting at home after losing the election, I wonder if she'll remember how much she hated Guccione when she was a contributing member of the board during her first year in office? Please watch this "Mayor's Report," I think you'll find it both informative, and entertaining.

 

The Spankings Are Coming — Tra-La, Tra-La!

 

What an interesting Board of Aldermen meeting of November 13, 2013 (click here), the proceedings were revealing to any serious follower of Wentzville government. The chamber was filled to capacity with residents to rail against the Lombardo Homes of St. Louis, LLC. plan development for the Villas at Stonemoor, but unfortunately most of the residents left before the public hearing for the City budget. Although the fireworks were flying during the Stonemore discussion, those who did leave missed some of the most exciting parts of the meeting.

 

The Stonemoore subject is complicated, but the hour-long public hearing and ensuing discussions exposed some acutely provocative arguments. Stonemoore is a subdivision within Ward 2 yet the engineer leading the drive to derail Lombardo's plan was none other than Ward 1 Alderman, Cheryl Kross. According to what I heard, Lombardo lived up to the requirements set by the City, but a blood-thirsty group of homeowners led by Kross were there to do anything they could to change it, up to and including changing the ordinance, which could have been a time consuming venture. You must remember, Kross will be running for re-election in 2015 and is trying to suck up to as many residents of other wards as she can for her mayoral run in 2016. I found it interesting that Ward 2 Alderman Sonya Shryock said nothing through the extensively exhausting discussion of the ordinance, but of course, she'll be running for re-election this coming April, so she left the controversy to her closest compatriot, Kross.

 

Kross was relentless in her stand to disallow Lombardo to build the Villas as planned, which was accepted by Planning and Zoning by a 7 to 1 vote, while Shryock stayed silent. This whole political protest was trumped up by Shryock, Kross and none other than our CEO, Mayor Nickolas Guccione. I used the word 'political' because one of the residents, Mr. Joe Howard, went off the track to accuse President of the Board, Rick Stokes, of "Chicago Style Politics," and having a conflict of interest. At 1:05 into the meeting, Mr. Howard went off on Stokes with a politically motivated tirade, culminating in demanding Stokes to recuse himself from the vote. I've heard Mr. Howard's accusations before, but not from him, they came to me through the grapevine from Guccione, Aldermen Kross, and Shryock, I know who inspired Mr. Howard to come forward with such detailed and defamatory statements. Guccione's dirty campaign tactics to oust Stokes has begun, I fully expect to see these kinds of attacks to come more frequently the closer we get to the April election.

 

The discussion became so intolerable, what I assume was the owner of Lombardo Homes threw up his hands in disgust, and after telling his spokesman, Attorney Brad Goss, "Give it up, give them what they want," he walked out of chambers. I wonder ... if Lombardo hadn't purchased the vacated lots in Stonemoore, would they have just gone back to St. Louis, never to build in Wentzville again? After the dust cleared, and the vote was taken, Shyrock gave a speech about how great the firm of Lombardo Homes was, and how proud she was to have them building homes in her Ward 2. The whole thing stunk to high heaven, I've seen a lot of builders get raked over the coals by the city, but I've never seen one the caliber of Lombardo take such a beating, it was embarrassing.

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It was truly a disappointment to see that only one citizen asked a question during "(ID # 4898) Public Hearing - 2014 Proposed Budget." The meeting was well into it's third-hour and as stated earlier, most everyone there had a different agenda and left long before. Still, it's unsettling to see how few taxpayers seem to care about how their money is spent.

I've talked about sock-puppets on our Board of Aldermen for several years and how many of Wentzville's aldermen have little or no insight, or understanding of government budgets. Thanks to this public hearing, the video captured a sock-puppet in action. At 3:33:28, Alderman Shryock's hand popped up to begin her input on the city reserve funds. Then at exactly 3:37, Alderman Kross begins coaching Shryock using both hand signals and mouthing words to her. Watch Kross carefully during this discussion and you will see the interaction between the sock-puppet (Shryock), and puppeteer (Kross). Watching this first-hand-live was a real hoot.

* * * * *

Another interesting subject was covered under "New Business (ID # 4893) City Special Events." Last year, the aldermen warned us that they may very well be cutting out some of the many special events hosted by the City, i.e. Thrill of Hills, various parades, and Wabash Days. Visiting this again this year, if you paid attention to discussions throughout the year, Aldermen Kross, and Shryock were the most vocally aggressive in seeking to unfund several, or many of the events, that all changed during this meeting.

There was a long silence after Guccione asked for discussion. The problem here is that no one wants to be known as the alderman who killed special events in Wentzville. They talked about it last year during the 2013 budget meeting but there was an election right around the corner. They warned the staff that events may be cut in the 2014 budget but no one wanted to say anything, Kross, the most vocal regarding event cuts was quiet as a mouse. Finally Shryock spoke up; "I didn't want this on the agenda ... but (looking at Stokes) you can do what ever you want." Stokes restated his stand from last year; "I don't mind funding special events, what I want to know is which department is going to claim responsibility for which event?" This is all Kross and Shryock needed, they want the staff go back and cut out which ones they don't want and bring their recommendation back to the board, they want staff to be the bad guys. This discussion went on for quite a while without direction, finally Stokes spoke up to defer to Guccione to make the decision. This is a win-win for everyone; the alderman don't look bad, and Guccione looks good for not only funding the current events for 2014, but he actually increased the budget from $85,000 to $90,000.

* * * * *



Mayor Nickolas Guccione gets huffy at the dais on occasion but it's always when he feels attacked or provoked. As anyone who knows him will testify, he is all-political and quick to challenge anyone with a preemptive strike by accusing them of using politics to better a position, whether they are guilty or not. He claims not to read The Wentzvillian, but I think he's fibbing — he pays close attention to what's posted here.

During his "Mayor's Report" of November 13th, he threw down the gauntlet at exactly 4:48:30 to one or all of the board members. He cited code: 105.100, section C which talks about undermining his office and interfearence with the day-to-day activities of the city. He stated; "I'm not accusing anyone of anything but I have a laundry list that I will make public. I haven't called anyone out but I will." I've heard that he's been questioning the directors about which aldermen are contacting them and he's checking emails. "Anyone wanting to challenge me for mayor in 2016, I have no problem with that."

Many of you who watched the video, may be puzzled about what's going on, but given the following information it may become clear: Monday, November 4, 2013, The Wentzvillian posted "The 'Unholy Alliance' Exposed," in which I issued the following warning: "Now for a note to Mayor Nickolas: Beware, Alderman Kross is only sucking up to you until after she secures her seat in the 2015 election. She wants to be in your good graces just until she can run against you for Mayor in 2016. Get the picture?" Then a comment posted November 10, 2013 on "Was Lambi Really Wrong," from one of my favorite readers; The Mole: "The Mole: The Wentzvillian hit it on the head. Not a day goes by when Kross is not either on the phone or emailing ridiculous requests of the "skeleton crew" directors. They are over-burdened and Kross just keeps piling it on. Where's the Mayor when all of this crap is going on right under his nose?" These two paragraphs hit Guccione right between the eyes and spurred his threatening outburst. Watch closely who Guccione is looking at during his entire statement, but he's "... not accusing anyone." Let's see if he has the fortitude to proceed with his forewarning — the spankings are coming tra-la, tra-la.

 

Was Lambi Really Wrong?

 

I implore all of my readers to watch the video of the Board of Aldermen meeting of November 6, 2013, particularly the work session portion entitled "(ID # 4872) Budget Review" (click here). Pay attention to the comments and questions posted by Aldermen Cheryl Kross and Sonya Shyrock, beginning at 2:05:50 when Shryocks hand pops up and states: "Most of the Directors did a great job on their budgets." I'm scratching my head trying to figure out which directors (who are good enough to still be here) did a bad job in Shryocks's estimation. It's a wonder to me why after watching this section of the meeting, that any of our directors are still here at all.

 

I was disappointed to hear our Parks Director, Ms. Mary Jo Dessieux has turned in her retirement papers. I asked her if she had won the lottery, or had a rich uncle die, because she's way too young to retire. Watching this portion of the video and seeing the wolf pack of Kross and Shryock try to gut the parks department budget gave me the answer.

 

The parks department has always, and I want to emphasize the word ALWAYS, been subsidized by the general fund. City parks are not self-funding, never have been and never will be, therefore, the general fund is tapped for the shortfall. This year the number is in the $200,000 range, when in years past it was as much as a million dollars. Kross and Shryock can't seem to understand that parks will never show a balanced budget but that didn't stop Shryock from demanding; "I want this budget balanced now!" Obviously, Ms. Kross and Shryock want some services cut from our current parks to make up for the shortfall, even to the extent of under-funding the new unfinished parks.

 

Kross at one time said; "Every year we have this white elephant in the room that we can't seem to take down with the tranquilizer gun." I watched the department heads while these discussions went on and noted the frustration in each of them while they tried to baby-sit Kross and Shryock through their prospected budgets. It wasn't pretty. In the end, Kross and Shryock were the only ones to want the Parks budget balanced.

One discussion I found interesting was brought up by Kross and supported by Shryock was regarding the addition of a Park Ranger in the 2014 budget. Kross doesn't want a new park ranger so as a solution she wants to take police officers off of their regular rounds to patrol the City parks. Recently, we had Mayor Nickolas Guccione getting "double fine zones" put in various subdivisions around the city without increasing police resources and now Kross wants more area patrolled. Kross uses the term; "life, health, and safety" a whole lot, which she started using a couple of years ago after hearing another alderman use it, yet she is willing to take our police off of the streets to patrol the new and existing parks. What am I missing? Shryock has little, or no chance of seeing a second term as alderman but she is following Kross right up to the edge of a cliff where Kross will pat her on the back over the edge.

Kross dominated the budget discussions with micro-managing, line-item minutia, while supporting unsustainable tax cut analysis burdens on Finance Director, Jeff Lenk. Lenk was directed to have his calculations ready by Friday, he said he would do his best to get it done before the budget public hearing to be held November 13th. After laying more work on an already over-worked finance department for something that will come back as an exercise in futility, Kross wasn't happy with Lenk's answer. "Oh my! How will we have time to read all of this before next Wednesday." Really, this is all you have to worry about, "when will you have time to read it?" From what I heard, Mr. Lenk gave good reasons why a tax-cut at this time would be unsustainable in coming years, but his assessment fell on deaf ears. If after making Lenk do this new analysis and it shows that a tax-cut is unsustainable, Kross needs to turn in her keys to the city.

This meeting of November 6th exhibited exactly why our high-level staff members are quitting or retiring at an alarming rate. Kross acts like the city has a full compliment of employees by making unreasonable demands of the few over-worked directors that we still do have. I wonder if our newly hired Public Works Director, Susan Mueller, and Finance Director, Jeff Lenk had any idea of the madhouse they were getting into. I'm now asking myself; Was Mayor Lambi really wrong when he had a muzzle on Alderman Cheryl Kross?

 

The "Unholy Alliance" Exposed!

 

Wentzville residents need to know why there are so many messed up things going on in our City Government. It's time to tell the whole story, that would have gone unheard had it not been brought to my readers here. So I'm ready to come clean about the reasons behind why Alderman Cheryl Kross abandoned the rational side of the Board of Aldermen to snug up to the most governmentally maladroit mayor of Wentzville in it's history — Nickolas Guccione.

A most unlikely confederation, since Kross is a Tea Party ultra-conservative, and Guccione a radical Obama Socialist-liberal, you'd kinda hope they'd cancel each other out, but they don't. I'm also braced to make another political adversary; Alderman Sonya Shryock, because of her incessant, and petty accusations that Chief of Police, Lisa Harrison, is engaged in unethical behavior and thereby needs to change her "no fraternizing with elected officials" policy, or be removed from her office. Guccione wants to promote his police friend to be Chief and Shryock may want hers ennobled, both of which are currently employed by the Wentzville Police Department.

 

In order to tell this story we need to go back in time to before the election of 2012 when Alderman Nickolas Guccione used unethical, and illegal means to beat Alderman Leon Tow to become mayor. Guccione was pardoned for his crimes against the City by the outgoing mayor, Paul Lambi, and later apologized to the board for being a sneaky, underhanded rat.

 

The conservative members of the board, at that time; Leon Tow, Chris Gard, Rick Stokes, and Cheryl Kross had several meetings with a prominent supporter (who will remain unnamed) to choose the candidate who would oppose Guccione. The choices were between Tow and Kross, with Tow being the final selection due to his time and experience in Wentzville Government. I  remember meeting with Kross when she asked my opinion whether or not she should run for Mayor. I told her that since the term changed to four years, if she didn't do it now, she may never get another chance. She never told me what she decided to do but I understand that the group met the next day and selected Tow. Kross came away bitter but supported the group's choice and assisted by campaigning for Tow.

 

After the election of 2012, Stokes was sworn-in to his second term as Alderman of Ward 3, and also elected to his second consecutive term as President of the Board of Aldermen. This is when Kross snapped, she wanted to run for mayor but when she didn't, she figured she'd be the next board president. When that didn't happen her deportment changed, she began voting irrationally, and her hatred of Stokes grew, she did anything she could to get back at him. It was three months prior to the 2012 election that she flipped on her vote to allow Guccione's appointment of Michael Hays to take a seat next to Stokes in Ward 3. The Guccione/Kross connection had been made, oil and water mixed and crazy things began happening again in Wentzville government as it did during the days of the Lurchettes (Bill [Lurch] Schuette, John Luby, and Nickolas Guccione). Kross must take great pride in destroying a board that had worked so hard to finally bring sanity back to Wentzville government, even with a dysfunctional Executive Branch. It's all about her pride and revenge today, she has sold out her core values and turned her back on good-government in the name of petty vanity. Unity of the board was the watchword, they made a difference in the way Wentzville government operated in a fair and orderly manner. All of our aldermen should be applauded for what they accomplished before the 2013 election; Tow, Kross, Gard, Stokes, Sample, Shryock, and Gossett.

 

It was this same 2012 election that brought Sonya Shryock to the Board of Aldermen for Ward 2. Shryock has struggled to assimilate in her first term and was drawn to her new mentor, the now very bitter Cheryl Kross. They began voting in a block and with Hays being there to vote anyway Guccione wanted him to vote, the shift from sanity to chaos was in full swing.

 

Shryock didn't like Guccione and displayed it frequently in her first year, but when Chief Harrison made a departmental policy to disallow her officers to socially fraternize with elected officials, Shryock went on a witch-hunt that included the Chief of Police and our City Attorney. Shryock had made friends with a few of our police officers, one of which a lieutenant, and was not going to allow Harrison to stop her from seeing her friends in social settings. Now Shryock had a common thread with Guccione, they both didn't want Harrison to be Chief of Police in Wentzville and they both had it in for Paul Rost. All of a sudden, oil and water mixed again and the Unholy Alliance of Guccione, Kross, Hays, and Shryock was assembled, they were determined to take over and in a big way. The best interest of the City is not on their agenda, it has all gotten very personal.

 

So this is how it started, and that brings us to the past few months. I'm going to start with Shryock because the incidents surrounding her drive to make Chief Harrison change her "No Fraternization" policy or be replaced, has had a butterfly effect that led to Attorney Rost and Wentzville's legal service company, Cunningham, Vogel, and Rost, P.C., to refuse a six-month contract and subsequently go hourly until the City can get a new City Attorney, tick-tock, tick-tock, cha-ching.

 

In a memorandum released by the St. Charles Prosecuting Attorney titled: "Subject: Special Investigation — Misuse of Official Information by Police Officer Julie Jackson," some very interesting interviews took place between Shryock and President of the Board, Rick Stokes, with St. Charles investigators. This may get confusing but I will try to sort it out as I go along.

In the interview of Alderman Rick Stokes by the St. Charles investigators, dated September 5, 2013 in part reads: "... Stokes said that on August 20, 2013, Shryock called him on the telephone and stated that she had a 'couple of citizens' that had complained to her that they thought it was 'unethical' for the police chief (Harrison) to be dating a member of the 'Police Chief's Association.' She (Shryock) further said that these 'citizens' saw an unmarked SUV parked overnight at Harrison's residence and that 'they' knew who the SUV belonged to. ... Stokes then asked Shryock if the 'citizens' were law enforcement officers and she responded that she didn't want to give names. Stokes further advised that he had told Shryock that she should contact the City Attorney and should not conduct her own investigation into this matter. Shryock responded that she had already talked to the City Attorney and he advised her to stay away from this matter and the Chief's private affairs, unless she had evidence that the Chief's private associations resulted in personal or financial gains or some kind of criminal activity. Stokes informed her that she should follow this advice and that failure to do so could result in some type of civil lawsuit."

Now I want to jump to the interview of Alderman Sonya Shryock conducted by the St. Charles investigators dated September 11, 2013: "... Shryock said that in response to this citizens complaint, she did some checking and determined that the described vehicle was not a Wentzville Police vehicle and the male subject, who drove it, did not fit the description of any Wentzville officers. What!, How on earth could she have possibly known that?...Hmmm! However, Shryock said that she later learned from 'someone' (name unrecalled) that Chief Harrison was dating someone from the Missouri Chief's Association. She told Stokes in his statement that she "didn't want to give names" and to the investigator, "she couldn't remember names." She also told Stokes that the citizen knew who the vehicle belonged to, and to the investigator she learned the name later. ...Hmmm! When asked if either the 'citizen' that made the original complaint or the person that said Chief Harrison was dating someone from the Police Chief's Assn., was a police officer, Shryock said, 'No.' She further added that no one from the police department has talked to her about this matter." Shryock admitted that she has friends on the Wentzville Police Department and that she did her own 'checking,' but no one in the police department talked to her about this...Hmmm!

Again from Shryock's statement to the investigator: "...Shryock stated that after learning that Chief Harrison may be dating someone from the Missouri Police Chief's Assn., she became concerned that this may be a 'conflict of interest' and raise some ethical issues. ... As a result, she reported this matter to Mayor Nick(olas) Guccione, who instructed her to discuss it with Paul Rost, the City Attorney. Shryock said that the city attorney advised her that this was a personal matter, concerning Chief Harrison and she should not pursue it any further." Good advice!

"Shryock indicated that she became frustrated after her discussion with the city attorney, as she felt this issue, as to a potential conflict of interest, should be addressed. Could it be that she was more interested in seeing her police friends socially, than solicitude regarding what an alleged conflict of interest charge could do to one's career? As a result, she informed Alderman Kross, Alderman Gard, and Alderman Stokes of this information." All of this after she was advised by the City Attorney to stay away from it, and don't talk about it.

"Shryock said she was later contacted by Alderman Gard and informed that Chief Harrison was concerned that a number of officers were going 'behind her back' and contacting certain city aldermen. He (Gard) further indicated that a lieutenant within the department could lose his job because Chief Harrison suspects him of going behind her back and reporting things to her (Shryock). She (Shryock) said this is not true and she is concerned that someone could lose his job based on false rumors." She's worried about a friend losing his job based on false rumors? What about Chief Harrison who could lose her job because of the false rumors Shryock started? What about the damage created by Shryock's allegations to Chief Harrison's reputation? And, what about Shryock's invasion of Harrison's privacy? This paragraph answers the question of why Alderman Chris Gard went off on Shryock during his "Alderman Report" at the meeting of the 9th of October which I posted on October 14th, We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This! (click here)

"Prior to the conclusion of the interview, Shryock again stated that this matter and the rumors have been blown way out of proportion, but reiterated that she still feels there are ethical issues, involving the Chief, that are apparently being ignored." The rumors were blown out of proportion because Shryock would not listen to the City Attorney who told her to let it go, and don't talk to anyone about it. There is much more in this 12 page investigative report and if anyone is interested to know the entire story, I suggest you hunt it down. This entire matter was created by Alderman Shryock and she has put a liability on the city if someone decides to sue Wentzville. Shryock should be investigated by the City and made to reveal her sources and/or censured for what she's done here. Shryock is a loose cannon on the board and is creating more problems than solutions but she does fit nicely into the Unholy Alliance of Guccione, Kross, and Hays.

So here we go; Shryock is now very angry with Rick Stokes for telling the investigators what she told him (Stokes), and angry with Attorney Paul Rost because he told her to let go of her alleged ethics violation charge against Chief Harrison. In my mind, I cannot reconcile why Shryock thinks she knows more about ethics than the City Attorney. Let's see, Guccione hates Stokes and is still seething at Rost for not helping him with his unethical campaign during the 2012 election. Kross hates Stokes for not supporting her 2012 desire to run for mayor, and beating her out of the Board President position. From what I've heard, Kross has no ax to grind (other than the "Nay" vote to hire Harrison) but if the rubber meets the road and the bus is aimed at Chief Harrison, Kross may very well go along just because the enemy of her enemy (Stokes) is her friend; Shryock and Guccione. Only one character left; Alderman Hays; he doesn't care what's going on, he is going to vote any way Guccione tells him to vote. There you have it, the reason, our legal services team quit the City, the reason Michael Hays was appointed to the Board of Aldermen, and why Cheryl Kross and Sonya Shryock jumped over to the dark side. This group is now legislating on; hate, anger, vanity, and ego, any questions?

Now for a note to Mayor Nickolas: Beware, Alderman Kross is only sucking up to you until after she secures her seat in the 2015 election. She wants to be in your good graces just until she can run against you for Mayor in 2016. Get the picture? And you thought Rick Stokes was going to be your main opponent. Why do you think Kross is attending organizational meetings all over town and every HOA she can make (even though most of them are not in her Ward 1), and joining any City committee you'll appoint her to. Is it possible she's doing the same thing you do, did, and are doing? Could it be that she's sneakier than you are?

 

Yawningly We Go Along, Go Along, Go Along...

The budget meeting of October 26, 2013 brought together all of the departments to present their respective budgets. Besides the Directors, four Aldermen, and Mayor Nickolas Guccione were there to hear each department present. Those absent were; Aldermen Chris Gard, and Sonya Shyrock, both representing Ward 2, perhaps their constituents should ask them; what is more important than Wentzville's budget?

 

The meeting started at 8:00 AM and was scheduled to end at 6:00 PM with four breaks, one of those being a half-hour catered lunch. During, and after each Director presented their budget the mayor and aldermen had an opportunity to ask questions. Three of the Aldermen initiated discussions and asked questions: President of the Board, Rick Stokes, Aldermen Cheryl Kross, and Forrest Gossett. As you may have guessed, Alderman Michael Hays and Mayor Nickolas Guccione asked no questions and offered no original discussions, their lack of preparedness was astounding.

 

It's necessary to tell of Guccione's deportment: As an observer, Guccione looked to me like he had had a bad night, a very bad night. I noted more than a dozen times he had his head down with his eyes closed for at least a minute at a time. One of the Directors approached me after the meeting and asked if I'd heard him snoring? Here we have the CFO of the City, a man who is responsible for everything that goes on in the City, sleeping through the budget meeting. Most of the meeting I watched him because I knew that he would not engage and I wanted to let the voters know exactly who they elected. One time, Gossett was in discussion with a Director, a few seconds after he had finished, Guccione jerked his head up and opened his sleepy eyes, I assume the silence woke him. Twice he woke up to see me smiling at him and the third time he got up from the table and went up to the dais trying to hide behind Kross, I guess he thought no one could see him sleeping up there away from the action.

 

Mayor Nickolas tried everything he could think of to stay awake including trash basketball, and puffing on his E-cig, of course every time there was a break he would run right on out to the parking lot with Hays in tow, to light up, being cool like the Marlboro Man. After one of the breaks, Chief Harrison had to go out on the parking lot to retrieve the tardy mayor and his pet monkey. When he returned he had a toothpick dangling from his lips that he flicked and chewed on for the rest of the meeting. Guccione's obvious, and astonishing  limitations while trying to conduct this budget meeting were embarrassing, it makes me wonder what would happen to the city if he didn't have aldermen like Stokes, Gard, and Gossett there to keep him somewhat focused. According to talk on the streets, he has already picked his stable of candidates to oppose Stokes, Gossett and Shryock in the election next April.

The meeting ended around 4:00 PM and it had to be a record for a budget presentation of this scope and magnitude. Why did the meeting adjourn so soon? Its easy, there were only three of the four Aldermen present who were prepared to ask questions. Michael Hays was seen nodding his head a lot in agreement with everyone, and Guccione was asleep most of it. Maybe if Guccione would sleep through the regular meetings, they might get out before 10:00 PM. Just a thought!

 

* * * * * 

 

Discussions of a new city hall will take place in executive session and a decision will be made by January 15, 2013. The $285,000 spent for a study and all of the town hall meetings deciding where it would be located may be thrown out the window. These Aldermen will decide where it will go and the location will not necessarily be where the people of Wentzville wanted it to be. I did learn that it will not be on the site of the current Public Works Department. So of the three sites chosen by the people; Corner of Linn Ave. and Pearce Blvd, Public Works location, and the Whisk property, which are all in the downtown area, they may not be the actual site chosen. I am convinced that their selection will not be in the historic center of Wentzville, I hope I'm wrong. In my opinion, Aldermen Kross and Shyrock are spearheading the movement to keep it out of historic downtown.

 

Not one seated Alderman lives in historic downtown or have interest there and frankly, I don't know if I trust any of them on this issue, but I do believe that Aldermen Gard and Stokes offer our best opportunity of listening to we the people of Wentzville. What I do know is that Wentzville does not own the property in question and that's why the executive session decision. If I had to guess, it would be one of two places: Although I don't agree that it's historic Wentzville, It could easily be the Whisk property because of an easy connection to Highway 70; second, it may be located on the property behind Holt High School and be on the planned Schroeder Creek Road extension which will eventually be tied into Pearce Blvd.  I still believe the best place (along with many, many other citizens) is on the property in the center of town owned by the Freese family and leased to Commerce Bank, on the corner of Linn Ave. and Pearce Blvd.

 

* * * * *

 

There have been rumors floating around for some time now within the City that some aldermen want to have Chief of Police, Ms. Lisa Harrison removed from her position. I do know that Guccione was the only Alderman to vote "Nay" when she was selected by the Board of Aldermen because he wanted to hire from within and was, for that reason, opposed to hiring Chief Harrison. Alderman Shryock has a different, and perhaps more petty reason for wanting her gone, and that's because Harrison instituted a no socializing with elected officials policy in the department. The reason Kross wants her gone is simply; the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which I will explain next time. Now it comes to Hays' pathetic reason; if Guccione wants her gone, Hays wants her gone. In accordance with Municipal Code it takes a two-thirds majority vote of the Board of Aldermen to remove a Director level employee, one more vote and she's gone. I have copied the section of Municipal Code below:

 

SECTION 120.080: REMOVAL

B.   The Mayor may with the consent of a majority of all the members elected to the Board of Aldermen remove from office any appointive officer of the City at will, and any such appointive officer may be so removed by a two-thirds vote of all the members elected to the Board of Aldermen independently of the Mayor's approval or recommendation. (R.O. 2006 §120.100; CC 1988 §2-75; Ord. No. 642 §§2--3, 10-26-77)

President Bush used to talk about "Points of Light," and I believe that a number of these "points" may have been connected here within Wentzville's city government. In recent months some interesting, but seemingly disassociated events have transpired that may have connected the random dots. With the assistance of a report on an investigation by the St. Charles Prosecuting Attorney, very soon I will reveal what I believe to be a subversive plot to overthrow our Chief of Police, Lisa Harrison. The extended Coup d'état of Alderman Cheryl Kross, Sonya Shryock, and King Nickolas will be exposed. Oh, and I forgot to mention Guccione's pet monkey.

 

A Duck Soaring With Eagles?

Six hours of my Saturday, October 26th, was spent watching the Board of Alderman budget meeting. Unfortunately for me, with all the Power Point presentations given by each department there was no video of the mayor and aldermen doing their thing, so I had to trot down to city hall to watch in person. I will report my findings later in the week because I need to make good on  the promise made to my readers on how Alderman Cheryl Kross found a way of spending more tax-dollars than we needed to spend.

 

A month ago on September 26th, I posted "I'll have no Truck With Plot — Sheldon Cooper (click here), where I wrote about the rejection of the findings of the Professional Services Committee that consequently caused the Wentzville legal services company to decline a six-month extension on their contract. On November 8th, the contract of Cunningham, Vogel, and Rost, P.C. (CVR) to represent Wentzville will end and the city has been scrambling to figure out what to do ever since.

 

The blame for our legal services team dismissal of the extension can be spread around, but the brunt must fall on Alderman Kross and Sonya Shyrock, they had personal reasons to get rid of City Attorney Paul Rost. These alderman cost the city dearly because now rather than pay legal services on a contracted basis, Wentzville will pay hourly rates-plus, until they can contract another firm. The remainder of the blame goes to Mayor Nickolas Guccione for breaking the tie because he disliked Paul Rost for not getting him out of his 2012 ethical problems, and Alderman Micheal Hays for doing whatever Guccione wanted him to do.

 

After going into public record I found a letter from CVR which outlines the hourly rate the city will pay them until another firm is contracted, and until such time all outstanding items are resolved. "Our billing rates for attorneys currently range from $250 to $305 for shareholders, $145 to $205 for associates, and $80 to $125 for legal assistants. Any Bond Counsel services requested will be charged based on such fee arrangement as is agreed to. Consistent with our policy, we will bill the City on a monthly basis for professional fees and expenses incurred on your behalf and bills will be addressed to the City for payment. We will include in our statements separate charges for photocopying, messenger and delivery service, computerized research, travel, long distance telephone, and telecopy expenses. Other fees and expenses (such as accountants, consultants, or other professionals, if required) generally will not be paid by us, but will be billed directly to the City.

 

Each of the three "shareholder" attorneys are charging between $250 and $305 per hour and it's not a case where we are being charged for one or the other, all three will more than likely be billing at the same time. If we average it out, Wentzville will be paying around $832 per hour for just the attorneys, no telling how many hours the "associates," and "legal assistants," will charge, I think it fair with everything listed we're somewhere in the ballpark at $1000 per hour, just for attorneys. and all because Kross, Shyrock, and Guccione had an ax to grind. With the pending cases, new cases, and bond work to be done before the City can secure a new legal services firm, it could add up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few months. Thank you Alderman Kross, Shyrock, and Mayor Nickolas, I hope you got this added into your "tight budget."

What's worse, even after a new legal team is contracted and being paid by the City, we will still be paying CVR for the many "... (ongoing law suits), Economic Bond Counsel who handles the; Bear Creek CID, GM Chapter 100 Bonds, ongoing advice and monitoring of existing issues, (SRF Bonds, revenue bonds, TDDs, CIDS, NIDS, etc.), and work through the new City Attorney as the point of contact. ..." It's anybody's guess how long (maybe years) these things may stretch out but until they are wrapped up, I strongly suggest that Alderman Kross, Shyrock, and Mayor Nickolas be made to sign over any paychecks the City gives them until such time that everything done currently by CVR is handled solely by the new legal services team. I don't think tax-payers should be made to pay for expenses to the City incurred by elected officials who have personal axes to grind. Of course, Hays should give back his paychecks simply because he's filler on the board for Mayor Nickolas.

What has transpired here is exactly why elections are so important to any city or government entity, we must elect people who are qualified and look out for the best interests of those who elected them. Take a look at their records, inside, and outside of the office they are seeking. If the voters had looked at Nickolas Guccione's record as an alderman, he would have been happily cutting up chickens and climbing the Schnucks corporate ladder, instead, he's the CEO, CFO, CO of the police force, leading 200 employees, safe-guarding Wentzville's operating expenses of $18,000,000, and a budget of over $50,000,000. With that kind of responsibility it's easy to take one's eye off of the ball, in the case of Nickolas Guccione he has never even seen the ball. As for the aldermen who created this situation, they didn't look far enough down the line, they never once asked the questions: What could happen if I take my personal grudge to my decision making for the City? What could happen if I insult the City's legal services team by not approving the recommendation of the professional services committee? And, would CVR really not accept our conciliatory six-month extension of their contract?

To watch our City Attorney, Paul Rost, sit through that grueling meeting where this group of unthinking aldermen raked him, and his team over their insulting coals was hard for me. Rost appeared to handle it in stride, but in my life I've learned never to insult or underestimate the power of an attorney, you never know when it might come back to bite you in the ass. Not once, did Kross, Shyrock, Hays, or Guccione ask themselves, or anyone else, the hard questions. They merely skipped their way into La-La land, hand-in-hand, merrily singing; "We're off to see the Wizard, the insidious Wizard of revenge."

So who actually got revenge on whom, and who is the real victim here? As I see it, CVR lost in the long run, Wentzville lost, the Tax-payers really lost, and after the next elections we can hope those responsible will lose; Kross, Shyrock, Hays, and Guccione. Cunningham. Vogel, and Rost, P.C. represent several cities and have earned accolades statewide, they really don't need Wentzville or this nut-bag group of politicians who drove them out of town. To Kross, Shyrock, Hays, and Guccione, I say: If you want to soar with eagles, don't be a duck, you might just find yourself being dinner, or did this unholy alliance just find that out?

 

If A Statue Snored, Would Anyone Hear It?

 

 

The Board of Alderman Meeting of October 23, 2013 (click here) was uneventful on the surface, but if you watched closely, reading between the lines, you'll see a few interesting discussions. Mayor Nickolas Guccione set a record last night, one he should take great pride in—he sure hasn't done anything else positive in his first year and-and-a-half as mayor. He actually adjourned the meeting before 11:00 PM, of course, there were only five bills & resolution on the agenda (two of which were removed), and a half-dozen reports and discussion items. If the Aldermen hadn't gone into an hour-long executive session, they could have been out the door shortly before 8:30 PM.

 

I thought "(ID # 4850) Discuss to Set an End Time to Board of Aldermen Meetings" held promise, but the confrontation I expected didn't materialize. The board came to a consensus to end the board meetings by 10:30 PM. I'm not sure Guccione can pull it off, especially given his total lack of skills in running meetings. He suggested cutting off audience speakers at five minutes but I think he'll get pressure from the aldermen to have it reduced to a three minute cut-off time. He then said, "I don't want to cut people off, but I'm going to do it. We'll see how long he can live with that idea.

 

I'm not going to be able to get away without saying something about my other alderman, Michael Hays. Trying very hard not to use language that my young readers might find offensive, I'll give it my best shot at getting through my dissertation.

 

Every one knows the story about Hays, how a politically motivated Alderman Cheryl Kross flipped on her vote to let Guccione appoint him, and how Guccione and Hays campaigned on the questionable use of the city logo during Hays' election, that he won by eight measly votes. Well, last evening during Hays' alderman report, he stated, "In the spirit of shortening the meetings, I have nothing to report." My God! In the year he's been sitting in his office, the only time I ever heard him say anything during his report, other than one time when he supported the Junior D.A.R.E. program was, "I have nothing to report." Michael Hays is the most useless, do-nothing alderman to ever represent Ward 3 and that's saying something, because his chair was occupied by none other than Nickolas Guccione for five-and-a-half years. We might as well have a stone statue of an alderman in Hays' seat, we'd get as much out of it as we get now, and statues don't snore.

 

There's more: Two weeks ago, a young couple came before the Board of Aldermen telling them of how it is necessary for them to fence their corner lot so their handicapped child would have a safe place to play. Unfortunately, their fence does not comply with City codes and they will have to obtain a variance from the Board of Adjustment prior to building, so they have asked the city to waive the fee for them. From what I've been told, the fee could be anywhere from $100 to $500. On board with this idea was Guccione, who naturally looks for votes any place he can find them. To put Guccione's thinking in perspective, you must remember how he pardoned a convenience store owner from having to pay a fine of less than $100 for not filing for his liquor license on time. This guy will buy votes from anyone using taxpayer dollars. If he were smarter, he'd just issue an executive order to allow the petitioner to build their fence without going through the process. Anyway, the issue came to a vote of the aldermen and up popped Hays hand to vote "Yes," every other alderman voted "No," except for the again vacationing Sonya Shryock. It is my feeling that Kross would have voted with Hays if Shryock had been there to vote with her. Kross is not going to go out on a limb to vote on a Guccione issue if she sees it won't pass, and without her sock-puppet there, it wasn't going to pass. Ward 3 residents should be outraged at the lack of representation they receive from Micheal Hays.

 

As we all know, the ultra-conservative tea-partier, Cheryl Kross, is a penny pincher, as I've stated before, she'd jump over gate to keep from wearing out the hinges. Unfortunately for her constituents of Ward 1, she's tossed out her core values because of her petty hatred of Board President, Rick Stokes, and is now spending at a rate fast enough to qualify for honorary membership in Guccione's Socialist Club. I'll elaborate on this subject next time.

 

 

Guccione Lesson #1 — Bailing Water Using A Drill

 

There's a regular Board of Alderman meeting tomorrow (Wednesday October 23, 2013) evening, and after reading the agenda I laughed out loud. If you'll remember at the last meeting, President of the Board, Rick Stokes, made a point of criticizing Mayor Nickolas Guccione for not controlling the meetings, saying; one-thirty in the morning was way too late to be ending. This problem has become standard practice, indicative of Guccione's leadership in, and outside of the meetings.

 

Item "3. (ID # 4850) Discuss to Set an End Time to Board of Aldermen Meetings." After looking at the board packet I read that this item was brought forward by Guccione. He really doesn't understand that he is the problem, not the size of the agenda.

 

Guccione has a habit of allowing citizens to talk and debate Bills and Resolutions. He can't quite grasp the simple fact that there is a business section of the meeting, and those citizens who attend the meeting are only spectators. Knowing him, I can understand his logic: Nickolas Guccione is political, he's always on the campaign trail. His philosophy is not in the best interest of the city, it's in the best interest of himself and those he supports during elections. He truly doesn't understand that he's going to piss-off some people simply because he's doing the job he was elected to do.

 

At the last meeting there were at least half-a-dozen citizens who spoke in "Open Forum," and at "Public Hearings." The problem came when those same people were encouraged to speak again during "Bills and Resolutions," not once but several times — each. Guccione actually allowed debate between the audience and petitioner during the business portion of the meeting.

 

I've attended a lot of board meetings of various cities around the county, and never once have I seen a mayor allow citizens to speak during the business portion of the meeting, unless it was to request an ambulance. On average, members of the audience are allowed three-to-five minutes to speak during public portions of the meeting. At the end of their time they are cut off whether they had finished or not, and they are not allowed to speak on any one item more than once. At St. Charles County meetings, the public is put on a timer and they have two minutes to make their point, period, then the hammer comes down and it's adios amigo.

 

The bottom line is, Guccione wants to put a time limit on the overall meeting when he needs to put a time limit on the speakers. What he's proposing will not work and I think the aldermen may tell him that tomorrow. He may actually wish he'd never put it on the agenda.

 

Now we come to Item "XIV. Information/Discussion," paragraph "2. (ID # 4858) Professional Services Committee." You remember when Aldermen Cheryl Kross led Sonya Shryock and Micheal Hays down the yellow brick road to having our legal services team drop their briefs and quit. After Guccione joined this rag-tag band of mutineers, the city has been scrambling to figure out what to do.

 

The discussion will be what to do about the all volunteer committee that now refuses to spend countless hours evaluating professional service companies because Guccione and his gaggle of groupies just reject their findings. I think it could be an enjoyable discussion for observers.

 



 * * * * *

 



The City just posted an amended agenda, and it seems that our crackerjack Mayor Guccione just ex afficioed himself into another committee mess. Under "New Business," paragraph "3. (ID # 4856 Financial Audit Service." The city just received a letter from their CPA; Allen, Gibbs, and Houlik, L.C., stating (in part), "... effective immediately, we withdraw from the contract and will not conduct the external audits for the City for 2013 or 2014. ..." hence, now the City is once again scrambling to replace yet another professional services company.

 

There was a discussion during the last Board of Aldermen meeting where it was decided not to pay a sum of $12,000 for additional "out of scope" work performed by the auditors under a verbal agreement. Guccione who is ex afficio of the audit committee didn't seem to remember any verbal agreement so rather than pay it, it was decided not to. I contest that Guccione naps through financial meetings, leaving it to others, I wonder who's gonna get a spanking this time?

 

The list of high-level employees who have left the City is enormous and now the CPA can be added to Legal Services on the list of professional services companies who no longer want to be involved with Guccione's brand of Wentzville. Does anyone hear the rumblings of "recall, recall, recall," out there on the streets. Incompetence must be rewarded and who better to reward with a recall? — Mayor Nickolas Guccione. His ship has taken on more water and he's using a drill to bail it out.

 

Enough Is Enough, It's Time

 

It's been brewing for a long time—a year and a half to be exact—and even though I've tried my best to warn the good people of Wentzville—it seems my message has fallen on deaf ears. No mayor of Wentzville has ever had so many high level employees quit or be fired from their jobs at a faster pace than that of Mayor Nickolas Guccione. Wentzville's City Administrator, Public Works Director, Finance Director, Assistant Finance Director, IT Director, Director of Purchasing, Accounts Payable Manager, Economic Development Manager, Civil Engineer, and Assistant Civil Engineer, have all either quit, retired, or been fired over the past 18 months. Is it a coincidence that so many employees have taken a powder since Nickolas Guccione has been called "Mayor" for the same length of time? I think not!

It is now my unpleasant duty to announce another high level employee to take leave of King Nickolas' reign, Ms. Lisa Etling, Executive Assistant to Mayor Niockolas Guccione, has handed in her resignation—another coincidence?—I also think not. Ms. Etling had served Wentzville as Assistant to Mayor Lambi, and the City Administrator, and had been with the city for over twenty years. I know Ms. Etling, she was a dedicated, and valuable asset to Wentzville, I have to ask myself—why would she resign? The answer lies deep within the structure that our mayor has neglected—he has relied too much on employees doing the job he should be doing. It also has a lot to do with trust, and the City of Wentzville's employees do not trust Mayor Nickolas Guccione.

Now that I've brought up the issue of trust, I need to address the employees relationship with the Board of Aldermen. They trusted the board of aldermen when they were unified, but now, with Alderman Kross off the reservation, taking Shryock with her, and Alderman Micheal Hays being a pawn, they have lost faith in being protected—they feel more at the mercy of a lunatic who knows nothing about management—Mayor Nickolas Guccione.

Kross and Shryock have pushed their noses too far into the operation of the city. They are micromanaging every department, and Guccione is such a poor manager, he has allowed it. The Employees are confused, they don't know who to listen to; a dysfunctional mayor, or a once unified, strong board, that has been disrupted by Alderman Cheryl Kross, who has broken the solidarity of the Board of Aldermen. I now believe, Kross is a cancer to the City of Wentzville, and in combination with our mayor, who thinks he's the King, our city is going down a path that leads nowhere. Ms. Etling was Guccione's assistant—with all the other city employees leaving, and now her resignation from a long-time position—it speaks volumes about her boss.

I've neglected to talk more about the Board of Alderman meeting of October 9, 2013, which was a total disaster, but I guarantee I will next time. If you go to the city website, and click on the video for the October 9th meeting (click here), you will find that the audio is available, but the video is not. I heard that the city clerk had inadvertently forgot to throw the correct switch, I believe it was an accident. If you want to find out what happened at the meeting, you can listen to seven-and-a-half hours of audio—believe it or not, you may find it interesting. My next post will give you the times to listen to, so you can hear for yourself, the incompetence of Mayor Nickolas Guccione.

As for now, I have two more days of sand, surf, and suds to endure. So next time I'll be back to the 50 degree weather in Wentzville and ready to dig into the crazy situation known as King Nickolas' sinking ship. It's too bad that Wentzville is losing so many good employees and that some citizen hasn't asked their alderman about the process for having King Nickolas recalled——it is time.
 

We've Got To Stop Meeting Like This!

 

I've figured out why more citizens of Wentzville don't attend the Board of Aldermen meetings — because they have lives! Why any private citizen would want to spend seven-plus hours watching local government pass or fail bills and resolutions just doesn't make sense, and Mayor Nicolas Guccione knows it. With tongue in cheek I suggest—it's a sadistic plot. Anytime he can stretch a four-hour meeting into seven or more it means fewer people watching him stumble over misdirecting the meeting, thereby not seeing him for the failure he really is.

This is getting old, but once again I don't know where to start. Guccione made an ass of himself so many times during the Board of Alderman meeting of October 9, 2013, it had to be seen to be believed, but there was more; the "girls" Aldermen Cheryl Kross and Sonya Shryock continued playing leap-frog; Alderman Chris Gard made an unusual statement during his Alderman Report; Guccione's pet monkey, Michael Hays, did absolutely nothing productive again; and President of the Board, Rick Stokes, chastised Guccione for his poor leadership, but the funny thing is; I don't think he even realized how serious Stokes was.

Generally I watch the meeting video before posting just to make sure that I actually heard what I actually heard, but "Due to technical difficulties the video for the meeting is unavailable." If I were Guccione, I wouldn't want anyone going back to see how poorly I ran the meeting either.

One of my faviorate Aldermen to watch (NOT!), especially when I want to take a nap, is Guccione's pet monkey, Michael Hays. He usually says nothing — ever, but this time he decided to open his mouth and remove any doubt that he is really interested in what's going on. It came after the aldermen heard the "Public Hearing" for McBride Peruque, LLC., who wants to build out the subdivision; Peruque Hills Estates. Almost 300 lots were left un-built after the original builder bailed on the project. It's complicated, but it boiled down to McBride asking to change the side-yard setback from six feet, to five feet. Hays, who spent way to many years on planning and zoning needs to go back, if they'll have him. His reason for voting "Nay" on the first reading revolved around his bedroom habits which was way too much information for me. It was said that in other instances, this type of change had been approved in other subdivisions in Wentzville, but not under Hays' watch. He said: "Just because we did it before doesn't mean we will do it again. If I were to vote for this, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night." What the hell, you don't need to sleep at night, you've been doing enough of that while trying to conduct Wentzville city business as an alderman.

 

* * * * *

I can't cover all of what happened last Wednesday night during this writing, but over the seven-plus hour meeting several things need to be addressed.

1) Alderman Chris Gard, who is one our most rational aldermen very seldom gets upset at the dais. In the three years he's served on the board, I can think of only two. That's why I was surprised to hear him get angry at an un-named member of the board of aldermen because his name was mentioned in a report of an investigation conducted by the St. Charles Prosecuting Attorney. Subsequently, he apologized to Chief Lisa Harrison three times during his tirade. I have read the report and know the facts of the case, but I doubt any of my readers would understand what's going on without the information in the report, and I'm reluctant to divulge it at this time. I'm sure viewers of the meeting were puzzled, and in my cynical way; I wonder if the video of the meeting suffered from a real technical difficulty — or an actual legal problem.

2) If there were ever any doubt that Aldermen Kross and Sonya Shryock were voting together on everything, that thought was put to rest at this meeting. Both voted "Nay" on the final reading of Bill No. 3501 which funded the new Economic Development Director position. Then, on Bill No. 3502 which funded the IT Manager position, Shryock paused for an uncomfortable 20 to 30 seconds before she reluctantly voted "Yes." What's funny about this is that Kross did exactly the same thing immediately following Shryock, these two are definitely in lock-step.

3) Now before I close, it must be mentioned how dissatisfied President of the Board, Rick Stokes, was about the lack of direction Guccione gave in keeping the meeting orderly. It was getting late and Stokes said, "Mr. Mayor, you need to get control of this meeting, we cannot continue operating like this." Guccione's reply was barren of sincerity, "Oh, I know." This meeting didn't close until 1:20 AM and they still hadn't gone into executive session, by the time they went home, it was after 2:30 AM. Guccione let the public speak during "Open Forum," and "Public Hearings," and then proceeded to let them talk from the podium and their seats during "Bills and Resolutions," or pretty much whenever they wanted to be heard. He has no idea of how to run a meeting which doesn't surprise me, it took him a year-and-a-half to learn how to use the gavel (sometimes).

I saw Mayor Paul Lambi conducts meetings, and he was good at it, rarely did he let anyone other than petitioners speak during "Bills and Resolutions," and rarely did he ever have a meeting run past 11:00 PM. So what's the difference? Simple: Guccione doesn't see the public as citizens talking when they want to, he sees them as voters that he doesn't want to offend by telling them, "the public had their chance to speak during 'Open Forum,' and 'Public Hearings,' after that comes the business portion of the meeting, and the public just listens."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Mayor Nickolas Guccione is incompetent when it comes to anything having to do with government, and it glows when he's at the dais. I feel sorry for the staff who has to sit for over seven hours listening to citizens talking when they shouldn't, and discussions that are covered over and over while the mayor naps. The employees probably work 10 to 12 hours a day running their departments and then they have to sit through another seven hours of Guccione's lack of control of the meeting, it's a crime. He doesn't care, he doesn't work cutting up chickens on Thursday, it's his day off, but the employees need to get some rest if they are expected to function in the high-stress administration of King Nickolas.

The meeting of October 9th was a product of the Aldermen giving Guccione his head. They stopped running the meetings for him and are letting him excel at screwing it up. The last two regular meetings ran until after midnight. Don't the aldermen have grounds enough over the first year-and-a-half  to censure Mayor Nickolas for incompetence? Stokes called him out, but that alone is not going to straighten out the mess Guccione has created, it's going to take something else. Guccione just does not understand what's going on around him. I can't believe the aldermen who have eight-to-five jobs don't complain about getting out of city hall before midnight, these agendas under Guccione are no more loaded than the ones in Lambi's administration.

A lot more happened during the seven-and-a-half hour meeting and I will report more next time.  Right now, I've got surf to deal with.