Biased Toward Good Government

 

I've had readers criticize me for "being biased" or "Picking on Mayor Nickolas Guccione and/or Mayor Paul Lambi." I assure my readers that I am biased, but on the side of good government, and I believe most or all of our elected officials would agree with that statement. Any time a mayor or alderman does anything unethical, stupid, or is not looking out for the good of Wentzville citizens, they will cross swords with The Wentzvillian.

Personally, I like Guccione and Lambi, and was friends with both of them, the problem with our friendships came in when they displayed unethical behavior in office and I disclosed proof here on this blog—I cannot stay silent. As a patriot of the United States of America, the State of Missouri, and Wentzville, It is my constitutional right, and my duty to  inform my fellow citizens of the wrong-doing of any elected official—if these officials dislike me for what I say here, maybe they need to change their behavior—not my reporting.

Lambi started disliking me when I discovered and reported on his unethical partnership with Mr. Ed Watkins, both have admitted and agreed with the ethics violations brought down by the Missouri Ethics Commission. It's unfortunate because I think Paul Lambi is a good and compassionate man and for the most part, one of Wentzville's best mayors, I truly believe he was misled by his former co-conspirator, it saddens me that we are no longer friends.

I was friends with Nickolas Guccione and his family for a number of years, but when I reported on his conspiratorial campaigns and his unethical method of getting elected, that all changed. He tried numerous times without success to discredit me personally yet never once thought that maybe I was correct and that he needed to change his approach to elections. The Aldermen thought my facts were in order and Mayor Lambi stepped in to pardon Guccione, saving him some hefty fines. He didn't learn anything from that because there were no consequences and he continued his unethical campaign tactics when he got Michael Hays elected. He violated the "Political Activity Policy," but the aldermen went after him for ethics violations covered under the "Ethics Policy," and failed, why they did that—I'll never understand. So where are we; Guccione and Lambi both dislike me for reports appearing here but The Wentvillian will continue as long as there is corruption in our City government.

I've reported about Guccione's inability to run City meetings and in the past few months he has improved. Under the tutelage of Lambi, he's learned to use a gavel and he even displayed sack enough to shut down Alderman Cheryl Kross last week for her side-bars, something has changed with her, she didn't used to be like she is today. Guccione is learning to control public meetings, congratulations. It may take another year and a half to master looking like a mayor, but that's not all a mayor is supposed to do.

Guccione is near sighted about his vision for Wentzville's future and I'm not sure he can fix that by himself. Issuing pardons for convenience store owners because they were late applying for their liquor license is not a good start, I can see a rush of bar owners lining up to get equal treatment. Guccione needs to talk about what he wants, and he needs to express a means of accomplishing his goal if he wants to be a successful mayor.

PSS: I'm bettin' it ain't happenin'.

 

 

Pardon Me?

In the contemporary history of Wentzville I have seen only one Mayor use his power of pardon on someone. Mayor Paul Lambi used his authority when he pardoned Mayor-elect, Nickolas Giuccione for violation of copyright laws. Guccione's violation was criminal and would have carried hefty fines from both; the City and the United States Library of Congress.

 

At the time Lambi issued the pardon, he had big problems of his own—the Aldermen had turned him over to the Missouri Ethics Commission and the County Prosecuting Attorney. He was angry at the Board of Aldermen for what he called "a witch hunt," and the pardon of Giuccione was his last great act of defiance—kinda like the mouse who gave a hawk the finger just before it swooped down and ate him. Although I don't agree with Lambi giving Guccione a pardon for crimes against the City, I can appreciate it's use for a crime of such magnitude. But as a tax-paying citizen of Wentzville, I am still ashamed that this city elected a man who was pardoned for crimes against the City, one week before being sworn-in.

 

All of the afore mentioned leads to the point of this post. The executive power to override laws is serious, and should be used for subjects of great importance, to flaunt this power on trivial matters is a dangerous commodity. Mayor Guccione has a record of parroting, and a steep learning curve when it comes to realizing his new-found executive powers. It started with Guccione's nine month long "it's my appointment, It's my appointment" speech, when he whined and whined to get his pal, Michael Hays in the Ward 3 seat. What a revolting development that turned out to be.

Anyway, Guccione tested his new found powers by pardoning a convenience store owner for being late on renewing his liquor license. My sources told me that there was going to be no monetary penalty but the store owner would need to wait thirty days before they could reapply. What a vulgar display of abuse of executive privilege, he just bought two or three votes—that is if the store owners even live in Wentzville.

I wonder if that means that anytime, anyone is late on renewing any kind of license, or doesn't comply with a non-criminal code, Guccione would wield his mighty sword of pardon and touch the shoulders of the kneeled non-compliant violator? Through the negligence of the applicant, he or she was granted a pardon from complying with the laws of Wentzville of which we must all acquiesce. C'mon, Is our mayor related to Obama? Evidence is building.

Mayor Nickolas Guccione has made blunders and screwed up on numerous occasions, but this is a poke in the eyes to all responsible business owners in the City. I'd bet that if any of my readers get a code violation or a non-compliance ticket, Guccione would run to you with a pardon in hand especially if your a friend or a registered voter. It must be fun to be the great and all powerful wonderful wizard of Wentzville—or a goose who just wakes up in a new world every day.

PSS: What say?

 

 

 

The Little Meeting That Couldn't

 

Last week's Board of Aldermen meeting of July 10th was interesting—to say the least. I brought my sleeping bag just in case because it was a four-page agenda and given our Mayor's record of running meetings I just knew it was going to end in the wee hours of the morning. Eleven items on the agenda dealt with community development and represented applicants from builders who are looking to build over 300 new homes in Wentzville.

 

I knew something was amiss when I saw Mayor Niockolas Guccione scurrying around before the meeting frantically from the City Attorney to the City Administrator. I saw sure panic on his face, similar to Wile E, Coyote when he realizes that the Road Runner's piano is about to drop on his head and he couldn't get out of the way—he was a mess. Aldermen Cheryl Kross and Forrest Gossett were seated when Alderman Rick Stokes arrived and Guccione approached him. Then the whole picture became clear—they did not have a quorum—three aldermen wouldn't cut it. In my almost fifteen years of watching Wentzville City meetings I have never seen a time when a meeting of the board was cancelled due to the lack of a quorum, but we never had a mayor like Nickolas Guccione.

 

The Mayor sets the meeting agenda, and for my money he's supposed to know what's going on, but again we're talking about Nickolas Guccione. He knew that Alderman Chris Gard would not be there because Gard announced it during the meeting of July 3rd, and Guccione received a call from Michael Hays informing him that he would not be there either, that alone should have hoisted the red flag. That leaves four, which is enough to conduct the business of the City; however, Alderman Sonya Shyrock had called the City Clerk to inform her that she would not be in attendance, old Wile E. just had the piano slam onto his head and didn't know what to do.

 

The chamber had numerous citizens and petitioners waiting patiently to be heard, but what they heard from our mayor was; "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" something we've heard from Nickolas Guccione many times over the last 467 days since he was elected. What we should be hearing is the citizens of Wentzville saying "We're sorry that we ever elected you," but after all, we only have to endure his ignorance of City business for around 1110 more days. Guccione has screwed-up many, many, many times since he was sworn-in, but this will probably make the history books as his biggest screw-up. All of the Directors of the City worked all day for the City and were at the meeting only to hear Guccione say he was sorry to those in attendance, he wasted all of his Directors time and he owes them more than an "I'm sorry."

 

The Mayor of any city is responsible for its meetings, and ours needs to take responsibility. His acceptance of responsibility for anything that goes wrong in Wentzviille has always been to say, "I didn't know," how many times do we have we hear that from our mayor before he is found to be the incompetent he truly is?

 

They pushed off a work session to put this agenda on the evening of July 17th, let's hope Guccione can get his ducks in a row before then. The City business is a week behind and the agendas are beginning to get longer, let's hope the President of the Board, Rick Stokes can keep things moving so the audience doesn't need to bring their jammies. I've watched a great number of City meetings but I've never had as much fun reporting on any mayor more than Wile E. Guccione. I guess the last time there was this much to talk about was the final days of Mayor Paul Lambi.

 

PSS: I kinda hope Stokes doesn't lead the meeting. I know Guccione has taken hammer lessons from our last mayor so he at least appears to the camera that he's competent at what he's doing, but those in the know, know!