TTC

Many elected officials don't agree with  my method of reporting on what they do, or don't do, in city hall. They don't like the idea that The Wentzvillian doesn't interview them to get their side of the story. They seem to think that I can't possibly post the truth and that my opinions don't really matter anyway, yet some of them have gone to great lengths to shut me up. The opinions posted here come from persistent observation over the long haul, and most times The Wentzvillian has been spot on, in fact, so close to the truth, they thought I was bugging City Hall.

What many of them don't understand is that my observations, although more intense, are from the same vantage of the voting taxpayers who pay any attention to what our government is doing. Our view of government is pretty much the same except, from close observation, I recognize the efforts of our mayor and aldermen to spin what they are really doing via newspaper, newsletter, or other forms of propaganda. That being said, The Wentzvillian has recognized a real problem in City Hall.

Over the years of watching city meetings and seeing mayors and aldermen, both good and bad, come and go, The Wentzvillian has formulated a hypothesis, which I like to call the Third Term Crazies (TTC). Some of them come in with good motives, and others, not so much, however, I'd say, 90 percent of them come down with this malady. It has manifested itself in many forms but it always comes with the marked uncharacteristic actions of an elected official contracting the disease, and is always politically fatal. Since the data used to formulate the hypothesis is based on two year terms and the parameters of the term were modified last year to four year terms for the mayor, a new sampling needs to be had. It could perhaps be a faulty syllogism to say that mayors will now contract Two Term Crazies, but only time will tell.

TTC, although slightly different, resembles The Peter Principle, and since Mayor Nickolas Guccione reached his level of incompetence when he was initially elected to his first term as an alderman six years ago, his TTC has been extremely difficult to diagnose. Any time The Peter Principle and the Third Term Crazies intersect, it really doesn't matter anymore, the result is a full-blown narcissist in office.

I've received calls from two residents asking if there is a rift in the force on the Board of Aldermen, and is the reason The Wentzvillian went into such detail about TTC. It is my belief that the Alderman of Ward 1, Cheryl Kross, may be showing early signs of TTC.

During the last two meetings of the Board, I've noticed a glaring difference in Alderman Kross' deportment. Although there are no blatant outbursts of anger from her, she is masking something. At the Board of Aldermen Meeting of May 22nd, unless she was talking, her head was uncharacteristically resting in her hand or hands, the entire meeting. She made no eye contact with the President of the Board, Alderman Rick Stokes, or conversed with him, unless it was absolutely necessary. Another thing I noticed, Kross spent an unusual amount of time whispering with the City Administrator, T. Michael McDowell. For some reason, Kross is not a happy camper, and I believe I've deduced, by observation, what it is.

Kross is the senior Alderman with two terms (four years) behind her on the Board, and in my assessment, Kross believes that she should have been elected President of the board. To her dismay she didn't have the votes, and consequently, Stokes was re-elected to that post.

Kross started making mistakes recently, the largest of which came when she flipped on her vote to accept Guccione's appointment of Micheal Hays, resulting in the election of one of the most unpopular aldermen in recent history, who won by only 38 percent of the vote. Unfortunately, the residents of Ward 3 are saddled with an alderman they don't want all because Kross flipped on her vote at the advice of her good friend and ward-mate, Alderman Forrest Gossett. Gossett advised her: "Not accepting the mayor's appointment would be political suicide." Kross made a decision, not based on the best interest of the citizens of Wentzville, but her own political future in Wentzville.

I will offer more evidence to my theory that Kross may be in the grip of TTC next time, but for now, I'll end with this thought: Alderman Cheryl Kross used to follow her own conscience, but now may be taking too much advice from what could very well be a one-term alderman, Forrest Gossett.