The St. Louis Post Dispatch headline this morning read: "Ellisville Council Ousts Mayor." First year Mayor Adam Paul of Ellisville was removed from office for a number of items, interestingly enough one of the charges was; "the council found Paul guilty of failing to control meetings." Does this sound familiar to anyone, does anyone know a Mayor who consistently fits this description?
I'm wondering if our Wentzville Mayor Nickolas Guccione read the paper this morning during his smoke break? If he did, I'm sure he couldn't help but feel there may be some similarities between himself and the "ousted mayor" of Ellisville, but maybe not. In my opinion, I don't think he sees anything even remotely similar to his Ellisville counterpart. I believe Guccione feels himself bullet proof when it comes to being removed from office. I feel bad for Mayor Paul and his family, but if the charges for his removal are supported by what will now be a court challenge, then he'll just have to live with it. It all boils down to ego now and how far he wants to go to get what he wants.
I brought up this whole mess in Ellisville this morning to illustrate some of the similarities between him and our own Mayor. I found it interesting that he had just completed his first year in office, the same as our Mayor. And obviously, Mayor. Paul was incapable of running meetings, same as our Mayor, but that may be where the similarities end.
As my readers know, one of Mayor Guccione's difficulties is in the illegal usage of our City logo on campaign literature. You also know, Guccione was pardoned last year for the exact same thing he did this year, using the City logo on campaign literature, this time on a flyer supporting Alderman Michael Hays. Some may say: "Oh it's barely noticeable," but both men knew it was there and both men made no effort to remove it. In the photograph, Hays was cropped in in front of Guccione but the placement of the mayor was such that they made sure his Wentzville logo pin was obvious. If indeed the board wrote law to prohibit the unlicensed use of the Wentzville logo then both men are in violation of Wentzville law, and both should pay the price.
Some may say that Hays wasn't here and he didn't know about the law, unfortunately, you or I would be told, "ignorance of the law is no excuse." Guccione did know about the law, it was written for him, so his illegal use must be considered chronic and untreatable by a slap on the wrist. This is reason number two for his removal.
The third, and I believe the most serious was the use the office of Mayor, and the City of Wentzville to endorse a candidate in a different branch of Government. I am a voter in Ward 3 and I feel disenfranchised when our Mayor uses the office of Mayor, the Executive Branch, and the City of Wentzville to endorse an unpopular candidate in the Legislative Branch. Ward 3 citizens don't pay taxes to pay a Mayor in Wentzville to have the Mayor bringing the force of his elected office to campaign for an Alderman candidate who won by eight votes and elected by only 39 percent of the voters of Ward 3. Every Mayor in the history of Wentzville knew better than to openly do what Guccione did—the voters of Ward 3 need protection from this sort of unethical behavior. Every voter in Wentzville should complain about this—it is guaranteed that if nothing is done, next year you will see our Mayor Guccione, his office of Mayor, and the City of Wentzville helping him elect an unpopular candidate in the Legislative Branch of our Government, and this time in your ward.
It should be the opinion of every disenfranched voter of Ward 3 and any voter in the City of Wentzville who believes in our free, fair, and impartial form of Government to stop the insanity in the Mayor's office. We the taxpayers do not pay a Mayor a salary to campaign against us. I urge our Aldermen to do the right thing; let Mayor Guccione join Mayor Adam Paul of Ellisville in the unemployment line. There are people who are just not cut out to be leaders, Nickolas Guccione is one of them, Guccione won't quit, he needs to be stopped, and after all—it's in the air.
You hit it on the nose. I never thought about it but isn't it a crime for a paid Mayor to use his office to campaign for any Alderman if taxpayers are footing the bill?
ReplyDeleteThe citizens of Wentz. Need to get informed
ReplyDelete1. Did you know, your tax dollars pay city employees; union wages, full medical benefits, full retirement, vision dental etc. not only for city employees also for their whole families as well. ( do you know any business owner who are able to do this. When the Aldeman asked if employees could at least pay only 10% of their own health care premium, the Mayor went ballistic, yelling the city staff was under paid.
2. The Mayor approved a 3-5% raise for all employees. Do you know of anyone who got that kind of raise this year?
3. During the buget season, the Mayor all but slept threw the meetings. City staff presented their budgets and their wish list ( new car etc.) the Mayor didn't object to one item on the budget, but what he did do is add in more cost to the buget. How can taxes no go up at that rate?
4. On the city agenda a few weeks ago was a slight tax increase. Do I need to point out the Mayor has to approve everything on the agenda so by the default the Mayor was saying he supported the tax increase. The Alderman voted it down and said cut the budget don't up the taxes.
5. Mayor supported changing the historical name of Peace Blvd. to Martin Luther King Blvd. Benjermin Pearce had a big hand in the history of this city. Not to mention the cost (your tax $$) to the city of a street name change or the cost to the business owners along that road who would have to change all the marketing etc.
6. Uses the Mayor office, which represents the city as a whole, to put Alderman in office who will support and not challenge anything he want to do. I think he believes he should be the sole power running the city. Scary!
Please pass this information to every one you know. Or I gauranty the Mayor will eventually get his way. He will create his own yes board of Alderman, taxes will go up. How could they not? Development will seize as he is not bussinesse friendly only union friendly. If you love this city do your part share this blog with your friends!